The 42-year-old man is cured of AIDS

HIV infection for more than a decade, a man seems to have escaped this death 20 months after a bone marrow transplant - the technique used to treat white blood disease - his doctor announced yesterday. .

While researchers - and the doctors themselves - note that the case may be just a fluke, others think it suggests greater attention to gene therapy for admit this disease. Each year 2 million people are newly diagnosed with HIV, and a total of HIV has spread to 33 million people worldwide.

Dr. Gero Huetter said his 42-year-old patient, an anonymous American living in Berlin, had contracted the AIDS virus more than ten years ago. But 20 months after a selective bone marrow transplant, he never showed signs of carrying the virus .

" Every day we wait for bad signals to appear ," Huetter said. But that did not happen. Researchers at Berlien's Charite Hospital and Medical School said tests on bone marrow, blood and other organ tissues all showed HIV cleanliness.

However, other experts think the tests may not be strong enough. " There is a need to take a closer look at many different models to ensure that there is no HIV ," they said.

German doctor Gero Huetter speaks at a press conference about the success of HIV treatment in Berlin (Photo: AP)

This is not the first time a bone marrow transplant is used to treat AIDS or HIV infection. In 1999, Medical Hypotheses received results from 32 such trials between 1982 and 1996. In two cases, HIV seemed to have been completely removed.

Huetter's patient was treated at Charite Hospital for both AIDS and white blood.

When Huetter prepared to treat the patient's white blood with a bone marrow transplant, he recalled that there were people who carried a gene mutation that seemed to help them resist HIV infection. If this mutation is inherited in both parents, it will prevent HIV from attaching to cells.

" I read this by accident in 1996. I still remember and thought it might work ."

Although every 1,000 Europeans and Americans have 1 person inheriting the mutation on both parents, Huetter still aims to find such a donor among donors with bone marrow suitable for the patient. And of the 80 volunteers, he found a person with the right mutation.

Before the surgery, the patient was treated with strong radiation and drug therapy to kill his own infected bone marrow cells, and inactivate the immune system, and stop taking AIDS medicines. New bone marrow cells that carry gene mutations are introduced into patients, and doctors expect them to kill the virus.

Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says the process is too costly and dangerous to become a standard procedure. However, he said it could suggest researchers to consider gene therapy when blocking HIV.