MEET TIMOTHY RAY BROWN: WORLD'S ONLY PERSON TO BE "CURED" OF #HIV

Timothy found out he had HIV in 1995. He had HIV for 12 years before he became the first person in the world to be cured of the infection following a stem cell transplant in 2007.

Since the first diagnosis, about 34 years ago, HIV has infected more than 60 million people, around 30 million of whom have died. For another 5 million, anti-retroviral therapy has made their infection a manageable though still chronic condition.

The International AIDS Conference, a biannual event, that sees more than 25,000 doctors, scientists, AIDS activists, politicians, philanthropists, drug company representatives, people living with HIV and heads of state from around the world, for the past few years have centred on the following things: research on how to prevent HIV infection, treatment as prevention and, also, about a "cure."

Even an international working group of more than 300 researchers have been set aside working to developing a road map of sorts, outlining priorities for finding a cure for the disease that has claimed approximately 30 million lives worldwide.

Dr. Steven Deeks of the AIDS Research institute at the 2012, 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington said, "we are trying to both inspire people about the possibility that this (a cure) might happen someday. But trying to be realistic, and the realistic part is that we have to do some fundamental basic science first.

Most reasonable people would say it's at best 50-50 that we're gonna get a cure, so we don't want to over-hype this. We're excited, we think it's possible, we think it's worth pursuing, but don't expect anything in the near future."

But, one man in particular, has pushed the limits of possibility, and has broken the spell. His name is TIMOTHY RAY BROWN.

Read THE TIMOTHY RAY BROWN EXPERIENCE for the concluding part of this article.

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