Stem cell treatment considered for HIV

Scientists are to reveal the results of a new study looking at how stem cell treatment can be used to tackle Aids later this week.

A team from the City of Hope Medical Centre in Duarte, California have investigated the safety and feasibility of using stem cell techniques to limit the development of HIV.

The results of their research will be revealed in full as part of the Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine World Congress in Palm Springs on Tuesday (January 20th).

Dr David DiGiusto, director of haematopoietic cell therapies at the medical centre, told the Telegraph that the treatment is currently only "experimental".

"We hope that eventually we will be able to give Aids patients just one transplant and that would then protect them for life," he added. "We have data to show that the resistant cells are persisting in our lymphoma patients."

Further research into the treatment is planned, with suggestions that isolating the genes responsible for the spread of HIV could eradicate the virus altogether.

News brought to you by Global Health TV, covering the issues of health in the developing world