Basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Jr. announced he had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, back in 1991 and he has lived what appears to be a normal, healthy life ever since.
Magic, who was spotted dining with his wife and kids at BOA steakhouse in Hollywood over the weekend (June 4, 2011), has long been an advocate for HIV and AIDS, striving to educate people about a disease that was once considered an automatic death sentence.
It has long been discussed that Magic was “cured” of the disease and many assumed that Magic’s access to ‘the best doctors money can buy’ saved his life and was the key factor preventing his HIV infection from progressing to AIDS.
This week marks 30 years since HIV was discovered. In that time, 30 million people have died from the disease, and it continues to spread at the rate of 7,000 people per day globally.
Johnson has been living with HIV for over 20 years.
To combat the virus, he’s reportedly turned to alternative treatments to boost his immune system, and while many believe he’s HIV free, Magic’s doctors confirmed years ago that although it’s virtually undetectable in his bloodstream, he still carries the HIV virus
I wrote all that to say that now it’s being reported worldwide that “the first man ever” has been miraculously cured of HIV and surprisingly enough, it’s NOT Magic Johnson…
Meet 45 year old Timothy Ray Brown of San Francisco, California.
According to several online reports, Brown is “the only man ever known to have been apparently cured from AIDS”.
Timothy Ray Brown tested positive for HIV back in 1995, but has now entered scientific journals as the first man in world history to have that HIV virus completely eliminated from his body in what doctors call a ?functional cure.?
Brown already suffered from both leukemia and HIV when he received a bone marrow stem cell transplant in Berlin, Germany in 2007. The transplant came from a man who was immune to HIV, which scientists say about 1 percent of Caucasians are.
Doctors monitored his progress and were shocked when tests revealed no signs of the virus:
“He has no replicating virus and he isn’t taking any medication. And he will now probably never have any problems with HIV,” his doctor Gero Huetter told Reuters.
Brown now lives in the Bay Area, and suffers from some mild neurological difficulties after the operation. “It makes me very happy,” he says of the incredible cure.
The unusual blood transplant they tried has made Brown the first person in the world allegedly “cured” of AIDS [insert side-eye].? Brown speaks about being cured in the following video:
VIDEO: California Man Cured of HIV / AIDS ~ NEW FOOTAGE
Read more about Timothy Ray Brown’s miraculous recovery HERE and HERE.