Cutting-edge treatment appears to cure woman of HIV

New scientific research suggests that there is hope for treatment in the future for people living with HIV, after researchers appear to have cured a third person living with the virus using a new Stem Cell transplant method. The patient, who was treated in New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, is the first woman and person of mixed-race heritage to be cured of the virus. She was treated with a method that involved umbilical cord blood, which doesn’t need to be matched as closely to the recipient as, for example, bone marrow cells do, which opens up more possibilities in the future for other patients living with the virus. 

One of the doctors involved in the procedure, Dr Koen van Besien, stated that “the ability to use partially matched umbilical cord blood grafts greatly increases the likelihood of finding suitable donors for such patients”. Dr Besien also stated, “We estimate that there are approximately 50 patients per year in the US who could benefit from this procedure”. 

The female patient was diagnosed with HIV in 2013, and then Leukemia four years later. Treatment of her leukaemia took precedent, but after three years of cancer remission, she was re-treated for HIV and has not experienced a resurgent of the virus in over fourteen months. Dr Steven Deeks, an AIDS expert at the University of California stated that “The fact that she’s mixed race, and that she’s a woman, that is really important scientifically and really important in terms of community impact”. 

This news story comes days after a report was published, which stated that “HIV now infects more heterosexual people than gay or bisexual men” (The Guardian). HIV has often been associated as a ‘homosexual’ virus; an association which has been reinforced by laws on blood donation, which up until June 2021, stated that gay and bisexual men in the UK couldn’t donate blood unless they waited a certain period of time (provided they are monogamous) and practised safe sex. In the US, the law still states that sexually active gay or bisexual men must abstain from sex for at least three months before they are able to donate blood. This rule also applies to gay and bisexual men who are in monogamous relationships and who have tested HIV negative and practice safe sex. 

These laws reinforce archaic stereotypes about gay men, as well as the idea that HIV only affects members of the LGBTQ+ community. This new scientific breakthrough in New York provides hope for treatment for people living with the virus and also opens up new and further research into the uses of umbilical cord blood and Stem cell transplants.