53-years-old man cured of HIV in Germany; 5th overall in the world

A 53-year-old man in Germany has become the fifth person to be cured of HIV, researchers have announced. To protect the privacy of the patient, researchers have named him "the Dusseldorf patient". While the researchers announced his successful treatment at a conference in 2019, they could not confirm he had been officially cured at that time.

The researchers on Monday announced the Dusseldorf patient still has no detectable virus in his body. The patient’s medication was stopped four years ago. Dr. Bjorn-Erik Ole Jensen, the researcher who presented details of the case in a new publication in "Nature Medicine" said, "It’s really a cure, and not just, you know, long-term remission."

The researcher added that the news has given hope but there is still a lot of work to do. The Dusseldorf patient was cured after a stem cell transplant, usually only performed on cancer patients who don’t have any other options.

A stem cell transplant is a high-risk procedure that effectively replaces a person's immune system. The primary goal is to cure someone's cancer, but the procedure has also led to HIV cure in a handful of cases.