After a decades-long battle with the deadly disease, humanity finally seems close enough to defeat AIDS and possibly cure HIV.
Earlier this month, scientists confirmed that a third patient infected with HIV is in remission following Stem Cell Treatment. For the sake of maintaining his privacy, the patient is being called the “Dusseldorf patient”. The other two patients in remission are the “London patient” and Timothy Ray Brown or the “Berlin patient.”
For the sake of accuracy and to avoid misleading the public, the treatment results are being called “remission” and not “curing AIDS.”
The Dusseldorf patient has shown remission for three months now, and the London patient for 18 months at the time of writing this report. Considering the fact that both the patients are not on medication anymore, the results are even more promising.
Experts have said that this is not the end of the road. There is still a long and painstaking process ahead before humanity finally discovers a complete and effective cure for AIDS.
However, the news is certainly encouraging for researchers. Stem cell treatment led to similar results in all three patients, suggesting that the disease can be cured after all.
Professor Ravindra Gupta who is the lead researcher of the potential HIV cure, and works at the University College London, intimated that the whole procedure has been an arduous journey for doctors and patients.
“It’s been a difficult journey to offer someone this hope and then say we don’t know it’s going to work. So even stopping his HIV treatment – he had to really think about it, and it took him a while to finally do it. It’s difficult because you’ve got to put your faith in what doctors are saying to you,” he said.
Dr Gupta worked with the London patient.
