HIV/AIDS Cure? FAQ The first and only person ever to be cured of HIV/AIDS is a leukemia patient treated in Berlin with HIV-resistant stem cells.

Although the Berlin patient was treated in 2007, researchers are only now officially using the word "cure." That's because extensive tests -- including analyses of tissues from his brain, gut, and other organs -- detect no sign of lingering HIV.

Few people with HIV would want to go through the grueling and life-threatening cancer treatment that was part of this cure. And so far, the cure has not been duplicated in other HIV-positive leukemia patients who underwent similar treatment.

Yet the finding already has transformed AIDS research. What really happened? What does this mean for people who have HIV/AIDS? Here are WebMD's answers to these and other questions about the first HIV cure.

HIV/AIDS Myths and Facts