Andrew Stimpson (born 1980 in

Largs Largs ( gd, An Leargaidh Ghallda) is a town on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about from Glasgow. The original name means "the slopes" (''An Leargaidh'') in Scottish Gaelic. A popular seaside resort with a pier, the town mark ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

) is a former glamour model, who was once cover boy and centrefold of ''Euroboy'' magazine. He tested negative for

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

fourteen months after three initial tests returned a positive result. While there have been anecdotal reports from

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of people fighting off the virus, Stimpson's case was the first to have been medically documented and tested. After having contracted the disease from his HIV-positive boyfriend Juan Gomez, Stimpson first stated that he felt "tired, weak and feverish" and had three HIV antibody tests at the Victoria Clinic for Sexual Health in west

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In October 2003, Stimpson was offered another test, which came back negative. He claimed he was "baffled" and "convinced there must have been a mistake". He sued the hospital, but two later tests confirmed that both results were correct. As Stimpson was in the early stages of HIV infection, he was not taking any medication, and was only prescribed daily

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. While the hospital could not confirm if Stimpson has actually been cured of the disease, he has been urged to return for further tests in hope of reproducing the result in others. Stimpson spent weeks meeting with some of the world's leading HIV specialists, immunologists and virologists. After many tests there was still no answer as to what had actually happened. All that he was told was that there were no mistakes and somehow during those fourteen months he had gone from HIV positive to HIV negative.

Explanations

In addition to the simple explanation of three consecutive false positive tests, three other explanations for the initial HIV+ tests have been put forward that do not depend on Stimpson having been infected with HIV and then becoming HIV-free: * The temporary presence of malformed HIV particles, which were unable to successfully establish an ongoing infection. * Developing a sort of

immunization Immunization, or immunisation, is the process by which an individual's immune system becomes fortified against an infectious agent (known as the immunogen). When this system is exposed to molecules that are foreign to the body, called ''non-sel ...

through repeated exposure to HIV or its component proteins, which would produce a natural antibody response against HIV. * Spontaneous

seroreversion In immunology, seroconversion is the development of specific antibodies in the blood serum as a result of infection or immunization, including vaccination. During infection or immunization, antigens enter the blood, and the immune system begins t ...

(when the body stops producing antibodies against a protein) despite the ongoing presence of the virus; this is a type of immune tolerance. The more specific and sensitive

RT-PCR test Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is a laboratory technique combining reverse transcription of RNA into DNA (in this context called complementary DNA or cDNA) and amplification of specific DNA targets using polymerase chai ...

for HIV's genome does not appear to have been performed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stimpson, Andrew 1980 births People from Largs People with HIV/AIDS Living people 20th-century Scottish LGBT people Scottish male models LGBT models Glamour models 21st-century Scottish LGBT people