The Berlin Patient

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2022

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the 1990s, doctors in Berlin began a cutting-edge treatment programme that led to a patient being cured of HIV/AIDS. The so-called "Berlin patient" was Timothy Ray Brown: he was suffering from leukemia as well as HIV/AIDS, and was given a bone marrow transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation which killed off the HIV virus. Timothy Ray Brown was a campaigner for AIDS research until his death, from leukemia, in 2020. Ashley Byrne speaks to his partner, Tim Hoeffgen.

PHOTO: Timothy Ray Brown in 2012 (Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:39.9	I'm Ashley Byrne and today we're taking you back to 2007 and the very first use of a cutting-edge
0:45.4	medical technique that provided hope for millions around the world. I've been speaking to Tim
0:50.8	Hoffkin about his memories of Timothy Ray Brown, the first person to ever be
0:55.4	cured of HIV.
0:57.6	On the 7th of February 2007 there was a major breakthrough in the fight against HIV and AIDS in Berlin, Germany.
1:07.0	At that point I realized that yes in fact I was cured and I was very excited about that.
1:16.2	Timothy Ray Brown who at the time was known only as the Berlin patient had been living with
1:20.6	HIV for over a decade.
1:22.9	He was given a pioneering combination of AIDS treatment
1:26.3	and cancer treatment.
1:27.6	The treatment destroyed his bone marrow.
1:29.6	And he was given a transplant from a naturally HIV
1:32.2	resistant donor.
1:33.2	He was very special patient because the combination of HIV and like chemia is quite uncommon.
	...

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