Timothy Brown, the so-called 'Berlin Patient' was found to have 'functionally' cured of HIV following a bone marrow transplantation originally carried out to save his life from acute myeloid leukemia. Even though Brown remains one of the most studied cases, why have we not heard of another such example (bone marrow transplantation to cure HIV) in past 7 or so years? There exist some very rich HIV positive individuals who could certainly have afforded this treatment and made into headlines but it has not happened.
Lifelong treatment with antiretrovirals is today essentially a functional cure. The results of last year's START trial were conclusive in showing that early treatment was better than delaying. However, it is theoretically possible to do better than that and eliminate the virus so no more treatment would be needed for that patient. Irradication of a patient's white cells followed by transplantation from a CCR5 delta-32 homozygouls individual who also matches as a donor to the patient, is very rare, expensive, extreme, and risky.
The big problem is that retroviruses integrate into the host DNA, so essentially the only way to completely eliminate the virus from a person is to eliminate all infected cells. Gene editing, to remove viral DNA integrated into a cell is not yet developed to the state where it is feasable in humans.
HIV in current medical practice is only preventable and controllable.Soon we will be able to eradicate virus through molecular (DNA level) targeted therapy of HIV infected cells. As a practitioner of HIV medicine, i can say for sure we have good control over the virus if anti-retroviral medicines are taken regularly. Good nutrition and anti-retrovirals have made HIV care like Diabetic management.
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