7. HIV Cure Ups and Downs
The first HIV cure was revealed in an obscure conference poster in 2008, but it gained widespread attention when a medical journal reported in 2010 that Timothy Ray Brown, known as “the Berlin Patient,” had been off antiretroviral treatment for more than three years with no sign of viral rebound. This occurred after Brown received bone marrow transplants to treat his leukemia using stem cells that lacked CCR5, a receptor HIV uses to enter cells. In 2017, Brown celebrated 10 years of being free of HIV. The past decade saw hopes for a cure raised on several occasions—such as the case of “the Mississippi baby"—but these mostly ended in disappointment. One exception: In 2019, researchers reported that a second man, dubbed “the London Patient,” had been off antiretrovirals with undetectable HIV for 18 months following a CCR5-negative bone marrow transplant; to date, there have been no reports of his HIV coming back.
