Rhode Islanders welcome news of potential HIV cure

March 5, 2019 1:07 pm

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Russ Winn of Providence has been living with HIV for more than 10 years.

“That seems to be my life right now, just making sure it’s treated and under control,” said Winn.

While he lives a basically normal life, there are certain things he has to pay attention to.

“A lot of medication. I have to be careful I’m not passing it on to anybody or anything like that. I have to monitor my health,” said Winn.

But now there’s hope that a new breakthrough could one day change that reality for Winn and millions of others around the world. Those stem cells came from a donor who carried a rare genetic resistance to HIV. American Timothy Brown, known as the “Berlin patient,” became the first adult to be cured this way 12 years ago.

“We now have reason to believe that the Berlin patient was not a one-off case.. meaning it is possible to nearly or even completely eliminate HIV from an infected person.”

“It really does give you hope that they will have a cure within our lifetime,” said Winn.

Winn says if that happens, the impact for him would be huge.

“Not having to take my medications every day, not having that worry–it’s a big deal,” said Winn.

He says a potential cure would not only save lives, but get rid of much of the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS.

“There’s still a lot of people that still don’t know a whole lot about it. They think of it as if somebody gets HIV they’re going to die. That’s not the case now, but even with a cure, that will go away completely. It’ll be just like any other disease that can be cured,” said Winn.

While doctors say it’s too early to say the London patient is cured, highly sensitive tests are unable to measure any amounts of HIV in his body. Experts warn these treatments will likely not cure all HIV patients and note the procedure is expensive. Despite that, many are hailing this announcement as a huge step forward in the decades-long battle against HIV.