By Lizzie Day • Published: 10 Mar 2020 • 22:12
A man from London has become the second person in the world to be cured of HIV, doctors say.
Adam Castillejo is still free of the virus more than 30 months after stopping anti-retroviral therapy.
The Lancet HIV journal reports, he was not cured by the HIV drugs, however, but by a stem-cell treatment he received for a cancer he also had.
The donors of those stem cells have an uncommon gene that gives them, and now Mr Castillejo, protection against HIV.
In 2011, Timothy Brown, the “Berlin Patient” became the first person reported as cured of HIV, three and half years after having similar treatment.
Adam Castillejo – the now 40-year-old who has decided to go public with his identity – has no detectable active HIV infection in his blood, semen or tissues, his doctors say.
It is now a year after they first announced he was clear of the virus and he still remains free of HIV.
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