First man "cured" of HIV

Democracy Now!:

As researchers continue to look for a possible cure for HIV/AIDS, we turn to the remarkable story of Timothy Ray Brown, known in the medical world as the "Berlin patient." He is the first person believed to have been cured of HIV. "I was diagnosed in 1995 with HIV, and I was scared to death because, at that point, people were dying from the disease itself and also form the only available drug at that time, AZT," Brown recalls. A decade later, he was diagnosed with leukemia, as well. Living in Berlin at the time, Brown was treated by a German doctor named Gero Hütter, who devised an experimental treatment to cure both the HIV and the leukemia. The treatment worked, making Brown the first person cured of AIDS since it was discovered over 30 years ago. Brown’s story has inspired researchers across the globe looking for a cure. "The problem is, is that 'cure' has been a four-letter word for a long while in a lot of the AIDS community. There have been promises before that hadn’t really panned out," says AIDS researcher Dr. Jeffrey Laurence. Brown has just launched a foundation dedicated to the search for an HIV cure for everyone. "I believe that this is something that gives hope to a lot of people with HIV and their families. And that’s very important to me," Brown says.