Scientists have confirmed the tenth person in the world to be in long-term HIV remission without depending on antiretroviral medication. According to a report published in Nature, the patient received a stem cell transplant and has now lived more than six years without HIV. ALSO READ: Rwanda’s aging HIV population needs special attention - experts The Minister of Health, Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, reacted to the news in a post on X on December 9, saying that “clearing the hidden reservoir may be key to a cure.” Since HIV was first identified, nearly 88 million people have been infected, but only a very small number have ever reached long-term remission. The first was the well-known Berlin patient, followed by the London, Düsseldorf, New York, City of Hope, and Geneva patients. These cases shared a remarkable common thread whereby each patient had a stem cell transplant to treat a blood cancer and received donor cells with a rare genetic change that made it much harder for HIV to infect their immune cells. That mutation acts almost like sealing off the entry point HIV needs to infect immune cells. For years, scientists believed this mutation was the essential ingredient behind successful remission. ALSO READ: Govt reassures HIV patients as external funding ends The newly documented case challenges that understanding, as the patient, living with HIV and later diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, also underwent a stem cell transplant. But unlike the previous remission cases, his donor did not carry the full protective mutation. Only one copy of the mutation was present, meaning his new immune cells were still theoretically vulnerable to HIV. Yet after three years on antiretroviral therapy, doctors stopped the medication, and what followed astonished researchers, as they found out that the virus did not return. Repeated tests on his blood and tissues found no trace of the virus. Even the immune responses that typically signal HIV’s presence slowly faded, suggesting the virus was no longer present in the body. ALSO READ: Rwanda should consider manufacturing ARVs — expert Also these researchers searched for any sign of replication-competent virus, the type capable of restarting infection, and found none.
