It might be, per an ABC News report on a Nature paper:
Researchers are announcing that a 53-year-old man in Germany has been cured of HIV.
Referred to as “the Dusseldorf patient” to protect his privacy, researchers said he is the fifth confirmed case of an HIV cure. Although the details of his successful treatment were first announced at a conference in 2019, researchers could not confirm he had been officially cured at that time.
Today, researchers announced the Dusseldorf patient still has no detectable virus in his body, even after stopping his HIV medication four years ago….
The stem cell transplantation is a complicated procedure that comes with many risks, and it is too risky to offer it as a cure for everyone with HIV.
However, scientists are hopeful. Each time they cure a new patient, they gain valuable research insights that help them understand
If this can generalize — WOW
It likely can’t generalize on this particular pathway but the pathway likely offers some substantial insights on what might be doable at scale.
Still need to figure out payment and prioritization but this is a WOW.
Joe Falco
Every step forward is to be celebrated even if it doesn’t immediately lead to a cure for everyone. Maybe it will still be possible in my lifetime and then hopefully HIV can join other illnesses to the dustbin of history.
Baud
Great news. Thanks for highlighting.
H.E.Wolf
Hopeful news indeed. Thank you for letting us know!
Professor Bigfoot
@Joe Falco: From your phone to this capricious Universe’s monitor!
Elizabelle
Wow is right. And Patient Dusseldorf is the fifth cure. I hope so, and this R&D will lead to other insights and therapies.
We have lost immeasurable talent and lives to AIDS.**
Believe that cancer is also declining in some areas, due to Biden initiatives? Is that true, or am I misremembering? Feel like I saw something about that here recently.
** Although: no sympathy whatsoever for Roy Cohn, who also fell to the disease. We are living with his “student”, alas.
cain
Hard to believe that we are at this stage given the death toll from this disease so many decades ago.
Belafon
But why would you want to cure a disease that is clearly God’s will? /sarc
Any why won’t you think of the pharmaceutical companies?
Jim
It is encouraging to see more evidence that stem cell transplants can eliminate HIV infection. But this is not and will not be a cure. Stem cell transplants are too dangerous to be done in anyone not at risk of dying. And difficult, and expensive.
Matt McIrvin
The treatment options that turned HIV into a manageable chronic condition in the mid-1990s seemed like miracles compared with the plague situation we’d had before.
WereBear
Learning how the immune system works is always a boom. Especially since autoimmune diseases are so little understood, and inadequately treated.
Kristine
@Belafon:
I’ve read in more one place that pharma prefers developing treatment for chronic conditions vs finding cures because then the money stream is never at risk of drying up.
kindness
Who wants to bet RFK Jr is against stem cell transplants?
H.E.Wolf
Sometimes, in their haste to be a smartass, people neglect to proofread.
Typos, unlike AIDS and corporate profits, are God’s will. (Or at least that’s what I tell myself when, far too often, I find them in my own writing.)
Thanks again to Dave Anderson for spotlighting these HIV researchers, who may have given us another step on the path to a cure.
laura
I worked at the Guerneville Safeway in the mid to late 80’s- the height of the plague years. The magnitude of the loss was immeasurable. The sense of dread, the anger and sorrow was palpable. Reagan slipped into dementia refusing to acknowledge the disease because of who it was affecting. Public bathrooms were considered hot zones for infection. Rounding up gay men and confining them in prison like structures was a popular conservative position. Wild conspiracies were spun. Hate was going around. Dr. Mathilde Krim and Dr. Anthony Fauci were but two beacons of light and hope in a very dark time. And the band played on
From a death sentence to a chronic condition and now, a possible cure- we live in an age of miracles and wonder. Yet, some learned the wrong lesson.
Emily B.
@Elizabelle: I think about that a lot—how creepy it is that McCarthy’s lieutenant went on to be a mentor to the man now destroying American democracy.
WereBear
@Kristine: And encourage doctors to just prescribe a pill for the side effects of the first one, a third for the side effects of the second…
And it turns out the UPF-4 in our food supply is a major cause of the diabetes, CVD, and even cancer. It does more than keep us hungry and hangry from malnutrition.
It’s actually addicting. But because it’s classified as food there are no laws.
Why are corporations so desperate to make us a captive populace? All the research coming out, especially in Britain, as they try to regulate this serious danger.
France, Germany, and Italy already taking steps.
Tobacco all over again. Same methods.
WereBear
@Emily B.: Like calls to like.
catclub
@WereBear:
What is UPF-4?
catclub
Even more amazing to me is there is a vaccine that protects against AIDS/HIV
Ruckus
@laura:
Yet, some learned the wrong lesson.
Some always do. I’ve wondered if it was because they didn’t want to learn whatever it was, or if they are just – self centered, selfish, or unwilling to see reality. Or who the hell knows.
Cervantes
No, it can’t generalize. Allogenic stem cell transplants are a desperation move for otherwise incurable leukemia. They require lifelong immunosuppressant drugs, and create a risk for devastating graft vs. host disease, among other downsides. It’s not worth it to cure HIV, which is treatable with far less risky medications.
dnfree
@catclub: it’s confusing that they used the same letters as are used for sunscreen. Ultra-Processed Foods. No idea about the 4.
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/sep/06/ultra-processed-foods-the-19-things-everyone-needs-to-know
Edited to add that correlation with diabetes etc. is not causation.
JKC
@catclub: I’m a practicing PA in an HIV clinic. There is not a vaccine yet, but in the very near term we’re expecting FDA approval for Lenacapavir for PrEP. It’s a single subcutaneous injection that is dosed every 6 months. Not a vaccine, but it’s as close as we’ve ever come to one.
JKC
@Cervantes: Exactly right.
caphilldcne
@catclub: just to be clear, Pre-Exposure prophylaxis is not actually a vaccine. It is medication thst prevents HIV and there is now a format using a shot that is good for up to 6 months. If it got to about a year, I’d say it is a bit more similar to a vaccine. I personally take it as a daily oral medication.
PAM Dirac
The guts of the treatments are a stem cell transplant. Successful stem cell transplants would be a very useful tool in a large number of diseases where fixing a gene would fix the disease. Stem cell transplants were used in the good news about sickle cell disease Dave posted a while back. These are usually reserved for critical patients as it is a very involved treatment with lots of risks. I think ~10% of the patients die of the transplant and to get it that low or lower requires very specialized workers at very specialized facilities. Obviously cost is going to be a huge issue, but even before you get to that, there isn’t enough of the specialized workers or facilities to to handle the need. Derek Lowe in his In the Pipeline blog wrote about a company that has gotten 3 stem cell therapies FDA approved in the last 4 years (including one of the sickle cell treatments Dave mentioned) but is close to going bankrupt. There are a lot of issues, but a major one is that there just isn’t enough capacity to treat enough patients to make it economically viable. I think it is a very important question for people like Dave to think of ways to increase the number of specialized workers and facilities without just throwing a gazillion dollars at the problem
Mousebumples
I think I read awhile back about more stem cell transplants being done to see if this patient’s experience is replicable. I hope it is.
If anyone is a Young like me, and not as aware of the 80s/90s, I appreciated watching Pose (❤️ Billy Porter), which was a based on real events story that started in the LGBTQ ballroom community in NYC in the 70s/80s.
caphilldcne
Thanks for highlighting. I think that this is interesting research but not really that applicable yet, especially given effective daily medications that can keep inflammation and symptoms away (and drive down viral load to an undetectable level which also prevents transmission). Unfortunately I anticipate huge fights against cuts in HIV prevention, treatment and research funding. It’d be great if folks google the #SaveHIVFunding campaign for more info and sign on to their letter!
caphilldcne
Actually, here’s the landing page for the #SaveHIVFunding campaign – https://nastad.org/savehivfunding
stinger
@Elizabelle: I don’t recall anything about a decline in cancers, but how great would that be?! If true, I doubt one four-year administration would deserve the credit. Cancers and their treatments are complex, and an actual decline would take years to determine. But I like the hopefulness of the thought!
caphilldcne
@JKC: thank you for your work! Also great explanation!
burnt
Exactly, and 28-percent of people who receive stem-cell transplants (in the USA) are dead within 100 days. These cases might provide a clue as to paths to pursue but they are not a solution. Bonus fact: if you receive a stem-cell transplant you have to get all your vaccinations again. (reply to Cervantes)
Matt McIrvin
@laura: To me, this is the absolute worst thing about Reagan’s legacy, just as the normalization of conspiracy thinking about COVID measures is the worst thing about Trump’s. Reagan treated a megadeath pandemic as a joke because it killed gay men. Hell, from his perspective it was doing us a favor! Genocidal thinking really.
caphilldcne
@laura: thanks for remembering Dr. Krim a founder of amfAR. She was a real fighter! Also so strong on harm reduction. Loved her!
And of course Tony Fauci is a true hero
Jeffg166
The downside is having to take immunosuppression drugs for life.
JKC
@stinger: I don’t remember the study location off the top of my head, but there’s been a marked decrease in cervical cancer rates in young women that’s been linked to HPV vaccination.
I’m hoping we also see a drop in head and neck cancers as well, as a lot of them are thought to be HPV triggered. Too soon to tell on that front.
Victor Matheson
Hold on, let me guess.
HIV will be curable with large upfront costs that are nevertheless lower than the lifetime costs of treating HIV. But the because the upfront costs will borne by an individual’s current insurer and the future costs will be borne by some uncertain and as yet unknown insurer, the insurance companies will try hard not to cover this procedure or will structure plans in a way to discourage those needing the procedure to select a particular insurer.
How did I do, professor? Do I pass the final?
Matt McIrvin
@Victor Matheson: Actually no, as as far I can tell.
WereBear
@catclub:
Ultra-processed foods are foods that can’t be made in your home kitchen because they have been chemically or physically transformed using industrial processes.
9 Red Flags
WereBear
@dnfree: 4 is the designation for created in a lab.
Because all our food is “processed” for consumption.
narya
There are two major current pockets of money for fighting HIV: the Ryan White Care Act, which provides funding for a variety of services to people who are living with HIV, and Ending the HIV Epidemic money, some of which went to federally qualified health centers. The latter funds were eventually folded into FQHCs’ base awards, i.e., it was a permanent increase in funding. In return, HIV measures were added to FQHC quality metrics (as reported in their yearly data report). That funding likely won’t go anywhere, I’d think, though the maladministration could fuck with the quality goals. The Ryan White funding is likely at greater risk. The original funding, back in the early 90s, was to help people not die in the street. The number of rules around how Ryan White funding, can, cannot, must, and should be used is extensive (and responsible for me getting some consulting gigs, because I know a fair amount about it), but the three big ones are (1) funds can only be used for people who actually are living with HIV, not for prevention (there are some small exceptions to this, but they are tiny); (2) Ryan White dollars must be the last dollars used, i.e., payor of last resort, so if insurance covers it, RW funds cannot; and (3) any dollars earned, e.g., from insurance or the 340b program, must be rolled back into the RW program. The rules could stand some updating, but that would involve Congress, and they absolutely cannot be trusted to change the rules in ways that would better address the current landscape and in ways that would continue to get care to folks who need it. This is a very long-winded way of saying that I think the funding for people who are already living with HIV definitely could be attacked.
That said, it would be awesome if the continued advances in knowledge led to an actual cure.
Miss Bianca
@WereBear:
What is UPF-4? (the fact that I don’t even know what is likely means that I’m ingesting a bunch of it, alas.)
ETA: looks like someone else already got there.
ETAA: I eat processed foods, but not ultra-processed foods on a regular basis. I need to be more vigilant about this stuff in any case, because adult-onset diabetes does run in my family.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Belafon: Not to Eeyore along with you, but we should expect Felonious Thunk’s new unenlightened medical misleadership to ignore or obstruct development in the US for fiscal-responsibility/moral-failing reasons.
WereBear
@Miss Bianca: It is the food ingredients our bodies don’t recognize as food. Artificial sweetener, hydrolyzed starch, gums and stabilizers and we don’t know what.
It’s not food, confuses our bodies, and can cause havoc with our metabolism. It’s surprising how much of it is in a frozen meal or snack cake.
Astonishing how much difference it made in my recovery so far. Autoimmune that “baffled” most doctors. But I found an open minded one and I’ve been listening to doctors on YouTube trying to get the word out, like Dr. Chris Van Tulleken.
E.
@WereBear: Back in my old protest days I would totally have printed a thousand or so stickers that say “Contains Ultra-Processed Food” and deployed them at, I dunno, maybe a Whole Foods until I got arrested. It’s always a good play when you can make somebody overreact to you making a true statement.
Miss Bianca
@WereBear:
Ugh. I really do need to be more careful. Often when I am at work I will just head for the frozen food section at the supermarket for lunch because it’s just so much easier to microwave something and it’s cheaper than ordering out. Gotta watch it in the future…
laura
@Matt McIrvin: Oh Matt, there is so much to lay at Reagan’s feet, the dismantling of California’s public education system- especially higher education, the fury at Black People who formed mutual aid in feeding hungry children and rejecting oppressive policing, centralizing state agencies in Sacramento, closing state hospitals and leaving very I’ll individuals to the tender mercies of the criminal justice system on the promise of community based services which never have come close to meeting needs, fostering a distain bordering on hate for government services and those who work to provide them. Just an all around complete shite-bag in every regard. I could go on all day cataloging what he did he and then took nationwide.
Peale
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): I mean, RFK Jr. doesn’t believe that HIV causes AIDS, so I’m not hopeful that there will be funding for research in this area going forward. At least in the US. If its just a virus that doesn’t do anything harmful, why fund any research into it?
Jeffg166
Can a twice-a-year shot help end the HIV/AIDS epidemic?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENuqkBPHGqk&t=23s
HIV infects more than a million people every year worldwide. While decades of research have led to effective treatments and pre-exposure prophylactic (PrEP) drugs that have dramatically reduced the impact of HIV/AIDS epidemic, completely wiping the virus out has remained out of reach. Lenacapavir, a new twice-yearly PrEP injection, may be the solution. Two clinical trials this year showed the drug can offer near complete protection from HIV infection, and the long-lasting effects mean daily pills could be a thing of the past, as long as it is accessible to populations who need it most. Science journalist Jon Cohen, physician-scientist Linda-Gail Bekker, and biochemist Wesley Sundquist describe the history of HIV/AIDS prevention and the unique mechanism that led lenacapavir to be named the 2024 Breakthrough of the Year.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Peale: Kinda my take too. Also, too, HIV treatments help Those Other People donchano, so anyone not RFK2 will be disincentivized to provide supports.
Eduardo
@JKC:
@Jeffg166:
Probably you do know it, but for the rest of us, there have been wonderful PreP programs in the US even before the twice a year injection. There is the one pill a day Truvada/Descovy and also a bi-monthly injection. Those programs serve populations at risk such as gay people — reason why I take Descovy — are completely free independently of ability to pay and also included are a bunch of tests of STIs, kidney function, glucose and the like every 3 months. Wonderful, wonderful programs. Have to had cut infections a lot. I know there are similar programs in Africa.
ColoradoGuy
One legacy of the Reagan/AIDS era was normalizing the idea of genocide to Republicans. Genocide used to be a bridge too far for most of them, but between Rush Limbaugh ridiculing AIDS deaths on the radio, and Reagan’s malign neglect, the GOP became comfortable with idea of groups they don’t like simply … disappearing.
After Covid-19, the GOP became much more open about genocide. Old people dying by the hundreds of thousands? Who cares? Out of sight, out of mind. Just so long as the churches, bars, and sportsball arenas are open, that’s all that matters. Old people, minorities, and the working poor are disposable. Anything that’s not on FoxNews (or the New York Times) never happened. And even if it “did happen”, it doesn’t matter to the rest of us.
That’s what gives me pause about the “mass deportation” wing of the GOP. Since the deportees are un-people, just numbers on a spreadsheet, anything could happen to them. The AIDS crisis and Covid-19 shows us what the GOP are capable of.