A patient from the United Kingdom has shown undetectable levels of the HIV virus 18 months after receiving transplanted stem cells from an HIV-resistant donor. This is the second case reported worldwide, following a patient in Berlin's apparent cure 10 years ago.
"The news of the London patient is exciting as it provides further evidence that HIV can indeed be cured, at least theoretically – or, at the very least, optimism that the Berlin patient results are not unique," Christopher Pace, PhD, director of infectious diseases at GlobalData. "However, the news does not represent a general path to a cure for other HIV patients; rather, it simply provides more hope to the medical and scientific communities that their efforts towards a cure are not in vain."
According to GlobalData, in 2018 there were over 3.2 million diagnosed prevalent cases of HIV in patients 18 years of age and over across the nine major markets, of which nearly 72 percent were actively receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). Currently available ART regimens effectively suppress the HIV virus in the majority of patients who adhere to daily therapy, they must be taken for life, so a functional cure for HIV would have an large impact on patients.
Read the GlobalData release