The patient was the first of 50 people to complete a trial of the ambitious treatment which launches a two-stage “kick and kill” attack on the virus.

The new therapy is unique in that it tracks down and destroy HIV in every part of the body —including in the dormant cells that evade current treatments.

“This is one of the first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV,” Mark Samuels of Britain’s National Institute for Health Research told The Sunday Times.

”This is a huge challenge and it’s still early days, but the progress has been remarkable,” he said.