STEM CELLS CAN NOW BE USED TO TREAT AIDS/HIV
AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the final and most serious stage of HIV, which severely damages the immune system.
About 40.3 million people around the world are currently living with HIV/AIDS and it is the 5th leading cause of death among people aged 25-44 in the United States. In some countries in Africa, more than 10% of the population is infected.
Currently, no cure is readily available and treatments tend to only prolong the inevitable while boasting serious side effects (if they are even available).
However, in February 2009, CNN reported that a 42-year-old HIV patient with leukemia appeared to have no detectable HIV in his blood and no symptoms after a stem cell transplant from a donor carrying a gene mutation that naturally resists HIV. “Today, two years after his transplantation, he is still without any signs of HIV disease and without antiretroviral medication.”
Although stem cell transplants are risky, with about a third of patients dying from them since it destroys the immune system, it may be possible to develop some type of gene therapy or treatment that could be directly injected into the body. A German AIDS patient was able to stop drugs he had been taking for 10 years after getting a transplant of stem cells from a donor with a rare gene variant known to resist the deadly disease. The transplant also cured his leukemia. The stem cell donor was among the 1 percent of Caucasians who have the variant gene that lacks a section known as CCR5 that helps the AIDS virus enter a cell AND putting the donor’s stem cells in the patient would rebuild his immune system and blood cells so they would lack the CCR5 piece. “The fact that you could put back into the patient CCR5- deficient cells and have those cells work to clear the virus — that gave us a lot of confidence,”.
While this breakthrough offers a glimmer of hope for the millions already suffering, it is no replacement for prevention itself. Education, safe sex, and regular check ups are the first line of defense for stemming further infections. BUT WITH STEM CELL TREATMENT WE CAN FIGHT WITH AIDS/HIV.
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sweet
Hello,
those are great news!
one of my family have the HIV virus , and i have the cord blood from my baby. how can i help her? where we need to go to check it?
many thanks, Moran