A California man is on the cusp of being declared cured of HIV and blood cancer.
Paul Edmonds, 68, who made international headlines last year when he shared his story, still has no traces of either condition five years after being given a transplant of cells that rid his body of both diseases.
In a new article by the medical team who treated him, doctors said he was officially cured of cancer and two years away from being declared cured of HIV – when he will have gone without any medication since 2020.
Mr Edmonds’ medical journey began when he was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, at a time when the virus was often a death sentence for many gay men.
Despite watching so many of his friends die of the infection, he persevered, and was living happily married to his husband until a devastating leukemia diagnosis in 2018 looked to ruin their future plans.
He was treated for the cancer with stem cell therapy, which involves replacing stem cells damaged by chemotherapy with healthy ones from a donor – when doctors spotted a unique opportunity: to find a donor with a HIV-resistant genetic mutation.