Is there a cure for HIV? Researchers and scientists in Germany have just made a startling announcement concerning a new treatment for the disease. They think they have cured a man with HIV. The report and findings have been receiving massive amounts of attention although the treatment employed has yet to be considered affordable or practical for others with HIV.
In 2007, Timothy Ray Brown, who had HIV for over 10 years, developed acute myelogenous leukemia. While undergoing chemotherapy, he underwent a blood stem cell transplant, a procedure often used for treating blood cancers. His stem cell donor was selected because he was an appropriate match and carried a rare, inherited gene mutation called the CCR5 Delta 32 mutation, a mutation that confers natural resistance to HIV.
Brown, 44, not only shows no signs of leukemia, his blood shows no signs of HIV replication.
While the report and findings are generating a huge amount of interest, many point out that the method used is hardly practical for most patients. One concern is that the procedure, which was described and published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February 2009 and reportedly re-released recently in the publication Blood, is considered as a “near fatal procedure” and extremely expensive. Moreover, it requires that one’s stem cell donor already be resistant to HIV. The CCR5 Delta 32 mutation that confers a natural resistance to HIV is found in less than 3 percent of white people of European descent.
