Interesting AIDS Development

10% of Europeans Safe from HIV

It appears that around 10% of people of European ancestry are unable to be infected by HIV. These individuals carry a genetic mutation that blocks the virus from entering cells. It appears that the source of this mutation was the Great Plague of the middle ages, which was not the bacterial bubonic plague, but was instead “a continuing series of epidemics of a lethal, viral, haemorrhagic fever that used the CCR5 as an entry port into the immune system.”
It remains to be seen whether this will assist with efforts to create an anti-HIV vaccine.
Via World Changing.

One of those “if it doesn’t kill you it’ll make you stronger” cases. Here’s hoping that bit of evolution can lead to a wider cure.