Word: cowpox
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...marvels molecular biologist Nicholas Deacon of Australia's Macfarlane Burnet Centre for Medical Research, "but the prediction is that they never will." Deacon speculates that this "wimpy" HIV may even be a natural inoculant that protects its carriers against more virulent strains of the virus, much as infection with cowpox warded off smallpox in 18th century milkmaids...
There are many precedents for studying people with natural immunity in order to devise vaccines. In fact, the famous vaccine developed by England's Edward Jenner in 1796 resulted from his observation that milkmaids who had gone through bouts of cowpox enjoyed natural protection against the much deadlier smallpox. Plummer hopes his HIV-free prostitutes can play the same role today that Jenner's clear-skinned milkmaids did nearly two centuries...
...known that milkmaids sometimes caught a disease from the cows, called "cowpox," similar to smallpox in the red boils it produced, but not nearly as dangerous. More importantly, once milkmaids had recovered from cowpox, they seemed to be immune from smallpox...
...explanation is that these men were exposed to a strain of the virus that is naturally weaker than most. The immune system subdues the less malevolent virus, allowing the body to fend off any new attacks by more dangerous strains. In the same way, English milkmaids who suffered from cowpox in the 18th century developed an immunity to the disease that also protected them against its more lethal cousin, smallpox. After studying these women in 1796, Edward Jenner developed his smallpox vaccine...