Amazing! Is that the same mutation people had that prevented people from getting the plague in the Middle Ages? I read a couple of times about this mutation that prevented the plague and it prevented HIV.
Thank you for coming forward with your story and you are a true inspiration! Have a good, long life!
33
What a brave man you are Mr. Castillejo. I hope you know that you will be helping so many people in the future. I wish the best for you. Thank you.
46
The Canadians led by Mark Freedman, an oncologist, used a similar stem cell transplantation for patients with severe multiple sclerosis. They got long-term remissions up to 13 years with 23 of the 24 patients. (Friedman didn't like to use the word "cure.") One patient died from the transplantation, which is typical of bone marrow transplants. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/864625
Because they used the patient's own blood cells (autologous transplantation), they avoid the problem of getting matched donors. They destroyed all the cells with an immune memory, and replaced them with unprogrammed cells. So the patients also lost the immunity to diseases they had been vaccinated against.
Last time I reviewed this was 2016, and I recall that a different group was trying the same approach.
It was free under Canadian health care.
16
I wonder if some HIV billionaire is now trying to get access to a database of HIV immune individuals…
I smell movie thriller.
5
Congratulations! Sending love.
17
This is wonderful! But now, I want him to be a bit careful with that traveling urge.
12
Thank you, LP, for sharing your story of survival.
23
How can it be that a socialized medical system cured a patient’s AIDS while America’s Private system has been unable to?
52
Marshall
Because no insurance company wants to pay for the treatment if they don’t have to. The insurance companies only care about making billions.
45
@Marshall this is absolutely not true. This was a clinical trial and all patients around the world have access. - someone who worked on it.
7
@ Marshall Yes, we can see that "LP" was given the very best of medical treatment by the best of the best of medical specialists, for many years, under the British National Health Service. Rhetorical question: if he had been living in America without medical insurance, would he still be alive?
36
It was extremely brave to come forward. Wishing you the best, and hoping for a long happy life ahead.
25
More power to scientists and doctors, and to the brave souls who endure the risks of being at the forefront.
Obviously, this is where our tax dollars should go. Science and health care.
53
Wish all of us with bad prognoses could have a friend like Peter! Wonderful story and kudos to LP for using his new lease on life to share his story and help others.
32
Congratulations, Mr. Castillejo!!
Onward to the rest of your happy, healthy life.
And to the doctors and researchers, nurses and medical staff, congratulations and THANK YOU!!
34
This could only happen in a country with excellent affordable, healthcare. He would have been out of luck in the U.S.
56
I think that this story could help Americans understand that universal health care maybe isn’t all that bad
72
"I want to be an ambassador of hope." (And write a book)
5
@Tom
I'd read it.
6
A book you do not have to read or buy.
4
Why are they not creating a stem cell line from the donor?
2
@Wade Nelson
Maybe useful, if possible, but only to other patients who are an immunological "match" to that donor. Which wouldn't be many people; maybe not any people who could benefit.
3
@Wade Nelson
I think because it's better to live with manageable HIV positive status than to undergo complete bone marrow transplant and all the complications it entails.
6
Words fail to express your determination, Mr. LP. How lovely for you and for your mother. Bravo!
26
“Unchartered territory”?
1
As an original member of ACTUP, NY, I am flooded with gratitude for LP's courage and persistence, and for the NYT telling this story. I am also flooded with memories of the 80's and 90's in the New York queer community and how our courageous acts reinvented what it means to live and also to die. We bullied the health care systems to pay attention to us. We made Anthony Fauci who he is today and I think he would tell you that. So LP's story was like connecting the dots of history for me. Thank you to all of the brave doctors and patients from the 80's up to now...and to universal health care which we will have some day!
I spent 6 months on the HIV/AIDS floor at St. Vincent's Hospital as an HIV negative patient with lymphoma. I lost count of how many times code blue was called. I drew strength from my queer brothers and sisters who didn't have a chance, but still knew how to love and to laugh and to be righteously angry. LP's story is a beautiful one that stands on the shoulders of more beautiful stories that haven't fully been told.
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@Tim Costello
Live long and prosper for you have dazzling courage.
16
I wept when I read about the patient who was cured from HIV through a bone marrow transplant. He is indeed a becon of hope. I have been praying that I would see a glimmer of hope in my lifetime for so many friends past and present who have lived with AIDS.
39
I know that the NHS in UK has problems - constant reorganization, lack of funding and so on: but every now and then a story like this emerges where one patient's enormous costs are absorbed by the system. This is the reason why everyone pays in, including the healthy ones. That compulsion to pay insurance seems to be the reason for the impending death of ACA which is, like the NHS, far from perfect but better than the alternative.
Of course (and UK readers will appreciate this) the NHS is now £350 million better off every week since Brexit. ([/s] for those who need it.)
18
@Andrew I trust your £350mpw was humour, because as a Brit it made me laugh. Our NHS is the jewel in our welfare crown, dependant upon dedicated professional people from around the globe working long hours providing fantastic health care. The additional £350m promised by Brexiteers will never materialise. That said, this well written article, full of empathy, brought me to tears of happiness for all involved. 'Leaders are dealers in hope' Napoleon.
27
@Andrew : the ACA is nothing whatsoever like the NHS -- I mean seriously! -- it is lousy worthless "fake insurance" with high deductibles.
Nobody in the UK has high deductibles.
My deductible on the ACA is $9000 FOR ONE PERSON!
By the law itself, insurers can surcharge people like me (over age 55) 450% of what they charge younger customers.
The NHS does not do anything remotely like that.
4
Amazing. And both cured patients under Universal Healthcare systems.
78
Read at an infusion center while receiving chemotherapy, filled with admiration for LP and his valient doctors. Kudos to the author for this well-written tale.
83
Incredibly happy for you. As an American, also wonder how much this treatment would have cost here. Our politicians certainly aren't too keen on helping us out. I am thankful to have some of the best medical care available to me, and able to handle my expenses easily, but I think about my brothers and sisters who cannot, due to a greedy medical system that gouges the public. Our politicians should be disgusted by this, and the fact that they are not means that they don't care about us. We are nothing more than tax income to them. Period.
68
@DJM
Congress people have gold plated insurance. It in no way resembles what most of us can afford. Too bad we don't have national referendums where we can decide the benefits of those who "represent" us instead of them voting for their own benefits. They should have access to the same care the rest of us have.
28
@DJM
There are many politicians who are "disgusted by this". Unfortunately they are stuck with others who, you are correct, "don't care about us". Our job is to vote for those disgusted by the injustice of our current system and against those who want to continue with the status quo.
17
@ExPatMX : though Congress has good benefits, they have the identical same health insurance as all other Federal employees -- a choice of several plans, including HMOs and PPOs -- typically 80/20 plans and yes, they contribute to this.
Members of Congress BY LAW must buy their insurance ON THE EXCHANGES.
It is a myth they have some rare. exclusive health care that is unusual or much better than other Federal employees (*like your mailman).
1
"The donor carried a mutation that impeded the ability of H.I.V. to enter cells..." I tested poz in 1984 and besides a bout of shingles and mild pneumonia I'm immensely healthy. My doctors are always showing me off to their residents. Without going into my lengthy medical histor here, I wonder if I could be tested to be a potential donor and how to go about it. I'd love to help if I'm able.
39
@Srocket
Bateson's dictum: "Cherish your exceptions."
4
@dan: being an American, I forgot about the financial aspect that is your other miracle in the UK. What a wonderful story to read. All the best to LP.
64
This is a beautiful story. Thank you.
43
This is a great story and one that inspires hope. I've been arguing with HIV specialists for years that a genetic therapy for HIV might offer a cure, or at least permanent remission: introduce the mutation that causes CD4 cells in certain individuals to reject the entrance of the virus, and one might protect the immune system against HIV. Genetic therapy is dangerous, of course, and this may apply to one strain of HIV and not another. But we must try, and, as I understand it, some university research centers are working on this approach.
25
Deep awe and appreciation for all involved. In only one particular, Peter who responded to LP's death sentence by going online to find a new doctor within a week. I am a gay man too. Our friends save our lives.
141
@Andrew Indeed deep awe, I have some new heros today!
I've been HIV positive for 35 years. Thank you Adam (LP) and Peter and to all my care team.
10
An amazing story of survival against so many odds. Bravo to LP and the amazing medical teams that worked to save him from both Stage 4 cancer and HIV!
I'm going to spend the rest of the day being grateful for my life and my health!
xo
100
And all free of charge. Thank god for our universal national health service.
253
@dan It is not "FREE OF CHARGE", where do you think the money for health care comes from, a tree? It is provided from taxes. donations. It is paid for by someone.
9
@Gerson : - do you not understand that this is indeed FREE OF CHARGE to the individual? That was the intent of the commenter. "FREE OF COST" would be what you are talking about.
17
@Gerson
Paid by society for the benefit of society.
20
Thank you Mr. Castillejo for participating in this research. Looking at it from this end, few will appreciate the risk you undertook and the uncertainty you grappled with. Your willingness to undergo this has led to great benefits for many, many people.
Research and increased knowledge is our hope for this and many other diseases.
94
As a layman, I am confused as to how a bone marrow transplant works. Unlike transplants of the internal organs, I can't imagine that it replaces every bit of the old marrow in ones body, more so because the donor is still alive. Does the replacement of a small percentage of the patient's marrow somehow overcome the genetics of the older marrow with the new? Can the author or anyone else provide a layman's explanation?
15
@TH In many bone marrow transplants, the patient is prepared with chemotherapy or irradiation in order to destroy their own bone marrow. After their marrow is essentially "wiped out," the transplant is given and takes over.
26
@TH
I used to work in transplant research. Hope this helps.
Bone marrow transplants usually happen after irradiating the recipient to kill any original marrow cells. The donor must first take medications to mobilize cells from their bone marrow. A blood donation is then taken from the donor and the marrow cells are then separated and infused into the recipient where they will find and anchor themselves. Another way to procure bone marrow is to inspire it through a needle in the donor's pelvic bone, but this amount is not really practical for transplant. Chimerism between the old and new can exist in some cases, but in this case would have undermined the HIV-eradication effort.
Bone marrow provides the precursor stem cells to create lymphocytes, among other immune cells and red blood cells. Incompatibility and rejection between these cells and the other tissues in the body are much more prevalent and involved in bone marrow transplant than solid organ transplants such as kidney and liver, but current immunotherapies have improved outcomes tremendously even in the past 5-10 years.
66
The stem cells from the donor marrow produce the effect that keeps the patient safe. In this case the t-cells can see the virus that his regular t-calls can’t. And the new ones provide the protect he needs by mounting an immune response the the virus. Just a little bone marrow with the ability to make the “seeing” t-cells is all he needs to stay HIV free.
4
What a beautiful story of this brave man, and the amazing people around him who saved his life and have now given hope to so many others.
So inspiring. Thank you.
81
The is an amazing story. Inspiring to those who 'fight' for life against any number of diseases. The torture and grueling tests and serendipity involved are instructive. For this patient, nothing was just 'handed' to him.
Thanks.
71