Woman is third person ever to be cured of HIV using novel treatment

An American woman appears to be the third person ever to be cured of HIV, thanks to a new stem cell transplant method, a group of American scientists shared on Tuesday.

The woman, who is of mixed race, received the new treatment method using umbilical cord blood, which is significant because it is more available than the adult stem cells used in bone marrow transplants.

Stem cells from umbilical cord blood also do not need to be as closely matched to the recipient as bone marrow cells do, meaning the new transplant method could cure people from more diverse racial backgrounds than was previously possible.

The discovery will allow for partial match to the recipient, meaning it could cure Americans who have both HIV and cancer, scientists said.

The woman, who had both cancer and leukemia, had received the cord blood for her cancer treatment, The New York Times reported. The cord blood came from a partially matched donor, instead of a donor of similar race and ethnicity. She also received blood from a close relative.

The sex and racial background of the new case are a groundbreaking discovery in finding a cure for HIV, according to researchers, who presented the details of the new method on Tuesday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver, Colorado.

Scientists expect to expand the eligibility of the novel treatment to dozens of more people every year.

While women make up half the world’s HIV cases, this is the first time a woman has had her HIV medically cured. There are only two known cases of an HIV cure, both men who received bone marrow transplants from donors who carried a mutation that blocks the infection.

The mutation has been found in only about 20,000 donors, most of whom are Northern European descent.

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