Woman cured of HIV in global first

Two men previously cured of HIV using riskier bone marrow transplants

In a global first, a mixed-race woman was cured of HIV using a new method than earlier patients who were subjected to anti-HIV treatments.

The woman from New York was the third person to be cured of HIV, according to the New York Times (NYT).

With regards to the development, University of California AIDS expert Steven Deeks said that the woman cured was mixed race and her being demographically different was a fact that was considerably “important in terms of community impact”.

According to existing information, HIV progression has varied between men and women.

The woman in question was diagnosed with HIV in 2013 and she received a fresh treatment strategy that involved transplanting “cord blood”. The treatment used stem cells that were harvested from umbilical cord and placental blood in 2017.

This new treatment was reportedly formulated by Weill Cornell Medicine, New York.

The two men earlier cured of HIV were given bone marrow instead in a riskier treatment plan. The bone marrow donations came from donors who had an HIV-blocking mutation.

The men had faced burgeoning side effects of the treatment while the woman left the hospital after a mere 17 days. Her quick discharge has also been credited to the fact that she received immunity boosting blood from her relative.

In this regard, a Weill Cornell Medicine infectious diseases expert Marshall Glesby told NYT that, “The transplant from the relative is like a bridge that got her through to the point of the cord blood being able to take over.”

The new research could likely help 50 patients in US per year, according to Weill Cornell’s team member Koen van Besien.

Despite the breakthrough, several are wary that ‘cure’ is the right term to use in the case. A paediatric infectious disease specialist at UCLA, Yvonne Bryson, was quote by NBC as having said that the word ‘remission’ was more appropriate.

HIV has been a menace globally with millions impacted by it worldwide. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) 37.7 million people were recorded to have HIV in 2020 of which only 28.2 million had access to antiretroviral therapy.