First Cure For AIDS?

As is well known, the antirretrovirals pospone the development of AIDS but do not cure it. However in recent days a first cure in a patient with confirmed AIDS has been announced. The Huffigton Post reports:

"On the heels of World AIDS Day comes a stunning medical breakthrough: Doctors believe an HIV-positive man who underwent a stem cell transplant has been cured as a result of the procedure.

Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the "Berlin Patient," received the transplant in 2007 as part of a lengthy treatment course for leukemia. His doctors recently published a report in the journal Blood affirming that the results of extensive testing "strongly suggest that cure of HIV infection has been achieved."

If the report is confirmed in other laboratories, a new dawn will appear on the otherwise bleak panorama of AIDS therapy and cure.