How many people have had HIV and loss it?

Answer 1

Tens of millions of people are infected with HIV worldwide. Of those, very few have ever been cleared of their HIV infection.

In recent times, they have discovered that after undergoing a very dangerous procedure (bone marrow transplant) a gentleman from Europe who was infected with HIV before the procedure is now virus free.

The explanation why this happened is very complicated and would probably be better answered by someone with more education about the specifics than I have. In short, bone marrow plays a roll in programming the way our immune cells work. There are some people (very few) who have a cell mutation that makes it very difficult to be infected with HIV.

The gentleman from Europe received a bone marrow transplant from a person with the type of cell mutation described above. His immune cells have basically been "reprogrammed" and to this point he has tested negative for the virus.

This procedure is very risky and many people die from infection. Likewise, the grand majority of possible bone marrow donors would not have the cell mutation required to achieve the same result. The procedure is so expensive that providing it to the masses is impossible. It is also unknown whether the result is a fluke or typical.

Millions of people have died as a result of HIV infection while millions more are still living with the virus. There have been moments of hope as researches keep looking for new ways to treat the virus, new ways to prevent the virus and possibly someday, a way to cure the virus.