US Woman is cured of HIV using Novel Treatment
A woman, referred to as ‘The New York patient’ for the sake of privacy, has reportedly become the first female to be cured of HIV.
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This was announced by scientists on Tuesday at a ‘Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections’, held virtually.
The patient, described as a person of “mixed race”, received treatment at the New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center in the US.
She was said to have been diagnosed with HIV in 2013, while she was confirmed to have leukemia in 2017.
According to scientists, she was cured using a new transplant method involving umbilical cord blood that opens up the possibility of curing more people of diverse racial backgounds than was previously possible.
“First, the cancer patient receives a transplant of umbilical cord blood, which contains stem cells that amount to a powerful nascent immune system. A day later, they receive a larger graft of adult stem cells. The adult stem cells flourish rapidly, but over time they are entirely replaced by cord blood cells.”
Although the researchers say they are still monitoring the recovery process, the woman has not been diagnosed with HIV in blood tests over the past 14 months.
Her treatment becomes significant considering that women constitute a higher percentage of HIV cases reported globally.
According to the statistics released by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in 2021, “53% of all people living with HIV were women and girls”.
Meanwhile, prior to the latest development, two other men were said to have been cured of HIV in 2009 and 2019, respectively — through treatment by bone marrow transplant.
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