AIDS Has Been Cured

And these buggers are to blame.
Photo Credit: TopNews.com.nz

That's right! Unfortunately, it's only been done once because the procedure is quite rare and also quite dangerous. The man in question is an American citizen who was living in Germany three years ago. While infected with the HIV virus, he also developed Leukemia, cancer of the blood. In an attempt to cure his Leukemia, doctors in Germany treated the man with a Stem Cell Bone Marrow Transplant from a donor who who was a perfect match, and also coincidentally carried an HIV resistant gene.

Over time, the man's immune system was 'replaced' with that of the donor (the lucky son of a gun inherited the HIV resistance gene), and today (3 years later), he shows no signs of either AIDS, HIV, nor Leukemia.

So why did everyone miss the party of the century? Well unfortunately, this procedure is very rare. The donor has to be a perfect match AND contain the HIV resistance gene (a rarity in itself). Then, the procedure is extremely expensive, and most doctors won't treat you accordingly because they consider it unnecessary due to its risks as "drugs can keep HIV in check in most cases" - Dr. Michael Saag, which leads me to my next point - it's very risky. As it stands today, the death rate among these types of procedures is 5%, which means 1 in every 20 people who are treated will die from the procedure.


Ultimately though, it's still an amazing advancement in medicine, and will hopefully lead researchers to a more promising and practical cure to AIDS.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/6fcj3y6