Balanced News Blog

Now, is it just me, or is HIV/AIDS pretty much impossible to get rid of? If you have it, you’re going to die (sooner than the rest of us who don’t have it), that’s pretty much the long and the short of it. The virus is a ruthless enemy, making itself fully at home in our bodies, and evolving against all the dangerous and nasty drugs we throw at it. That’s why this news from the UK is groundbreaking, to say the least.

Andrew Stimpson, 25, who was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 2005 was found to be negative in October 2003 by Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust.

A statement from the trust said:

“This is a rare and complex case. When we became aware of Mr Stimpson’s HIV negative test results we offered him further tests to help us investigate and find an explanation for the different results.”

“So far Mr Stimpson has declined this offer.”

“We urge him, for the sake of himself and the HIV community, to come in and get tested.

“If he doesn’t feel that he can come to Chelsea and Westminster then he should please go to another HIV specialist.”

Rare? I’d say so, he’s the only one that this has ever happened to, at least verifiably.

Now, this author had thought, up to this point, that with a lot of the drugs out now that people can test as negative but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are. If they stop the drugs, it comes back. I wonder if this is the case with Mr. Stimpson? He has said that he had been taking vitamins.

So, if not for yourself Mr. Stimpson, do it for the millions of others that have HIV and for the countless tens or hundreds of millions that might catch it in the future.

Random Rants of an Overstimulated Californian thinks that his healthy lifestyle, taking vitamins, exercising, reducing stress, might have had something to do with it; Tempus Fugit is a little sceptical like me, it could just be a poor HIV test rather than a “cure”.

UPDATE: The clinic that said Mr. Stimpson was HIV-positive now says he probably wasn’t. Talk about a perfect legal case …