More hope for a cure for HIV/AIDS

A male patient, dubbed the “next Berlin patient,” may be the seventh person to be effectively cured of HIV/AIDS after receiving a stem cell transplant, doctors said on July 18.

The 60-year-old German national was diagnosed with HIV in 2009. In 2015, the “next Berlin patient” received a bone marrow transplant to help treat his leukemia (a type of blood cancer).

Although the risk of death is 10% when using this method, it is considered an effective method to help strengthen the patient's immune system.

In late 2018, the patient stopped taking antiretroviral drugs — drugs that reduce the amount of HIV in the blood.

Nearly six years later, the HIV virus was no longer present in the patient's blood and there were no signs of leukemia, the researchers said.

Christian Gaebler, a physician and researcher at the Charite university hospital in Berlin, is treating the patient.

The doctor said the team could not say with “absolute certainty” that every last trace of the HIV virus had been eliminated. However, the patient felt well and the case raised hopes of a complete cure for HIV/AIDS.

The announcement comes ahead of the 25th International Conference on HIV/AIDS in Munich, Germany next week.

Previously, Mr. Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the “Berlin patient” was the first person to be declared cured of HIV/AIDS in 2008. However, in 2020, Mr. Brown passed away from leukemia.