Timothy Ray Brown, the first person known to have been cured of HIV infection, says he is now terminally ill from a recurrence of the cancer that prompted his historic treatment 12 years ago.<\/p>\n
Brown, dubbed \u201cthe Berlin patient\u201d because of where he lived at the time, had a transplant from a donor with a rare, natural resistance to the AIDS virus. For years, that was thought to have cured his leukemia and his HIV infection, and he still shows no signs of HIV.<\/p>\n
But in an interview with The Associated Press, Brown said his cancer returned last year and has spread widely. He\u2019s receiving hospice care where he now lives in Palm Springs, California.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still glad that I had it,\u201d Brown said of his transplant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt opened up doors that weren\u2019t there before\u201d and inspired scientists to work harder to find a cure, which many had begun to think was not possible, the 54-year-old said Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cTimothy proved that HIV can be cured, but that\u2019s not what inspires me about him,\u201d said Dr. Steven Deeks, an AIDS specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, who has worked with Brown to further research toward a cure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took pieces of his gut, we took pieces of his lymph nodes. Every time he was asked to do something, he showed up with amazing grace,\u201d Deeks said.<\/p>\n
Brown was an American working as a translator in Berlin in the 1990s when he learned he had HIV. In 2006, he was diagnosed with leukemia.<\/p>\n
Dr. Gero Huetter, a blood cancer expert at the University of Berlin, believed that a marrow transplant was Brown\u2019s best chance of beating the leukemia. He wondered, could he also cure Brown\u2019s other life-threatening disease by using a donor with a gene mutation that provides natural resistance to the AIDS virus?<\/p>\n
Donors like these are very rare and transplants are risky. Doctors have to destroy the patient\u2019s diseased immune system with chemotherapy and radiation, then transplant the donor\u2019s cells and hope they develop into a new immune system for the recipient.<\/p>\n
Brown\u2019s first transplant in 2007 was only partly successful: His HIV seemed to be gone but his leukemia was not. He had a second transplant from the same donor in March 2008 and that one seemed to work.<\/p>\n
Since then, Brown has repeatedly tested negative for HIV and has frequently appeared at AIDS conferences where cure research is discussed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been like an ambassador of hope,\u201d said Brown\u2019s partner, Tim Hoeffgen.<\/p>\n
A second man, Adam Castillejo \u2014 called \u201cthe London patient\u201d until he revealed his identity earlier this year \u2014 also is believed to have been cured by a transplant similar to Brown\u2019s in 2016.<\/p>\n
But donors like these are scarce and the procedure is too risky to be widely used.<\/p>\n
Scientists have been testing gene therapy and other ways to try to get the effect of the favorable gene mutation without having to do a transplant. At an AIDS conference in July, researchers said they may have achieved a long-term remission in a Brazil man by using a powerful combination of drugs meant to flush dormant HIV from his body.<\/p>\n
Mark King, a Baltimore man who writes a blog for people with HIV, said he spoke with Brown earlier this week and is grateful for what Brown has contributed to AIDS research.<\/p>\n
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Timothy Ray Brown, the first person known to have been cured of HIV infection, says he is now terminally ill from a recurrence of the cancer that prompted his historic treatment 12 years ago. Brown, dubbed \u201cthe Berlin patient\u201d because of where he lived at the time, had a transplant from a donor with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[606],"class_list":{"0":"post-28120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-community","9":"tag-hiv"},"yoast_head":"\n