- Hey guys, welcome to another episode
of the Wednesday checkup.
Reportedly, the second ever person in the world
has been cured of HIV.
If this story's true, it's big news.
Let's talk about it.
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- First and foremost,
HIV is the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
This is the virus that can lead to the development of AIDS.
It attacks very specific cells within your immune system
that can make it difficult for you to fight off infections.
Taking the story from the beginning,
we have a male patient who prefers to remain anonymous
throughout this process
and we're gonna call him The London Patient for now.
This London Patient was diagnosed simultaneously
with a blood cancer, as well as HIV.
The treatment for this patients blood cancer
was to be a bone marrow transplant
where he would find a matching donor,
get the bone marrow transplant, hopefully cure the cancer.
But what was unique about this situation was that the donor
that gave the bone marrow to the London Patient
actually had their own mutation called a Delta 32 mutation.
This Delta 32 mutation actually changed
some of the receptors on the immune cells
known as CCR5 Receptors and those are the receptors
that the HIV virus uses to enter the cells.
Now because those patients had this Delta 32 mutation
they were essentially HIV resistant.
So, now this bone marrow that's given to the London Patient
is put into his body, takes hold,
and now our London Patient becomes HIV resistant.
This has only been accomplished one other time
in the history of the world.
This is about ten years ago when a patient
by the name of Timothy Brown,
treated in a very similar fashion
received a bone marrow transplant from someone
with a Delta 32 Mutation, got very sick,
but then at the end did not need to take
his HIV medication because he was virus free.
Just like our London Patient who has now been off of HIV,
antiviral medications for 18 months
and there is no detectable viral load.
As always, you know I'm a skeptic,
I like to give you the truth, I don't yet think
we can call this an official cure,
I don't think it's fair to those who are living with HIV,
of which there are 1.1 million in the US today,
to call this a complete cure.
I would think of this more as a long-term remission.
We don't yet know if the HIV will come back at some point.
If he's been HIV free for 18 months but then you know,
12 months down the line not being on medication
the HIV returns was it ever a cure?
Or was there just a point of remission
that the HIV went away?
It's hard to say as there's no official definitions
for the word cure and long-term remission
for the HIV infection.
Another reason that I think it's a little bit inaccurate
to call this a cure is because the huge majority
of HIV cases will not be treated
with bone marrow transplants.
These are serious treatments that require
a huge time commitment, financial commitment,
risk, possibility of adverse events,
and it doesn't make sense to go all out
with a bone marrow transplant to treat HIV or cure HIV
when we have such good, powerful, antiviral drugs
that we can use to control HIV and keep it at bay.
It's also important to note that other patients
who have had blood cancer and HIV simultaneously
went for similar treatments which were not successful.
In fact, the reason that the scientific community's
so excited about this case is that this is the second time
that this has been able to be replicated,
despite the fact that we've been trying
for the last decade to mimic the results of Timothy Brown.
The most promising and exciting
part to me about this article,
and I think it should truly give us hope,
is that scientists have now at least somewhat solidified
with the second case that going after this CCR5 Receptor
can be a means of controlling and possibly curing HIV.
This does not mean much for those who have HIV now
and antiviral therapy's still gonna be
our mainstay of treatment but five, 10 years down the line
I could see a medication that targets the CCR5 Receptor
and essentially cures someone from HIV.
Reading about the London Patient truly does get me excited
and give me hope for the future
that we may at one point have a cure for HIV.
But right now as a family medicine doctor,
what's on my mind is that 1.1 million people in the U.S.
have HIV and one in seven are not aware of it.
Get tested, have a good relationship
with your family medicine doctor
and request that you get STI screening including HIV
to make sure that if you have it, you get treated,
and if you don't, now you know
and you can get some piece of mind.
Let's pivot away a little bit from medical research and HIV
and let's open some packages for a quick mail time segment.
I went to the post office today,
you guys sent a lot of stuff.
S.D. South Dakota.
Oh it's like a badge holder (laughter) that I just broke.
Didn't quite think this one through.
Oh my God, you guys with the socks,
Brad wouldn't even understand why dinosaurs.
This one looks uber interesting.
Gonna take a careful surgery approach here.
Okay it's a frame.
Well the glass is broken (laughter).
Oh my God this is amazing, look at this.
That's me and Roxy, how awesome is that?
And it says know thyself, that's my tattoo on my back.
Whoever sent this, thank you so much.
Whoa there's glass falling everywhere.
What! How did you do this?
What is this even?
Is this a wallet?
Get out of here.
Wow that's really cute,
look it's like a picture of me laughing.
You've inspired me to study the medical field
when I grow older.
Many years ago I started a mini business
where I made things out of duct tape,
I decided to dedicate a day and make you a wallet
with your logo and picture on it, hope you like it.
And a Jolly Rancher.
I think you changed the camera.
(slicing)
I wish we opened this before.
Please do not confuse your Google search
with my medical degree.
You guys will understand why I'm laughing
in a few short days when you tune into
Sunday's fourth installment of my meme video.
It's a plant.
A very dead plant (laughter).
Oh my God.
(laughter)
Oh, whatever this was I-
Is this a bonsai?
Oh man this is so sad.
There's like instructions on how to make it live.
You know, I don't know when they sent it, it's hard.
- [Cameraman] I was gonna say (mumbling).
- Got one from the Czech Republic.
Kay I opened it from the bottom
so clearly I'm not the sharpest-
Ooooo, Kinder Eggs!
I'm going to eat one of them right now.
These are crack.
Mmmm if you poisoned these I don't even care.
You can draw stars using this.
That's the beauty of a Kinder Egg,
you never know what you're gonna get
and whatever it is that you're gonna get
is probably gonna be very useless.
Kids don't do this at home, refined sugar is bad for you.
But when someone takes the effort
to send you a nice gift from the Czech Republic,
you should probably eat the Kinder Eggs.
Who needs a six pack?
Mmmm mmmm, Smurf.
If you enjoyed this video I know you're gonna enjoy this one
like totally facts, click it, click it.
Stay happy and healthy.
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