The 7th person is likely to be ‘cured’ of HIV in an exceptional case

A seventh person has been essentially cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant nearly a decade ago, doctors announced Thursday.

The unidentified 60-year-old German man was suffering from acute myeloid leukemia when he underwent the risky procedure to replace his unhealthy bone marrow in October 2015.

He stopped taking anti-retroviral drugs – which stop HIV from replicating – in September 2018. He remains in viral remission and appears to be cancer-free.

“A healthy person has many desires, a sick person only one,” the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said of his progress.

Dr. Christian Gaebler, a physician-scientist at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, is scheduled to present the case next week at the 25th International AIDS Conference.

“The longer we see these HIV remissions without any HIV therapy, the more confident we can be that maybe we’re seeing a case where we’ve truly eradicated all competent HIV,” Gaebler said.

At a press conference last week, the president of the International AIDS Society, Sharon Lewin, warned against using the word “cure.”

However, she said, being in remission for more than five years means he “would be close” to being considered cured.

There is a big difference between the German case and most of the rest.

Five of the other six patients received stem cells from donors with two copies of a rare genetic mutation that stops HIV from replicating.

The German patient is said to be the first to receive stem cells from a donor with just one copy of the mutated gene – and he had one copy of the gene himself.

About 1% of Caucasians have two copies of the defective gene, while 10% to 18% of people of European heritage are estimated to have one copy of the gene, thus expanding the potential donor pool.

About 39 million people worldwide are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Very few will be able to access this treatment, as it is reserved for those with HIV and aggressive leukemia.

Others who have been ‘cured’ of HIV

• Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the “Berlin patient”, is widely considered to be the first person to be cured of HIV. He underwent two stem cell transplants, in 2007 and 2008. His leukemia returned and he died in September 2020 at the age of 54.
• Adam Castillejo, known as the “London Patient,” received a bone marrow transplant for his lymphoma in 2016. He is in his mid-40s.
• Marc Franke, the “Patient from Düsseldorf”, underwent a stem cell transplant in 2013 to treat his leukemia. The 55-year-old stopped antiretroviral therapy in 2018 and was declared “cured” last year.
• Paul Edmonds, known as the “City of Hope patient”, received a stem cell transplant in February 2019 and has been publicly declared cured of HIV.
• The “New York Patient,” the first woman and person of mixed race to be “cured,” received a stem cell transplant in 2017 to treat leukemia.
• The “Geneva patient” is a man from Switzerland who underwent a stem cell transplant in 2018 for blood cancer.