NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 30 – Talking about HIV/AIDS cure! This was one of the topics that attracted participants at the 25th international AIDS conference in Munich, Germany.
55-year-old Marc Frankie is not an ordinary person but a ‘ dusseldorf patient’ who lived with HIV and got cured through a stem cell plant and his case has been reviewed in the field of medicine of people cured of HIV.
While narrating his HIV/AIDS story at the 2024 International AIDS Conference in Munich, Marc says he was diagnosed with HIV in 2008 in Germany, two years later he started his ART medication shortly while he was diagnosed with severe pneumonia and followed by Acute Myeloid leukemia(AML).
“Doctors suggested I start chemotherapy, everything went smooth till in 2011 the relapse of the AML, unfortunately doctors said the second chemo would not work,” says Marc
After the stem cell donor matches were found, March suggested trying the same treatment given to the Berlin patient Timothy Ray Brown. About four months ago doctors found a blood sample of one of the donors with gene mutation with (CCR5 delta32) .
Unfortunately after the transplant only 30% of his immune cells were detectable in his blood again luckily with the special treatment and use of T cells from his donor and his cells were cleared..
“I developed a problem with my liver and diagnosed with diabetes started medication and six months later broke his hip and had to get a new hip and all this time I was taking immune suppression medication because of the transplant,” says Marc
The doctors stopped the immune suppression and immediately got the graft versus host disease ,developed a big problem with dry eyes and after a year they interrupted ART at the end of F 2018.Several tests were done and the results were negative.
He stated that stem cell transplants should only be done to people with HIV and who have Leukemia or any other cancer where the procedure is needed and recommends ART or long injectable treatment.
