Researchers at UCLA have recently announced that the first case of a woman with HIV in the U.S. has reached a state of remission. This is a result of what doctors call stem cell transplants. If she continues to stay in remission she will officially be the third person to be cured through this procedure.
Healthcare professionals are learning that there are some similarities in the methods of curing cancers like leukemia.
Although this is great news, professionals are saying this is by no means the official treatment that will change the world. This is the beginning of a beautiful future that could potentially open the doors for groundbreaking science.
The goal is to safely and effectively understand, treat and cure this virus that has destroyed lives for half a century. For years HIV has affected the world and changed lives with no cure in sight. Now that there is light at the end of the tunnel doctors are trying not to get carried away with recent, but rare developments.
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History in the making?
The person cured has been called the “New York Patient”, and she is also in remission for leukemia thanks to the same stem cell procedure. This patient has been in remission for almost five years and the remission for the HIV has lasted about 14 months.
If this HIV remission keeps up she will join just two other people who were officially cured.
Not only will history be made as she joins a small group, but she will also be the first person to achieve remission from receiving umbilical cord blood cells that have mutations that will combat HIV-1. This is what separates the most recent patient from the first two that were cured. The two before her were treated through stem cell treatments, but by adult donor cells. Neither patient received transplants from umbilical cord blood cells.
Research has shown that people of northern European descent have a genetic abnormality that enables HIV resistance. This is why they
