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Currently, the majority of AIDS treatments focus on treating the symptoms and slowing the progression of the disease. In other words, there is no cure for this disease yet. But that may not be the case anymore, as researchers have successfully cured a patient with a new treatment.
The third healing of an HIV-positive patient thanks to a new treatment
Since the discovery of HIV and the disease it causes in humans, researchers have been constantly searching for ways to cure AIDS patients. Unfortunately, even after nearly 40 years of research, there is still no treatment that can eliminate this virus and thus cure people with this disease. But it could be that we finally have a solid lead on a possible treatment for HIV. This hope was born after a third patient fully recovered from the disease after an experimental treatment.
It should be noted that, until now, only three people have completely recovered from this disease thanks to treatment. This patient is thus the first woman to have recovered from the disease, the other two being men. Nicknamed “the New York patient” – because it was in this city that she was treated – the scientists explained that she was completely cured of AIDS thanks to a stem cell transplant. According to the researchers, the woman was diagnosed with HIV infection in 2013, and four years later was also diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
This disease is a cancer that starts in the hematopoietic cells of the bone marrow. In order to treat this disease, the patient received a stem cell transplant from the umbilical cord blood of a donor who was naturally resistant to HIV in 2017. The patient also received blood from a close relative to strengthen her immune defenses and thus promote the success of the stem cell transplant. To everyone’s surprise, the treatment worked, both for AIDS and leukemia.
