[Paleo Conservative]

Russian 'Vector' Lab Probes Secrets of Smallpox

[Judith Anne]

Thanks for posting this interesting article. I've also read that about 33% of people are immune to syphillis...

[longtermmemmory]

So those that lived proved immune. Rather harsh letting the weak just die.

[muawiyah]

Looks like the studies cut off when they get to the Swedes.

However, if you go further North, to the land of the Saami (which we call Lappland), it is quite noteworthy that during the plague of the 1300s virtually NO Saami died.

Folks further down the coast, the Norse, otherwise not different from the Swedes except for their propensity to keep Irish slaves, had a 90% death rate!

It's dollars to doughnuts that this genetically guided immunity parallels the inheritance of genes for Scandinavian porphyria, and dwarfism. I'd also guess that having an extra gene set for red receptors in the eyes, and not having any blue receptors at all show up to a greater than expected degree among these same folks.

The existence of such genes (and whatever immunities or illnesses they afford) in the broader European populations would reflect Saami incursions, hand in mitten, with their Viking associates.

Then there's the appearance of the court jesters, Saami hats on their heads, happy dust in their hands, and so terribly many of them dwarves! Makes me think of Pepin the Short, the last of his line.

[Paleo Conservative]

Ping!

[zygoat]

So, it wasn't a green monkey after all?

[balrog666]

Genetic diversity ping.

[jennyp]

New research provides more evidence that the smallpox pandemics of the Middle Ages - not the plague - left generations of people with a rare genetic defect that protects them against infection by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

What a strange way to put it!

[djf]

This is the Delta 32 mutation. It was profiled in a Nova called "Mystery of the Black Death". About ten percent of whites of european descent carry one copy of the gene. If you have one copy, it does confer some limited immunity.

[firebrand]

A guy I knew went to the CDC for all kinds of tests because he was sexually active all through the years of AIDS transmission and did not get it. They wanted to know why he was still alive and virus-free. He was of the right age and persuasion to be dead.

[AZLiberty]

HIV, mushrooms, plague, dwarfism, hallucinogenics, vaccination, etc.

I nominate this thread as the most Biomedically Diverse Thread (within 50 posts) in all Freeperdom.

[Jorge]

All those with the immunity share a pair of mutated genes that prevent their immune cells from developing a "receptor" that lets the virus break in. Researchers liken the receptor to a lock that viruses pick open; if the lock isn't there, the viruses can't enter.
The protection isn't absolute, however. HIV has managed to infect a tiny number of people who share the mutation, according to Mosier.

Interesting. I know some HIV positive people who have been infected for 10+ years and have not gotten sick, and don't take any meds.

I wonder if this mutation might offer varying degrees of protection against HIV.