Man cured of HIV with transplant from his brother in world first procedure

An HIV patient has said it feels like ‘winning the lottery twice’ after being virtually cured of the disease with the help of his brother.

The 64-year-old, known as the ‘Oslo patient’, has been in remission for five years after receiving a stem cell transplant.

His brother, the donor, was found to be resistant to the virus, which if untreated can be deadly.

While treatments can keep HIV at bay, the virus remains extremely difficult to permanently cure as it can remain hidden in cells.

The Oslo patient was originally diagnosed with HIV in 2006, when he was aged 44.

He was then found to have myelodysplastic syndrome, a fatal cancer of the blood, in 2017.

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But, in a miraculous turn of events, doctors struck gold when they turned to the patient’s older brother, was found to carry the exact gene, known as CCR5, which blocks HIV from entering the system.

The resistant mutation is carried only by around one in a hundred people in Europe.

Even if one does find a donor with the correct variant, the stem cell transplant is only suitable for patients with both HIV and blood cancer.

Just two years after the procedure, the man stopped taking anti-retroviral drugs, which had until then helped keep his symptoms at bay.

However samples of his blood, bone marrow and gut were found to have no trace of the virus.

Anders Eivind Myhre from the Oslo University Hospital said doctors were quite certain the Norwegian patient had been cured ‘for all practical purposes’.

The patient had said the discovery was like ‘winning the lottery twice’, he told AFP.

What are stem cell transplants?

Stem cell transplants are used to treat damaged bone marrow which can no longer produce healthy blood cells.

They can treat life-threatening conditions including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

The procedure carries significant risk and relies on stem cells from a donor which must carry a certain genetic marker, known as a  human leukocyte antigen, which is identical or similar to that of the person receiving the transplant.

Around 10 people have been successfully cured of HIV using a stem cell transplant – all of whom also had blood cancers.

Source: NHS
He added that the patient was now well and has ‘more energy than he knows what to do with’.

It’s believed to be the first time a HIV patient has received a stem cell donation from a family member.

More than 3,000 Britons were diagnosed with HIV in 2024, with the disease having claimed the lives of 643 people in the UK the same year.

The first person to be officially cleared of HIV was Timothy Ray Brown who was declared cured back in 2008.

He became known as the ‘Berlin patient’ after the city where he was treated for leukaemia.

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