Brighten Your Day

First man ever to be cured of AIDS

June 18, 2012

Timothy Brown is only 46 years old, but his life was in danger up until about 3 years ago. He is now the only man in the world to have been cured of AIDS.

Have doctor's finally found a cure for the deadly disease? According to Brown, he has had no major illnesses since the transplant 3 years ago. Brown received a transplant of blood stem cells which cured the disease.

Brown did get lucky. The blood stem cells he received happen to be from a donor with a genetic mutation that made him resistant to HIV. This mutation is very uncommon and in fact only occurs in about 1% Caucasians, and even less in other races.

Doctors claim that although they were able to cure Brown, it was very difficult using the blood stem cells from an adult donor. They are hoping to use umbilical cord blood transplants in the future. The match between the donor and patient has to be extremely similar in order to work as adults, but much less when using umbilical cord blood.

The team performed the first cord blood transplant on an HIV-infected patient a few weeks ago, and they have another transplant planned for a similar patient in Spain. It will take months or even years to know if the transplant has worked, but there is hope that others will join Brown and be cured forever.

This is HUGE breaking news in the medical world. We no longer have to believe that AIDS is incurable. Timothy Brown is living, walking proof!