For the first time in history, a man is cured of HIV.

[Stephen!]

For the first time in history, a man has been cured of HIV. The patient, 42-year old Timothy Ray Brown was first hospitalized at Berlin at Germany’s Charite Universitatsmedizin hospital after he contracted acute myeloid leukemia in 2007. He underwent aggressive chemotherapy that destroyed the majority of his immune cells and finally, went through a risky stem-cell transplant that appears to have completely cured Brown of HIV.

http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/12/14/for-the-first-time-in-history-a-man-is-cured-of-hiv/

[GommeInc]

http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2010/12/14/for-the-first-time-in-history-a-man-is-cured-of-hiv/
Hmmm, this reminds me of a story not so long ago where a man managed to cure his HIV by taking lots of vitamin pills, but I'm guessing it was a different form judging by this... Or I dreamt it up somewhere. Will look for it now :/

EDIT: Hmm, seems to be a dodgy account of a man testing positive then 14 months testing negative. So chances are the tests were faulty:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4432564.stm

The news about this man from Germany is interesting though, but apparently the procedure isn't an easy one. It's the first time I've heard of a rare genetic disorder which makes it difficult to catch the virus.

[Wig44.]

Hmmm, this reminds me of a story not so long ago where a man managed to cure his HIV by taking lots of vitamin pills, but I'm guessing it was a different form judging by this... Or I dreamt it up somewhere. Will look for it now :/

EDIT: Hmm, seems to be a dodgy account of a man testing positive then 14 months testing negative. So chances are the tests were faulty:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4432564.stm

The news about this man from Germany is interesting though, but apparently the procedure isn't an easy one. It's the first time I've heard of a rare genetic disorder which makes it difficult to catch the virus.

I'm sure it wasn't just a faulty test. This is going to be very hard to reproduce because it requires stem cells that have mutated (present in 1-2% of the white population, 0% of the black population, not sure about asians) to be resistant to HIV. Not to mention how risky stem cell transplants are and the fact that your immune system has to be almost completely wiped out. So it could be used to cure HIV but only in very few pople who are also able to come up with a lot of money.

[Swastika]

Amazing stuff.

[GommeInc]

I'm sure it wasn't just a faulty test. This is going to be very hard to reproduce because it requires stem cells that have mutated (present in 1-2% of the white population, 0% of the black population, not sure about asians) to be resistant to HIV. Not to mention how risky stem cell transplants are and the fact that your immune system has to be almost completely wiped out. So it could be used to cure HIV but only in very few pople who are also able to come up with a lot of money.
I was talking about that other example :P I remember reading something similar like this but apparently there hasn't been any solid evidence. This German one (the man proven to of been cured with stem cell transplants) is pretty fascinating and has some substance. As you said though, it'll be reserved for people who have the money, although I can see doctors reluctantly treating people who have immune problems.

[dbgtz]

to be honest, it wont be long now that it will evolve to be something simple and almost riskless now that it is proven successful.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Well lets hope this develops into something, but cancer and HIV - one is bad enough nevermind having the two of them.

[Shar]

Amazing case. I really do hope this develops into something, this gives hope I guess.

[Neil]

I'm surprised this was posted to habbox forum and it didn't get a million odd people going "oh my gods stem cell is just wrong!"
It'll likely move onto something else but chances are it'll still be something that will be looked at as controversial.