[bhickey]

I suspect that the mortality rate would be much lower amongst patients being treated for HIV. Bone marrow transplants as a therapy for leukemia requires killing the existing cells with radiation. This is completely sensible -- you've got some cancerous cells, so nuke everything and start over from the beginning.

Confounding the mortality stats is the fact that individuals undergoing treatment are very sick from the start. We might see better survival rates amongst comparatively healthy people.

In this case, you don't necessarily need a clean slate. "All" you need is a population of cells generating HIV resistant T-cells. AIDS manifests in individuals with extremely low T-cell counts. If a population of CD4 mutants could take hold within a larger population, it might be enough to prevent AIDS and bring viral titers low enough to eliminate transmission.

Nevertheless, I agree -- it's hardly practical, but it may be a beachhead.

[eru]

I read an article back a few years, about how when they do a normal organ transplant (like a kidney) the patient benefits enormously from also getting a bone marrow transplant from the same donor. For a transplant you shut down the immune system completely, and keep it in a subdued state forever afterwards. With the matching bone marrow they could re-start the immune system to a mixed state afterwards, that accepted the original organs and the donation.

Anybody remember that article? I'd like to find it again.