Cured of HIV after Bone Marrow Transplantation
(Photo: thinkstock) Jakarta, HIV infection (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) has yet to be cured. But two people who received bone marrow transplants are known no longer detected the presence of HIV in blood cells during the 2 years.
A study showed that stem cells from bone marrow of the body provides protection against the possibility of HIV infection again. It is based on two men who had long been infected with HIV is no longer detected the virus in blood cells after a bone marrow transplant.
The virus is usually easily detected by both the male lymphocytes, blood cells that work to maintain the immune system to attack. But the virus is starting to not be detected after 8 months of surgery and last up to 2 years.
Yet the patients who were treated at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is still getting therapy ARV (anti retro viral) from getting a transplant. These drugs are still needed to work to suppress the virus.
"It gives us some important information, and showed that the cells of ARV therapy the patient's immune system seems to be protected from the possibility of re-infection by HIV," said Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, as quoted from Dailymail, Monday (07/30/2012).