The whole thing was explained to me many times and, even now, I don’t understand it fully,
Thomas Kahlert said, reflecting on his remarkable medical journey.
The 62-year-old Berliner is now known as one of only 13 people worldwide cured of HIV, following treatment at Berlin’s Charité university hospital, The Irish Times reported.
Kahlert initially chose anonymity when the hospital first announced his case last December. Certain that the virus is gone for good, he decided to step forward publicly at the historic redbrick Charité campus.
He began working at the clinic in 1988 but kept his 2009 HIV diagnosis hidden from family and colleagues. Doctors diagnosed him with leukaemia in 2015, setting the stage for a life-altering stem cell transplant that rebuilt his immune system.
Medical teams broke down Kahlert’s immune system with chemotherapy before introducing a donor transplant. During this process, physicians uncovered a genetic coincidence.
I have a particular cell mutation meaning the HI-virus can’t dock as easily on my cells and my donor, Andrea, has it, too,
Kahlert said. The immediate priority remained treating the leukaemia, as doctors noted patients could manage HIV with modern medication.
After years of rebuilding his immune system, Kahlert decided to halt his antiretroviral therapy. His doctor advised against stopping the medication professionally, though he admitted personal curiosity about the outcome.
Extensive follow-up tests, ranging from blood work to rectoscopies, revealed no trace of the virus remaining in Kahlert’s body. Charité doctors subsequently published these findings in the journal Nature.
Researchers are investigating two primary theories for the cure. One suggests the rapid rebuilding of Kahlert’s immune system within a month of the transplant outsmarted the virus, while another points to natural killer characteristics in the donor’s stem cells.
Prof Christian Gaebler, head of the infectious diseases clinic at the Charité Infectology Clinic, noted that Kahlert’s genetic mutation appears in about 16 percent of the German population. This frequency differs significantly from the rare one-percent mutation seen in Timothy Ray Brown, the world’s first cured HIV patient treated at the same hospital in 2008.
The Charité recently established the Berlin Centre for HIV Cure, which carries the honorary names of Thomas Kahlert and Timothy Ray Brown. Prof Gaebler stated that the institution aims to find ways to eliminate the virus or maintain long-term remission without requiring a risky stem cell transplant.
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