Hawa has the cure for AIDS
Fourteen years ago a group of researchers headed by a scientist from the University of Manitoba went to Nairobi Africa to study AIDS cases, specifically among prostitutes. We all know AIDS is rampant in Africa due to poor education on contaceptives and lack of resourses such as drugs for those who get AIDS. In the 1990's AIDS infection in Kenya rose to 10% of the population (population of kenya is 32million people, same as Canada). In Botswana the situation is so bad that the average 15-year-old boy living in Botswana has a 90% chance of dying of HIV/Aids during his lifetime (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2801187.stm)
But there is hope, it seems. This group of researchers in Nairobi has found a small group of women sex workers that day in and day out face the same risk to AIDS, but remain uninfected. These women dont use contraceptives, and have been sex workers for over 20 years. One of them, Hawa, has many kids and has supported them all on the money she makes in the sex trade.
Dr Frank Plummer (from Winnipeg) made this announcment in the mid-90's an the International Conference on AIDS, predicting that a vaccine to fight AIDS may well come from a better understanding of these women.
For years now Hawa and her friends have been the center of attention for many scientists studying AIDS. Blood samples are taken every year and sent back to Canada and around the world to be studied.
Dr Plummer in a speech described the difficulty of producing a vaccine for AIDS. Quoted from April 2005 Walrus Magazine: "The important thing in a vaccine is to find some way to avoid using HIV itself as a component. Unlike say, the flu vaccine, which introduces a tiny bit of virus into your system in order to alert antibodies to fight off the bigger threat, HIV in ANY amount is deemed impermissible. Once it is in the body, doctors cant control it."
What researchers have figured out is that the resistant women dont have a regular antibody response to HIV, but a cellular one. Through a trigger that remains unexplained, "killer" cells in the women's bodies are dispatched to attack infected cells.
Hawa for example, is not immune to all diseases. She contracted polio years ago which was treated, recently got malaria and gets colds and fevers like all of us.
After this many years we still have not found the answer to the AIDS problem by studying these women. Hawa is 46 now, mother of 5 and a grandmother. Hopefully before her time is up on this Earth we will know what is so unique about her body so we can cure one of the most deadly diseases to mankind.
There is a documentary on this called Searching for Hawa's Secret. If anyone knows where to get a copy please let me know!
Related Links:
http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol7/no15/hawa.html
http://www.frif.com/new2000/hawa.html
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