German scientists: stem cell transplant cured HIV

According to German scientists, a Berlin man has been cured of HIV after a stem cell transplant.

Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the "Berlin Patient," received the transplant in 2007 as treatment for leukemia. A report from his doctors was recently published in the journal Blood saying that Brown's blood tests "strongly suggest that cure of HIV infection has been achieved."

The Huffington Post reported that Brown is the first person to be declared cured of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

"This should be looked at as a rare event rather than an approach to treating HIV patients," said Dr. Stephen Boswell of Fenway Health. "Transplants like this are very costly and dangerous and this is not an approach that is likely to work in any widespread way. The potentially exciting news from this case, which was first reported at the 2008 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections here in Boston, is that it might offer us insight into the biology of HIV infection, rather than providing a usable cure."

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