Health Officials Confirm Second Patient Cured of HIV
Health officials confirmed a second person cured for Human Immunodeficiency Virus(HIV) in a new report published Tuesday.
Adam Castillejo, a 40-year-old man from London, has come forward to reveal his identity and journey to become the second man who has been cured of HIV.
Castillejo has been free of the virus for more than 30 months after he stopped taking antiretroviral medication for HIV.
The journal reported Adam was not cured by drugs meant to fight HIV, but by a stem-cell treatment he received for cancer.
The donors had an uncommon gene that gives them protection from the virus.
Castillejo decided to go public to "give people hope" a year after his successful treatment at Hammersmith Hospital.
Adam was diagnosed with HIV in 2003 after he moved from his hometown Venezuela to London.
In 2012, he was diagnosed with advance Hodgkin lymphoma--- a type of cancer that affects the body's immune system. He received bone marrow stem cells from a donor in 2016 in a bid to fight cancer.
Castillejo has been in remission for two-and-a-half years.
"The journey has given me the chance to gain more knowledge and understanding about cancer research and the world beyond me."
First HIV-Free Patient
Known as "The Berlin Patient," Timothy Ray Brown was the first person to have been cured of HIV.
Brown received an aggressive stem-cell transplant in Germany for his leukemia in 2007.
Findings after the treatment showed his HIV levels dropped to undetectable levels. He remains HIV free even without taking antiretroviral drugs meant to keep HIV levels low.
A pathologist at Emory University, Dr. Guido Silvestri, performed the same treatment procedure to three monkeys in 2014 to determine what was responsible for eradicating HIV.
The monkeys were given the Simian-Human Immunodeficiency Virus (SHIV)--- a virus similar to HIV that causes an AIDS-like disease in animals.
The animals received a bone-marrow cell transplant of their own bone-marrow cells taken before they were infected with SHIV.
The researchers found radiation killed almost 99 percent of their CD4-T cells, opening the possibility of radiation as a treatment plan to cure HIV.
Upon stopping antiretroviral treatment, two of the three monkeys' virus levels rebounded.
The third monkey was put to sleep when it developed kidney failure. Traces of the HIV virus were found in a number of tissues, suggesting that none had been cured.
The same treatment was performed on two HIV patients who also developed lymphoma. Bone-marrow donors in both cases did not carry the rare CCR5 gene, which is the gene that serves as a protection against HIV.
HIV returned for both patients who had to start taking antiretroviral medication again.
Stem-cell treatment
Stem-cell transplant is a procedure where a patient is given healthy stem cells, also known as blood-forming cells. These new cells will replace the ones destroyed by radiation or chemotherapy.
University of Cambridge's lead researcher Professor Ravindra Kumar Gupta said the treatment option showed great success towards curing HIV.
He also clarified not all HIV patients will be offered the option as was primarily used to treat cancers, not HIV.
The professor said HIV drugs are still capable of helping the patient live a long and healthy life.
Is it permanent?
The study reported 99% of Castillejo's immune cells were replaced during the stem-cell treatment.
They have found small traces of the virus in his body.
Professor Sharon Lewin from the University of Melbourne said it is impossible to say if his HIV will never come back. "The additional data provided in this follow-up case report is certainly encouraging but unfortunately, in the end, only time will tell."
Subscribe to Latin Post!
Sign up for our free newsletter for the Latest coverage!
