That Happened!

New York - The New York Times reported in a November 14 edition that a rare treatment to cure aids has been reported. The article explains that although the treatment is far from practical for every AIDS patient a Berlin doctor successfully cured AIDS in one patient by giving him blood cells from a donor naturally resistant to the virus.

The news is spreading fast amongst the medical world as doctors finally come one step closer to the day when AIDS will not be an automatic death sentence.

According to The New York Times the patient had leukemia as well as AIDS and doctors treated him by wiping out his immune system through a series of radiation treatments as well as a drug regiment; which in itself can be dangerous for some patients. This was followed by a high-risk stem-cell transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that causes a resistance to HIV.

Dr. Stephen O’Brien’s work with HIV led to the discovery of the gene which he says may date back more than 700 years to the days of the Bubonic Plague.

Scientists were astonished to learn that those with this gene did not contract HIV even after repeated exposure to the disease. Currently scientists are trying to develop a strain of this AIDS resistant gene that could be used to help AIDS patients in the future. And all now researchers have taken one more step forward. Scientists and doctors alike hope that one day AIDS will be treatable by injecting genetically re-engineered stem cells into AIDS patients.

Currently AIDS patients are being treated with antiretroviral drugs which aim to keep levels of HIV within the body at an ultimate low. With proper treatment most patients can use the antiretroviral treatments as a way to prevent illness for a number of years but it is not a cure. Most patients take more than one antiretroviral at a time to prevent the HIV virus from becoming immune to one drug and growing before being detected.

The stem-cell transplant patient has been AIDS free for 20 months now, the New York Times reports. Yet the world is far from seeing a cure for the disease; specifically doctors assert in The New York Times that at this time it may be more dangerous to undergo stem-cell transplant than living with the disease and taking antiretroviral drugs. Besides the danger associated with this treatment plan there are other issues that must be considered.

For instance the genetic mutation necessary is currently rare. To successfully transplant the stem-cell doctors will have to find the rare gene as well as find a donor that matches the patient’s tissue cells. Scientists are trying to duplicate the gene but have not yet done so.

Other considerations include the danger of the stem-cell transplant procedure. This treatment strategy is extremely dangerous in itself. According to The New York Time article 10 to 30 percent of those who undergo the transplant will die from it.