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Maybe it shouldn’t surprise us that HIV/AIDS is sometimes used as a weapon, but the reality is still chilling. In the South African prison system, the dreaded “Numbers Gang” uses rape by AIDS infected inmates as punishment. The victim is cut to ensure transmission in a horrifying process they call the “slow puncture”. Other cases, such as New York’s Nushawn Williams, are right in our backyard. Williams had sex with dozens–perhaps even hundreds–of women, after learning he was HIV positive. He infected at least 14 women, and two of his children were born with the virus, but the actual number may be far higher. Although Williams’ prison sentence was up in 2010, the state has kept him behind bars as a danger to society, a trial is currently attempting to sentence him to indefinite confinement.
Featured in the DC Comic “The New Guardians” in 1988 (when the understanding of AIDS was in its infancy), Hemo-Goblin was an HIV positive vampire used by a white supremacist group to infect minorities with the disease. He manages to transmit HIV to the ambiguously gay superhero Extrano before dying of AIDS himself, mercifully within a single issue of the comic.
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In 1984, young lawyer Geoffrey Bowers found a job with Baker & McKenzie, one of the largest firms in the world. Soon afterward, he began showing symptoms of AIDS, including Kaposi’s sarcoma. Despite receiving satisfactory reviews from his bosses, Bowers was dismissed, and the firm failed to follow the typical termination processes. Bowers appealed to the New York State Division of Human Rights. His case would go on to be one of the first AIDS discrimination cases in legal history. The trial began on July 14, 1987. Unfortunately, Bowers would only survive two more months. The case dragged on another six years, with the firm ultimately being fined $500,000 in damages.
While it’s likely that no one is truly “immune” from HIV/AIDS, there are some people that exhibit a strong resistance. Scientists have discovered at least two different adaptations, one which repels the infection in the first place and another which keeps HIV from developing into AIDS. The former is a genetic mutation found primarily in Scandinavians. The mutation, called CCR5-delta 32, prevents the virus from entering the cells. However, there are a few (about 1 in 300) whose immune systems manage to suppress the disease. Called “HIV controllers”, they seem to possess slightly different proteins in their blood that keep the virus at bay. Studies are ongoing as to how this difference in the genome might halt the progression of HIV in less fortunate individuals.