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| Stephen crohn dies |
The disease didn't even have a name then and Crohn became the subject of much medical interest because despite not taking precautions he appeared completely healthy.
Crohn's so-called 'CD4' white blood cells, which HIV normally penetrates to start the disease, blocked the virus. That was because of a genetic defect on one of the receptors needed to transmit the virus.
It led The Independent in 1996 to call him The Man Who Can't Catch AIDS and just by surviving he helped the world understand more about HIV and AIDS.
But the downside for Crohn was that he watched many of his friends die from the virus.
His sister, Amy Crohn Santagata, confirmed his August 23 suicide.
"My brother saw all his friends around him dying, and he didn’t die," Ms. Santagata told The New York Times. "He went through a tremendous amount of survivor guilt about that and said to himself, ‘There’s got to be a reason.’ "
"He was quite extraordinary, and then also quite ordinary," she said.
Mr. Crohn was the great-nephew of Burrill B. Crohn, a leading gastroenterologist who first described the disease that carries his name, and felt like his work with researchers was carrying on his family's legacy.
