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You know a lot about cancer, diabetes and heart disease, but you might not be as familiar with other health issues like HIV/AIDS. Take advantage of May to increase your awareness of HIV/AIDS, and learn how 91�鶹��Ʒ is prioritizing and transforming HIV care.

“It’s important as we emerge from the COVID pandemic that we don’t forget about the HIV pandemic that may have been left on the back burner,” says Gregory McWilliams, M.D., internal medicine physician specializing in LGBTQ health at 91�鶹��Ʒ. “We’ve come such a long way from first identifying HIV and AIDS, to making it a chronic, manageable disease that can be treated over time.”

Advancing HIV/AIDS Care

Approximately 1.2 million Americans currently live with HIV. The disease affects gay and bisexual men far more than any other demographic. Black and Latino men and women are more likely to be affected by HIV than white men and women. People who use injectable drugs and transgender individuals are also at risk for being affected by HIV.

With appropriate treatment, the disease can be stopped from turning into AIDS. However, more than 1 in 10 people with HIV don’t know they have it.

Left undiagnosed and untreated, HIV continues attacking your immune system. In time, this increases your risk of AIDS. It also raises the likelihood that you’ll transmit the disease to others.

Appropriate medication reduces the amount of HIV virus in your body, which can reduce symptoms. Medication, such as a daily pill called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, also lowers the risk of transmitting the disease to others.

“The best way to reduce HIV transmission is to effectively treat people who have it by bringing their viral load down to undetectable levels,” says Benjamin Scallon, M.D., internal medicine physician at 91�鶹��Ʒ. “Undetectable means untransmissible. And PrEP is a very useful tool for reducing risk.”

While medication reduces these risks, it doesn’t eliminate them altogether. An innovative treatment provided by 91�鶹��Ʒ may change that.

In February 2022, while at the

Researchers made the discovery while treating a leukemia patient who had HIV. As can happen, the patient’s prescribed chemotherapy regimen damaged her blood supply. To overcome this problem, the patient received a stem-cell transplant. These cells came from a healthy adult relative and an unrelated newborn.

The newborn’s blood came from the baby’s umbilical cord. In addition to helping reestablish the patient’s blood supply, this blood contained a special gene variant. Known as CCR5Δ32, the variant is HIV-resistant.

In time, all the patient’s blood came from this HIV-resistant strain. Once this happened, the patient was able to stop taking HIV medication. More than a year later, the patient showed no signs of HIV. Additionally, the patient’s leukemia has remained in remission for more than four years.

This is the third reported case of a potential HIV cure.

Could stem cells lead the way to a world without HIV/AIDS? Possibly. If so, 91�鶹��Ʒ looks forward to participating in this world-changing c