Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the Berlin patient, became the first person to be fully cured of HIV. Ray Brown is now suffering from a terminal form of leukaemia. Ray Brown’s leukaemia was said to have been cured along with the HIV infection, but it recurred. The 54-year-old, who is receiving hospice care in his current home in the US state of California, was cured of HIV by receiving bone marrow of a person resistant to the virus.
Ray Brown was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2006 and was to be treated by bone marrow transplant. Dr Gero Hütter from the University of Berlin at the time thought transplanting marrow of a person with natural resistance to HIV would cure him of the virus too. And while Ray Brown was cured of HIV, cancer still persisted. But, in 2007, following another transplant, he was cured of leukaemia as well.
Ray Brown’s story, which was widely published, gave hope to several HIV patients across the world. In an AP report, he is quoted as saying, “I'm still glad that I had it. It opened up doors that weren't there before," talking of choosing to go ahead with the revolutionary treatment in Berlin.
Scientists have since tried recreating the success they had Ray Brown. Only one man— Adam Castillejo, known as the London patient was successfully cured using the same method in 2016. Other patients either saw the virus return or eventually succumbed to cancer. The procedure is complicated and risky. Donors are rare too—the genetic mutation is found in only 1 per cent of white people living in northern and western Europe.
