You cannot get better news than this one: AIDS finally has a cure! You are not hearing it wrong because it is true. A 45 year old man living in San Francisco, California has become the first person ever who has been cured of the deadly disease, HIV AIDS because of the discovery of an apparent HIV immunity gene.
Known as “The Berlin Patient”, Timothy Ray Brown was tested positive for HIV back in 1995. In 2007, Brown was living in Berlin, Germany dealing with HIV and leukemia, when scientists there gave him a bone marrow stem cell transplant. Scientists said that Brown received stem cells from a donor who was “immune to HIV”. An interesting note: about 1% of Caucasians are immune to HIV. Some researchers believe that the immunity gene goes back to the Great Plague: people who survived the plague passed their immunity down and their heirs have it today.
In Brown’s own word, “I quit taking my HIV medication the day that I got the transplant and haven’t had to take any since. I’m cured of HIV. I had HIV but I don’t anymore.”
UCSF’s Dr. Jay Levy, who co-discovered the HIV virus and is one of the most respected AIDS researchers in the world, said this case opens the door to the field of “cure research.” But the researchers are still using this case as an exception rather than the rule because of the unanswered questions related to the experiment.
Brown’s amazing progress continues to be monitored by doctors at San Francisco General Hospital and at the University of California at San Francisco medical center. The institute said that it plans to begin clinical trials next year in the hopes of replicating Brown’s success for broader populations of people with HIV.
We sincerely hope that the trial works and AIDS finally has a permanent cure for which we have been waiting so long.
-Nisha Noor
SOURCE: <"a href="http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/05/16/apparent-immunity-gene-cures-bay-area-man-of-aids/">CBS SAN FRANCISCO
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