Doctors in Norway confirmed one of the most remarkable medical breakthroughs in the fight against HIV.

According to France 24, a 63‑year‑old man known as the “Oslo patient” was effectively cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant from his brother. The brother carried a rare mutation in the CCR5 gene, which prevents HIV from entering human cells. After the transplant, the patient’s immune system was completely replaced by his brother’s resistant cells, a process known as full donor chimerism.

According to GMA Network, this makes the Oslo patient one of only about ten people worldwide who have gone into long‑term remission from HIV following similar transplants. Other famous cases include the Berlin and London patients, both of whom received stem cells from donors with the same CCR5 mutation.

According to Nature Microbiology, extensive testing showed no detectable HIV DNA in the Oslo patient’s blood or gut biopsies years after the transplant. Replication‑competent virus was absent, and his HIV‑specific immune responses declined, strongly suggesting that the virus had been eradicated.

While this case is groundbreaking, experts caution that stem cell transplants are not a practical cure for most people living with HIV. The procedure is extremely risky, expensive, and usually performed only when patients also have life‑threatening blood cancers. The CCR5 mutation itself is rare, found in only about one percent of northern Europeans, making suitable donors difficult to find.