David Miller
It’s been more than a decade since, in 2007, a German oncologist named Dr. Gero Hütter performed a risky surgical procedure on a willing patient with both HIV and leukaemia that would result in the first and only person to date cured of HIV. In the years since, the details of the procedure have been well documented, publicized, and scrutinized, leaving little doubt that Timothy Ray Brown (formerly known as the “Berlin Patient”) has indeed been cured of HIV (and leukaemia).
Although successful, Timothy Ray Brown’s treatment may provide proof of concept but not a functional way to generalize the cure to a widespread population of people living with HIV. It remains unclear whether Brown’s cure methodology could be replicated at all, given similar circumstances and unlimited funds. To date, it sadly has not.
The procedure is relatively simple to understand. The immune system is destroyed by using chemotherapy and radiation, killing the HIV, and the cancer along with it. Blood cord cells (transplanted bone marrow cells) from a compatible donor are then used to rebuild the immune system. In Brown’s case, these cells were donated by a man with a genetic mutation that confers resistance to HIV, as the mutation of the CCR5 “doorway” that HIV typically uses to enter and infect a cell is physically incompatible with the virus.
This procedure is not without risk; one in every five people who undergo a regular blood cord transplant do not survive. Brown received his HIV cure because his leukaemia was life threatening, necessitating radical intervention. Dr. Hütter struck upon the idea of using stem cells resistant to HIV, as well as matched for blood-type, for the transplant
It is astounding that more than a decade after the successful cure of one person, it has neither been replicated nor inspired a precise medical breakthrough for curing other people infected, if not hundreds, thousands, or millions. Brown continues to live as the only person granted a new and hopeful future. He has become iconic as a symbol of hope in this pandemic.
With thousands of clinicians, scientists, researchers, doctors, bureaucrats, and activists working hard to advance an HIV cure strategy, will AIDS 2018 go down in history as a turning point in the struggle for the cure? We can only hope. Timothy Ray Brown often speaks of feeling lonely as the singular cured person; many would love to stand with him – and give him company.
This article originally appeared in PanAware