Stem cell transplant puts HIV into 'sustained remission'

Doctors announced late yesterday that they had put HIV into “sustained remission” in a patient with a stem cell transplant — effectively curing the recipient. The case comes nearly 10 years after Timothy Ray Brown announced he was the so-called “Berlin Patient” — the first person who was functionally cured of HIV and able to stop taking antiretroviral drugs after an intensive round of chemotherapy and radiation as well as two bone marrow transplants. The person who received the latest transplant, in London, was not identified. But authors of a newly published paper in Nature said the person has not taken antiretroviral drugs since September 2017. The new work does not have immediate implications for others with HIV, but could encourage scientists working on new gene therapies for the condition.