Timothy Ray Brown, the first person cured of HIV, succumbs to Cancer at 54

Guwahati: Timothy Ray Brown, the first person in the world to be cured of the AIDS-causing HIV, has died from cancer. He was 54.

Brown, who given the moniker of "the Berlin patient", was given a bone marrow transplant from a donor who was naturally resistant to HIV in 2007. Following the miraculous cure, Brown no longer needed anti-viral drugs and was free of HIV for the rest of his life.

Brown was born in the US and was diagnosed with HIV while he lived in Berlin in 1995. In 2007, he developed acute myeloid leukaemia -- a type of blood cancer.

For Brown to be cured of the cancer, his bone marrow, which was producing the cancerous cells, had to be destroyed.

The transfer came from a donor that had a rare mutation in part of their DNA called the CCR5 gene. What this basically means is that it gave the donor resistance to HIV.

After the transplant, levels of HIV in Brown's blood fell to undetectable levels. Somewhat miraculously, the man was "cured" of the AIDS-causing virus.

The leukaemia that led to Brown's HIV cure returned earlier this year and spread to his brain and spinal cord.

"It is with great sadness that I announce that Timothy passed away... surrounded by myself and friends, after a five-month battle with leukemia," his partner Tim Hoeffgen posted on Facebook, adding, "Tim committed his life's work to telling his story about his HIV cure and became an ambassador of hope."

Although Brown's cure was too risky and aggressive to be used routinely (it remains principally a cancer treatment) and is also too expensive for the 38 million people, many in sub-Saharan Africa, thought to be living with an HIV infection, it gave people hope that the virus can be defeated.

The International Aids Society (IAS) said it was mourning Brown's demise with "a profoundly heavy heart".

Another HIV patient Adam Castillejo - known as the London patient - had similar treatment to Brown and could come off his antiviral drugs earlier this year.

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