'I Don't Want To Be Only Person Cured of HIV'

Timothy Ray Brown, the first person cured of AIDS, has returned to Seattle, Washington, to participate in a science forum at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a free community event at Seattle University.

Brown, a Seattle native, was diagnosed with HIV in 1995. He took a combination of drugs to treat the disease, but in 2006, while living in Berlin, he was diagnosed with a highly lethal form of leukemia. After receiving two bone marrow transplants using marrow from a donor with a genetic mutation that blocks HIV/AIDS from getting into the immune cells, Brown no longer has HIV.

With a $20 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Keith Jerome, a researcher at Fred Hutchinson’s, and colleagues hope to develop a streamlined version of Brown’s cure using patients’ own stem cells to make them HIV-resistant.

Seattle will be Brown’s first stop on a national fundraising tour for the Timothy Ray Brown Foundation to search for a cure for HIV/AIDS.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus.

To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!