REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Scientists revealed that a patient HIV the sixth has gone into remission thanks to a bone marrow transplant. Remission means that the level of virus in his body is very low and the disease is not active.
The man, nicknamed the “Geneva patient” is the latest person with HIV to be declared in long-term remission. However, unlike in previous cases, he did not receive a transplant with a mutation in the virus’ inhibitory gene.
“What happened to me was amazing, miraculous,” said the patient The SunMonday (24/7/2023).
The patient, who chose not to be named, was first diagnosed with HIV in 1990. More than 106,000 people in the UK were living with HIV in 2020.
Advances in treatment mean patients can live with HIV and reduce the virus to undetectable levels in the body, thereby reducing the risk of passing it on to others. Five people have previously been declared cured of HIV, known as the Berlin, London, Duesseldorf, New York, and City of Hope, California patients.
Everything goes through bone marrow transplant to treat serious cases of cancer. They received stem cells from a donor with a mutation in the CCR5 gene.
This mutation is known to block HIV from entering the body’s cells. In 2018, the Geneva patient also received a stem cell transplant to treat a very aggressive form of leukemia.
This time, French and Swiss researchers say the transplants came from donors who do not carry the CCR5 mutation. This means that the virus can still enter the patient’s cells.
However, 20 months after the man stopped taking his HIV medication, doctors at Geneva University Hospitals have found no trace of the virus in his system. Researchers stopped short of saying the latest patient was “cured” of the virus, but warned there was still a chance the virus could still return.
A new patient is declared cured if the virus does not reappear within five years. Researcher from the Pasteur Institute in France, Dr. Asier Saez-Cirion, said if there were still no signs of the virus after 12 months, then the chances of the virus not being detected would increase significantly.
At a press conference in Brisbane, Australia, Saez-Cirion said there were several possible explanations why Geneva patient remain HIV free.
“In this particular case, it may be possible for a transplant to remove all infected cells without needing a well-known mutation,” he said.
2023-07-24 15:43:28
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