deltapi@lemmy.worldtoUplifting News@lemmy.world•Seventh person likely 'cured' of HIV, doctors announceEnglish
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2 months agoThe brutal bone marrow transplant that can “cure” HIV is only an option for patients who also have leukaemia
So they wipe out all the patient’s bone marrow, let them simmer in a immuno-bubble-room for a bit, then give them a stemcell bone marrow transplant from someone whose bone marrow is hiv resistant and hope to high hell that the process itself doesn’t result in the patient’s death.
Oh, and out of caution they continue to consider the patient HIV pos for the rest of their lives anyway.
For me, the real takeaway is that medical professionals no longer view HIV a big enough health risk to consider stuff like this viable for HIV patients in general.
This method is literally killing the patient’s entire immune system by irradiation. They then replace it with a donor immune system that might in turn try to kill them.
This isn’t a good option for the vast majority of patients to wipe out a virus that can be well managed with drugs.
The reason that it was done here is that the treatment is intended to cure them of cancer, and as a side effect eliminates their HIV infection.