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According to the New England Journal of Medicine, a  42-year old patient with leukemia in Germany has been said to have no symptoms of HIV in his bloodstream, after a stem cell transplant that took place over 2 years ago.   The patient was transplanted with a donor carrying a gene mutation that confers natural resistance to the virus that causes AIDS.

“The patient is fine,” said Dr. Gero Hutter of Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin in Germany. “Today, two years after his transplantation, he is still without any signs of HIV disease and without antiretroviral medication.”

The mutation known as CCR5 is found in about three percent in the white population in Europe.  This mutation basically makes the person almost completely immune to catching the HIV/AIDS virus.  However, a stem cell transplant is considered to be very dangerous and around 1/3 of the individuals who go through such procedure end up dying.

Along with the risky surgery, some doctors claim that they don’t believe that although he may seem clean of the virus, the HIV virus can hide in other parts of the body until it exposes itself.

With Stem Cell research already a controversial subject in politics, I’m sure we are going to hear from all of the parties.