London patient second in the world 'to be cleared of HIV virus', say researchers

A London hospital patient is the second person in the world to be cleared of the Aids virus, doctors have said.

The male patient has achieved "sustained remission" from HIV after being treated at Hammersmith Hospital in west London, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said.

The case report, led by researchers at UCL and Imperial College London, comes around a decade after the first known case in Berlin.

In 2003, the male patient was diagnosed with HIV infection and developed an Aids defining cancer, advanced Hodgkin's Lymphoma, in 2012.

In 2016, he received a transplant of haematopoietic stem cells from a donor carrying a genetic mutation in the HIV receptor CCR5, which hinders the HIV virus from entering human cells.

He has now been in remission for 18 months after his antiretroviral drugs were discontinued, researchers said.

Similar therapy has been successful once before with "Berlin Patient" Timothy Ray Brown, a US man treated in Germany 12 years ago who is still free of HIV.

Mr Brown said he would like to meet the London patient and would encourage him to go public because "it's been very useful for science and for giving hope to HIV-positive people, to people living with HIV".