AIDS Turning Point: 'A Cure Is Possible'

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/aids-cure-new-science-suggests-breakthrough-ways-of-eradicating-hiv-a-920562.html


Timothy Brown, also known as "The Berlin Patient," listens as he is introduced to speak at a news conference in Washington in 2012. Brown received a bone-marrow stem-cell transplant as treatment for leukemia. The donor was, thanks to genetics, immune to HIV and the immunity seemed to have passed to Brown.

HIV specialist Stefan Fenske's medical clinic, located in Hamburg's university district, isn't a moribund place. The rooms are filled with light, the walls are decorated with modern art and you can hear laughter. Werner (not his real name) is in a good mood as he sits in the consultation room discussing his illness. The 63-year-old refers to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that nestled into his body over 23 years ago as a "subletter," not an enemy or a deadly threat.

Every three months, Thomas travels to Hamburg from the nearby small town where he lives. Blood samples are taken and 15 minutes later he heads home again. "Some healthy people would be happy to have test results like mine," he says. His physician, Dr. Fenske, is also satisfied: "His smoking is definitely a bigger health risk for him than the virus."
Prior to 1996, in the days before highly effective anti-retroviral drugs were developed, Fenske witnessed the horror of AIDS and the deaths of many patients. At the time, the skeletal, emaciated bodies of AIDS patients were sapped of their strength by infections and consumed by tumors.

A New Kind of HIV Patient

The new drugs came too late for Thomas' boyfriend, who died in 1993 of an AIDS-related illness. Thomas was no longer allowed to work as a waiter, and had to go into retirement at the age of 40. "What should I do now?" he asked himself at the time. "Grow old, at any rate!", he vowed.