AN AIDS MYSTERY SOLVED

EIGHT AUSTRALIAN HIV SURVIVORS OFFER HOPE FOR AN EFFECTIVE VACCINE

ABOUT 15 YEARS AGO, A WELL-MEANING man donated blood to the Red Cross in Sydney, Australia, not knowing he had been exposed to HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS. Much later, public-health officials learned that some of the people who got transfusions containing his blood had become infected with the same virus; presumably they were almost sure to die. But as six years stretched to 10, then to 14, the anxiety of health officials gave way to astonishment. Although two of the recipients have died from other causes, not one of the seven people known to have received transfusions of the...

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