Stem cell treatment may lead to cure for AIDS

AN American man is still HIV-free more than three years after receiving a stem cell transplant, suggesting the first-ever cure of the virus that causes AIDS.

But while the highly risky technique used on the man known as the ‘Berlin Patient‘ would not work for most of the 33 million people with HIV worldwide, scientists say the research shows important progress toward a universal cure.

“Our results strongly suggest that cure of HIV has been achieved in this patient,” said the study in the journal Blood, a publication of the American Society of Haematology.