Cure for Aids?
Would you have unprotected sex? Would you have unprotected sex with multiple partners everyday? Would you have unprotected sex with multiple partners everyday in a country where 1 out of every 10 adults is HIV positive? This is the risk taken by millions of African prostitutes everyday. 95% of the prostitutes in Kenya are infected with HIV. Not out of place for a continent that is the home of 70% of the Aids population. What is remarkable, however, is the 5% of Kenyan prostitutes who are not HIV positive. An anomaly that led researchers to believe that has to be another reason besides safe sex that is preventing these women from getting infected. The research began by accident in 1985 when a Canadian researcher Frank Plummer went to Kenya to study gonorrhea and chlamydia among the Pumwani prostitute. While in Pumwani, Plummer decided to test the prostitutes for HIV. When 2/3 of the women tested positive, Plummer decided to shift his focus to HIV/AIDS. When some prostitutes remained unaffected as the percentage of infected prostitutes reached over 90%, Plummer assumed that they were practicing safe sex. But when the unaffected prostitutes contracted other STDs it proved that they were not using condoms. So Plummer theorized that
these women could be immune to the disease. Many researchers disregarded Plummer's theory when the prostitutes tested negative for an antibody test; an antibody attacks a virus floating through the blood stream. So in theory if the prostitutes were exposed to HIV or AIDS they should have the coinciding antibody. Plummer then decided to test for specific killer T-cells. Killer T-cells are also part of the immune system but the destroy the body's own cells which have been infected. When the prostitutes were tested for the T-cells, the results showed a high number of the HIV specific killer T-cells that proved that the prostitutes had the virus and they successfully fought it. Everyone has killer T-cells. They attack the HIV virus as soon as it enters the body. The T-cells kill infected cells and excrete a molecule that paralyzes HIV. Thus the T-cells can fight off the virus for years but it cannot eliminate it immediately like the T-cells in the Pumwani prostitutes. Because it is not eliminated it eventually takes over the body. But Plummer and other researchers believe that if a vaccine were created with the HIV specific T-cell, the immune system would have a head start in fighting the HIV virus. So AIDS can be eliminated in a few decades right? W
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Approximate Word count = 848
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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