An HIV patient with leukemia appears to have no detectable traces of HIV in his blood after getting a transplant of stem cells from a donor carrying a rare gene variant known to resist the disease, according to a report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The 42-year-old American living in Germany received the transplant to treat his leukemia, not the HIV itself.
But, it appears the transplant has wiped out the deadly disease.
"The patient is fine," said Dr. Gero Hutter of Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin in Germany. "Today, two years after his transplantation, he is still without any signs of HIV disease and without antiretroviral medication."
The gene mutation is known as CCR5 delta32 and is found in 1 percent to 3 percent of white populations of European descent.
News of the case was first reported in November.
Click here to read more about the case in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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