There was a third key discovery. It now appeared that Bob and the other elite controllers had survived likely due to a very specific moment in the interaction between their immune systems and HIV: the first point of contact. “The evidence is pointing us to what we call the prime—the priming event. It’s when the immune system first sees virus,” Dr. Migueles said. “We suspect people like Bob start down the road to being an elite controller right at the beginning.”
