"German researchers who used a bone marrow transplant to treat a cancer patient with the AIDS virus have declared him cured of the virus  a stunning claim in a field where the word cure is barely whispered.  The patient who had both HIV infection and leukemia received the bone marrow transplant in  from a donor who had a genetic mutation known to give patients a natural immunity to the virus.  Nearly four years after the transplant the patient is free of the virus and it does not appear to be hiding anywhere in his body Thomas Schneider of Berlin Charite hospital and colleagues said.  Our results strongly suggest that cure of HIV has been achieved in this patient they wrote in the journal Blood.  AIDS researchers have rejected the approach on any kind of scale for patients with HIV. A bone marrow transplant is a lastditch treatment for cancers such as leukemia.  It requires destruction of a patients own bone marrow  itself a harrowing process  and then a transplant from a donor who has a nearexact blood and immune system type. Months of recovery are needed while the transplant grows and reconstitutes the patients immune system.  Its not practical and it can kill people said Dr. Robert Gallo of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland who helped discover the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.  It is possibly a cure thats for sure you wont know for absolute sure until the person dies and undergoes extreme PCR genetic analysis of postmortem tissue.  Sponsored ADVERTISING The mutation affects a receptor a cellular doorway called CCR that the AIDS virus uses to get into the cells it infects.  Since the s scientists have known that some people mostly of Northern European descent have the mutation and are rarely infected with HIV.  They are uninfectable virtually Gallo said.  Some researchers are working on the idea of gene therapy to treat or try to cure HIV but the technology is still in experimental stages.  I dont want to throw cold water on an interesting thing but thats what it is  an interesting thing Gallo said.  Schneiders team has been following the patient taking samples from his colon liver spinal fluid and brain as he developed various conditions that justified the tests. They tested all these samples for evidence of the virus which can be difficult to detect unless it is actively infecting cells.  All these places are suspected reservoirs where HIV can hide out for years to rebound in patients who stop taking drugs that suppress the infection.  This patient appears to have a fully functioning immune system they found which appears genetically identical to cells from the donor  not the patients own immune cells.  Schneiders team found no evidence of HIV anywhere.  From these results it is reasonable to conclude that cure of HIV infection has been achieved in this patient they wrote.  The AIDS virus infects  million people globally and has killed more than  million since the pandemic began in the s. Cocktails of strong drugs can suppress the virus keeping patients healthy and reducing the chance they will infect others but there is no vaccine."