This is amazing news. I remember hearing of research in Africa a few years ago that mentioned some women who were immune but did not know that there were so many others. One percent is small but still, one percent of all Caucasians adds up. There's a lot of work ahead to improve the chances for success with this treatment but it's an incredibly big step in the right direction.
There's not much good news when it comes to this devastating disease. But that is perhaps why the story of the man scientists call the "Berlin patient" is so remarkable and has generated so much excitement among the HIV advocacy community.
Timothy Ray Brown suffered from both leukemia and HIV when he received a bone marrow stem cell transplant in Berlin, Germany in 2007. The transplant came from a man who was immune to HIV, which scientists say about 1 percent of Caucasians are. (According to San Francisco's CBS affiliate, the trait may be passed down from ancestors who became immune to the plague centuries ago.)
What happened next has stunned the dozens of scientists who are closely monitoring Brown: His HIV went away.
