Have we found the cure for AIDS?

A look into how seven cases managed to beat HIV

- CLINICAL MATTERS DR. EDSEL MAURICE T. SALVANA

CLINICAL MATTERS DR. ASKEVITCH

Earlier this month, on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, 2025, scientists published a paper in the journal “Nature” detailing the seventh case of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cure. While HIV is currently treatable with potent antiretrovirals (ARVs), which enable people with HIV to live long lives and not develop AIDS, ARVs do not fully eliminate the virus from the body. Stopping medication will result in the virus resuming its activity. Like the previous six documented HIV cures, this new patient achieved remission of HIV through hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). HSCT involves destroying a patient’s bone marrow and replacing it with stem cells harvested from a donor’s blood or bone marrow. While these cures represent just a handful of the over 40 million people currently living with HIV, each new instance is proof that HIV can be defeated.