DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Doctors in Germany believe they've cured a man of HIV.
Timothy Brown, an American living in Berlin, was given stem-cell therapy and chemotherapy in 2007 to treat leukemia, a condition that developed after he was infected with the AIDS virus.
Three years later, doctors believe the 42-year-old has been cured of both cancer and HIV.
"Our results strongly suggest that cure of HIV has been achieved in this patient," wrote study author Kristina Allers in this month's issue of the medical journal Blood.
Doctors say they treated Brown with stem cells and bone marrow from a healthy individual with a genetic predisposition to resist HIV.
Doctors believe Brown is the first person ever to be cured of HIV and say the treatment could pave the way for a new approach in fighting the virus.
The treatment was not without side effects. Brown developed neurological problems that caused temporary blindness and memory problems as well as difficulty with coordination and speech.
Dr. Gero Hutter, the lead doctor overseeing Brown's treatment, told the German magazine Stern his team has "overthrown the dogma that HIV can never be cured."
"Something like this is the greatest thing one can achieve in medical research," he said.
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