AIDS Patient Is Reported Cured

New York Times ^ | November 13, 2008 | DONALD G. MCNEIL JR

[americanophile]

Doctors in Berlin are reporting that they cured a man of AIDS by giving him transplanted blood stem cells from a person naturally resistant to the virus. But while the case has novel medical implications, experts say it will be of little immediate use in treating AIDS. Top American researchers called the treatment unthinkable for the millions infected in Africa and impractical even for insured patients in top research hospitals. “It’s very nice, and it’s not even surprising,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “But it’s just off the table of practicality.” The patient, a 42-year-old American resident in Germany, also has leukemia, which justified the high risk of a stem-cell transplant. Such transplants require wiping out a patient’s immune system, including bone marrow, with radiation and drugs; 10 to 30 percent of those getting them die. “Frankly, I’d rather take the medicine,” said Dr. Robert C. Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, referring to antiretroviral drugs. Moreover, the chances of finding a donor who is a good tissue match for the patient and also has the rare genetic mutation that confers resistance to H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, are extremely small. Nonetheless, the man has been free of the virus for 20 months even though he is not using antiretroviral drugs, and the success in his case is evidence that a long-dreamed-of therapy for AIDS — injecting stem cells that have been genetically re-engineered with the mutation — might work.

[americanophile]

...of course having invented the disease to kill blacks, the Reagan Administration has had the antidote all along.

[Steely Tom]

If they weren’t embryonic stem cells, no one cares.

[americanophile]

...apparently.

[skippermd]

Well, we’ll see if he gets graft versus host disease from the transplant—That’s a much uglier death than from an infection secondary to AIDS.

[SuziQ]

Bump for Fri. reading

[Secret Agent Man]

Ain’t going to matter if they don’t take care of the gayness.

[ME-262]

When I read “AIDS Patient Is Reported Cured”, I thought sure some good ol’ boy had shot him a Yankee cornholer.

[WildcatClan]

Oh man, that is just wrong. lol

[wolf78]

...of course having invented the disease to kill blacks, the Reagan Administration has had the antidote all along.

Well, in this case, the cure is literally worse than the disease. 10-30% chance of death due to the bone marrow transplant. And afterwards, while one doesn't have to take azidothymidine or efavirenz, one has to take azathioprine, ciclosporin or mycophenolate mofetil.