Document 0696
 DOCN  M95A0696
 TI    Researchers seek clues to long-term survival. 
 DT    9510
 SO    AIDS Alert. 1995 Apr;10(4):52-4. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE
       AIDS/95700225
 AB    As many as 12 percent of HIV-infected homosexual men in the United
       States could remain AIDS-free for 20 years after seroconversion, and the
       median length of survival for children with AIDS may now be as high as
       eight years, according to several new studies presented at a national
       conference. At the Second National Conference on Human Retroviruses and
       Related Infections in Washington, D.C., researchers estimated that the
       percentage of long-term survivors in the United States is about 5-10
       percent. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
       Diseases, Anthony Fauci, MD, reported that immune system cells, also
       called CD8 cells, may be more efficient than antiretroviral therapy in
       repressing HIV infection, as reported in the January 26, 1995 issue of
       the New England Journal of Medicine. Interleukin-2, a natural protein
       that induces CD8 cells to suppress the virus, is showing promising
       preliminary results. Another study, published in the December 1994 issue
       of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, suggests that a women infected
       with the virus thirteen years ago through a blood transfusion but who
       has little trace of the virus in her blood, is able to suppress all HIV
       viruses that infected her and only defective, slow-growing viruses have
       remained within her white cells. Another study suggests that ongoing
       high-risk behavior might be associated with rapid progression and that
       people might be superinfected with more pathogenic virus.
 DE    Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/IMMUNOLOGY/*MORTALITY  Child  Disease
       Progression  Female  HIV/ISOLATION & PURIF  HIV
       Infections/BLOOD/TRANSMISSION  HIV Seropositivity/IMMUNOLOGY/*MORTALITY
       Homosexuality, Male  Human  Male  Survival Analysis
       Survivors/STATISTICS & NUMER DATA  Time Factors  NEWSLETTER ARTICLE

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
       protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.Code).