LONDON — A previously HIV-positive man who is only the second known adult worldwide to be "functionally cured" of HIV called on Friday for people living with the AIDS-causing virus, as well as those battling COVID-19, not to give up hope of a cure. Adam Castillejo, known as "the London patient", has been off AIDS treatment and free of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) for 34 months after getting a bone marrow transplant from an HIV-resistant donor to treat his cancer. The transplant also cleared his HIV, leading his doctors to describe https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-aids-cure/london-hiv-patient-becomes-worlds-second-aids-cure-hope-idUKKCN1QL2C0 him in March 2019 as "functionally cured". "Don't give up on hope," Castillejo told a briefing at an online international AIDS conference when asked for his message to other HIV positive people and to those fighting the new coronavirus. Castillejo was called “the London patient”, in part because his case is similar to the first known case of a functional cure of HIV - in an American man, Timothy Brown.

Source: International New York Times July 03, 2020 16:07 UTC