World’s First Reported Spontaneous Clearance of HIV, Without Treatment

Remarkably, a 73-year old man in Sydney with a unique combination of genetic and immunological characteristics appears to have spontaneously cleared his HIV infection. The details of his viral burden and immunological responses have been published in the Journal of Virus Eradication. John Zaunders, Senior Hospital Scientist at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, comments on the finding: “The patient belongs to a small group of HIV+ patients who were first recognized as unusually asymptomatic in 1992, and all found to be infected by transfusion products from a single donor, who was also asymptomatic. At that time they had been infected, prior to the availability of the HIV antibody test, for more than 10 years with no apparent decrease in CD4 cell count. They were one of the first groups of HIV controllers to be described.” The patient (referred to here as the “Sydney Patient”) was the last recipient to be identified, 15 years after his original transfusion. Along with the eight other recipients, he was unaware of any possible HIV infection, until the Red Cross Blood Service went back to test recipients who may have received infectious transfusion products, including from the index asymptomatic blood donor. https://www.technologynetworks.com/biopharma/news/worlds-first-reported-spontaneous-clearance-of-hiv-without-treatment-320602?utm_campaign=NEWSLETTER_TN_Breaking%20Science%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=73685318&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9Hi-8ddwMmBP8ua3fR2jO1lR-8DsG9tWHdjrGeuQBmggC8qohRhyVImamQ0_VYyNRqRF8t1eMZP_G6IyrYAP77yG1j1A&_hsmi=73685318