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Dr. Kim Mulvihill ReportingScientists at the international AIDS conference are hoping to solve a medical mystery involving HIV. The mystery involves those individuals who have an ability to naturally suppress HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Scientists believe these people may hold the key to a cure.
Every two months, Kai Brothers rolls up his sleeve.
Kai Brothers, AIDS Survivor: "I've been doing it for five or six years."
It's all in an attempt to solve a medical mystery.
Kai Brothers, AIDS Survivor: "I started having the realization that I was a little bit different than most people with HIV."
Different in that the San Franciscan was infected with HIV 25 years ago, but did not die. Kai and his immune system have remained healthy without the use of any anti-retroviral drug.
Kai Brothers is one of small number of patients in the Bay Area infected with HIV who are naturally able to control the virus, a virus that's killed tens of millions of people around the world.
Now an international effort is underway to locate other people like Kai. The hope is to discover how these long term survivors co-exist with HIV without the virus damaging their immune systems. If scientists can then find a way to replicate this ability in others, it may put a halt to the global epidemic.
Jay Levy, MD, AIDS Researcher: "What we would like to see is a vaccine that induces this type of response."
Dr. Levy pioneered the study of long term survivors after he co-discovered the AIDS virus. He says developing a vaccine is crucial. Anti-retrovial treatments work, but can be toxic, and the virus can grow resistant to them.
Dr. Levy: "Unfortunately, there are still people; many are dying of AIDS because the treatments aren't working."
Longterm survivors like Kai, who carry HIV, may also carry the key to its cure.
The Levy lab discovered a protein that's found in the immune system of these longterm survivors. Patients who get sick with AIDS lose this protein. Researchers are trying to understand exactly what this protein is so they can reproduce it and perhaps turn it into a therapy or vaccine.
