Did a British man really cure himself of HIV infection?

It was a story custom-made for a media frenzy and the media lapped it up. Early in November, two Sunday newspapers in the UK carried sensational reports of a young gay man who had apparently been cured of HIV infection.

‘I’m the first in the world to be cured of HIV’ read the headline in the tabloid News of the World on 13 November. The ‘exclusive’ story, also appearing in the Mail on Sunday on the same day, reported that a 25-year-old gay man, Andrew Stimpson, had somehow managed to go from HIV-positive to HIV-negative over a three-year period without taking anything more than vitamin pills.

The details of this case are fairly sketchy and are derived from newspaper reports, not scientific literature. Because of that, it’s difficult to determine at this point exactly what has transpired in this man’s case. Further tests and investigations will be needed before we know what relevance, if any, his case has for HIV medicine, however at the time PL went to press, the most likely explanation seemed to be that the original HIV tests were ‘false positives’ – meaning not only that he has not been cured, but that he was never infected.

Mr Stimpson, a Scotsman who lives in London, told the newspapers that he had first had an HIV test in May 2002 after feeling unwell with symptoms that suggested a seroconversion illness. He was reportedly in a relationship with a man who he knew to be HIV-positive and had been feeling “tired and feverish” when he asked to be tested at the Victoria Sexual Health Clinic in London.

Although his initial HIV test was negative, Stimpson had follow-up tests three months later. The first of these was inconclusive but tests taken on 20 and 23 August 2002 both returned positive results. He was not started on treatment.

The story so far is hardly remarkable. People recently infected with HIV/AIDS do not usually show antibodies to the virus immediately, but take between six and 12 weeks to develop them. Because the HIV test looks for the antibodies, not the virus itself, follow-up tests like this are routine in this kind of case.

In October 2003, more than a year after his HIV diagnosis, Stimpson’s viral load was apparently still undetectable. As positive people will be well aware, having an undetectable viral load doesn’t by itself mean you don’t have HIV. The fact that Stimpson had stayed undetectable for so long without taking antiretroviral treatment is impressive, but fairly unremarkable – cases have frequently been reported in medical literature of people with similar case histories, and of so-called ‘long-term nonprogressors’ who have been able to keep the virus suppressed for many years.
What is remarkable is that, according to the newspaper story, Stimpson’s doctor then suggested he have a repeat HIV antibody test, and that this test returned a negative result. Stimpson told the newspapers that he had HIV tests in October and December 2003 and March 2004, and all were negative.

“After the repeat tests my doctor came into the room saying, ‘You’ve cured yourself! This is unbelievable.’,” Stimpson told the News of the World.

While it’s tempting to believe that the Stimpson case holds out the promise of finding a cure for HIV infection, such talk is premature at least until further tests are carried out to determine exactly what has happened.

It’s worth pointing out also that this isn’t the first time that someone has claimed in the media to be cured of HIV infection. There have been anecdotal reports quite similar to this one from time to time in the past, and in every case they have subsequently been proved wrong.

One possible explanation would be a mix-up in the blood samples at some point in the testing process, however this has apparently been ruled out. The hospital which performed the tests re-tested Stimpson’s stored blood and did DNA tests to confirm that all the blood samples came from the same person.

The phenomenon where a person loses their HIV antibodies (called ‘seroreversion’) is not entirely unknown, although it is very uncommon. For example, a recent clinical trial found that in rare cases people can lose their HIV antibodies if they are aggressively treated soon after infection. People may also lose HIV antibodies during the late stages of AIDS when their immune system is extremely suppressed. Mr Stimpson apparently doesn’t fall into either of these categories.

There has been at least one other medically-documented case of HIV seroreversion. This case was reported at the 12th Conference on Retrovirus and Opportunistic Infections in Boston in February 2005. The man concerned was diagnosed in 1995 and, two years later, had a detectable HIV viral load. He started treatment in 1997 and, in 2000, he was found to be HIV antibody-negative. Since then the man has not taken treatments, has not had detectable virus and has remained antibody negative. Doctors investigating that case have so far failed to find an explanation for his unique history, however they speculate that his loss of antibodies was due to antiretroviral treatment.

The Stimpson case is of course different again from this – Mr Stimpson has never taken antiretrovirals. Another possible explanation is that his initial positive HIV tests were ‘false positives’. It’s theoretically possible, although unproven, that a person could produce antibodies to HIV after being exposed to the virus but not go on to become infected. The odds of this occurring are extremely small but this is the one explanation the hospital responsible for the tests has offered.

“It is probable that there was never any evidence of Mr Stimpson having the HIV virus but rather that there was transient evidence of an antibody response to the virus present in his bloodstream when he had the initial tests,” the hospital said in a statement. “The antibody testing is exquisitely sensitive and the smallest measure can be recorded which is probably what happened in this case.”

Mr Stimpson, who initially was reported to have ‘gone into hiding’ following the breaking of his story, is now said to be undergoing further medical tests. When the results of these tests are know, they will hopefully begin to unravel this extremely unusual and probably unique case.

At this stage it is clear there are several possible explanations, none of which involves a ‘miracle cure’, which are being investigated.

• We strive to verify the accuracy and reliability of information presented in Positive Living. This story includes anecdotal accounts and information sourced from non-peer-reviewed sources including mass-market newspapers and is presented here in response to the high level of interest this case has generated. PL will continue to monitor this case and will print follow-up stories as more information comes to hand.
• Following the initial flurry of media interest in Mr Stimpson's claims, he disappeared without his claims ever being verified or refuted.