He was sexually active, seeing sex workers, and some of his friends died of AIDS. This man could not get HIV. Nicknamed "The Man Who Cannot Have HIV," you'd be shocked what killed him. Do you want to hear the story?
The Man That Cannot Have HIV
Stephen Crohn was born in September 1946. He enjoyed painting. No one knew about HIV then, but what was known was that there was this disease supposedly affecting gay men. It was called the "Gay Plague," "Gay Syndrome," or GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency).
In the late 1970s, Stephen watched as one of his closest friends lost a significant amount of weight. They had fun and sex without condoms. His friend died of AIDS. As the years went by, more of Stephen's friends died of this disease, but for some reason, Stephen remained healthy and never got sick.
In 1994, a researcher sent word to the AIDS activist community that he was looking for people who were exposed to HIV but weren't infected for a study. Stephen took this chance, as he was curious and wanted to know what exactly was going on with him.
A little fact about HIV:
When someone gets infected with HIV, the virus enters the body. For HIV to infect cells, it needs two receptors to enter: CCR5 and CXCR4. They help HIV enter some cells so it can start to multiply.
The first thing they did was try to infect Stephen's cells with HIV, but guess what? Stephen's cells could not be infected by HIV. How?
Apparently, the CCR5 on Stephen's cells was mutated, which means it was different, and HIV could not enter his cells. This was a breakthrough.
Stephen continued volunteering for medical research. He was happy to be of help. Crohn became instantly popular as "The Man Who Could Not Have HIV." Not his first shot at fame, as he was a descendant of the man who described Crohn's disease.
Sadly, on August 24, 2013, the world woke up to the news of Stephen committing suicide. He died of an overdose of benzodiazepine and oxycodone drugs.
This research helped the world of medicine develop a HIV drug called maraviroc, which is still used today. Stephen remains a hero.
blogpay
Total Comments: 0