Mahlon Johnson knows what it is like to be infected. He was only the second physician with HIV infection I had come to know.  I found myself drawn to him as a comrade in arms, now wounded on the battlefield.  What had been a nightmare for me as a physician had become true for him. The saga of Mahlon's infection, his stubbornness in refusing to accept conventional wisdom, his faith in science, his self-treatment, and his perspective on what is going on in his body make for a fascinating story--it is entirely different from anyone else's experience.  Yet his results speak to us all. Mahlon's poignant personal saga, which has far from ended, is the herald call to the new era of AIDS. Mahlon's story is the story of hope --From the Foreword by Abraham Verghese, M.D., author of My Own Country.