Good.

:rolleyes:

Holy cow, that's horrible, all of it.

That was pretty much my reaction in the late 1980s, when everyone was calling AIDS 'an epidemic.'

I can't roll my eyes to a disease that has led to millions of deaths.

Well, I can. At least those who rolled the dice, and lost. I feel all the sympathy in the world for those who contracted the virus through no fault of their own, however.

will it be so expensive that most can't afford it?

Of course! When it comes to medicine, over charging is the American Way!

I thought the current drug therapy basically either, a) introduces screwed up DNA so the virus can't perform, b) attempts to prevent the virus from attaching to a host cell, or c) alters the building blocks used by the virus to replicate, Mr. Bob Dole. At least, I think that's right. I do know that the current drugs come pre-packaged with some bad-ass side effects. It's the ability of the virus to mutate that's been one of the biggest problems as I understand it.

If they can actually prevent the virus from mutating, give the immune system time to rebuild, and "teach" the immune system to attack the virus as an invader, that's a huge step forward.

FAX

People get AIDS from more than just heroin needles bro. It's a sexually transmitted disease. If you're going to not have sympathy for people who have sex, then you're living on a cold and lonely island indeed.

And how the hell is getting AIDS a just desert for people even if they DID do drugs?!! Let me ask you this: Would you rather have AIDS or get your dick bitten off by a polar bear? Easy to say AIDS, until the day comes when you're given the choice. You'll find me a unich pretty damned quick if my alternative is death. Now, I'm sure that even YOU would say that meeting the business end of a BEAR is cruel and unusual punishment... That nobody deserves that except the HITLERS and DAHMERS and CHILD RAPISTS. So how come some teenage dropout who gets hooked on drugs deserves worse than that?

rolled the dice? there are a number of ways to contract

the problem is that this isn't the first 'cure' for AIDS. this is about the fourth or fifth 'cure' to AIDS that I can recall from the last ten years or so that I've been actively interested (and subsequently going to school for) public health/epidemiology, with a strong dose of genetics, chemistry, and virology) in viruses and bacteria.

the issue is that, as the article alluded to, AIDS is one agile little bug. every time they believe they have it cornered, it mutates. that's the beauty of genetics and 'natural selection,' really. we humans are lucky if we get a new generational flush every twenty years (from birth to having our own kids), yet there are certain viruses that reproduce and go from generation to generation in literally 20 minutes. in that twenty minutes, the viruses and bacteria that aren't successful are weeded out, and the ones that can resist treatment and otherwise succeed go on (after a fashion).

is this an aids cure? I hope so. there's literally only one virus on planet earth that I can think of that we have effectively 'cured.' smallpox. that's it. otherwise, bupkis. and the problem isn't getting any easier, as we throw 'antibiotics' at viruses all the time (got a cold? take this antibiotic!). which obviously is a huge issue, as VIRUSES ARE NOT BACTERIA. ANTIBIOTICS ONLY TREAT BACTERIA!... so now we have strains of drug resistant staph, strep, even TB. (anyway, I digress).

the point is, this is good news, hopefully. otherwise, the hidden war with our environment goes on. we've come a long way in regards to modern medicine, but we have a long way to go in the treatment of viruses and bacteria in human populations.

for the most part (exceptions noted pr_capone) tainted blood... AIDS is a self induced disease. Sex/needles.
and was the wacked out African that F'ed the monkey to start it.....

eh, they can already treat certain kinds of cancer. however, the thing that makes us unique (our bodies are wonderful machines with complexity that none of us can truly even fathom) are part of what does us in. cancer is caused by rogue cells. the older we get, generally, the more our cells have gone through mitosis, therefore more open to genetic mutations piling up. we'll likely never truly cure cancer, just hopefully find more treatment options (that don't make patients wish they were dead--chemo and radiation were horrible when my grandpa had lung cancer) and find better ways to treat and diagnose it earlier.