Science- A woman in Argentina has been declared cured of
HIV without getting a stem-cell transplant. - The first report of someone being naturally cured of HIV happened only last year.
Scientists have identified the second person to rid themselves of HIV without medical treatment, according to an article published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The patient, an unnamed woman living in Argentina, was found to have human immunodeficiency virus in 2013.
Since 2017, an international team of researchers has been poring over the patient's DNA in search of traces of the virus. The team even checked her placenta after she gave birth in March 2020, STAT reported. After sequencing billions of cells, the scientists have confirmed the woman is HIV-free.
Modern medicine has made it possible for many people to live with the virus under control, but they typically require consistent antiretroviral therapy to prevent the virus from replicating.
In total, four people have now been declared to be cured of HIV.
Two of them, however — known as the Berlin Patient and the London Patient — were cured after receiving stem-cell transplants, a risky procedure that scientists have tried to replicate with other patients without success.
In 2020, scientists shared a report on Loreen Willenberg — the San Francisco Patient, as doctors dubbed her — who was the first known case of a sterilizing
Willenberg and the unnamed patient in Argentina are also known as elite controllers, a small subset of HIV patients whose immune systems naturally suppress the virus.
According to STAT, the Argentine patient is known as the Esperanza Patient because she is from the city of Esperanza — which translates as "hope" in Spanish. She has a daughter, who is HIV-free, and is expecting a second child with her partner.
"Just thinking that my condition might help achieve a cure for this virus makes me feel a great responsibility and commitment to make this a reality," the patient told STAT.