Experts Analyze Immunity to AIDS. 16/11/09

Health researchers are gathering in Winnipeg today for a first-of-its-kind conference on an unusual topic -- people who DON'T get sick with AIDS.

Those people, a small but critical group who seem to enjoy a natural immunity to the deadly virus, could hold the key to a cure for AIDS, which has infected more than 33 million people.

"For the last 20 years, we've all kind of banged our heads against the wall trying to develop a vaccine for a virus that changes so often," said Keith Fowke, a medical microbiology professor at the University of Manitoba who also works out of the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Lab. "This is what keeps a lot of us going. There is an answer."

About 75 of the world's top AIDS researchers -- scientists and doctors from as far away as Italy, Sweden and Kenya -- are gathering for the next two days at the Fort Garry Hotel to share what they know about people who don't get HIV/AIDS despite repeated exposure.

Officials hope the symposium, hosted by the International Centre for Infectious Diseases, the U of M, and the Public Health Agency of Canada, will help scientists pool data, share ideas and catapult the search for a cure forward.

Winnipeg researchers helped pioneer the field of study 20 years ago with research on Kenyan sex-trade workers who never developed the disease despite years of unprotected sex.

Since then, there's been research done on hemophiliacs who received tainted blood but never got sick, intravenous drug users and couples with one infected partner but another who remains healthy.

The trouble is, the sample sizes have always been too small for researchers to make conclusions and there's never been a national gathering of experts able to share their findings.

Fowke said he expects to see a vaccine for HIV/AIDS in his lifetime, and if it happens it won't be because of one isolated breakthrough, but because many researchers pooled their knowledge.

Fowke will present his research on the immune systems of Kenyan sex-trade workers, including the effects of the kind of unusually calm immune system the sex-trade workers seem to have. That may actually help a person fend off infection because there are fewer activated cells for the virus to target.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

33 million - Number of people living with AIDS worldwide

63,000 - Number of Canadians who tested positive for HIV between 1985 and 2007

1,500 - Number of Manitobans who tested positive between 1985 and 2007

 -- Public Health Agency of Canada and World Health Organization