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ven. Nov 9, 2018 | 19h07
On December 18, 2010, Trends published an article about Timothy Ray Brown, who announced the news as the first human to defeat AIDS. Today, he is still alive, discussing and maintaining his unique case status in medicine.
Timothy Ray Brown has always been an inveterate cyclist and his neighbors saw him pedaling between his house and his office in Berlin, where he translated texts from German to English. . One day in 2006, the American wanted to go to lunch and get on his bike, but he felt so tired that he had to get off and go back to work. He told Michael, his partner, that he needed to see a doctor and the alarm was triggered in both cases because in 1995 Brown had been diagnosed with HIV and was taking medication to fight against the disease.
But blood tests and bone marrow biopsies revealed a new enemy: Brown was suffering from acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer in which the body makes an excess of immature white blood cells. At the age of 40, this man from Seattle was struggling with a second life-threatening illness. However, luck was on his side because the doctor with whom he made contact to start his treatment was Gero Hütter, a 38-year-old oncologist at Charité Hospital of the University of Berlin.
Upon learning that his patient was also HIV-positive. , the doctor recalled the time when antiretroviral treatments did not even exist. "When I was a medical student, I saw 50% of HIV-infected patients die of AIDS," he said today Trends . This reality was not the only thing that came to his mind: he also remembered reading a study describing a natural resistance to HIV. Nearly one percent of people of European origin have a genetic mutation called delta32 that prevents lymphocytes from containing the CCR5 receptor, one of the gates through which the virus uses to enter cells and cells. multiply.
Brown needed one He had received a bone marrow transplant to treat his leukemia and Hütter thought that when he discovered a donor with delta disorder32, his stem cells might be able to renew completely the US immune system and eradicating its cancer, but also HIV: "I knew that if The procedure used would constitute a radical change and the study of AIDS would have a new goal: find a cure," adds Hütter. 61 potential donors have been tested until the last one carries the mutation. In 2007, Brown received the transplant and stopped taking his antiretroviral drugs. After two weeks of isolation, he returned home. He resumed his sporting activity and three months after the transplant, his body showed no detectable signs of HIV.
But soon after, Brown suffered from pneumonia, a relapse of leukemia and had to undergo a second bone marrow transplant. Nevertheless, HIV has not returned. In 2008, media such as the BBC reported a case of AIDS cured, but the so-called "Berlin patient" chose to remain anonymous. Finally, in 2010, Brown revealed his identity in an interview with the German magazine Stern : "I chose to speak because I did not want to be known only as the" Berlin patient "and that I did not want to be the only person in the world who had been cured of HIV At some point, scientists started to tell me that my story inspired them, while people living with HIV and their friends told me that it gave them hope, I felt that I had made the right decision, and I also agreed to participate in almost all the studies. carried out by researchers, but unfortunately, I am still the only person who has been confirmed to have cured of HIV, "said Brown Trends from his current residence in California.
Tal As Brown points out, after ten years of badyzes, biopsies, and badyzes that he continues to undergo to decipher what he did for his special agency, his case is still unique: out of 70 millions of people infected with HIV alone He managed to defeat him. "The reason it is so difficult to cure or to find a vaccine is because the virus mutates very quickly, making it difficult to find a method that contains it and that does not allow you to change and escape the pitfalls. However, I think that someday HIV will be treatable for everyone, if it happened once, it can happen again and my case is proof of that. Nothing is impossible, "says Brown.
At first, presenting himself as the" Berlin patient "was complex, as Hütter and he had become celebrities of medicine.A few hours after the announcement of his name, dozens of journalists gathered in his building, and the next day Brown had to slip through the back door to get on a bus, and over time the environment calmed down and he began talking to United States and Europe to encourage research a cure for HIV. so that whoever needs it will be healed. I also intend to study nursing because I want to help people. "
Hütter, who is now 49 years old, had a similar experience to his patient, and even received e-mails from people living with HIV who asked him to submit them to the same procedure and even told him offered some money. "There were times when I was getting requests every day and I had to answer that the technique we were using was not appropriate for everyone. Most accepted this reality, but it was sometimes very difficult to discuss, "he says, and today he remains involved in HIV research and is part of the European consortium IciStem. Calimmune company, which develops gene therapies against HIV: "Five years ago, I was very optimistic and I thought that new advances such as genetics would allow us to put our finger on the head. Today, I am much more careful because there are still huge difficulties to overcome, but every day new clues appear and there is still hope . "
Although the patient of the German doctor continues to live without traces of HIV in his body, he still can not escape the consequences of the treatment that freed him from the virus: after one of the transplants, Brown suffered a He had to learn to walk and talk again, while his eyesight never fully recovered, and the product of an badault that lived in Berlin. in 2009 can not move the shoulder and is unable to handle. "As a disabled person, I receive money from the US Social Security. They also pay me to give lectures and to walk dogs, "he says.His story also brought him closer to his mother, who is his only son:" My friends and family have given me their full support. My mom has fully supported me and still encourages her friends to like my posts on Facebook and to read articles that talk about me. My current boyfriend, who has been HIV-positive for 29 years, supports and protects me as well. I take her to all conferences for emotional support. "
Brown admits that many doctors and researchers now consider him a hero and congratulate him for the enthusiasm that he manifests for his studies." But when asked for his He must undergo treatment after all that he has lived through and the consequences, the "Berlin patient" is more skeptical: "I'm not sure that I would have enough altruism to do it if I had no guarantee the result. However, I am very happy with the way everything is done. This has given me a reason to continue my life. "
To see the pdf of the original article, click here, and read it here
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