The second in history: doctors managed to cure a man from HIV

40-year-old Adam Castillejo became the second person in history to be cured of HIV. Writes about this with the BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

According to doctors, 30 months have passed since the person stopped taking antiretroviral drugs, and no traces of the reappearance of the virus were found in his body.

“Traces of viral particles, which can independently enter and infect immune cells, did not appear in the patient’s blood, cerebrospinal fluid, intestines or lymph for 30 months. We believe that we can now say that the patient has been cured of HIV,” the researchers say.

Castillejo was diagnosed back in 2003, when he was 23. He was helped to cope with HIV by a spinal cord stem cell transplant, which the man underwent three years ago as part of treatment for cancer, another disease he was diagnosed with.

The stem cell donor who transplanted Castillejo had a rare genetic mutation that prevents some types of HIV from infecting immune cells.

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In 2007, a similar operation helped cure American Timothy Brown, also known as the “Berlin patient,” from HIV. Brown is considered the first person in history to be cured of HIV.

The second, probably successful, case of HIV treatment was first talked about a year ago, but the name of the patient remained unknown - in the media he was called the “London patient.”

At that time, the “London patient” had lived for a year and a half without medication, but experts were in no hurry to draw conclusions - not much time had passed since the operation.

Now, when another year has passed, it turned out that this patient is Adam Castillejo - the man decided to reveal the name and tell his story.

At the same time, his doctors published their observations in the Lancet journal, where they stated that Castillejo, in their opinion, can be considered cured of HIV - although it is still impossible to say that the virus will not return with 100% certainty.

Despite the second successful example, when patients can be cured of HIV, it’s impossible to talk about a universal method of treatment, experts warn.

The operations that Timothy Brown and Adam Castillejo underwent are very complex and are carried out only as a last resort, moreover, to treat cancer, not HIV.

In addition, the selection of a donor is a very difficult task, but even its presence does not guarantee a result.

Therefore, experts say, this method cannot be the main one for treating all patients with HIV, but should help in the further search for new methods of fighting the virus.

In addition, scientists add, traditional treatment with retroviral drugs is also quite effective - especially when it comes to new types of drugs.

A recent study has found that life expectancy for people using newer HIV drugs is now "almost normal".

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