A leukemia patient in the US has become the first woman and third person to be cured of the HIV virus after a stem cell transplant from a donor who was naturally resistant to the virus that causes AIDS, researchers reported on Tuesday.
Stem cells are the body's raw materials - the cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are created. Under the right conditions in the body or in the laboratory, stem cells divide to form more cells.
The case in question is the first to involve umbilical cord blood and is a treatment that may become available to more people.
Since receiving cord blood to treat acute myeloid leukemia, the woman has been virus-free for 14 months without the need for robust HIV treatments known as antiretroviral therapy.
"This is now the third report of a cure in this environment and the first in a woman living with HIV," Sharon Lewin, president of the International Association for AIDS, said in a statement.
The case is part of a study led by Dr. Yvonne Bryson from the University of California at Los Angeles and Dr. Deborah Persaud from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
