INDONESIA, RBTVDISWAY.ID – HIV/AIDS is a deadly virus. For years, no one has dared to claim a cure.
However, the good news is that 7 people have been cured of HIV/AIDS. Who are they? How did they recover? Here's the explanation.
Most of these recoveries underwent the same treatment. They had leukemia or lymphoma, which was treated with a bone marrow transplant (stem cell transplant).
Stem cells are cells produced by the bone marrow (the hollow tissue in the center of bones) that can turn into new blood cells.
In all these cases, they received stem cells from people who had natural immunity to HIV infection due to the CCR5-delta-32 double mutation.
People with this rare genetic mutation lack the CCR5 receptor on their immune system cells, preventing HIV from entering these cells.
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1. The Berlin Patient – Timothy Ray Brown
The first person cured of HIV was Timothy Ray Brown, an American living in Berlin.
He suffered from leukemia and underwent two transplants in 2006. He received the rare CCR5-delta-32 gene, meaning he lacked the CCR5 receptor, preventing HIV from entering his cells.
After his first transplant, he stopped taking ARVs, and strangely, his viral load did not increase. Researchers then carefully examined his blood, brain, intestines, and other tissues.
In December 2010, he spoke publicly, and researchers began to declare him completely cured of HIV. He returned to the United States and became a prominent speaker on HIV, but sadly, in September 2020, he died at the age of 54 due to a recurrence of his leukemia.
However, for 14 years, since 2006, he had been cured of HIV. Brown's case prompted researchers to search for other people living with HIV with similar conditions to do the same.
2. The London Patient – Adam Castillejo
The second person reported to be cured of HIV in 2019 was Adam Castillejo. He was undergoing treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma (a cancer of the lymph nodes) and required a stem cell transplant.