SOME people are more susceptible to infectious diseases than others and now we are starting to understand why. Variants of two genes predict how likely we are to contract HIV if exposed to it, and how rapidly it may develop into AIDS. These same genes may also play a role in other infectious diseases.
AIDS comes about through an exposure to HIV followed by infection, viral replication and a subsequent depletion of the immune cells. This drop increases a person’s vulnerability to opportunistic infections, which eventually prove fatal. But just how quickly this process happens varies enormously between individuals.
Two…
