One Virus Fighting Another

One Virus Fighting AnotherOne Virus Fighting Another
Scientists from the VA Healthcare System and the University of Iowa School of Medicine are studying how one harmless virus impacts the progression from HIV to AIDS. In a study looking at blood samples from 1984 to 1990, researchers found that those patients infected with the harmless virus GBV-C progressed to AIDS much slower than those only infected with HIV. GBV-C is a relatively common virus that is harmless to humans, causing no symptoms or illness. The blood samples used in the study were from 271 men who were HIV negative at the onset of the study but who were positive by time the study follow-up was done. The study showed that those HIV-infected men with persistent GBV-C infection along with HIV progressed to AIDS three times slower than those men infected with only HIV. Those men with GBV-C had much slower immune system destruction compared to those without GBV-C. While there is no immediate use for this discovery, researchers are now studying samples from women to see if the same trends hold true.