- An unnamed woman in Argentina has been declared "cured" of HIV without receiving a stem cell transplant.
- Only once before has someone been reported naturally cured of HIV — Loreen Willenburg of San Francisco in 2020.
- Previously, two other people were cured of HIV — the "Berlin Patient" and the "London Patient" — but only after receiving stem cell transplants.
The patient, an unnamed woman living in Argentina, was diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus in 2013.
Since 2017, an international team of researchers has been poring over the patient's DNA in search of traces of the virus. They even checked her placenta after she gave birth in March 2020, STAT reported. After sequencing billions of cells, the scientists have confirmed that the woman is HIV-free.
Modern medicine has made it possible for many people to live with the virus under control, but they typically require consistent antiretroviral therapy to prevent the virus from replicating.
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