Thread: Stem Cell Transplant Cures HIV In 'Berlin Patient'

Stem Cell Transplant Cures HIV In 'Berlin Patient'

On the heels of World AIDS Day comes a stunning medical breakthrough: Doctors believe an HIV-positive man who underwent a stem cell transplant has been cured as a result of the procedure.

Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the "Berlin Patient," received the transplant in 2007 as part of a lengthy treatment course for leukemia. His doctors recently published a report in the journal Blood affirming that the results of extensive testing "strongly suggest that cure of HIV infection has been achieved."

Brown's case paves a path for constructing a permanent cure for HIV through genetically-engineered stem cells.

Last week, Time named another AIDS-related discovery to its list of the Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2010. Recent studies show that healthy individuals who take antiretrovirals, medicine commonly prescribed for treating HIV, can reduce their risk of contracting the disease by up to 73 percent.

While these developments by no means prove a cure for the virus has been found, they can certainly provide hope for the more than 33 million people living with HIV worldwide. Alongside such findings, global efforts to combat the epidemic have accelerated as of late, with new initiatives emerging in the Philippines and South Africa this week.

Originally Posted by bandaidwoman

I'm glad, when I did the transplant service at Emory, we had quite a few HIV postive patients with acute leukemias getting transplants in hopes that it would also cure their HIV. ( afterall, you are wiping out every single one of their infected white cells and replacing them with "new" transplanted ones.) All of them died a miserable death( but that was 14 years ago) and I knew I could not be a hematologist

They gave my grandfather six months and he made it one year with leukemia. That was nearly 50 years ago, though.

Medical developments have been incredible.

Originally Posted by min0 lee

Stem Cell Transplant Cures HIV In 'Berlin Patient'

Worked as a proofreader for a company that did work on the journal "Blood" back in '97. How much you want to bet U.S. pharmaceutical companies find some way to block this therapy?