Marrow Transplant Cures AIDS Patient In Germany

November 12, 2008 10:56 p.m. EST

Berlin, Germany (AHN) - An American in Germany afflicted with leukemia and AIDS has been cured of the immune system disease after receiving a bone marrow transplant meant to cure his blood disease, his doctor claimed Thursday.

Hematologist Gero Huetter, 39, only identified the patient as a 42-year-old man living in Berlin and being treated at the city's Charité Medical University. The man has been suffering from AIDS for more than 10 years and also has leukemia.

Huetter said the patient's bone marrow cells were replaced two years ago with similar cells from a donor who is genetically immune to the AIDS virus. To enable his body to accept the bone marrow transplant, doctors stopped the patient's AIDS medication strengthening his immune system to fight the virus.

Huetter and other doctors have been screening the patient's blood for signs of a resurgent AIDS virus but no signs of the disease were detected after 600 days.

The case bolsters gene therapy as a cure for AIDS, which kills millions of people worldwide every year and is very expensive to control via retroviral drugs.