HIV Returns In Two "Cured" Patients

A very disappointing setback.

Two men whom Boston researchers reported in July had been cleared of HIV after receiving bone marrow transplants have had the virus return, the lead researcher announced Thursday. The patients, both of whom had been living with HIV for years, had each received bone marrow transplants several years ago to treat the blood cancer lymphoma. The treatment appeared to have made HIV retreat to undetectable levels in their blood. At the time of the announcement in July, one man had been off antiretroviral drugs for 15 weeks and the other for seven weeks. But the virus returned in one patient in August and the other patient in November, said Dr. Timothy Heinrich, infectious diseases associate physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, the Boston Globe first reported. Both have since resumed taking HIV medication.