ABOVE: SCOTT TABER
Timothy Ray Brown, who became the first HIV patient to be cured of the infection, died September 29 of leukemia—the very disease that led to the fortuitous eradication of the virus from his body. He was 54.
Until he disclosed his identity, Brown was known as the Berlin patient, whose HIV infection was eliminated in 2007 after undergoing a stem cell transplant to treat acute myeloid leukemia. The bone marrow donor was selected to have a naturally occurring genetic variant that blocked HIV from entering cells. The treatment worked—both for his cancer, and his viral infection.
“Timothy symbolized that it is possible, under special circumstances” to cure HIV, Gero Hütter, the doctor who performed the stem cell transplant, tells the Associated Press.
Until 2016, Brown remained the only person in the world to have been cured of AIDS using this approach and his unique experience motivated him ...
