Cured HIV patient inspires hope

The second person in the world has been cured of HIV.

Cara Bailey

Medical journal The Lancet HIV published March 10 that “the London patient”, who recently revealed himself as former chef Adam Castillejo, is the second person to be cured of HIV - and he has been HIV-free for over two years now.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is an infection that attacks white blood cells, which fight infections, therefore leaving a patient more susceptible to other infections and cancers. The first symptoms of HIV may be swollen glands and flu-like symptoms and can appear within the first two to four weeks of being infected, and more severe symptoms may not appear until months or years later.

Despite the first recorded discovery of HIV in the late 1950s, there are not many options for those who want to prevent it or for those who have it. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) are medications made to help prevent HIV and to stop it from expanding after exposure; however, any solution to HIV, until now, has been to make it just manageable to live with, not to get rid of the virus completely.

“The whole way science works is [to build] off older science,” sophomore Madigan Hogan said. “So despite this research taking such a long time, I think it will be great for people not just with HIV but people with similar infections.”

There have only been two people cured of HIV - Timothy Ray Brown and Adam Castillejo. Both have undergone stem cell transplants that resulted in no trace of the virus. To treat leukemia, Brown underwent two stem-cell transplantations and radiotherapy to his entire body in 2007 and 2008, and Castillejo had one stem-cell transplant to treat lymphoma. Because both Brown and Castillejo’s donors also carried a mutation known as CCR5-delta 32, which made the donors resistant to HIV, the operations cured the men both of their illnesses and HIV.

However, due to the invasive nature of the experimental treatment, the authors of the medical journal do not suggest widespread use.

“Recent research into a cure for HIV seems promising, especially with the cell transplant idea,” sophomore Naomi Greenwood said. “I do not believe that it will be the end-all-be-all cure, as a stem cell transplant is a very expensive procedure, and depending on the insurance or lack of insurance someone might have, they might not ultimately even have access to it.”

Initially referred to as “the London patient”, Castillejo decided to reveal that he was the patient after a decade of treatments to suppress HIV. He originally had only HIV, but later he discovered that he had stage four lymphoma. Now that he is safe from both illnesses, he says that he “wants to be an ambassador of hope”.

“Quite honestly, HIV has been a very deadly disease that has killed millions in the 40+ years that we have known about it, including the legendary Freddie Mercury,” sophomore Maxwell Fletcher said. “This [cure] honestly would change the world for the better and just goes to show how far humanity has grown to combat this disease. Hopefully, our success with curing HIV can continue into curing other diseases.”