Living on the Edge

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Living on the Edge

Advocate (12/26/95) No. 697, P. 25
Simmons, Todd

Australian scientists reported in November that eight Australians failed to develop symptoms of AIDS despite having been infected with HIV for at least 15 years. The researchers determined that the group shared a genetically flawed strain of HIV, a finding which could prove useful in the development of future AIDS treatments and potential vaccines. Still, the majority of nonprogressors do not know why they remain healthy. One prevailing theory is that there are mutant strains of HIV that cannot reproduce as well as others. Overall, the amount of research conducted on nonprogression is quite small, according to Yvonne Bryson, a pediatrician at the AIDS Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles. Bryson notes that "it's only been recently that a lot of interest has cropped up in this area," adding that "there is only a small percentage of [infected] people...who fall into this category." But that figure is increasing as the epidemic continues year after year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has gradually changed its early 1980s estimate of when most individuals would get sick from within 12 to 18 months of infection to within 10 to 15 years. Some researchers say that nonprogressors illustrate the theory that HIV itself does not cause AIDS. Instead such cofactors as drug abuse or hepatitis impair the immune system, thus enabling HIV to cause physiological problems and then AIDS, they claim. Most scientists, however, maintain that HIV will almost always cause AIDS--a sentiment that is evidenced in their preferred phrase "slow progressors," instead of nonprogressors.

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