A 53-year-old man in Germany is the third-ever person to be officially cured of HIV, according to a newly published scientific study.
The man, identified only as “the Düsseldorf Patient,” was declared cured of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after his bone marrow cells were replaced with HIV-resistant stem cells from a donor.
The HIV patient, also diagnosed with leukemia, received the stem cell transplant in February 2013, as per a study published on Monday in the scientific journal Nature. The journal claimed the Düsseldorf Patient is the third person to ever be cured of HIV.
The patient was monitored in the years after the stem cell procedure and continued to undergo antiretroviral therapy (ART), a common treatment for HIV that suppresses the virus to undetectable levels and prevents transmission to others.
In 2018, doctors halted the patient’s ART. Even without the treatment, researchers say the Düsseldorf Patient has remained HIV-free for four years now.
The successful treatment of this HIV patient was originally announced at a conference in 2019, though doctors could not say at the time whether the patient was cured or in remission.
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For most people diagnosed with HIV, the infection is not curable, though it is possible to live a long and healthy life with proper treatment. If left untreated, HIV can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), which is potentially life-threatening.
Stem cell transplants are not available to most HIV patients, as they are incredibly high-risk procedures.
According to the study, the Düsseldorf Patient — like the other two patients cured of HIV — received the stem cell transplant with the primary goal of eliminating cancer. The donated stem cells come from a person with an incredibly rare genetic mutation involving the CCR5 protein. HIV uses the CCR5 protein to enter immune cells, but the mutation, which is present in only one per cent of the human population, makes this impossible.
The first-ever person to be cured of HIV was Timothy Ray Brown in 2009. Known at the time only as “the Berlin Patient,” Brown had a blood stem cell transplant to treat leukemia. He died as a result of cancer in 2020 but was HIV-free up until his death.
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Stem cell transplants are not being proposed as treatment for HIV, though scientists hope to use the information from this case, and others, to determine a way to genetically modify a patient’s existing genes to include the HIV-resistant mutation.
Several vaccines are also in the works to prevent HIV, though there has not been extensive progress.
In Canada, there were 1,639 cases of HIV diagnoses during 2020 alone. In 2018, it was estimated that 62,050 people in Canada were living with HIV.
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