‘Düsseldorf Patient’ Becomes Fifth Person Officially Cured of HIV

Researchers have revealed that a 53-year-old man in Germany, known as the “Düsseldorf patient” to protect his identity, has become the fifth person in the world cured of HIV. This groundbreaking outcome was achieved through a stem cell transplant, a procedure primarily used for treating cancer patients who have exhausted all other options.

Stem cell transplants are a high-risk intervention aimed at replacing a person’s immune system, with the primary goal of eradicating cancer. However, in some instances, this procedure has also resulted in a cure for HIV.

Details of the Dusseldorf’s patient successful treatment were first announced in 2019

The details of the Dusseldorf patient’s successful stem cell treatment to cure his HIV infection were first announced in 2019, but confirmation of his success was only possible five years later. 

Indeed, they have announced that the Dusseldorf patient has no traceable viruses in his system, even after stopping his medication almost four years ago. 

Dr. Bjorn-Erik Ole Jensen, who presented the details of the case in a new publication c in “Nature in Medicine”, said, “It’s really cured, and not just, you know, long-term remission.” He added, “This obviously positive symbol makes hope, but there’s a lot of work to do.”

For most people, HIV is a lifelong disease, and the infection is never fully removed from a patient. Despite this, however, people with HIV can live long, healthy lives thanks to significant advancements in modern medicine. 

HIV, also known as human immunodeficiency virus, essentially enters a person’s body and destroys the cells of the infected individual’s immune system. If a person is not treated, these damages could lead to AIDS or another disease called acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, where a person’s organism would not be able to fight a small infection. 

There are almost 38.4 million people in the world who live with HIV, but the process cannot be offered as a cure 

Millions of people around the world live their lives with this disease, and treatments for it have come a long way since the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. 

Modern treatment for the disease can keep the virus mostly sidelined, and studies to help prevent the disease with a vaccine are currently underway at various research centers around the world. 

The first person to have been cured of HIV was a man by the name of Timothy Ray Brown, with researchers publishing his case as the Berlin patient in 2009. Brown was followed by The London Patient, which was published in 2019, and two more recent ones, The City of Hope and The New York Patients in 2022. 

All of these patients went through stem cell transplants for their blood cancer treatment. Crucially, all of their donors had the same HIV-resistant mutation, which deletes a protein called CCR5, which is used by the virus to enter the cell. Only 1 percent of the total population carries this genetic mutation that makes them resistant to HIV. 

Stem cell transplants, however, are far too risky to offer as the cure for everyone with HIV.