City of Hope - Fourth person cured of HIV

A 66-year-old man, known as the City of Hope Patient, named after a California Medical Centre, has been cured of HIV it is claimed. He underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukaemia, his donor had natural immunity to the virus.

Currently the City of Hope Patient is the oldest person to receive such treatment. He had been living with HIV for more than thirty years, longer than any previous patient who has entered a state of remission.

“I never thought I’d live to see the day when I wouldn’t have HIV anymore” said the man.

The patient was diagnosed in the late 1980s, when the HIV epidemic was just starting to gain momentum. He, like many others at that time, considered it a “death sentence”. Most of his friends died of HIV before antiretroviral treatment was available.

Bone marrow transplant

At the age of 63, the man developed a blood cancer. Doctors decided that the best treatment would be a bone marrow transplant. By coincidence, the donor had a CCR5 mutation that “does not let HIV into the cells” - essentially conferring a natural immunity to HIV.

Currently, the City of Hope Patient has an undetectable viral load, and the man has been in a state of remission for more than 17 months - he also no longer takes antiretroviral treatment.

The first person to be cured of HIV was Timothy Ray Brown, known as the Berlin Patient. He also underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukaemia. As a result of his treatment, Brown was able to be cured of HIV. Unfortunately, at a later date Brown had a recurrence of cancer. This time, the doctors couldn’t help him anymore. Timothy Ray Brown died in September 2020, and in 2021 a monument to him was erected in San Francisco.

Will there ever be a universal treatment?

According the experts, bone marrow transplants “will not revolutionise treatment” for the 38 million people living with HIV. This is a complex, dangerous and expensive procedure with serious side effects. In addition, it is not suitable for all patients. But further cases, such as the City of Hope Patient, give us more and more data in the hope of a CCR5 based treatment in the future.