Doctors claim a second patient has been cured of HIV
Castillejo’s cure came through a stem-cell treatment he received for a cancer
Doctors have claimed that a Londoner has been cured of HIV, making him the second person in the world to be cured of the virus.
Even after more than 30 months since stopping anti-retroviral therapy, the person - Adam Castillejo has remained free of the virus, reports the BBC.
According to Lancet HIV journal report, Castillejo's cure came through a stem-cell treatment he received for a cancer he had rather than medicines.
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The donors of those stem cells have an uncommon gene that gives them, and now Castillejo protection against HIV.
Timothy Brown, the "Berlin Patient" became the first person reported as cured of HIV, three and half years after having similar treatment in 2011.
Stem-cell transplants appear to stop the virus being able to replicate inside the body by replacing the patient's own immune cells with donor ones that resist HIV infection.
Adam Castillejo - the now 40-year-old "London Patient" who has decided to go public with his identity - has no detectable active HIV infection in his blood, semen or tissues, his doctors say.
It is now a year after they first announced he was clear of the virus and he still remains free of HIV.
"This represents HIV cure with almost certainty. We have now had two and a half years with anti-retroviral-free remission," said Prof Ravindra Kumar Gupta, a leading researcher from the University of Cambridge.
"Our findings show that the success of stem-cell transplantation as a cure for HIV, first reported nine years ago in the Berlin Patient, can be replicated."
However, it is far from being a treatment for the millions of people around the world living with HIV. The aggressive therapy was primarily used to treat the patients' cancers, not HIV. And current HIV drugs remain very effective, meaning people with the virus can live long and healthy lives.
