Timothy Ray Brown pegged the has been essentially cured of the HIV disease, and if that were not remarkable enough it was by accident. Suffering from both Leukemia and HIV Brown received a bone marrow stem cell transplant in 2007. The transplant came from a man who was already immune to the disease which approximately 1% of Caucasians are. Remarkably once receiving the transplant the doctors monitoring Brown noticed his HIV went away. "He has no replicating virus and he isn't taking any medication. And he will now probably never have any problems with HIV," says his doctor Gero Heutter told Reuters.The HIV epidemic which has killed an estimated 30 Million people in the 30 years since it was discovered and continues to spread at a rate of 7000 people a day (according to the UN). This disease destroys countless lives and we rarely hear any good news.
Despite the good news expectations should be tempered. Bone marrow transplants can be fatal and there is no way that this treatment could be applied to the estimated 33 million carriers of HIV today.
CBS has an interview video with Timothy Ray Brown HERE
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