[4] Their patient Timothy Ray Brown, a US citizen born in Seattle, Washington, and living in Berlin,[12] had both acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and HIV.
The physicians found a bone marrow donor with a CCR5-Δ32 mutation in both genomic copies of a gene encoding a cell-surface chemokine receptor called CCR5.
After 600 days without antiretroviral drug treatment, the patient's blood, bone marrow and bowel HIV levels were below the limit of detection; the virus was thought to be present in other tissues.
[16] Jay Levy, one of the first researchers to isolate and describe HIV in the early 1980s, wrote an editorial accompanying Hütter's publication in the New England Journal of Medicine.
[17] Levy does believe though that this case "could pave the way for innovative approaches that provide long-lasting viral control with limited toxicities for persons with HIV infection".
[17] In the March 10, 2011, issue of the medical journal Blood, Hütter wrote, "it is reasonable to conclude that cure of HIV infection has been achieved in this patient.
[20] The text read: "Dr. Gero Hütter: In recognition of your historic achievement of being the first doctor to functionally cure AIDS/HIV through an innovative procedure that entails a remarkable example of the use of stem cell transplants.