CBFam

Official X account of Cebu Blood Family, Inc. — a Cebu-based support group for PLHIV.

#ConnectedByFate #ConnectedByFriendship #CourageBeyondFear

[CBFam @cbf_org]

🌙 Eid al-Adha Mubarak! May this time fill your heart with gratitude, your family with joy, and your life with endless blessings.

[CBFam @cbf_org]

Celebrating the queens of every home today. 👑 Happy Mother’s Day to all wonderful moms! 💖

[ScienceFocus @ScienceFocusonX]

HIV used to be a death sentence. Not anymore.

Modern medicine flipped the script.

Antiretroviral Therapy, better known as ART, can now push the virus down to undetectable levels in the bloodstream.

Undetectable means untransmittable. It also means people living with HIV can expect a lifespan close to anyone else's.

Let that sink in. A diagnosis that once shattered futures has been turned into a manageable condition you take a pill for.

Science didn't just slow HIV down. It rewrote what living with it looks like.

[CBFam @cbf_org]

To the hands and hearts that keep everything moving, this is for you. Happy Labor Day from CBF. ❤️

[Smart Science @SmartScience]

A man was cured of HIV.

Yes, it happened before. But remarkably, this patient is only the second person among those cured to receive cells from a donor who lacked the specific genetic mutation known to naturally resist the virus.

A seventh individual has been declared free of HIV after undergoing a stem cell transplant for blood cancer.

This discovery challenges the long-held belief that rare, HIV-resistant donor cells are the only viable path to a cure, suggesting that the transplant process itself or subsequent immune responses might play a more significant role in eradicating the virus than previously understood.

The implications of this case are profound for the global effort to end the HIV epidemic. Finding donors with the specific CCR5-delta32 genetic mutation is extremely difficult, often limiting transplant options to a tiny fraction of the population. By demonstrating that a cure is possible even without these rare cells, researchers like Christian Gaebler at the Free University of Berlin believe the medical community is gaining more versatile options for treatment. This milestone brings science one step closer to scalable interventions that could one day make long-term HIV remission a more accessible reality for patients worldwide.

source: New Scientist. Man unexpectedly cured of HIV after stem cell transplant. New Scientist.

[CBFam @cbf_org]

May this Easter Sunday fill your heart with peace and joy 🕊️

[GMA News @gmanews]

'HIV DOES NOT HURT ME, STIGMA DOES' 🤍

On Good Friday, a person garbed in white from head to toe walks under the heat of the sun in Castillejos, Zambales, sending a message that it is stigma that brings down people with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), not the virus itself.

"I have HIV. But it doesn't hurt me. Stigma does!" read the placard they hold. | via Denise Fajardo-Austria via GMA Regional TV News

People living with HIV, tested early on, can get and keep an undetectable viral load by taking HIV medicine (called antiretroviral therapy or ART), given for free by the Department of Health.

Scientific consensus holds that having an undetectable viral load means you will not anymore transmit HIV to other people.

Most people who get treatment soon after their diagnosis and stay on it can live long, healthy lives, and expect to live as long as someone without HIV, according to the World Health Organization.

Visit https://t.co/3DVm1n0hHP for the latest news and updates.

[CBFam @cbf_org]

May this holy season ready our heats for the gift of renewal and new beginnings #blacksaturday #holyweek

[CBFam @cbf_org]

Wishing you a solemn and meaningful Good Friday.

May this day be a time of reflection, faith, and quiet gratitude. 🙏
#GoodFriday #CBF

[All day Astronomy @forallcurious]

🚨: Mexican scientist Eva Ramon successfully eliminates HPV.

[CBFam @cbf_org]

Eid Mubarak 🌙✨

Wishing you peace, joy, and answered prayers this Eid al-Fitr. New beginnings, grateful hearts, and love all around. #cbf #cbfamily

[Bisexual CEO Ug (256) @Dude_Uganda256]

Get tested and know your partner's status. Stay sage

[Hope Alive Initiative🎗️(Living Beyond HIV) @Ugo_PNnamdi]

#UequalsU goes beyond raising awareness about prevention(TasP).
As a messaging strategy, U=U removes doubt, ends confusion, and brings clarity, confidence, and power to both the science of TasP and the lives of people living with #HIV.

- U=U University.

[CBFam @cbf_org]

Recovery is possible. Treatment is available. And you deserve a life that is healthy, whole, and hopeful. ❤️ #cbf #cbfamily #plhiv #drugabuse #drugaddiction

[CBFam @cbf_org]

Addiction doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t care about your status, your story, or your strength.

Substance abuse may numb the pain for a moment, but healing begins when we choose support over silence. You are more than your addiction. More than your past. More than the stigma.

[CBFam @cbf_org]

Marching for women’s rights is marching for health, justice, and dignity.

As a PLHIV community, we amplify women’s voices because no one should be left behind. ✨

[CBFam @cbf_org]

Happy Charter Day, Cebu City! 🎉

Greetings from CBF, proud to stand with our fellow Cebuanos in building a city grounded in compassion, inclusivity, and empowerment for all. Padayun, Sugbo!

[Michael @neolithicrumba2]

Emtricitabine and Lamivudine are essentially the same drug. They stop the process of HIV replication in exactly the same spot, and unlike other ARVs, they need only a single mutation, M184V, to lose their effectiveness. The unique thing about these drugs is that the mutation makes HIV weaker and less able to reproduce.

Lamivudine was one of the first ARVs to come along after AZT, and I wouldn't have guessed that it would still be commonly used four decades later.

This study looks at prescribing Dovato, the two-drug combo of lamivudine and dolutegravir in people with the M184V mutation. One would expect treatment failure, right?

But this Spanish study among 121 PLWH with a history of the M184V mutation showed no treatment failure after two years.

For folks who have been virally suppressed for years who don't have active HBV, this 2-drug 💊 is an option. It should be the first choice among those with kidney or bone density issues, since the tenofovir in TLD can exacerbate these issues.

And yes, there is a generic version ♥️

[Michael @neolithicrumba2]

If you were diagnosed with HIV in the era of the STR (single-tablet regimen), thank science for your life. 💊

The number of #PLWH who have died is equal to the population of Canada. If the dead weren’t mostly women in Africa, gay and bi men, drug users, and sex workers, it would be called a genocide 💔

I’ve been taking ARVs for thirty years and acknowledge every day as a gift—something our HIV-negative peers don’t feel, stumbling through life like it goes on forever. 🌞

It’s never been about quantity. It’s about living each day to the fullest ❤️

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

A man in Oslo is cured of HIV after his brother’s rare stem cells replaced his entire immune system – he has been free of it for over 2.5 Years

In March 2025, doctors in Norway stunned the world with the “Oslo patient”: a 58-year-old man who has now been HIV-free for over 2.5 years after stopping all medication.

He needed a stem cell transplant in 2021 to treat a blood issue and his brother stepped up as the donor. By an incredible stroke of luck, his brother carries the ultra-rare double CCR5-delta32 mutation that makes immune cells completely resistant to HIV.

The transplant destroyed the patient’s old immune system and rebuilt it with his brother’s “HIV-proof” cells.

Since quitting antiretrovirals in late 2022, every test has come back negative, and even his HIV antibodies are vanishing.