A US patient has become the third person in the world, and the first woman, to be cured of HIV, the deadly virus that causes AIDS.
• The woman, who was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2017, recovered after receiving a Stem cell transplant from a donor who was naturally resistant to HIV.
• Human immunodeficiency virus or HIV is an infection that attacks the immune system by destroying the body’s immune cells called CD4, which help it respond to infection.
• The umbilical cord (also called the navel string, birth cord or funiculus umbilicalis) is a conduit between the developing embryo or fetus and the placenta. The umbilical vein supplies the fetus with oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood from the placenta.
• First, this was the first time an umbilical cord blood transplant was successfully carried out on an HIV patient.
• Second, the patient was a middle-aged mixed-race woman. This is significant since the majority of donors in the US are of Caucasian descent. Since this breakthrough treatment only requires partial matches and not exact matches, it opens up treatment options for people from diverse racial backgrounds.