The Cure For AIDS?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Science, The WorldCould it be inside Scotsman Andrew Stimpson’s body?
The case of Andrew Stimpson, 25, who was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 2002 but found to be clear of the virus in 2003, has stunned the medical world. If doctors can establish why this happened, without treatment, it could benefit the 34.9 million virus carriers worldwide.But Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust, which carried out the initial diagnosis tests, said Mr Stimpson has so far declined to undergo further tests with it.
A spokeswoman for the Trust said: “I can confirm that he has a positive and a negative test.
But we shouldn’t get too ahead of ourselves:
Dr Patrick Dixon, an expert from Acet, an international Aids group, said the case was “very, very unusual. I’ve come across many anecdotal reports of this kind of thing happening in Africa, some quite recently, but it’s difficult to verify them,” he said.“You have to be rock-solid sure that both samples came from the same person, no mix-up in the laboratory, no mistakes in the testing. This is the first well-documented case.”
Thankfully Stimpson has agreed to undergo further tests to see what his body may have that the rest of humanity lacks. As always, we have to play the wait and see game. But let’s hope this is the first step towards a real vaccine that could help wipe out one of world’s deadliest weapons of mass destruction.
This entry was posted on Monday, November 14th, 2005 and is filed under Science, The World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 14th, 2005 at 1:20 pm
Hugely vital discovery if true, but I read that the statistical likelihood of spontaneous remission was about the same as taking a trip to the moon without a spaceship.
More likely, in my opinion, is that the original test was either a false positive, or a sample from someone else. Since they said something about retesting it, presumeably they may still have the sample on file somewhere, in which case they could do a DNA test to prove that it is actually Mr. Stimpson’s, and not a mis-filed sample from another patient. Until proven otherwise, we should assume that the medical officers in charge of his case knew what they were doing and no fraud was involved.
Another interesting question is whether the test used was an antibody test or a viral load test. Antibody tests should still show positive results if he was ever exposed to the virus. Viral load tests can and do show nondetectable results for people who are currently on meds, though I believe they have been getting more sensitive over the past few years.
I’m not sure if there is any reliable test for detecting the “hidden HIV reservoirs” that remain in patients who are nondetectable on viral load tests, but if that remains in Mr. Stimpson, and he is not taking any antivirals, he may become detectable again.
In any case, further research is certainly warranted, and it would be wondrous if his case was indeed real, and led to some breakthrough in treatment or even a cure.
December 5th, 2005 at 10:10 am
For more information on this important case click on my name