Child immunity HIV

[John Cherwonogrodzky]

Dear Colleagues:
     Bill Jaramillo has raised some good questions and concepts with regards 
to the baby that "cleared" an HIV infection. Here at DRES (National Defence) 
we've been developing a vaccine to brucellosis and we see a pattern. The worse 
the antibody response, the better the protection (at least in mice, guinea 
pigs and swine). My sense is that the body has evolved different immunities 
for different diseases. It's like the air conditioner/heater toggle switch in 
your car where you can push the lever from "cold" to "hot". For parasitic 
diseases (e.g. Brucella) antibodies are of little effect. Therefore with very 
low antigen concentration or key immuno-modulators the cell mediated defences 
kick in. If the antigen concentrations are high, this may signal the body that 
a septicemia/viremia is occurring and the humoral defences kick in instead.
     Is there a chance that because the baby had circulating maternal 
antibodies, the humoral defence was suppressed and the cell mediated defences 
surfaced, eliminating HIV?
     An argument against my own scenario is that parasitic or pseudo-parasitic 
diseases (e.g. T.B.) would cause a general cell mediated defence activation 
and eliminate HIV as an indirect casualty. From what I've read, the reverse 
happens and T.B. and HIV act synergistically...John