A study published this week in the journal BMC Immunology suggests that being vaccinated for smallpox triggered by the smallpox vaccine may inhibit the growth of the HIV.  The researchers extracted white blood cells from subjects and exposed them to HIV in a culture dish. The results showed that HIV replication was slowed by about 80 percent in the cells from those who had received smallpox vaccination.   The full article is posted at:         http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2172-11-23.pdf.  Before drawing conclusions, consider that this in an in-vitro study cell culture study and the sample size is only 20, but it may suggest that further research is warranted to find out whether there is some kind of cross protection that the smallpox vaccine provides.