I am grateful and hopeful that this horrible disease can be a footnote in the history of horrible , but now curable diseases. I wish my best friend, who, by the way was in a monogamous relationship for all you uninformed people judging the victims, was alive to have hope for a cure. I miss her.
4
Late. Dr. Sebi had done this how many times? Give the credit where it's really due. RipDrSebi
2
And yet insurance companies continue to refuse to cover bone marrow transfusion.
The craziest part of this story is that Trump is trying to take credit for it.
4
How many billions of public and private dollars have been spent on AIDS research? With the exception of a tiny fraction of those infected through tainted transfusions or other means not associated with wanton behavior HIV infection is 100% preventable like ALL STDs. Without irresponsible sexual behavior there is no AIDS to speak of.
3
Yeah, casting judgement is really going to help matters. FYI, some patients in long-term, even married, relationships are unknowingly infected by cheating partners while HIV infection rates have shot up in non- promiscuos middle-aged/older people who are re'entering the dating world after their SO has passed or they've been divorced. It is attitudes like yours which drove the high rates of infection in the first place and continue to cause problems in areas of the country like the South.
8
There may be a cure for HIV available, but it will not be cured until everyone has access to it.
2
Unfortunately, the place where AIDs is most widespread, Africa, may never receive the benefit of a cure.
Many African leaders deny that AIDs even exists, and reject foreign medical help for it.
Meanwhile, many evangelicals still proclaim that AIDs is a punishment from god for heresy.
https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-hiv-africa
2
Uh oh, Truvada ain’t gonna like this!
You'll just have to excuse me if I find many of the reactions to this story to be more than a little bit over the top. This may play a part in some future significant development in the fight against HIV and it's undoubtedly of great interest to researchers, but to virtually everyone else it is at this point rather meaningless. I've been living with HIV for over 30 years and I find all the gushing over this particular development to me more than a little off putting.
Right now the thing that is far more important than a "cure" is simply getting the very effective treatments that we do have to the people who need them. When people are successfully treated for HIV it is impossible for them to transmit the virus, even during sex. There are drugs people can take to prevent them from getting the virus in the first place. We don't need a cure to end HIV. What we need is to fight the things that prevent people from getting the care they need to stop the virus. In far too many parts of this country (not to mention the rest of the world) people still face the barriers of poverty, ignorance, stigma, criminalization and lack of access to appropriate HIV care and education. That's what you should all be thinking about. Not some pie in the sky "cure"
48
Great article! When I work with patients afflicted by chronic diseases, I remind them there is always hope, whether this article or the new treatments for Hep C and migraines. I am taking a few minutes today to remember my first violin teacher and my 9 yr. old patient, who both died of AIDS in the early 1990s.
3
Having heard about this 20 minutes into my local newscast, I have dissolved into tears twice while picking up the phone to call my friends. Thank you, and thank God for people like you. The compassion you've shared , helps to offset and quell decades of pain, loss, and anger.
3
Should a person who has a unique gene that can cure an illness be reimbursed, if the pharmaceutical company makes a profit off of it?
1
While I celebrate the finding, I hesitate to call this a cure. To be honest, it’s a workaround and an incidental finding. A cure eradicates the problem without having to eradicate and replace a patient’s bone marrow. A cure is reproducible and scalable. This unfortunately, is not.
3
Even during an age when it feels like everything is falling apart, this is incredibly good news.
3
I love science and hate big pharma and insurance. However, I worry about how much money society throws at preventing death, when it's eventually going to happen anyway. I'm more worried about quality of life for my kids than myself.
1
@Alex
"However, I worry about how much money society throws at preventing death, when it's eventually going to happen anyway. "
That statement would be true of any treatment for cancer or development of a vaccine for a disease that kills frequently. But, these treatments benefit not just living generations, but future generations, too.
6
@Alex
Somehow I think you'd be singing a different tune if one of your kids was sick. You'll excuse me if I have no sympathy for your selfishness.
1
A lot of people affected by HIV are young and have many years of life potentially to contribute to society. Maybe one or a few of them will find the solution to our population/ environmental problems. I think about the same issues you do but --- as a getiatrician -- my patients are not in their teens, 20s, or even 70s. They're in their 80s and 90s, with many plagued by multiple chronic issues. Many would not mind passing away. If we are going to ration care in this way, don't start with HIV.
2
It's more of a hype, and a very distant "possibility" to get the cure. But that's how modern "research" works, sadly. Hype, propaganda, and the words like "possibility" are the key.
It's very well known that vast majority of grants proposals are based on hype and deliberate false promises as they know no one care to hold the scientists accountable to deliver what they themselves wrote in terms of fulfilling tangible objectives (not some junk data for sake of it in some publications that no one, even the scientist himself, care.)
Peer-reviewed articles in famous research journals are full of such hypes. Many/most failed when tested by pharma or biotech companies. Cherry picking of positive data to create the hype is now almost universal in academia. In many/most cases, manuscript with full conclusion for peer-reviewed research articles are complete even before single experiment is done. Growing influence of private companies in academia is making the situation worse.
Such research articles published even in top tier peer-reviewed journals are increasingly being found "not reproducible" to downright fraud. Scientific misconduct and blatant fraud among "scientists" are now more common and, more dangerously, accepted among increasing number of 'scientists'.
Check these 2 articles-
1) "Academic publishers make Murdoch look like a socialist"- https://goo.gl/USrdR5 ,
2) Crack Down on Scientific Fraudsters- https://goo.gl/XUhWzp
1
According to NIMH in the United States there is a drug that HIV/AIDS infected individuals have a pill available they can take once a day that eventually reduces their ability to infect others. This information isn't new, we're reading about it, exciting about it but AIDS infected people in the United States should get the pill that's available has been available and has produced results excellent results. I hope that these pills for AID's patients are covered by our Federal Government/States. Read more about these pills and check other sources for information. The biggest problem, is in countries where health care isn't addressing this problem in a humanitarian way.
That pill is for HIV infected, not full blown AIDS
Queue David Brooks' explanation on why it's impossible for all people with AIDS to be cured at some point.
1
@Noah You're under-estimating Mr. Brooks. He would explain not only why it is impossible, but also why it is undesirable.
As always, I feel the media overstated the impact of research in a translational context. The headline calling this procedure "difficult" is a radical understatement. You need to find a bone marrow match and willing donor. That donor must have the CCR5 mutation, or you must create a stable, genetically modified system with the CCR5 mutation. While you could theoretically do this with induced pluripotent stem cells (that is, stem cells created from a patient's own skin," I have not seen an instance where researchers have created these cells, let alone graft them.
Also, as the article pointed out, there have been many times that they have tried to recreate the Berlin patient. These failures are known as the Boston patients, and I'm sure there are others that I am unaware of. The success rate is likely far below 1% given ideal conditions, conditions which the average HIV patient would not suit. This article also does not cover cost of treatment, as this patient probably got it pro bono. You and I would not get such a luxury. Furthermore, this is basically irrelevant to the AIDS epidemic in Africa, where there is no infrastructure for these procedures and certainly not the money for it.
I don't want to rain on the parade here. I'm just saying that curing 2 people of HIV out of the 36.9 million people suffering it is like taking one water droplet from Lake Michigan.
2
Very encouraging news indeed! However, it's premature and an overstatement to call this a "cure". The AIDS virus may still come back as in the case of the Mississippi baby who had controlled HIV without drugs for a few years. Even stably controlled, HIV may still be hiding in the body, and is controlled from rebounding by limited number of CCR5+ target cells and by elevated anti-HIV immunity (aka a functional cure). A clearance cure of zero virus in the body would be truly remarkable, but very hard to prove.
Wonderful news.
Here is the exclusive TV interview I did at KPIX/CBS in San Francisco with the so-called "Berlin Patient," the first case like this, eight years ago.This documentary won an Emmy award. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu-Yj7k0ToI
1
Golly, how is this possible? A bunch of people with M.D.’s and Ph.D.’s working in universities discovering life-saving advances in science and medicine? But I was told college is just a liberal indoctrination camp! Getting degrees just turns you into a “liberal elite” dummy!
No, no...this must be fake news. I’ll just go take another Infowars brand Alpha Brain Force vitamin pill.
2
This news serves as a testament to the importance of federally-funded scientific research, and speaks to the amount of time researchers/staff/admin dedicate to achieve progress. While no "cure" is defined, this article offers hope--HIV is not a death sentence, and science is advancing at a tremendous pace. This article highlights how researchers now understand HIV and the role of the CCR5 protein better than before. That is truly what research and the art of scientific discovery is all about. Small steps forward, and gaining knowledge.
With robust, predictable funding for research, scientists can build on this work to improve gene therapy treatments, and bring us another step closer to developing an HIV cure.
We lost gut-wrenching numbers of friends. I hope they are watching from somewhere and smiling through their tears that another step has been taken. I know I am.
2
While an important discovery out of reach for almost everyone due to how much it would cost (much like most immunotherapy treatments for cancer).
Finally, some hopeful news. So glad to see it.
1
@Annie
What in the world do you mean by "finally"? There has been a considerable amount of good and hopeful news regarding HIV for years now. We have the ability to treat the disease so that those living with it lead normal lives and can no longer transmit the virus to others even during sex. We have drugs people can take to prevent themselves from ever acquiring the virus. I was diagnoses with HIV over 30 years ago and I expected to live, maybe, another ten years. I'm still here. We don't need a "cure" to end HIV. What we need is a society and a government that actually cares about ending it. We'll end HIV when access to care and education are universal. We'll end HIV after we have put an end to stigma and criminalization of the virus. We already have the tools. We just need to actually want to do it.
I worry that this headline is misleading and will lead to misunderstanding and heartbreak in many of my patients. This cure is as out of reach for routine HIV patients as any other yet-to-be-developed, nonexistent cure. Bone marrow transplants have extremely high morbidity and mortality and that is why they were only done for the life threatening condition of the malignancy in these patients. Not only is it incredibly risky, this exact same procedure has failed to work in many other HIV patients. HIV is less of a life threatening condition in this day and age than Diabetes. I will put you on one pill once a day with few side effects and you are expected to live essentially as long as any one else; we also know that having your virus undetectable means you also essentially can't transmit it to anyone else. This is not to minimize the life changing impact of an HIV diagnosis: given that routine health care, access to care, bias/sterotyping, medication cost and still many other problems remain with this disease we should certainly seek a cure. Many long for it with an intensity I cannot describe. But that cure needs to help my patients- not put them at a dramatically increased risk of severe illnesses (including, ironically, infections) and death.
9
@Erin B
I agree about the risk of misinterpretation. It's a problem whenever a newspaper reports on scientific advances, which, even when great, can never jump large distances in one step. It might have been useful to write the headline as "H.I.V. is Reported Cured in a Second Patient, a Milestone of Uncertain Usefulness in the Global AIDS Epidemic." Science editors have a responsibility to temper their excitement, even if it irks the circulation managers.
Bittersweet news for those who lost loved ones to this disease process!
But as a nurse in a renal dialysis unit in the late 7o’s we lost so many of our patients to infected blood transfusions. We were stymied at first about our patients’ failure to thrive .
Bleach , full strength was our good friend. It was the only weapon against spreading the bloodborn plague. We wiped down everything !!!!!
We couldn’t wipe down the blood bank supply. And at the time we had no clear understanding that this new disease was killing our dear patients
We were close to them.
My youngest patient was an 11 yr. old who returned to us after a transplant where the infection took hold.
We had to use 16 gauge intercaths to access his blood to dialyze.
He had a Cookie Monster puppet and my little patient would sit very still except for Cookie Monster ; the puppet became his extension and would grimace and jump up and down as soon as the first puncture occurred in his upper thigh access .
When our tiny patient died the staff and patients set up a memorial chair draped with flowers and stuffed animals.
Every 60 something healthcare worker has a bevy of stories to tell.
We witnessed the horror at the beginning.
It took American society a long time to help those dear souls afflicted and our collective hate was on full display and uplifted by a clueless Congress and Reagan!!!
165
@nurseJacki I was born in the 90s so I missed it, but god bless you and thank you for your work.
25
@nurseJacki
"Bittersweet news" indeed.
That perfectly describes my feelings about this remarkable news.
Thank you.
12
Thank you for your service!
5
I hope this leads to some further discoveries because it seems impractical as a general "cure" for AIDS and has worked on just two patients after decades of scientific and medical tests. Both patients also had cancer and received a specific type of bone marrow transplant. Patient 1 nearly died; Patient 2 suffered a little less but still undergoing a bone marrow transplant is quite difficult and painful.
I was excited by the headline, less so when reading the entire article and realizing this is not yet a breakthrough for the many who feel doomed by the diagnosis.
Keep working, keep researching.
45
@MA Yes, this is a good start for wiping out AIDS.
@MA
I imagine that many common medical treatments began as something that was impractical on a large, or even small, scale. But, now that it appears that a "cure" is possible, this might point researchers down the path to something that is more practical.
3
@MA
There are costs aka side effects and benefits aka remission to every medication for every ailment
Penicillin was discovered by accident. Better understanding how aspirin works happened long after after it had been used. Vitamin C was happenstance.
3
Amen! Well! Amazing work.
The malaria protozoan has been outsmarting hominids for 500, 000 years. Plague for thousands of years. Flu for millions of years. HIV aka SIV not so long nor so well.
2
This is not a cure. The pharmaceutical industrial complex AKA America is relishing this moment. Let us pause a minute. Kids are already taking an “after pill” that has terrible side effects. Boom, whoever you are.
@H.A. Hyde
There is no "cure" for our mortality. We are all going to die when and where and how we are supposed to. And we can't take our stuff with us.
Increasing the length and quality of our journey is humble humane and empathetic.
I have multiple chronic and life threatening maladies. And I cherish every pill and treatment that has kept me here every single second, hour, day, week, month, year etc.
2
Brava, Ms. Mandavilli,
I'm an infectious disease physician.
Given the complexity of HIV and specifically the process of this cure (thus far), you've written an article that is completely understandable and accessible and you've done it in clear language, without medical jargon. Thank you.
231
@slmd
As the most ancient genetically diverse humans on Earth black Sub- Saharan Africans are the most likely to develop evolutionary fit natural resistance to HIV. Sickle cell trait performs that function against malaria.
4
Wow some really smart science at work here. Hats off to all the researchers who have kept their collective heads down and thought really deeply and long about how to cure HIV. I’m guessing that some of the basic science behind this will have uses in other diseases and benefits for many more. This is the kind of thing I’m happy to have my tax dollars spent on.
194
@Chris And in these cases, British and German tax dollars.
13
Two down, 600 million to go!
Let that be a challenge to you!
so many negative comments! Sure, it doesn't mean that a practical cure is near. But it means that the disease is curable. That's truly wonderful news.
7
How many billions (ultimately paid for by all of us) have been spent for something that never needed to have occured ?
Two sporadic long term remissions out of how many cases where it was attempted, either deliberately or because of a concurrent cancer? The article won't say. How did this end up on top of the front page? Is giving false hope a good thing? Hey take this pill. It works once every 12 years.
And to think Ronald Reagan just ignored the whole AIDS thing......Not only ignored, but swept it under the rug.
Thank goodness there is a more humane humanity out there.
4
@MIMA. Actively worked against recognizing it or addressing it!
1
Suuuuuuuuure….
Color me skeptical, but my money is on nope
With all the negative, depressing news surrounding the Trump regime, it's so refreshing to see such a hopeful headline about progress in curing HIV/AIDS.
3
Few such great success (irrespective of country of origin) are helping overwhelming majority of mediocre and/or corrupt professors and scientists to waste public money in the name of research.
American higher education & research system is increasingly becoming very closed & conservative (with increasing influence of religion & politics) and promote very secretive culture where subservience is the key, where tenured faculties can do just anything & get away with it. It's not just sexual harassment in US universities but almost any issue of corruption, including scientific misconduct, is almost impossible to even investigate in academia, as consequences are far too brutal from the faculties & the Univ alike. The culture of reference letter is making the situation worse. No one like to open mouth, if s/he like to have a career in academia.
Many people do not know that the most powerful labor union in the US is faculty union as they are probably the only union that is also part of top management and that too not only in the univ but also in national agencies that fund & regulate US academia.
1
@bonku. You seem awfully suspicious.
1
My brother died of AIDS. The Mormon Church covered it up and called it “Cancer” in his epitaph. Articles sensationalizing “cures” without proof can be dangerous as HIV is rising among youth who think there are no consequences to unprotected sex.
5
My brother-in-laws were the famous Levy brothers who broke the news of the first discoveries of HIV. They are the heroes. Let us not make Pharma companies that.
I think is it is insensitive to report a cure, when a bone marrow transplant is required. The title should be "Bone marrow transplant resulted in second long term remission" Your title can only be pandering to the public for attention.
1
A possible cure for H.I.V. is very encouraging and welcome. But the juxtaposition with this story and the one about migrants on the border with fevers, illnesses, and wounds yet lacking adequate medical treatment reminds us that science can only do so much to alleviate suffering. Political will and economic interests are also at work.
6
I think that this article is very good.
2
Back in the day, I remember a report about how the incoming college class of that year was the first facing potential death as a consequence of casual sex.
Could this medical breakthrough return us to another "Summer of Love"?
Pragmatically, it won't, as Herpes and HPV remain untreatable, but, it would be nice not to have to worry about death coming from a moment of joy.
4
Please do not be hurry to conclude curability,,though it is a good news....it needs further studies simultaneously in different part of the globe with basic proof from researchers & needs medical confirmed publication ....till then let us hope good
What a gorgeous electron-micrograph!
1
After reading the article, I feel like the use of the term "cure" is a bit of an overstatement. Not to mention, it also kind of neglects the MAJOR advances that have already been made in HIV research, with medications rendering the virus relatively powerless, albeit not "cured." That said, of course, the information presented in this article is still wonderful news. I just wish it would give more attention to detail regarding a subject matter that is often wildly misunderstood and stigmatized by the general public (and media!).
4
This article is very timely in pointing out the benefits of the Delta 32 Mutation with absent CCR5 making patients immune from the major strain of HIV. There a Human Monoclonal Antibody against CCR5, Leronlimab that has concluded successfully a phase III FDA trial. It offers patients the effects of the Delta 32 mutation via a once weekly sub-cutaneous injection. 90% success. Apoorva you need to know about this.
2
Call me cold blooded, but people are living longer than any time in recorded history. We have nearly 8 billion people living on the planet, who as a species are causing massive negative environmental impacts to entire planet. And today we learn that researchers have found a cure to one of the worst plagues in the last 40 years .... I don't know whether to cheer or cry.
2
@Sasha Love
The negative impact is not being caused by the people as a whole, but by the minority who control all the planet's resources.
Most areas on earth are sparsely settled. It is large enough to accommodate many times the number of people who inhabit it.
I think the title or first paragraph should indicate that the "cure" was an unintentional happenstance of treating cancer in both cases that provides a possible way forward.
2
This is what happens when people work together to make this world a better place for everyone, rather than just themselves.
6
Treatment has come a long way since the AIDs epidemic first hit SF and NY. In the early days it wasn't called AIDS or HIV. Workers at large companies with employee assistant programs in NY and SF were in touch with each other and the CDC. No one knew what was going on other than many of the gay people at this companies were getting sick and dying. At one point it was called the gay peoples disease. Many, many died and the gay scene radically changed. Bath houses for gays and heterosexuals were closed down. Fortunately there now seems to be good treatment and a promise of a cure. Hats off to all those that worked on helping those with AIDS, prevention, treatment and cure.
2
When I was a young man, I lost a very sweet cousin to what was then an epidemic, seen as a "gay curse" by the conservatives leadership in Washington DC, where Ronald Reagan didn't care, or didn't have the political will, to do anything. What followed was a holocaust in the gay community, which claimed the lives of many, including that of my cousin David. It took nearly a decade for there to be any political will to do anything, another indicator of a long persecution of non-heteronormative people that continues today at the hands of Trump and Pence. This is an important triumph but a small and long overdue one.
9
The patient in this case had a full bone marrow transplant and a leukemia-like disease requiring such aggressive treatment. Additionally, the patient is not cured but technically in remission. Currently, AIDS can be controlled by a simple daily pill. A daily pill compared to a bone marrow transplant is far less risky. We have a far way to go before a true "cure."
5
@Paul I'm worried too, that people are going to believe there is a "cure" that is accessible to general populations.
1
Great news!
But prevention remains far more effective and more cost-effective. And will for the foreseeable future; probably for good.
We have treatments for lung cancer that sometimes work. Prevention remains a far better option.
2
I know this is a me thing but why are the microscope pictures of viruses always such a gastronomic distraction?
I see fancy Ramen eggs or polenta with chives and sun dried tomatoes.
3
The closest there is to a functional cure for HIV is the rTat vaccine that has been developed in Italy. Low cost to manufacture and replicable. Three injections one month apart. Phase II trials completed in Italy and South Africa. Now in the process of raising funds for Phase IIb and Phase III trials.
2
The word "cure" is not appropriate in such diseases. "Long term remission", or "virtual clinical and laboratory clearing", are phrases far more accurate and applicable.
The aggressive and invasive therapies almost killed one patient - and he and his doctors were very fortunate that he lived through their maelstrom.
The resources and costs needed to effect this clinical response are simply staggering, and I'd like to see an accurate assessment of totals.
On the other hand, the patients are living, and I wish them and their medical teams very well.
7
@Bob
Problems with logic: "The ... costs ... are simply staggering, and I'd like to see an accurate assessment."
1) If you don't know the costs, then you can't say whether the costs, today, are staggering. You can't use any descriptive adjective at all. You can *assume* they are high; but you cannot know. (OTOH: see below.)
2) For every new technology conceived and deployed, initial costs are nearly always high. But, the long-term therapy anticipated by these results would be no different that the anti-cancer therapies now in development (e.g., the CAR-T therapy, in use in the US since 2011, and under deployment in the UK), wherein each therapy is tailored to the individual patient. While costs today are on the order of $500,000 per patient, the costs are anticipated to be about $50,000. It is a logical fallacy, therefore, to assume -- beyond your first assumption -- that high initial costs will *remain* 'staggering'.
The ethics and economics of treatments are of vital interest to all. Exemplar articles with cost data, and ethical discussions, related to this type of therapy, are found at:
https://www.karger.com/Article/Fulltext/471506
https://www.ajmc.com/newsroom/icer-report-costs-of-approved-car-tcell-therapies-aligned-with-clinical-benefit
1
@Albert K Henning
AKH: A very sophisticated and nicely written bit of silliness: and one that is completely ignorant of the real world.
I guess that having been immersed in medicine for almost 5 decades as a practicing physician and medical school professor won't sway you from your faulty argument.
The costs ARE, in fact, staggering in toto and the therapies ARE horrendous. The reason you never see such never mentioned is that neither the researchers - nor their institutions or sponsors - want you to know of such.
They only want you to know the inspiring results (and almost always bury the not good results).
This happy therapeutic result was fortuitous - and unexpected by all from the practical therapeutic standpoint.
@Bob
There is a difference between remission and cure.
"Cure" can be appropriate in such diseases if in the long term there is no further evidence of infection in the body.
I have had both kidney and prostate cancer. A kidney was removed 11 years ago. My prostate was frozen with cryotherapy ablation.
In both instances I was effectively cured of the cancers.
Albert is correct in that the high cost of development and initial use of a medication often comes down with mass production. I see nothing "silly" in his argument.
Great news and an important breakthrough. But now let's find a way to make basic healthcare affordable.
13
This is spectacular news. Please as soon as possible can you turn the research over to the pharmaceutical industry so that the cost can be properly amortized. If at all possible, please let me know which company will be buying the science. Just good to know. No other reason.
6
Just in case that this is an extremely invasive, labor-intensive, and risky procedure which in its current state isn't really compatible with routine use in thousands and thousands of individuals.
Cost is one point, but more so the donor compatibility (as it is needed for bone marrow transplants under any other circumstances).
This is no doubt a breakthrough and an important case study, but quite some way from broad application in a larger group of patients.
4
@LL
As the article makes clear, researchers are looking for a way to duplicate the agents responsible for the cure without the invasiveness of a bone marrow transplant.
@LL:
The breakthrough is not that two patients were cured using bone marrow transplants, but that they they were cured by introducing a specific gene mutation (in the delta 32 region/CCR5 protein factory).
The CCR5/delta 32 gene mutation can be safely and assuredly introduced into a patient's body (and DNA) using any one of a number of methods. Bone marrow transplantation is one method, but not required (it was used for the two patients to treat their cancers, but it also cured their HIV infection).
Yes! Yes! Yes! I love starting the day with good news. These scientists are the true heroes of our society!
19
Wonderful. Will nature survive?
@Brynie
Darwinism always triumphs in Nature: and viruses are much better at survival than humans.
@Bob, survival at what expense to nature? If bacteria and roaches are what survive our insistent presence, that hardly matters...
This is in response to Steve from Long Island.
Did he and I read the same article?
No where was Trump’s name mentioned. The patients named are the London patient and the Dusseldorf patient. The treatments did not take place in this country and one was treated 12 years ago, while Trump was pushing his anti Obama birther nonsense.
How does Trump get credit for this?
Maybe some serious research is needed to cure Trump followers
like Steve who drank the Trump cool aid!!
30
If a bone marrow transplant can "cure" HIV, one must wonder about what other viruses or maladies that it can put into remission, or cure?
2
AIDS is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It is a syndrome. A set of certain symptoms. It is caused by the HIV virus. AIDS in itself is not a virus.
4
@Russell Davis
HIV is often referred to as the "AIDs virus.."
Magic Johnson has been cured for decades.
2
His viral load is undetectable, which is very common for people on antiretrovirals. It’s not the same as a cure.
7
No, Magic is not cured. His wife told him several years ago to stop taking his HIV meds because his lab values were “good” and she said that God would protect him from AIDS. She obviously was wrong and he resumed his medications. He is not cured of the virus and it also must be mentioned, he can afford to purchase all his meds. This is a great article and must be appreciated for its current limitations or cost analysis at this - it’s published research on a successful second patient outcome. Stop all you Debbie Downers- its great news.
3
The article says, " rearming the body with immune cells similarly modified to resist H.I.V. might well succeed as a practical treatment, experts said."
Yes, immunotherapy is being used successfully in many countries as part of their "socialized medicine" treatments.
WE THE PEOPLE must make sure that Robber Barons do not control these treatments - or keep them from market - so they are unaffordable for average people.
They are using OUR hard-earned taxpayer government giveaway money and OUR government agencies and academic institutions to develop the treatments. They belong to ALL Americans.
5
This article made my day.
I am a researcher that works with one of the best Infectious disease Physicians at Stanford. What this article shows is commitment- decades of sacrifice by brilliant people that want to make a difference in the lives of people. I work with these people every single day. They work with just hope that they will be able to change the world one person at a time. The world out there needs to realize how hard it is to get funding for pure research. While the Siliconeers make money by the millions or billions, less than 1% give to the research community. I hope- news like this makes for companies and individuals fund basic research that we so desperately need.
30
@rip
What about the absurd profits that the drug manufacturers make on AIDS drugs? A friend's treatment costs over $4,000 a month here, but $400 in France.
10
@planetwest It is not only true for Aids drugs but for all medecine. A special antibiotic costs 1000 $ in the USA ,the same costs 45 $ in France .
3
@planetwest
It is a sad story.. all I believe and strive for is to do what I can to change atleast the life of one single person..
2
Here's a high risk, high cost, "if you can find the right donor", maybe cure.
What we really need is for highly effective HIV meds to come down from $25,000/year to the $250 they actually cost (and a price they are manufactured in the rest of the world), Easy access to testing and treatment, and elimination of the stigma of HIV.
14
@brian
As the article says,
"Bone-marrow transplantation is unlikely to be a realistic treatment option in the near future.... But rearming the body with immune cells similarly modified to resist H.I.V. might well succeed as a practical treatment, experts said."
1
Apoorva. Bad, bad, bad. It isn't a cure. Step back to science class. The media does society no favors when the headlines are stretched for sensationalism. One or two examples are never considered a cure. This is a set of circumstances which if repeated may become a test trial in a few years.
"In interviews, most experts are calling it a cure, with the caveat that it is hard to know how to define the word when there are only two known instances."
The word is "conjecture" in the scientific use. Remember the donor had a mutation on CCR5.
The idea of crispr modification of CCR5 cells is so fraught with uncertainty and collateral consequences to be still years away from a cure like this.
Although we all dislike the economics of big pharma, thankfully we currently have HIV drugs that make the disease a chronic condition and not a death sentence.
3
@St. Thomas
I don't see the headline as "sensationalism," but "hope."
Congratulations to all who have been working so hard towards this goal.
My wife and I have worked professionally with HIV populations and know firsthand how meaningful this milestone is.
13
I look at the face of Dr Gupta, the virologist in London and I see hope and pride in humanity. Then I think of Trump. The world does better encouraging unity, cooperation and education for everyone. Science is cool.
11
A question I've never seen addressed in any article on the subject, if someone knows the answer.
For years, many articles have made references to HIV patients with "undetectable" levels of the virus in their blood, yet somehow these patients are not considered to be cured, or even in remission, as this one is.
What differentiates those patients from the one in this article? If we cannot detect any virus in someone's body, what criterion is used to determine that they are not also "cured"?
2
@Joel my interpretation of this is that, with undetectable - when they stop taking the anti HIV drugs the virus will return. However, with what the article is talking about, the virus does not return after they stop the drugs - hence why it is regarded as cured.
7
@Joel. This is a really good question, and @K has the right idea. I'll try to explain without going into too much detail of the viral biology, please let me know if I can clarify anything. There are a couple key differentiators between the two groups you highlight:
A person who has the viral infection under control, but is not cured, has virus and viral RNA levels in the blood that are below the lower limit of detection for standard screens (though more sensitive tests can still detect virus and viral RNA). However, they still have detectable levels of viral DNA and HIV antibodies, which indicates presence of a viral infection which is "latent" or under control by the body's immune system.
What's different in the Berlin and London patients is that virus, viral RNA and viral DNA are not detectable even by the most sensitive screens, and HIV antibodies are declining. This indicates that HIV has been purged from the system (ie, a cure).
As @K mentioned, the key test is when patients who have no detectable HIV off treatment. Patients who remain off of therapy for an extended amount of time with no apparent rebound in any of the previously mentioned metrics are considered to be cured - and so far treatments of only two patients have ever been successful to this degree.
10
@Joel I believe it's that they no longer need any type of medication to keep HIV at bay. People who are undetectable only get to that state by continuing with their medication.
1
Thank you thank you to all the hard-working men and women who made this possible. THESE people should collectively receive the Noble.
Truly uplifting news in an otherwise horrible and endless news cycle of graft and accusations.
Let's hope this becomes an affordable option for treatment for all, and not the cost-prohibitive business it's been up to now for HIV treatment - where only the wealthy could afford to stay alive.
Drug companies know the $$ is in the treatment, not the cure. Everyone loves a steady customer. Yet ANOTHER reason we need cost-controlled access to drugs, despite big Pharma buying our Senators and trying to convince us otherwise.
19
There have been so many who suffered and died and many who continue to die ... unnecessarily! My partner was infected in 1982 and is now living a rather normal and healthy life. While a cure would be wonderful right now the available meds work! The sad reality as many have pointed out here in their comments is affordability and access are limited and thus, many continue to unnecessarily suffer and die! The meds work ..
15
I cried when I read, 'Learning that he could be cured of both cancer and H.I.V. infection was “surreal” and “overwhelming,” he added. “I never thought that there would be a cure during my lifetime.”
I am thrilled with this breakthrough and its ramifications for those who are afflicted with those horrific diseases. The light they have seen at the end of the tunnel for so long is no longer that of an oncoming train, but rather sunlight that will continue to shine hope and success.
How I wish this knowledge and treatment was even a blip on someone's radar when my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer so many, many years ago. She always told me that while she would never witness a cure, she was convinced I would see one in my lifetime.
Hmm, who knew my beloved mother was a clairvoyant.
Congratulations to the scientists and medical team that worked on this miraculous event and a special "hug" to the individual who is cured of the H.I.V. virus.
25
In today's world, vast majority of scientists, rather I should say- people with jobs with Professor or scientist designation, are least passionate and also least honest. Most ground breaking research comes from public funded research in universities. And vast amount of our public spending in higher education and research are wastage in terms of achieving its stated objective- i.e. search of knowledge and solving (scientific/technical) problems. Only a tiny fraction of scientists actually work for new discoveries, innovation, and invention. More than 99.9 percent of them waste tax payers' money in the name of "research" and with almost single goal- publication and self-interest, and not even teaching. And that's possible as research funding agencies are full of the same opportunist people and also operate with the same revolving door policy that's creating havoc in Govt as well. The situation started getting worse since early 1980s, when President Reagan transformed American higher education and research into just another for-profit industry for universities. Only a tiny fraction of able and honest scientists are doing whatever research output we are getting. This 1978 published book , "Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life Before Nature" by famous biologist, Erwin Chargaff first predicted it and now we see it in full bloom.
4
@bonku this unfair attack on hard working researchers is entirely unfounded. Scientific research is not lucrative and researchers are sacrificing millions of dollars in lifetime income to pursue their passions. By the very nature of science only a few people will discover a breakthrough. But there is also a ton of necessary research needed after a breakthrough. And research that may seem useless today may underpin tomorrows breakthroughs. You could say spend a lifetime researching the genetics of peas and be thought of as wasting time and money only for your research to lead to an entirely new field of research later.
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@Stefan, exactly. It's difficult to predict exactly which "pointless" research today will prove to be the shoulders the next breakthrough stands on.
12
@bonku
I understand aspects of your argument bonku. That old adage of "if they can put a man on the moon, why can't they find a cure for the common cold" comes to mind but to be brutally honest, they has been many strides in science which have saved lives, i.e., the mind set of early detection. My brother's colonoscopy probably saved his life because if he had not had one, he would probably not be here today. Perhaps a lot of "cures" have not been discovered, but other positive and preventative measures have occurred.
While no one person nor profession is perfect, there ARE many, many dedicated, honest and hard working scientists and medical professionals out there, trying their best, every day of their live. I think your all encompassing assessment is far harsher and extreme compared to what's going on in the scientific community.
I keep thinking how of far we have come BECAUSE of these many individuals and how many lives would have been lost without their knowledge and hard work.
Not everyone is dishonest, a thief, or a fake. I think it is a great disservice to place all scientists and medical research in the same negative petri dish.
14
Note to humanity: science works.
94
Am I the only one who got a song by Dan Bern stuck in their head reading this article?
It could be my very dark sense of humor, but I just feel that his song, "Cure for AIDS", would make an excellent soundtrack to this article.
Two is not even a trend let alone a 'cure' for those afflicted world wide. But it is an exciting start.
Let us be sure that the dirty hands of capitalism do not sully the promise. San Francisco, London, Diusseldorf, Netherlands, all sound rather socialist don't they. What do you mean we need for profit medicine to advance medical care?
11
This seems overblown by the media. This is not going to be a scalable "cure" and even the idea of figuring out how to selectively knock out a receptor on immune cells seems far off in practicality. Not onlt that, fewer than half of HIV patients are infected with the variant that uses the receptor. Large scale bone marrow transplants in a nation that can't supply routine medical care to large chunks of the poor, or offer affordable drugs like insulin... folly of ego.
18
@Anne Hajduk This gives people hope and gives researchers more knowledge of this dread disease. Great things come from small steps. Maybe the day will come when medicine develops a vaccine to present HIV altogether.
4
@Anne Hajduk
I think you give insufficient credit to the importance of a breakthrough.
It's but a first step. To expect an overwhelming miracle all at once is unrealistic.
The drugs that now exist to contain AIDs were developed over time, but I remember reports of the first time that their forerunners were used with modest success.
That was good news then and this is good news now.
1
This is wonderful news. How about a similar effort to find a true cure for diabetes. Some 100 million people in the US are diabetic or prediabetic. A cure would have a major impact on health.
2
Does this mean there is a known, single-gene modification that protects again HIV? Can HIV vulnerability be treated the way people want to treat sickle cell anemia?
@Jerryg On youtube, the documentary "Secrets of the Great Plague" talks about the gene delta 32. It's a cool documentary if you are into stuff like that.
I think back to 1983, when I first arrived in NYC, and my stepfather, a doctor in SF, began telling me about strange cancers infecting his patients. Then the horror that ensued, the terror and misery that befell many I knew.
This is truly a wonderful day.
Science wins.
20
This article gives us hope and is the most wonderful start to a day I've had in a while. I'm of the generation that saw all of the horrors of this disease. I lost friends, co-workers and family members of a close friend and a dear boss. Thankfully we have researchers who don't quit. Keep the faith and shore up your resilience. Thanks to all of them.
27
Three cheers for science, hard work and human ingenuity.
And may the rejection of the same receive an early funeral.
57
@Socrates Love it! (Downtown Cedar Grove)
4
Whaaaat? New medical treatments in countries that don’t hyper price prescription drugs? How is that possible! Big Pharma promised me hyper pricing was necessary!
38
This is a really humbling discovery that goes to show that science is about not only rigor and creativity, but also persistence and luck.
22
In a time with so much turmoil, this is a welcome candle in the dark. Thank you hard working scientist and others for your efforts.
88
I recall a med student telling me while we were both interns in Germany that someday we'd find a cure for HIV. That was a long time ago indeed, 1984...one can still say in 2019, best not to contract this virus at all.
22
Why is my comment the first on this amazing scientific milestone. I worked at UCLA in the 80s and 90s when Interferon was a beginning avenue of discovery. I worked on the Bone Marrow Transplant floor and saw the amazing treatments/procedures for children and adults: Dr Winston Ho/ Robert Gale and the other Hem/Onc team members and amazing under appreciated Nursing Staff on 10 West dedicate their caring hearts and skills set to the successful outcome for many a discharged patients’. They were on the cusp of this newly foreign and disturbing HIV virus and research. But, then, if I won a high lotto win I’d pay to knock off Ronald Reagan’s name From UCLA Medical Center as he and his phony Republican Party ilk are partly responsible for dismissing and halting the funds and meaningful research and public awareness campaigns necessary to allocate the research monies to fully fund the CDC and research labs across our country to help conquer this virus.
97
Europe funds science, letting it find solutions...
while we in the U.S. suffer from uneducated louts (Ronald Reagan, trump, Mitch McConnell, Grassley, et. al.) who stifle essential research. They foolishly consider HIV to be a "gay" disease, and so withhold funding. The virus will infect anyone.
Because Europe funds science, we now have a "London patient" and a "Berlin patient" (both Europeans).
3
Amazing achievement. Thanks to the dogged research of dedicated professionals since this scourge attacked humanity almost 40 years ago, we may be moving toward the greatest medical conquest of modern times.
HIV-AIDS was the most dreaded enemy of my lifetime, although not everyone saw it that way. For some this killer was an ally wreaking God’s own judgement on sinners. These hateful believers will no doubt lament the loss of a beloved weapon in their battle against deviancy.
They can take some comfort in the knowledge that their reckless advocacy possibly delayed the work that brought about this potential breakthrough. Fortunately love and, yes, self interest prevailed.
For those who believe their God is love, for those who hope that the better angels will prevail, this is a day for gratitude.
34
I have friends from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They will not get a cure. They are dying. I have friends here in Appalachia who will not get a cure. They are dying. I know a married couple who live in Samara, Russia. They will not get a cure. They are dying. I am close to a young man in Caracas whose meds have run out. I know a gregarious truck driver in Abuja who will not get a cure. He only has a few days left. I know a Somali woman in Mombasa who will not get a cure nor will her children. I know a young man in Sana'a. There is no medicine in Yemen. I know a female prostitute in Surat. She can barely afford the rent in the brothel. I know more than several 15-year-old boy sex workers in Ft. Lauderdale who charge a little bit more to their customers, almost all of whom are married men, if the customer does not want to wear a condom. These boys are the hard to reach. They do not know their status and never will. Four of them can barely make it out of the beds they sleep in. I know a family in Chiapas who mourn in a graveyard every day. I have worked in AIDS on and off for decades. I'm still there. I knew men who lived on the streets of San Francisco. Allow me to count the names. But why. I have always said that when the cure comes, we all know who will get it. We all know who won't. I wrote a book once called Just Before the Cure. I burned the manuscript. America's collective consciousness lasts four days. Why bother. AIDS is not over. It never will be.
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I totally agreed with you! Only peoples with financial means will live. Sad but true. I'm am a living proof of your statements. In 2007 I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer at age 29. doctor said it was probably started early in my 20s. There was only 4 places in America that have special technology to treatment me. Boston, Houston, Jacksonville, California. If I don't have a good health insurance, money save up, short term disability, great wife and families to support me, I be dead by now. Now my tumor's is back and gladly accepted by Moffitt In Tampa because a I got health insurance and ability to pay my copay but I'm forced to work even I'm feel sick after every treatment. this is sad. Only the rich die in glory. The poor or people like us die in pain because I don't I don't want to leave any med debt to my family's.
15
An affordable vaccine is probably the next best option.
9
@Tim Barrus
Please write your book. I hope you kept a draft.
14
Report of HIV being cured in 2 patients are highly exaggerated and far from a milestone in the global AIDS epidemic. As the article suggests defining it as a "cure" is based on the definition of cure. I have no problem that there are only 2 known instances of a "cure" claim. There has to be a beginning at some point with 1. My problem is there is no sound science behind this observation as there is a considerable missing information to validate the "cure" or "mysterious long term remission" Let me define standards for calling it a simple cure instead of a miraculous cure. In the absence of the "soon to be published report in Nature" evaluation would be difficult and speculation would be unfair to those making a claim of a "cure"
To define a HIV "cure" or claim a "cure" in a patient, I would apply the following minimum criteria.Understand that proving a negative is more challenging than proving a positive especially depending on the variables in a complex case.
1) Not a single virion in circulating body fluids or individual cells in the body. A virion being a single HIV particle. 2) Not a single cell in the body with the genome (DNA) of HIV integrated (inserted) in the chromosome of any cell of the patient.3) Imnune cell (CD4 count) levels returning to normal and staying normal for the period of monitoring with no onset of opportunistic infection without a prophylactic treatment against opportunistic infection. My final problem is the potential risk of irreproducibility.
8
@Girish Kotwal you can’t prove that your first and second maxim aren’t false for people exposed to HIV but who never developed AIDS. In fact it highly likely that there are people who fail with 1) or 2) who don’t have an HIV infection and who don’t have AIDS. Therefore, your definitions are too strict.
3
@Stefan from PA you make a good point. Thanks. My maxims are meant to provide clarity and question the charlatans. If these were cases that did not have a full blown HIV infection even though they may not have AIDS as you suggest, then what is it that they were cured from.
1
@Girish Kotwal:
The science behind the two cures is solid.
Virologists and researchers, who know how to "measure" (quantify) the presence/extent of HIV infection within a person, have assessed both the "London patient" and the "Berlin patient".
1) Both patients were found to have no free viral RNA or viral DNA present in blood serum. This does not indicate an absence of viral DNA/RNA but that any viral load present were below the threshold of detection of the most sensitive tests available today. The tests used are extremely sensitive.
2) Both patients stopped their anti-retroviral (AIDS) medications after many months. In both cases, they remained free of AIDS symptoms for a significant amount of time. The first ("Berlin patient") has remained cured for more than 12 years, when he did not take any anti-retroviral meds during those years. He seems truly cured. The newer ("London") patient has remained "cured" after he stopping all retroviral medicines for 18 months. While not very long, this is longer than anyone else receiving experimental treatment has been asymptomatic. While we are unsure if 18-months is long enough to say this patient is "cured", it is longer than any other treated patient (out of 100s). From serum levels, it appears this second patient is also cured but if he remains so for another 24 months we will be more certain he is cured.
We should assume experts know what they claim. World-class researchers are conservative, so they rarely say "100% cured".
This is big news...
If this can be replicated again and again...and in an easier not-as-traumatic way, perhaps this is the final light at the end of the tunnel.
5
Very interesting to see the scientific mind working and the science coming out. I wonder, though, why there’s no news involving interference RNA. You’d think that a retrovirus that uses RNA as its primary genetic repository would be a perfect target.
3
I am elated. I lost three very dear friends to this disease. I thank these brilliant minds for their commitment and collaboration.
31
@mary I am elated, too, Mary, but my first thought was of my dear friend, James, who died just before the cocktail became available. How I wish he was still here.
4