Researchers have revealed the third person with HIV to receive a stem cell transplant is officially cured.
In 2013, a patient known as the 'Düsseldorf patient' underwent a stem cell transplant to treat acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). The cancer of the blood cell had developed in addition to his HIV diagnosis just six months after he started HIV therapy.
The bone marrow transplant not only treated his blood disorder but also cured the patient of HIV too.
The 53-year-old has now been HIV-free for four years - having stopped taking any suppressants or anti-retroviral since 2018 and not relapsed, meaning he is now in remission.
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Reflecting on reaching such a milestone, the 53-year-old said: "I still remember very well the sentence of my family doctor: 'Don't take it so hard. We will experience together that HIV can be cured'.
"At the time, I dismissed the statement as an alibi. Today, I am all the more proud of my worldwide team of doctors who succeeded in curing me of HIV - and at the same time, of course, of leukaemia.
"On Valentine's Day this year, I celebrated the 10th anniversary of my bone marrow transplant in a big way. My bone marrow donor was present as a guest of honour."
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The Düsseldorf patient is the third person known in the world to have been cured of HIV using a stem cell transplant, but the fifth person known to be cured of HIV overall.
One of the other stem cell patients is from London and the other Berlin.
Others cured of the virus include a patient from New York, a patient called the 'Esperanza patient' and Loreen Willenberg - it's believed the Esperanza patient and Willenberg's immune systems somehow naturally rid their bodies of the virus.
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Dr Bjorn-Erik Ole Jensen - a member of the international team led by medics at Dusseldorf University Hospital - said: "Following our intensive research, we can now confirm that it is fundamentally possible to prevent the replication of HIV on a sustainable basis by combining two key methods.
"On the one hand, we have the extensive depletion of the virus reservoir in long-lived immune cells, and on the other hand, the transfer of HIV resistance from the donor immune system to the recipient, ensuring that the virus has no chance to spread again.
"Further research is now needed into how this can be made possible outside the narrow set of framework conditions we have described."
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The full study is published in the National Medicine journal.
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Topics: Science, Sex and Relationships, World News
Poppy Bilderbeck