A New York woman may be the first to have been cured using a new paradigm of treatment.

From 1981, when the first patients with HIV were identified, to 2007 – a cure for the deadly virus would have been a miracle. And then, Timothy Ray Brown – known as “The Berlin Patient” was cured. And just like that, a miracle became science.

Mr. Brown had been diagnosed with HIV in 1995. In 2006, he was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia which would require a donor bone marrow stem cell transplant for treatment. But this wasn’t just any donor. His donor was one of less than 1% of the world’s population, with a unique genetic mutation known as the CCR5-∆32 mutation. This rendered the donor’s immune cells resistant to HIV.

It was a gamble, to be sure, but it proved to be a successful one. Mr. Brown lived from 2007 to 2020 without the need for anti-retroviral therapy. He died from a relapse of AML. No HIV was detected at the time of his death.

The question, of course is simple: why can’t more people be cured of HIV?

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