Second patient free of HIV after stem-cell therapy

[Itoero]

A person with HIV appears to be free of the virus after receiving a stem-cell transplant that replaced their white blood cells with HIV-resistant versions. The patient is only the second person ever reported to have been cleared of the virus using this method. But researchers warn that it is too early to say that they have been cured.

The patient — whose identity hasn’t been disclosed — was able to stop taking antiretroviral drugs, with no sign of the virus returning 18 months later. The stem-cell technique was first used a decade ago for Timothy Ray Brown, known as the ‘Berlin patient’, who is still free of the virus.https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00798-3

[StringJunky]

It should be noted that this method is not likely to be mass-produced any time soon because it's quite a complicated and invasive process but it does show promising evidence that it can be eradicated by targeting a particular gene/s.

Edited March 5, 2019 by StringJunky

[peterwlocke]

I wonder if you could use crispr to make it better then the one that was used a decade ago.

[Akmose]

https://www.livescience.com/4719-laser-zaps-viruses.html

I think this might be very effective against more then HIV. 

If its a femtosecond pulse laser, my guess would be that its a YAG laser. Maybe around 1064 nm. 

you could input the beam into a fiber acupuncture needle and use it to target viruses inside of human tissue.