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"Mystery over AIDS ‘immunity’"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(16/12/05)
KISUMU (Kenya): Britain is funding a study into how tens of thousands of
HIV-positive Kenyans have mysteriously not passed the virus to their
husbands or wives.
Almost £400,000 (RM2.7mil) was set aside from Britain's annual £4mil
(RM27mil) in HIV and AIDS grant to Kenya to research 160,000 “discordant
couples'' in Nyanza province on the shores of Lake Victoria, where rates of
HIV and AIDS are among the highest in the world.
Early surveys showed that up to 40% of people with HIV in the area had not
passed the virus to their partners, despite regularly engaging in
unprotected sex over long periods of marriage.
The research echoes findings of an earlier study of Nairobi prostitutes who
developed an apparent immunity to HIV despite being among the most at risk
in a country where some 1.7 million carry the virus. Scientists are
mystified.
“There are still great gaps in what we know about discordant couples, but we
have been able to make some guesses,'' said Dr James Gesami, Nyanza's chief
provincial medical officer.
“Maybe they are only seeing their wives once every two months, even once a
year, so they are having sex less.
“Maybe they are not being rough during intercourse, or maybe the survey was
done at a time when new infections were at a low point.'' — © Telegraph
Group Ltd, London
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