Yesterday, news broke that “doctors who carried out a stem cell transplant on an HIV-infected man with leukaemia in 2007 say they now believe the man to have been cured of HIV infection as a result of the treatment, which introduced stem cells which happened to be resistant to HIV infection.”

This story is awesome, and while it may not be true and the science may as usual be unverified and/or prone to later retraction, let’s just be positive for a moment. There’s usual scientist speak throughout the couple of articles I’ve tracked down about it. You know, the “probably” and “strongly” and “may have”, but let’s just be positive.

Word?

The findings came about when “Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the “Berlin Patient,” received the transplant in 2007 as part of a lengthy treatment course for leukaemia. 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.”

Fantastic, no? Even if it’s temporary, or something, or the such? Hope springs eternal. Call me an optimist, I find this awesome.