A 66-year-old man was treated for HIV after undergoing a bone marrow transplant, similar to the other three cases healed. explains the doctor
Doctors from California, United States, have announced the fourth case of HIV treatment in the world. The patient is a 66-year-old man who has been living with the virus since the 1980s. Like the other treatments, he received a bone marrow transplant to treat another disease, in this case leukemia.
In a statement, the man said, “When I was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, like many others, I thought it was a death sentence. I never thought I would live long enough to see the day when I didn’t. I’ll have more HIV. “
bone marrow transplant
Infectious doctor Dr. Bernardo Almeida, Masters in Infectious Diseases from UFPR (Federal University of Paraná), explains that bone marrow transplantation occurs due to other diseases and is not a primary indication for HIV treatment .
“When there is an indication for bone marrow transplantation in a patient with HIV, it is possible to look for donors that contain a rare genetic pattern, which makes them resistant to HIV infection,” he adds. The same happened with the three previous cases of disease treatment, situations in which the recipient no longer showed evidence of the virus.
According to the specialist, the transplant procedure is not the only treatment with the potential to cure HIV. “There are a number of interesting therapeutic methods being studied, from drugs, drug combinations, vaccines and gene therapies that are potential blueprints for a cure,” he explains.
However, stem cell transplantation is not applicable on a large scale, because, as the specialist points out, it is a surgery with a number of unnecessary side effects. This is because today we already have a highly effective treatment to control the disease – the so-called “cocktails” of antiretroviral drugs, as well as forms of prevention.
What does undetectable HIV mean?
According to the infectologist, undetectable HIV is not synonymous with cure. “This means that there are no detectable levels of the virus in the blood and that there is no transmission in this context. But the virus is still able to stay in some organs,” she reveals.
The doctor. Bernardo explains that these places in the body where HIV can stay are called virus reservoirs. “That’s why the antiretroviral treatment must be continuous, because if it is stopped, the virus will replicate in the bloodstream and the disease will evolve again,” he concludes.
Source: Terra
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