Brown died of blood cancer, but his life was closely intertwined with another disease.
Brown 1966 was born in Seattle, USA. 1995 studied in Berlin and had high-risk sex. Three weeks later, he developed a series of symptoms of acute infection, high fever and cough. A friend in Berlin suggested that he do a test. Only a few days later, Brown was diagnosed with AIDS.
This is the year before cocktail therapy was introduced. Like most patients who were initially infected, Brown asked the doctor how long I could live. The doctor didn't give a clear answer, but asked him to try cocktail therapy. After the diagnosis of 10, Brown began to take a series of combination drugs according to the doctor's requirements.
From the earliest zidovudine to protease inhibitors, Brown himself is not sure whether taking medicine is useful. He admitted to the doctor that the medication time was irregular, but in a reexamination from 65438 to 0996, the doctor found that Brown had no virus in his blood.
Brown is also very happy, which means that he has returned to his normal life. For the next ten years, Brown worked as a translator, riding a16km bike to and from work almost every day. Until 2007, he was in good health.
He felt tired that day. The hotel he usually goes to is two kilometers away, but he never has the strength to ride a bike. In the hospital, 40-year-old Timothy was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, the second biggest disease in his life.
Leukemia, also known as blood cancer, is a very dangerous signal when doctors find that brown red blood cell units can only be counted by one. The doctor told Brown that he needed four times of chemotherapy, one week for each round, and then a few weeks' rest.
Brown recorded the process of chemotherapy on his Facebook:
I did the first round; Everything goes well. The second round was infected with fungal pneumonia, which improved after antifungal treatment. I had another dangerous infection in the third round. Fell into a coma. One day later, when I woke up, Dr. Waite told me that I needed to rest immediately, so I went to Italy for a holiday. Before the third chemotherapy, Dr. Waite took a blood sample from my blood sample and sent it to the stem cell donor bank of the German Red Cross to find a sample that matched my body shape and prepare for my possible stem cell transplantation. This makes me very confused. I thought I would continue to endure the pain caused by chemotherapy.
Brown's attending doctor Waite has a bold idea. Since HIV will be enriched in human blood, then directly changing a blood will solve the infection once and for all. This is about CCR5 gene mutation, and it is also the source of AIDS cured cases later.
To put it simply, people with this gene mutation will not be infected with AIDS, and about 1% of white men are congenital CCR5 mutation carriers. Dr. Waite's bold plan is half successful, and there are 267 matches in the donor database, which gives the attending doctor a brand-new operating space.
At first, Brown was a little resistant to the plan. At that time, the success rate of stem cell transplantation was only 50%, and he was unwilling to take potential risks.
At the end of 2006, the condition of leukemia rebounded. For me, some things are becoming more and more invented. I need stem cell transplantation to survive. My new birthday is February 6th, 2007. I had a transplant. With the consent of Dr. Waite, I stopped taking HIV drugs on the day of transplantation. This is important because continuing antiretroviral therapy will mean that no one will know that I have cured HIV for a long time. After 3 months, I no longer found HIV in my blood. The body is gradually recovering. I can't go back to work and the gym until the end of the year. Because there is no HIV, I no longer suffer from wasting syndrome. Unfortunately, after traveling to the United States at Christmas and being diagnosed with pneumonia in Idaho, leukemia recurred.
My doctor in Berlin finally decided to use the same donor for a second transplant. In February 2008, I received the second stem cell transplant. The recovery since then has not been smooth. I became insane, almost blind and almost paralyzed. I finally learned to walk again in the center for patients with severe brain injury. About six years later, I almost fully recovered.
The researchers also found that even without medication, Brown's blood HIV remained at a very low level and could not be replicated. At the International AIDS Conference in 2008, researchers announced Brown's case. For the purpose of protecting him, Brown was also called "Berlin patient" at this time.
The report of "the first AIDS cure in the world" inspired the medical community. At present, more than 37 million people around the world are infected with HIV. Since 1980s, the AIDS epidemic has caused about 350,000 deaths.
While inspiring, Brown's success story has also been questioned. Is the virus really suppressed? This problem has also been bothering Brown. 20 10, he made a decision to disclose his identity as a "Berlin patient". He said in an open letter:
I don't want to be the only person in the world who has cured AIDS. I hope other HIV+ patients will join my club. I want to use my life to support the research on finding a cure for AIDS!
20 12 In July, at the World AIDS Conference held in Washington, D.C., Brown joined hands with a group of doctors to establish the Timothy Ray Brown Foundation under the World AIDS Research Institute. They cooperate with scientific research institutions and universities to develop vaccines to cure or cure and prevent AIDS.
In 20 19, the scientific magazine Nature reported another cured case of HIV. Like Brown's experience, an HIV-infected person suffered from severe leukemia and then received a stem cell transplant with CCR5 gene mutation. He recovered from his illness and no longer needed anti-HIV drugs. This recovered case is also called "London patient". (GS reports "AIDS cured, the second case in the world")
In March 2020, the "London Patient" also disclosed his identity. His name is Adam Castillejo, and he used to be a cook.
In 20 15, Brown said in an interview: At that time (1995), my friend who asked me to do the test said, do you know that you can live for another two years? But I've been through more than that. I went back to college and everything was fine.
Dan Blank's life finally came to an end, and all he left was that sentence-"My life is far from perfect, but this is my life."