You're alive while hope is alive: the story of the first person cured of AIDS

Stem cell transplantation as a method of treating AIDS has been known for a relatively long time. However, all attempts to carry out such an operation were unsuccessful. All but one. In February 2007, Timothy Ray Brown, an American living in Germany, agreed to a transplant, and three months later no traces of HIV were found in his blood. Timothy, known as the Berlin patient, described this amazing case and the ensuing consequences in an autobiographical article.

Source: Anti-AIDS

Brown was diagnosed with HIV infection in 1995. For many years, he took medications that kept his condition within satisfactory limits. But in 2006, his health deteriorated sharply, against the background of HIV, the poor man developed leukemia. He had no choice but to try a stem cell transplant.

It is known that about one percent of the representatives of the Caucasian race has a special mutation that makes it almost impossible for them to become infected with HIV. And the doctors who conducted Brown's stem cell therapy chose a carrier of this mutation as a cell donor. Why don't they always do this? Are doing. But these cells never take root. Except for the case of the Berlin patient.

"February 6, 2007, I call my new birthday," Brown writes in the article "I am a Berlin patient: Personal Reflections." — On the day of the transplant, I stopped taking antiretroviral drugs. Three months later, no traces of HIV were found in my blood. It was like I blossomed, and it lasted until the end of the year. I could go back to work and to the gym again. I started building up my muscles again, which I haven't done in years. Along with HIV, my exhaustion syndrome disappeared."

Timothy Brown with actress Sharon Stone

"Unfortunately, after I went to the States for Christmas, I was diagnosed with pneumonia in Idaho, and leukemia returned again. My doctors in Berlin decided that a second transplant was necessary and performed it in February 2008. Recovery was going badly. I was delirious, I could hardly see anything and was almost paralyzed. Over time, I had to learn to walk again in a center for patients with serious brain damage. I fully recovered and felt healthy six years later."

"While I was recovering, the doctors actively discussed my case. I wasn't ready for publicity, but at the end of 2010 I decided that I would disclose my name and photo to the press. I was no longer a nameless Berlin patient, I became Timothy Ray Brown."

In June 2012 at the International Conference on HIV/At the AIDS Conference, which took place in Washington, Brown announced the creation of the Timothy Ray Brown Foundation. Which so far remains the only foundation in Europe dedicated exclusively to finding a cure for HIV.