LEXINGTON, N.C. — WFMY News 2 is learning more about HIV treatment and cures.
A third person living with HIV has been cured using umbilical cord blood stem cells.
In North Carolina, 35,000 people are living with HIV. "Over 55 percent of new cases are either in the Black, Latino, or Hispanic population," said Novant Health Clinical Pharmacist Mackie King.
Lexington native Thomas Clodfelter was diagnosed with HIV in 1990.
"I had to come to grips with knowing I contracted a disease, first and foremost being able to own it and accept it," said Clodfelter.
Just recently, a New York woman of mixed race, who also has cancer was cured of HIV.
"This woman has received chemo, it destroyed her immune response, and then she was transplanted with stem cells that came from this cord blood, and then she also got stem cells from a close relative," said King.
Mackey King with Novant Health said she's the first woman of mixed race to be cured.
"To get stem cells from another person you have to be a very close match, from a genetic perspective, they have to be very similar. The great thing about cord blood is you don't have to be quite as similar to the person who is donating to you," said King.
Clodfelter is being treated with a medication that has helped him be undetectable. He said it's comforting to hear about the recent case.
"To see this work being done after so many years and where we are at with U=U and everything else it's phenomenal," said Clodfelter.
King said while the cord blood treatment is a unique case, there's still more research to be done.
"There is a lot of danger that can be associated with these stem cell transplants and what it takes to get to that point. So, I don't think we're at the place yet, we're scaling this, but why this is so important is it gives us information for the next step," said King.