A new type of "combination therapy" is being hailed by researchers as being an effective cure for the HIV virus. I’m sure I’ve read similar headlines before, but given recent advances in biotechnology, I’ve a little more hope of this being the real deal. However, although I’m no biologist, I’m not entirely sure "cure" is the right word – the article mentions that the therapy "prevents HIV from mutating and spreading", which doesn’t sound quite the same as actually eradicating it from the host body. Still, it’s satisfying to think that perhaps the most frightening disease of the Twentieth Century may soon be little more than a bad memory. [Via OurTechnologicalFuture] [Image from ScienceDaily article, credited to CDC/Dr. A. Harrison; Dr. P. Feorino]
HIV ‘cured’?
[tags]HIV, medicine, biotech, therapy[/tags]
This story seems to be the product of a university press department overhyping a piece of research (which was published in the Lancet in August). I can’t access the original article, but managed to find the abstract on PubMed:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=17659333&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus
From that you can see the article is studying existing combination drug therapy, not a “new kind”. I’m not a scientist either, but as I understand the article, it’s saying that *the patients who respond best* to the therapy can gradually get their level of a certain type of immune cell back to normal.
It’s not really saying anything that new – just that the existing drugs can hold off the virus and keep the patient healthy over a period of years. It doesn’t mean that the drugs will keep working indefinitely.
At least Science Daily included a reference to the original paper, although they didn’t understand it themselves and clearly just regurgitated a press release (“Adapted from materials provided by University Of Copenhagen.”)
Worst news ever.. I have aids and i love it becuz now i can do anything becuz i now im gonna die so therefor i become mortal
Thank you for that incomprehensible contribution, Jonah.
To all who want to take this as benificial i am a muslim women in the us we as muslims study the quran in memorization entirely one thing that sticks out to me is allah says there is no disease put upon this earth without a cry pray people with faith in your heart god hears you if you dont believe then why should it be granted you didnt think it was going to happen any way.Before i conveted to islam i was christian i was a wild teen with no father i was extremely sexualy active an a runawy i was looking for love an found sex to be its scheme any way i started to have children 3 to be exact an i avoided the hiv test as much as i could i feared the truth when i had my 4 child i was tricked into a test by my doctor who knew id never been tested boy my back against the wall i prayed to god who else could help me i was turning to islam an knew not much of the religion but following my heart and all praise be to god i wasnt positive wit the chance an risks i took being a young african american i know god heard me cause however many partners you think i had it might have been more an i was the epitimy of nieve an imature i believed anything.so take this as your cure to hiv pray am believe really believe in god i know nothing is to powerful for god.
“… i was the epitimy of nieve an imature i believed anything.”
Good thing religion came and saved you from that, eh? At the risk of my own eternal damnation, however, I think I’ll put my trust in science.