Five years after a stem cell transplant, Timothy Ray Brown, the American known as the ‘Berlin Patient’, has fully recovered from AIDS. On Wednesday, at a symposium on gene therapy at Washington University in St. Louis, Brown and his German doctor Dr. Gero Hütter announced his cure from HIV. News from The Washington Post.

Timothy Brown became known in AIDS research as ‘The Berlin Patient’ because his treatment began there. Brown is now 46 years old.

Brown was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1995. In 2006, he was also diagnosed with leukemia. After chemotherapy, Timothy required a stem cell transplant. At this point, his treatment was overseen by blood specialist Dr. Gero Hütter of Heidelberg University in Germany.

For the stem cell transplant, Dr. Hütter searched for a blood donor with a rare resistance to HIV in their blood. Only 1% of the Northern European population has such rare resistance against the HIV virus.

In 2007, stem cells collected from that donor’s blood were transplanted into Brown’s body. Since then, Brown has remained alive without any medication, free from HIV infection.

Dr. Hütter said, “We can now say for certain that Brown has been cured of the HIV virus.” Dr. Hütter also mentioned that Brown began to recover within weeks of the blood stem cell transplant.

Earlier this year, some researchers suspected a relapse when traces of HIV were again found in Brown’s body. However, Dr. Hütter has reported that there has been no new HIV infection in Brown. The researchers found only remnants of previous viruses.

According to Dr. Hütter, these remnants do not have the ability to cause new infection in Brown’s body.
Timothy Ray Brown remains the only person so far to be cured of AIDS.

Source: http://tech.bdnews24.com/details.php?shownewsid=4207