Man cured of HIV virus after rare treatment

Paul Edmonds, 67, lives in Desert Hot Springs, California. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, the year when the epidemic peaked in the country, and was completely cured of the disease in July 2022. “Patient from the City of Hope” – as he was known at the time, as he remained anonymous until then. The name was given in honor of the hospital in which he was treated.

The process used to cure the patient is a rare and risky transplant of stem cells from a person who has a mutation in their blood, making them resistant to HIV. As mentioned, the procedure is a risky one, reserved for people like Edmonds who suffer from late-stage cancer. For, transplantation can also result in deadly infection.

Despite of treatment being aggressive and very limited, the doctors celebrated his victory: “We were thrilled to let him know that his HIV is in remission and that he no longer needs to take the antiretroviral therapy he has been using for over 30 years. He saw many of his friends die from AIDS in the early days of the disease and faced so much stigma when he was diagnosed with HIV in 1988. But now, he can celebrate this medical milestone”, said Jana Dictker, an Edmonds physician.

“I was incredibly grateful. I’m grateful to be alive. I was grateful that there was a donor,” he told ABC.

_{To the right of Paul Edmonds, physician Jana Dickter, and to the left, physician Monzr Al Malki, MD(Photo: Reproduction/ City of Hope)}

AIDS epidemic

A little-known newspaper, which published weekly, published a new public health case. On June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released that five young homosexual men had been diagnosed with an unusual lung infection known as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and two of these patients had died.

That’s when the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) became known. HIV infection that led more than 32 million people worldwide to death.

Featured Photo: Paul Edmonds in an interview with ABC
Reproduction/ ABC/ Metropolises.