Cure for AIDS at last?

20 months after receiving a genetically selected bone marrow transplant an American man who suffered from AIDS appears to have been cured of the deadly disease. Doctors say that bone marrow transplant is generally used to combat leukamia but cleary caution that this may be a “miracle case”.

Many people across the world are however inspired and say it may motivate research in gene therapy to fight the disease that claims 2 million lives each year. The deadly AIDS virus has infected 33 million people across the globe.

Dr. Gero Huetter said that his 42-year-old patient, an American living in Berlin had been infected with the AIDS virus for more than a decade. The patient no longer shows signs of carrying the virus after 20 months of undergoing a transplant of genetically selected bone marrow.

The Berlin’s Charite hospital and medical school have confirmed that tests on his blood, bone marrow, and other organ tissues have all been clean and Huetter said that a bad reading has not come so far.