Scot “Cured” of AIDS Agrees to Further Tests

A quarter of a century of progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS has extended the quantity and quality of life of those who are infected, but no one uses the word “cure” to describe the treatment. Now, there seems to be some evidence that someone has beaten the nasty bug. Andrew Stimpson, a 25 year-old Scot living in London, tested positive 14 months ago, and recently tested negative four times for the virus. He’s going to have further tests to see if his case offers something better than the current cocktail of life-extending drugs.

There have already been anecdotal cases of “spontaneous clearance” of HIV from the body, some in sub-Saharan Africa and a couple elsewhere in the 1980s. However, Mr. Stimpson’s is the first case in which the chain of medical evidence proves that the positive and negative came from the same person. The Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust (socialized medicine at its best), where he was seen by physicians, stopped short of saying Mr. Stimpson was cured.

Of course, Occam’s Razor says that the first test gave a false positive or that the first negative was dong wrong; this is a much more likely case than a miracle cure. However, Mr. Stimpson tried to sue on just such a basis, and the NHS Litigation Authority said there was no case to answer. A spokeswoman for the Chelsea and Westminster Trust said, “Those tests are both accurate, the positive and a negative; they are correct.” One would have preferred a second follow-up to the initial positive test that confirmed Mr. Stimpson was HIV positive as further evidence, but one can’t have everything.

Another datum that is puzzling here is his treatment. After the initial diagnosis, he took no medication apart from dietary supplements. The very idea that the magic juju of untested herbs may have fixed him when 21st century medical science wasn’t involved offends one’s sense of progress and enlightenment. It is possible, but it’s bloody unlikely.

Mr. Stimpson has, most responsibly, agreed to further tests to see just what it was that his body managed to do. If doctors can gain any insight from further studies, he could be helping the 35 million who have HIV/AIDS. It is the odd case like this that gives scientists a different approach to fighting disease, and it is welcome. And the fact that Mr. Stimpson is well is good news, too.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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