I saw a TV doc on The Plague that had a very interesting conclusion - people who do not contract the AIDS virus - even after having been knowingly exposed to it, often repeatedly, and seem to have a natural immunity from it - are descendants of those who survived The Plague.
Apparently those who don’t contract AIDS have the same kind of anti-bodies that fended off the plague in their ancestors.
There are a few topics about that very thing in the short list of links above. :^)
Apparently those who don’t contract AIDS have the same kind of anti-bodies that fended off the plague in their ancestors.
Not quite. People do not naturally have antibodies against any disease until they have been exposed to it (or a vaccine against it) and their immune system has responded.
When people are exposed to a virus such as AIDS, the virus gets inside cells using cell surface receptor proteins located on those cells. If a person has a mutant cell surface receptor protein, the virus cannot enter or has a hard time entering the cell. They are resistant to AIDS, not immune to it.
The plague was caused by bacteria called Yersinia pestis. The mechanism of infection is different. Most bacteria do not enter cells. The mutation in the receptor that makes people resistant to HIV also changes how the immune system functions. This is hypothesized to help people survive the plague.
Well, I reckon they’re not going to be passing it on to their progeny.