HIV Treatment: First woman to be cured via a stem cell transplant

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• Feb 16, 2022 | Sourav Boruah

Digital Desk: A cancer patient in the U.S. has become the first woman to be cured of HIV thanks to a stem cell transplant, researchers have reported.

This is the first time umbilical cord blood has been used to treat acute myeloid leukemia, a disease that starts in blood-forming cells in the bone marrow. The case was presented Tuesday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver, Colorado.

According to reports, this middle-aged woman of mixed race has been HIV-free for 14 months without the need for powerful antiretroviral drugs.

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The donor was naturally resistant to the virus that causes AIDS.

“This is now the third report of a cure in this setting, and the first in a woman living with HIV,” Sharon Lewin, president-elect of the International AIDS Society, said in a statement.

Two cases have been reported earlier,  occurred in males, one British and one Latino, who had received adult stem cells more frequently used in bone marrow transplants.

This new approach may make the treatment available to more people, according to researchers.