Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 10 July 1996
Maggie Fox / Reuters

Queen, 43, is a "long-term survivor." Infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS 10 years ago, she shows no symptoms, has never been ill, and says she feels better than she ever has. She takes no AIDS drugs.

Others like her include half a dozen babies born to AIDS- infected mothers, who were found to be infected with the virus but later somehow purged it from their bodies. One is still alive at age nine, with no symptoms.

Some prostitutes in Kenya have mystified researchers by failing to develop HIV infection, despite frequent and repeated exposure.

Something in their bodies is keeping the virus at bay. Scientists at the 11th International Conference on AIDS debated what it might be.

"Some of it is the virus," said Dr. Jeffrey Laurence, senior scientist at the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR). He said a recent Australian study found an apparently weakened version of the virus in people given blood infected with a strain of HIV found to be genetically altered.

All but one survived and are still alive 13 years later.

But this could not be the answer for other survivors whose viruses were genetically different, said Laurence, who works with so-called long-term non-progressors.

The most fashionable theories centre on cytokines, proteins secreted by immune system cells to communicate with other cells. Recent studies have shown people resistant to HIV secrete more of some of these cytokines.

Another new study found that the AIDS virus uses at least two receptors -- a kind of cellular doorway -- to infect the immune system cells it targets. One receptor is used by a group of cytokines known as beta-chemokines. Therefore, chemokines might be able to "block the door" against the virus.

But Jay Levy of the University of California at San Francisco is sceptical. "The question is whether (cytokines) can control the virus," he told the conference. "There is compelling evidence that they don't."

Levy and Laurence say it could be coincidental that people who resist HIV have high levels of cytokines -- not enough study has been done to establish a link. "We're really still kind of information-gathering," Laurence said.

Finding long-term survivors to test is difficult. Laurence reckons about three percent of all HIV-infected people fit the long-term definition, but because they feel well and show no symptoms, there could be more who have no idea they have been exposed to the virus.

A third factor in long-term survival could be psychological, experts told the conference. Deborah Birx of Walter Reed Army Hospital, reporting on a failed vaccine study, said that all her volunteers, whether given a vaccine or placebo, lived longer than other HIV patients who had been seen every six months by military doctors.

"I think (psychology is) incredibly important," she said. The patients in her study were seen every two months and had close relationships with their doctors, nurses and the other volunteers. "Maybe that had an effect."

Queen, who had been "a street person" and drug user, abandoned the needle when she learned she was HIV positive. She is convinced she survived because she looked in the mirror every day and talked herself into it.

Becoming a counsellor at the Johns Hopkins University Clinic in Baltimore where she had been a patient, she now takes pains to eat three balanced meals a day, rest when she needs it and avoid stress.

"One of the main things was accepting my disease -- not trying to blame people or figure out how I got it," said the energetic-looking small woman dressed in red.

But Remien cautions: "We all know people with similar attitudes who didn't survive."

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