Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The Associated Press - 25 Jul 95
"Is this an accident, a coincidence, or has nature done the right experiment for us?" said Dr. Gene Shearer of the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers from around the world are finding there is far more work to be done before they learn whether some people exposed to AIDS have a natural immunity to the disease.
The fundamental issue is whether those who escape the disease were exposed to the genuine article or simply shrugged off a weakened strain or viral fragments, said Shearer, who co-chaired the session on AIDS immunity Monday at the ninth International Congress of Immunology.
One of the most-discussed studies came from Hebrew University in Israel, where Dr. Zvi Bentwich examined newly arrived Ethiopian immigrants. Half of them show signs of HIV antibody production even though they tested negative for the disease, he said.
The finding probably indicates that their immune systems had launched an attack against HIV, Bentwich said.
An Australian team led by Dr. Andrew Geczy of the New South Wales Blood Transfusion Service in Sydney found that people with HIV who don't develop AIDS often show evidence of other infections that affect the immune system.
"In contrast to some current theories ... it is probable that long term survival in the face of infection with AIDS is a result of a complex interplay between host and virus," rather than a single immunological factor, the study said.
But there is some intriguing evidence that inborn biological factors could be at work.
A Swedish-Italian team looked at children who were infected with HIV in the womb, but never developed full-blown AIDS. That study found "broad neutralizing activity" against the virus in the children's bloodstream.
Researchers at the State University of New York Health Science Center in New York City concluded that Hispanic children had more virus-fighting factors in their blood, as well as fewer and less intense symptoms, compared with white or black children. The finding suggests Hispanic children are genetically predisposed to high levels of resistance to the disease.
Dr. Henry Heimlich, inventor of the first-aid treatment for choking, presented a controversial study which showed temporary infection with a curable form of malaria raised the level of disease-fighting T cells in two patients in China.
Heimlich theorizes that malaria somehow triggers the right immune response to resist the AIDS virus, along with other diseases.
Shearer called Heimlich's results interesting, but said his patient sample was insufficient and there were questions about experimental controls.
Copyright 1995/The Associated Press. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
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