This gave the body time before CD4 cells were infected which gave other cells the chance

"This gave the body time before CD4 cells were infected which gave other cells the chance to kick in an immune response. This would be the same effect as having a vaccine."A spokesman for the Terrence Higgins Trust said: "We are cautiously optimistic. Hopefully it will be a small step on the long road to finding a vaccine or effective treatment.". A father who saw his daughters drown after their nanny drove the family car into a river, had his record pounds 1.3m award for damages award cut almost in half by the Court of Appeal. Three appeal judges yesterday reduced 53-year-old Peter Vernon's pay- out to just over pounds 620,000, and said he must also pay his share of the legal costs, which total more than pounds 2m. Much of Mr Vernon's damages will go straight back to the Legal Aid Board, which funded his marathon claim. In August 1992, Mr Vernon suffered "every parent's worst nightmare" when the family Volvo, with nanny Katherine Bosley at the wheel, plunged into the River Tawe at Ynys Isaf, Powys.

"Firstly that they should have been exposed fairly recently - within the last year. Second, they should have had a very significant level of exposure over a two-year period and third that they should have had an HIV test recently."Dr Easterbrook said in the past there had been various explanations put forward as to why people did not become infected with HIV, including the fact that they could have been infected by someone who had low-level infection, or a weak form of the virus or that although they were infected it had not shown up in the antibodies.She said the most recent data made it likely that immune response was an "important explanation", but she added: "We're a long way from picking up information for a specific vaccine but this data clearly has long term application." She called for more studies to be undertaken looking at the offspring of infected mothers who did not go on to develop the virus, partners of haemophiliacs who had been given infected blood, and exposed health care workers.Professor Frances Gotch, head of immunology at the Chelsea and Westminster, said the US findings were "extremely interesting" and showed "for the first time certain people are non-susceptible to the virus- that gives us hope for a vaccine".Separate research in Gambia, the result of a collaboration between the Medical Research Council and the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, showed that some prostitutes had also not succumbed to the virus despite their lifestyles."From our research we believed that individual cases who were non-susceptible but had had high exposure were transiently infected," said Professor Gotch. They hope to report their findings within the year. Yesterday it was announced that scientists in the US have discovered that Steve Crohn, from New York, has the first known substance in the world that will defeat HIV. Scientists at the Aaron Diamond Aids Research Center in New York, took his white blood cells known as CD4 cells, which are the particular target of HIV, cultured them in the laboratory and tried unsuccessfully to infect them with HIV.The 40 people being studied in Britain were recruited about a year ago through advertising in HIV clinics and newspapers."There were three components we looked for," said Dr Philippa Easterbrook, senior lecturer in infectious diseases and epidemiology. The researchers at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital are studying people who have had repeated exposure to the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) but have remained resistant to infection. Doctors at a London hospital are monitoring 40 British people in a search for someone who is immune to the Aids virus. People in Derbyshire had grown to accept the decline in standards, the Inspectorate said.On a positive note there was a significant improvement in dealing with house burglaries which had dropped by 23 per cent.

But using resources to deal with this crime had resulted in fewer robberies, assaults and car thefts being solved.A spokeswoman for Derbyshire police force said: "The only way out is for the Home Office to give us more money."David Maclean, the Home Office minister, said Derbyshire had been given extra funding for a number of years and an additional pounds 4m in 1996/97.. The problems are blamed on underfunding since the early 1980s, which has caused an increasing shortfall in officers and resources.The Inspectorate says that the current pounds 88m budget from the Home Office would be more than adequate if the force was in a good financial position, but it is not enough to reverse the downward trend.Derbyshire has been struggling to maintain its present police strength of 1,800, which has fallen as low as 1,768. In come cases the police took so long to respond to calls about people or vehicles acting suspiciously that by the time they arrived the suspects had disappeared. The lack of police officers and resources in Derbyshire has also meant that many more violent offenders and car thieves are escaping detection. The drug squad is so hard up that at the time of the inspection it only had pounds 300 to buy petrol for five months. The inspectorate warned of evidence that the financial problems facing Derbyshire were getting worse. Complaints about brawls, domestic disputes and rowdy youths, often go ignored for hours by police in Derbyshire because of years of underfunding, a report revealed yesterday. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary also found that during some peak periods no officers were available to answer calls from the public.