Woman cured of HIV through stem cell transplant
Researchers today (Tuesday, Feb. 15) announced that a U.S. woman has been cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant from a donor who was naturally resistant to the human immunodeficiency virus, according to a report by Julie Steenhuysen with Reuters. The woman, described as being middle-aged and of mixed race, is the third person and the first woman to be cured of HIV.
Her case, the first involving umbilical cord blood, a newer approach that could make this treatment available to more people, was presented by researchers at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver.
Steenhuysen’s report notes that the woman received the stem cell transplant as a treatment for acute myeloid leukemia. She has now been in remission and free of HIV for 14 months without the need for antiretroviral therapy.
The two other patients — a white man and a Latino man — were cured of HIV after receiving adult stem cells, which are more frequently used in bone marrow transplants.
