Researchers Believe They’ve Found People Who Overcame AIDS Virus

The possibility that some people have a natural ability to rid themselves of the virus that causes AIDS is being investigated by researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Several patients suddenly tested negative for the AIDS virus after repeated positive tests, WBAL-TV reported Wednesday.

“The observation is very interesting,” said Dr. Homayoon Farzadegan, a researcher at the Hopkins AIDS unit. “It could mean some answers to that question: Are people being infected in the world that can get rid of the virus?”

Doctors have been unable to find a cure for acquired immune deficiency syndrome and no vaccine has been developed against the virus that causes the fatal disease. None of the patients in the Hopkins study had developed the disease.

Hopkins researchers, in reviewing lab test results of people who had tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus, discovered at least three people who tested negative after repeated retesting had produced positive results.

“The tests were quite accurate,” Farzadegan said. “In fact, we’ve ruled out the possibility of a laboratory mix-up. It’s not a laboratory error. And the tests are very sensitive.”

The station said Hopkins researchers have refused to discuss details of the research until the publication of their study in the British medical journal Lancet.