A 63-year-old Norwegian man has become the latest person in medical history to achieve long-term HIV remission following a stem cell transplant — this time, from a sibling whose rare genetic trait turned out to be a surprise gift.
The man, identified in medical literature as the “Oslo patient,” had been living with HIV since 2006. His path to what doctors are now calling a functional cure began not with HIV treatment, but with a cancer diagnosis. In 2017, he was found to have myelodysplastic syndrome, a fatal blood disorder, and his medical team began searching for a donor who could address both conditions simultaneously.
When no suitable external donor was found, his elder brother was chosen as the next best option. What happened next surprised everyone in the room.
“We had no idea… That was amazing,” said Dr. Anders Eivind Myhre of Oslo University Hospital, who led the case and is the study’s primary author.
On the day of the 2020 transplant, tests revealed the brother carried a rare mutation of the CCR5 gene — a variant that prevents HIV from penetrating the body’s cells. The mutation is found in roughly one percent of people in northern Europe, making the family match an extraordinary coincidence. The patient himself reportedly described the experience as “winning the lottery twice,” according to Myhre.
The transplant effectively replaced the patient’s immune system with his brother’s. “The Oslo patient’s immune system had been completely replaced by the donor’s,” said study co-author Marius Troseid of the University of Oslo, noting it was the first time this had been documented in both bone marrow and gut tissue in a cured patient.
In 2022, two years after the procedure, the patient discontinued antiretroviral therapy. Subsequent testing of blood, gut, and bone marrow samples found no detectable trace of the virus.
“For all practical purposes, we are quite certain that he is cured,” Myhre said. The patient, whose name has not been disclosed, is now described as being in strong health with high energy levels.
The Oslo patient is among roughly ten people globally who have reached long-term HIV remission through stem cell transplantation. The original case — Timothy Ray Brown, known as the “Berlin patient” — dates to 2008. Others have since been documented in London, New York, Geneva, and Düsseldorf.
The procedure carries serious risks and is only considered viable for patients already facing life-threatening blood cancers, placing it far outside reach for the estimated 38 million people living with HIV worldwide. Still, researchers say each case adds to the scientific understanding of how the virus sustains itself in the body — knowledge they hope will eventually point toward a broadly applicable cure.
Notably, a case disclosed in 2024 showed that the “next Berlin patient” achieved remission even without receiving a donor with two copies of the mutated CCR5 gene, suggesting the biological requirements for a cure may be less rigid than previously assumed.
The findings were published in the journal Nature Microbiology.
Troseid offered a closing thought on his patient’s transformation: “The Oslo patient is perhaps no longer a patient. At least he doesn’t feel like it.”
