The HIV research field has taken a few step backwards with the announcement that two patients who were previously thought to have been ‘cured’ via a bone marrow transplant treatment have tested positive for the virus.

The two patients who both had HIV for long periods of time were given bone marrow transplants and stopped taking their HIV medication so researches could ascertain if the bone marrow transplant would remove HIV from their bodies.

In July researchers reported that the first patient had no detectable HIV 15 weeks after treatment and the second patient was now HIV free for 7 weeks. Now both have tested positive for HIV.

To date the only person to have successfully had HIV removed from their body is ‘The Berlin Patient’, Timothy Ray Brown. In 2009 he received a bone marrow transplant from a patient with a rare HIV resistant mutation.

In delivering the disappointing news Dr Timothy Henrich highlighted that even though this approach was not successful, it still moved HIV research forward and suggested that HIV may lurk much deeper in the bodies systems that previously thought.

Read the full report at The Boston Globe

OIP Staff