Brazilian Man becomes first patient to be cured of HIV

While COVID run rampant over the world, science may have found a cure for the once deadly HIV virus.

A Brazilian man in his mid-30s has tested negative for HIV after living with the virus for 8 years. The man has gone into long-term remission after treatment with drugs alone, boosting hope of a cure for millions living with the virus. 

Daily Mail reports: It is thought to be the first case of an HIV patient going into remission following pharmaceutical treatment.  

Doctors report that the patient, dubbed the ‘Sao Paolo patient’, was prescribed an intense cocktail of AIDS medicines, including antiretroviral therapy, or ART.

It was also supplemented with additional antiretrovirals, plus a drug called nicotinamide, a form of vitamin B3.

Two other people are believed to have been cured of HIV, but they both underwent high-risk bone marrow transplants. 

The unnamed individual was diagnosed with HIV in 2012 and was on the pioneering course of medication for 48 weeks.  

Just over a year later his DNA and cells were assessed and tests for HIV came back negative.

Dr Ricardo Diaz of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, who co-led the study, told The Telegraph: ‘We can’t search the entire body, but by the best evidence, we do not have infected cells.

‘I think it’s very promising. This patient might be cured.’

Today there are around 37 million people in the world currently living with HIV. The majority (25million) of infected people live in Africa. 

Interestingly, Magic Johnson is never mentioned in any of the studies. He was cured of HIV a long time ago.