Experts say while it may be too early to say conclusively whether a second person has been cured of HIV, it gives researchers clues regarding the next step and is a reassuring breakthrough nonetheless.

A London patient appears to have been cured of HIV after a bone marrow transplant from a donor with a special genetic mutation.

Since his bone marrow transplant in 2016, to treat cancer, there has been no sign of HIV.

This is the second time a person has been cleared of HIV following a bone marrow transplant, also from a donor with this specific genetic mutation.

The ‘Berlin patient’ has now been HIV free for over a decade.

Professor Salim Abdool Karim from the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), says the second patient has only been monitored for 18 months, so it’s still too early to say whether he’s been cured.

He says however that the evidence certainly suggests that this is the case.

He says it’s reassuring to know that if you do the same experiment it has the same benefit.

“It’s not that we are now going to do wide-scale bone marrow transplants, but what it is, it’s telling us that if we can find the way to change that receptor, we can cure patients with HIV.”

To read more about the case click on the link HERE