(ANSA) - ROME, SEPTEMBER 30 - Timothy Ray Brown, the American known as the "Berlin patient" who in 2008 became the first man to recover from AIDS, died of cancer.
This was announced by the International Society explaining that "in the last six months, Timothy had lived with a relapse of leukemia" which had particularly affected his brain, but "had remained immune to the HIV virus".
Ray Brown, 54, has written a page in the medical history of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
In 1995 he was living in Berlin when he learned that he was infected with the virus.
Then, in 2006, he was diagnosed with leukemia.
To cure him of leukemia, his doctor at the University of Berlin used a stem cell transplant from a donor who had a rare genetic mutation that gave him natural resistance to HIV.
After two transplants, in 2008, he was cured of both diseases.
At first he kept his anonymity, being cited only as the "Berlin patient" but then, in 2010, he agreed to publicly reveal his name.
(HANDLE).