By now, most of us have heard of people with various ailments like leukemia & HIV being cured by transplants from someone whose blood has a natural resistance to HIV. There have been 7 cases to date. It's probable many have asked if it worked for them, then why not use the method to cure others of HIV?
This article is about 12 year old boy who underwent such a treatment. It seemed to have succeeded in dealing with both the HIV & leukemia. However his body began rejecting the new cells. This is always a risk with any transplant. In the end, they couldn't do anything to save him.
While remarkable & to some they may even seem routine, transplants are serious procedures with sometimes deadly consequences. Any surgery can inadvertently lead to death for a host of reasons. The more invasive, novel, experimental the procedure; the higher the potential for unknowns & risks.
While the transplant procedure to cure HIV may yield a great wealth of info in the fight against the virus, it isn't a magic bullet. It probably isn't the path to ending HIV on a large scale. Still the concept is curious.
Cya.
No comments:
Post a Comment