Bone marrow transplants are one of the most painful surgeries performed, but two men were able to win against the odds after undergoing bone marrow transplants to save themselves from HIV.

Two HIV-positive patients received bone marrow transplants from donors and have since shown an annihilation of the virus. The doctors have yet to see the virus return to the patients even after they have stopped their AIDS medication.

Doctors at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center in Boston transplanted healthy bone marrow into the patients after they developed lymphoma cancer in their 30 year+ fight with the HIV virus.

After a few years of living with the new bone marrow, the levels of the HIV virus in their blood has dropped until their detection became impossible. The men had continued their antiretroviral medication until earlier this year.

For 15 weeks and seven weeks respectively, the two patients's blood are still uninfected with the virus.

The bone marrow transplant patients were healthy enough to be able to continue taking their AIDS medicine while undergoing chemotherapy after the transplant. Due to this unique situation, the doctors suspect that the transplanted immune cells were protected by the medications and was able to fight off the HIV.

In 2007, Timothy Brown was cured of AIDS after he received a bone marrow transplant from a rare HIV-resistant donor. The HIV-resistant donor had a mutation in the CCR5 gene, allowing him to be imperceptible to the disease.

Timothy Brown's case was originally thought to be due to the rare bone marrow transplant; however, this new evidence might link the cure to the bone marrow transplant procedure itself.

The Institute of Justice reports that 30% of patients have a matching bone marrow transplant donor in their family, and would be able to proceed with the procedure.

The remaining 70% would have to try to find a match with a stranger in the national registry. The probability for African Americans to find an unrelated donor is 25%. Asian patients can find a donor 40% of the time while Hispanic and Caucasian patients have probabilities that are at 45% and 75% respectively. However, multiracial patients would have a great difficult in finding a donor.

Bone marrow transplants, however, are risky and has a 15-20% mortality rate within the first few years.

Must Read:

Seven African countries cut child HIV infections by half

WHO wants HIV patients treated sooner to save lives, halt spread

Stem-cell therapy wipes out HIV in two patients  

HIV: Bone Marrow Transplant Cured 2 Men; What Are Your Odds Of Finding a Marrow Donor? (+VIDEO) 

AIDS drugs halve HIV risk for intravenous drug users in study

U.S. justices strike down AIDS funding restriction