What is Berlin Patient?
The "Berlin Patient" refers to Timothy Ray Brown, an American man who was known as the first person to be cured of HIV/AIDS. Brown was living in Berlin, Germany, when he was diagnosed with both HIV and acute myeloid leukemia, a type of cancer affecting the blood and bone marrow.
In 2007 and 2008, Brown underwent two bone marrow transplants to treat his leukemia. His transplant donor had a rare genetic mutation known as CCR5-delta 32, which confers resistance to HIV by preventing the virus from entering human cells. This mutation occurs naturally in a small percentage of people of European descent.
After the transplants, not only did Brown's leukemia go into remission, but doctors also discovered that HIV could no longer be detected in his body. He stopped taking antiretroviral drugs, the standard treatment for HIV, and remained free of the virus until his death from a recurrence of cancer, unrelated to HIV, on September 29, 2020.
Timothy Ray Brown's case provided hope and valuable insights to the scientific community, indicating for the first time that a cure for HIV might be possible. However, bone marrow transplants are risky and not a practical or widely applicable method for curing HIV in most patients, largely due to the difficulty of finding suitable donors with the CCR5-delta 32 mutation and the high risk of transplant-related complications. Nonetheless, the "Berlin Patient" has become a symbol of the potential for medical advances in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
