A Los Angeles man known as the “City of Hope Patient,” may be the fifth person to be cured of HIV. The unnamed man is in long-term remission, after receiving a rare stem cell transplant only for patients who are battling both HIV and Leukaemia.
The 66-year-old man was given a bone marrow transplant to treat his leukaemia from a donor who was naturally resistant to HIV. Since his surgery in 2019, the man has not shown any evidence of HIV replication in his body. He has now been off of HIV medication for 17 months and his cancer has disappeared. He is the oldest patient, one of four so far, believed to have been cured in this way.
“When I was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, like many others, I thought it was a death sentence,” the man said in a statement from the hospital. “I never thought I would live to see the day that I no longer have HIV. The city of Hope made that possible, and I am beyond grateful.
