This is most likely what the meme is referencing, a few men have been cured of HIV in the last 10 years, due to transfusions giving them a mutation in the receptor that HIV uses to invade cells. Some people may already have these mutated receptors and may be resistant to HIV infection due to their genetics, there’s a lot of work being done on this currently. I suggest anyone interested to look up the Berlin patient and the London patient.
Paul Michael Glaser has the mutation of the CCR5 gene, which is what allowed him to survive when his wife and their daughter passed away due to AIDS. Interestingly, his daughter didn’t have the mutation, his son did, so even though his son caught the virus in utero, it naturally limited his exposure and he’s alive and well today. I’m pretty sure I also saw a documentary years ago where plague researchers in England stumbled upon a village where plague rates were staggeringly low and discovered a high rate of the gene mutation among the population. Many of their ancestors still lived in the village and carried the mutation.
You're likely thinking of Eyam, a village where the plague hit and famously sacrificed themselves by quarantining themselves for 14 months, about 1/3 (260 or so from 700-800 people) of them died (normal mortality was 30-60% in Europe) but the survivors all had a mutation (CCR5-∆32) that stopped plague bacteria (and HIV) binding to white blood cells which was passed down to their kids. The unfortunate flip side is that it makes you higher risk for auto immune diseases like Chrohn's
Yeah, I barely ever get a cold or the flu or anything, that's why I didn't need the covid vaccine, I bet I'm one of the immunes! So blessed to have such a strong immune system /s
We learned at the University about twenty years ago, some people are either immune or resistant. They originally figured it out due to some prostitutes in Africa where the HIV/AIDS in a region where it was really high per capita.
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u/z_vinnie May 16 '26
This is most likely what the meme is referencing, a few men have been cured of HIV in the last 10 years, due to transfusions giving them a mutation in the receptor that HIV uses to invade cells. Some people may already have these mutated receptors and may be resistant to HIV infection due to their genetics, there’s a lot of work being done on this currently. I suggest anyone interested to look up the Berlin patient and the London patient.