What the 'London patient' means for HIV/AIDS research

The "London Patient" is only the second person known to have shaken off the HIV virus during a 40-year AIDS epidemic that has infected 70 million people and killed half of them. Experts universally hailed the case, even as they cautioned that the procedure that resulted in the likely cure -- a bone marrow transplant to treat blood cancer -- is too dangerous and costly to be applied as a general treatment for HIV, which can today easily be managed, though not cured, with pills. "Whilst this type of treatment is clearly not practical for millions of people around the world living with HIV, reports such as this may help in the ultimate development of a cure," said Andrew Freedman, a reader in infectious diseases at Cardiff University in Wales.