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There is apparently a human gene mutation, "CCR-5-delta-32", which makes its holders immune to AIDS
The Secrets of the Dead episode begins not with HIV but by investigating why so many residents of Eyam, England, survived the Black Death when it hit the remote village in 1665. Research by geneticist Stephen O'Brien has traced Crohn's DELTA 32 mutation back hundreds of years to towns like Eyam, where the defensive genetic mutation held off the Black Death in much the same way it now protects Steve Crohn from HIV. Today, about 10% of people of European heritage are estimated to be "DELTA 32-homozygous," having inherited the genetic mutation from both parents.
