HIV-AIDS News 2017: The Only Person Cured of HIV Hopes For Effective Treatment to Be Found
Since the emergence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), there is only one person who was ever known to be cured of the disease — Timothy Ray Brown — who hopes that a permanent cure will soon be found.
Brown was cured of HIV by accident, but he wishes that others who have been diagnosed with the virus will find a cure soon.
"I don't want to be the only one cured of HIV' it is a very lonely place'" said Brown, who is also known as the "Berlin Patient," a reference to where he was treated, Times Live confirmed.
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Brown was first diagnosed with HIV in 1995. To treat his condition, he took antiretrovirals. However, when he was diagnosed with leukemia, he had to stop the treatment out of fear that the donor cells he would receive will not work.
It was in Brown's good luck that the donor of from his stem cell transplants happened to have rare HIV-resistant blood cells, which he received in 2007 and 2008. But only even after Brown's first transplant, he already noticed some developments about his HIV condition.
After three months from his first transplant in 2007, Brown's HIV surfaced with intensity and then began to dissipate. Brown suspected that his condition was improving when he felt that he was gaining muscle again after his HIV soared.
In June 2007, Brown was back at work and his immune system was becoming stronger than ever. But his leukemia came back, which led him to the second bone marrow transplant in 2008.
Later on, when Brown developed complications on his sight, the doctors decided to do a brain biopsy to see if he had leukemia there. But they found out that from the biopsy that he was cleared from both leukemia and HIV.
Unfortunately, the treatment that Brown underwent is too risky to try on other HIV patients. However, his case only proves that a cure is still possible.
A professor of medicine and public health at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Jeffrey Klausner, said HIV-AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) cause "an average of 20 deaths a day," the Huffington Post confirmed.
Klausner added that about 1.1 million people in the United States have HIV-AIDS and about 15 percent of that are unaware that they have it.
"We need to continue to be aware, continue to talk about it and continue to advocate for prevention and treatment resources," Klausner added.
