HIV appears to be cured in a second patient in potential breakthrough
Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the “Berlin Patient “ who is the only person in history who has been treated successfully for HIV—and it is all thanks to stem cells transpant. The 53 year old from Seattle was diagnosed with HIV in 1995 and Lukeamia in 2006. He and a UK patient (who doesn’t want his name disclosed) both were transplanted with stem cells as treatement for cancer. Their donors had two mutated copies of CCR5 receptors which made them resistant to HIV..
Long before Mr Brown was diagnosed with HIV he was advocating for safe sex practices in his hometown of Seattle, Washington, a city whose known cases of AIDS were in the dozens by the time he graduated from high school. Nobody could have known that the disease Brown fought against would affect him for years to come.
Mr Brown was reported to have undergone two stem cell transplants in 2007 and 2008 respectively and remains off antiretroviral therapy today and is considered cured.