Original version

BBC World Service Australasia

Witness History

Podcasts

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

History as told by the people who were there

History as told by the people who were there.

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Witness History: The Berlin Patient

Documentaries

Timothy Brown for Simon...getty ....149183619.jpg

16/02/2022 GMT

The Berlin Patient

BBC World Service - Witness History, The Berlin Patient

Timothy Ray Brown was the first person in the world to be cured of HIV/AIDS.

Timothy Ray Brown was the first person in the world to be cured of HIV/AIDS. In the 1990s, he received a cutting-edge treatment that combined cancer and HIV therapy.

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)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Witness History

The Berlin Patient

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Australasia

About BBC World Service