A woman has been cured of HIV for the first time ever as scientists of New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center declared her clear. The "New York patient" received what experts called an "unethical" method of treatment after scientists deemed that she was likely to die without a major medical intervention.
She received two translations which were called haploidentical cord transplantation. This procedure sees the surgeon transplant the umbilical cord blood and bone marrow into the patient. The cord blood helps the woman fight off the blood cancer, or leukemia, the woman had, but it cannot be as effective on adults as it is on children.
This is where the stem cells play a major part. The bone marrow serves the purpose of providing stem cells that improve the effectiveness of the cord blood.
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But the stem cells treatment is not without risk - patients may die from the treatment which was why the procedure was only done on patients who cannot survive through the common treatment for HIV patients.
Dr. John Torres explained to NBC, "They have to essentially kill their immune system and give them a new immune system in hopes that they don't have HIV in there and leukemia."
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The unnamed patient was first diagnosed with HIV in 2013 and later, leukemia in 2017. She is among the 50 patients who currently are on the list acceptable for the dangerous treatment.
Dr. Koen van Besien is among the lead doctors involved in the treatment and explained, "The role of the adult donor cells is to hasten the early engraftment process and render the transplant easier and safer."
She saw positive results pretty soon after receiving the treatment. Multiple scans have shown no signs of HIV cells in her body that might be replicating. Tests have also been done in the lab to see if they can still infect others and they couldn't.
Doctors and researchers will continue observing and testing the New York patient for a few more years before fully declaring her as "cured". But the current outlook on her condition is positive. Dr. Yvonne Bryson said, “I’m excited that it’s turned out so well for her.”
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Watch as a researcher explains briefly what the treatment is about and the possibilities below!
