Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/2013/12/07/09/18/hiv-returns-in-2-us-men-after-transplants
HIV returns in 2 US men after transplants
8:52am December 7, 2013
The latest hopes of curing AIDS were dashed on Friday when US researchers said HIV returned in two men who briefly eradicated the virus after bone marrow transplants for cancer.
Experts described the discovery as a "disappointment," but said it offers important new clues in the hunt for the human immunodeficiency virus's elusive hiding places in the body...
...Both HIV-positive men received bone marrow transplants as treatment for a kind of blood cancer known as Hodgkin's lymphoma, one in 2008 and the other in 2010.
About eight months after their operations, HIV was no longer detectable.
The patients stayed on antiretroviral therapy even after their HIV was undetectable, and eventually decided to cease taking the drugs earlier this year.
In July, doctors announced early, encouraging results: one patient appeared to still be HIV-free after being off the drugs for seven weeks and the other for 15 weeks.
But signs of HIV soon returned. They were found in the first patient 12 weeks after stopping therapy, and in the second patient after 32 weeks.
"Both patients have resumed therapy and are currently doing well," Heinrich said, adding that the patients do not wish to be identified in the media...
HIV returns in 2 US men after transplants
8:52am December 7, 2013
The latest hopes of curing AIDS were dashed on Friday when US researchers said HIV returned in two men who briefly eradicated the virus after bone marrow transplants for cancer.
Experts described the discovery as a "disappointment," but said it offers important new clues in the hunt for the human immunodeficiency virus's elusive hiding places in the body...
...Both HIV-positive men received bone marrow transplants as treatment for a kind of blood cancer known as Hodgkin's lymphoma, one in 2008 and the other in 2010.
About eight months after their operations, HIV was no longer detectable.
The patients stayed on antiretroviral therapy even after their HIV was undetectable, and eventually decided to cease taking the drugs earlier this year.
In July, doctors announced early, encouraging results: one patient appeared to still be HIV-free after being off the drugs for seven weeks and the other for 15 weeks.
But signs of HIV soon returned. They were found in the first patient 12 weeks after stopping therapy, and in the second patient after 32 weeks.
"Both patients have resumed therapy and are currently doing well," Heinrich said, adding that the patients do not wish to be identified in the media...
