Monday, May 18, 1998 SCIENCE & MEDICINE HIV TRANSMISSION: 'HIV-Resistant' Babies Mistakenly Diagnosed       "Mistakes, not some miracle of the immune system, might be behind tests that doctors thought showed some babies were somehow able to fight off HIV infection," the Baltimore Sun reports about a study published in last week's issue of the journal Science. The "cases of the babies had intrigued and excited doctors, who thought the infants had been infected by their mothers but somehow managed to fight off the virus" (5/15). The study, led by Dr. Lisa Frenkel of the University of Rochester, noted that HIV infection was detected in babies born to infected mothers "on only one or a few occasions," indicating that "infection may be transient rather than persistent." The researchers reanalyzed 42 cases out of 1,562 where the babies were thought to have overcome maternal infection and found that in 20 cases, the babies were never HIV positive, in 6 cases, the "specimens were mistakenly attributed to an infant," and in 17 cases, there was no proven link "between the infant's and mother's virus" (Frenkel et al, 5/15 issue). Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report