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06-05-2011, 12:46 PM
First man ‘functionally cured’ of HIV
By Liz Goodwin
Fri Jun 3, 5:40 pm ET
Since HIV was discovered 30 years ago this week, 30 million people have died from the disease, and it continues to spread at the rate of 7,000 people per day globally, the UN says.
There's not much good news when it comes to this devastating virus. But that is perhaps why the story of the man scientists call the "Berlin patient" is so remarkable and has generated so much excitement among the HIV advocacy community.
Timothy Ray Brown suffered from both leukemia and HIV when he received a bone marrow stem cell transplant in Berlin, Germany in 2007. The transplant came from a man who was immune to HIV, which scientists say about 1 percent of Caucasians are. (According to San Francisco's CBS affiliate, the trait may be passed down from ancestors who became immune to the plague centuries ago. This Wired story says it was more likely passed down from people who became immune to a smallpox-like disease.)
What happened next has stunned the dozens of scientists who are closely monitoring Brown: 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," his doctor Gero Huetter told Reuters. Brown now lives in the Bay Area, and suffers from some mild neurological difficulties after the operation. "It makes me very happy," he says of the incredible cure.
Read More: First man ‘functionally cured’ of HIV - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110603/us_yblog_thelookout/first-man-functionally-cured-of-hiv;_ylt=A0wNdPzezetNVtgAgF2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNlYmt vZ2NnBGFzc2V0A3libG9nX3RoZWxvb2tvdXQvMjAxMTA2MDMvZ mlyc3QtbWFuLWZ1bmN0aW9uYWxseS1jdXJlZC1vZi1oaXYEcG9 zAzUEc2VjA3luX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDZmlyc3RtYW44M jE2)
Wow, this is a major step forward in the field of medicine.
By Liz Goodwin
Fri Jun 3, 5:40 pm ET
Since HIV was discovered 30 years ago this week, 30 million people have died from the disease, and it continues to spread at the rate of 7,000 people per day globally, the UN says.
There's not much good news when it comes to this devastating virus. But that is perhaps why the story of the man scientists call the "Berlin patient" is so remarkable and has generated so much excitement among the HIV advocacy community.
Timothy Ray Brown suffered from both leukemia and HIV when he received a bone marrow stem cell transplant in Berlin, Germany in 2007. The transplant came from a man who was immune to HIV, which scientists say about 1 percent of Caucasians are. (According to San Francisco's CBS affiliate, the trait may be passed down from ancestors who became immune to the plague centuries ago. This Wired story says it was more likely passed down from people who became immune to a smallpox-like disease.)
What happened next has stunned the dozens of scientists who are closely monitoring Brown: 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," his doctor Gero Huetter told Reuters. Brown now lives in the Bay Area, and suffers from some mild neurological difficulties after the operation. "It makes me very happy," he says of the incredible cure.
Read More: First man ‘functionally cured’ of HIV - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110603/us_yblog_thelookout/first-man-functionally-cured-of-hiv;_ylt=A0wNdPzezetNVtgAgF2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNlYmt vZ2NnBGFzc2V0A3libG9nX3RoZWxvb2tvdXQvMjAxMTA2MDMvZ mlyc3QtbWFuLWZ1bmN0aW9uYWxseS1jdXJlZC1vZi1oaXYEcG9 zAzUEc2VjA3luX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDZmlyc3RtYW44M jE2)
Wow, this is a major step forward in the field of medicine.