Bone marrow transplants 'could be the answer to HIV'

Findings presented at the International Aids Society Conference have revealed that two men have stopped taking medication for HIV after all traces of the virus disappeared from their bodies. The two men in question underwent bone marrow transplants, which appear to have cleared their bodies of the virus.

Hopes that a cure for HIV could become a reality have been bolstered by the latest results, which have seen one of the patients taken off medication for the treatment of HIV for four months with no sign that the virus is returning. Currently treatment for HIV works to suppress the virus through the use of a variety of medications, which do not cure the illness.

The two men in question received bone marrow stem-cell transplants as part of their treatment for cancer lymphoma. Following the transplant there were no detectable traces of the HIV virus in their tissue or blood. The patients then stopped taking any medication for treatment of HIV - one patient stopped 15 weeks ago and the other seven weeks ago - and have remained clear of the virus despite the fact that patients usually experience a resurgence of the virus between four to eight weeks after stopping treatment.

Doctors Daniel Kuritzkes and Timothy Henrich, from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, are treating the two patients and have theorised that the success of the transplant, in terms of fighting the HIV virus, could be related to a common complication. The doctors believe that graft-versus-host disease - when the donor cells that have been transplanted begin attacking the recipient's body - could be the reason behind the disappearance of the virus.

It is, as yet, too early to state that bone-marrow stem-cell transplants can work as a cure for HIV, but many have agreed that the results look promising.

Dr Henrich said to the BBC: "We have not demonstrated a cure, we're going to need longer to follow-up. What we can say is if the virus does stay away for a year or even two years after we stopped the treatment, that the chances of the virus rebounding are going to be extremely low. It's much too early at this point to use the C-word."