Natural immunity – why is it thought to be so specific?

There was some interesting news today about an HIV+ person who received a stem cell transplantation (for leukemia) from someone who was naturally immune to HIV. He was ultimately cured of the disease (although the jury is still up as to whether the virus still inhabits his cells).

Natural immunity to HIV was discovered not too long ago. In the interest of preventing a delay in treatment of other viruses, I thought I would state the logical extrapolation of this idea outright:

For each virus capable of infecting humans, there are likely individuals who are naturally immune to it due to functional mutations.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *