mrsbull Posted November 13, 2008 Posted November 13, 2008 I did not know where else to put this. I would like others opinions on this . I am not sure this is a panacea but I can see why the medical community is excited about this. I think it is neat. Hopeful that it might be a remedy but it would not surprise me either. The Gene is pretty rare but it might be able to be made into synthetic gene. It looks to me like a "possible" cure is on the way. http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/eu_med_aids_treatment.html
HellsBells Posted November 13, 2008 Posted November 13, 2008 interesting, but certainly a high risk procedure. Here is a Canadian article that I read today, buried in the middle of the paper. AIDS vaccine- animal testing phase
sirduke Posted November 13, 2008 Posted November 13, 2008 Well I'll be damned... And here I thought the only cure for AIDS would be the old 9mm bolus...
spenac Posted November 13, 2008 Posted November 13, 2008 That or the person they claimed to cure was actually not infected. Don't hold your breath.
Eydawn Posted November 13, 2008 Posted November 13, 2008 There is a lot of promise in the fact that certain Caucasians and Asians seem to have a resistance to HIV colonization and infection severity- they postulate that it is inherited from lines that survived plague outbreaks. At least, that's what the last thing I read said. There's a lot of research going on, but no possible cure coming down the pipeline any time soon. Genetic modification and gene-level therapy is still largely in the exploratory phase, especially since so many people misunderstand how it works or how it can be applied, and therefore don't fund it adequately... It should be interesting to see if they monitor this guy long term and do as many invasive tests for viral presence as possible... then it may be very feasible to use his results as a basis for more treatments along the same line, in terms of trying to figure out how it all works and maybe using it to fight HIV. Personally, I have much more faith in prophylactic measures in terms of combating this virus... it's far easier to keep someone from getting it than it is to fix it after they get it. I think South Africa really took a step in the right direction by finally recognizing that AIDS and HIV are linked and that it is a behaviorally driven disease (for the most part). Wendy CO EMT-B
sirduke Posted November 13, 2008 Posted November 13, 2008 One thing they'll have to monitor is his possibility of re-exposure. Can he be reinfected? Will he abstain from possible exposures? Methinks not...
Eydawn Posted November 13, 2008 Posted November 13, 2008 Ya know, I never even though about being re-infected. It is possible that he may be immune. As far as avoiding possible re-exposures, how the hell do you know what he will or will not do? I don't remember reading in the article how he got exposed in the first place... nor any demographic information about the man save his age, gender and nation of origin. I can tell you this, if I was lucky enough to not be infected anymore and I had originally been infected by a promiscuous method, I'd certainly be damn careful. But for all you know, he may have been infected by a bad transfusion or a needle stick. Way to jump to assumptions! ~_~ Wendy CO EMT-B
Arizonaffcep Posted November 13, 2008 Posted November 13, 2008 The guy in question has been "cured" as the articles have put it for over 20 months with a totally undetectable virus level. The marrow transplant get got was due to leukemia, unrelated to the virus. And for the record, there have been at least 2 other cases similar to his in the past 20 years or so.
spenac Posted November 13, 2008 Posted November 13, 2008 The guy in question has been "cured" as the articles have put it for over 20 months with a totally undetectable virus level. The marrow transplant get got was due to leukemia, unrelated to the virus. And for the record, there have been at least 2 other cases similar to his in the past 20 years or so. There has also been speculation that some of the so called cured individuals actually never had aids. Until there are larger numbers of cures it is still conceivable that some were not diagnosed correctly to begin with.
AnthonyM83 Posted November 14, 2008 Posted November 14, 2008 Interesting story. Thanks for posting it. The article is good. As far a the "success" it describes, I'm not paying it attention until I hear about it a few more times. Like Eydawn and others said, there's a lot that still needs to be validated. BTW, Approximately one in ten people are resistant to AIDS. Doesn't even have to do with evolutionary resistance to it...it's just a gene that's been correlated with non-infection. It's been a few years since I studied this stuff (back in HS), so maybe they know exactly what it does by now.
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