The patient who became the second person ever to be cleared of HIV remains free of the virus a year after initial reports of a “cure”, researchers have revealed. Timothy Brown, the first person to be cleared of the virus, underwent a similar treatment for acute myelogenous leukaemia. In a paper published in the journal Lancet HIV on Tuesday, researchers say that 30 months after stopping antiretroviral drugs which suppress HIV, and 46 months since the transplant, Castillejo remains in remission. Not only did they find no detectable active virus – virus capable of replicating – within the blood, but no such virus was found in the cerebrospinal fluid, gut, sperm or lymph nodes, either. They note that the absence of the active virus is potentially a better definition than no trace whatsoever, but say questions remain.

Source: The Guardian March 10, 2020 12:31 UTC