Question
Is the bone marrow transplant cure a reality or just another myth?
1 December 2008. Related: All topics, Cure.
Answer
The results of the American person treated in Germany are really surprising.
Because viral load has not rebounded in this person, which would have been expected very early, then there is a good chance that he has been cured.
However, this kind of transplantation is really a difficult, extremely costly procedure and the chances of survival after it are lower than the chances of survival with HIV. This makes its clinical significance for most HIV-positive people a bit doubtful at the current stage of service provision and scientific development.
We included coverage of this case when it was first presented here and then when published later.
How much does it cost to do a bone marrow transplant and does it realy cure HIV?
Hi
Bone marrow transplant costs more than $100,000 and maybe twice this, but it carries a very high risk of complications. It is a very serious operation that someone only has if they are very ill. This is not a routine operation to consider just to cure HIV.
Also, only one person has so far been cured this way, and it is not really understood how this worked. It might have been because the donor had a rare protection against HIV, and this is even more difficult to find.
In the last few days, two people who had a stem cell transplant, were reported not to have been cured. See this link.
This is very early stages of research.