AIDS cure possibly found?

indian_boy

http://health.lifestyle.yahoo.ca/channel_health_news_details.asp?news_id=16682&news_channel_id=1028&channel_id=1028

An American man who suffered from AIDS appears to have been cured of the disease 20 months after receiving a targeted bone marrow transplant normally used to fight leukemia, his doctors said Wednesday.

yes it is indeed an isolated, single case.
but i figure it's an interesting read.

wats interesting is that the first cure for a certain cancer was also in the bone marrow.

just thought i'd share

oobersli

wrong section.....

indian_boy

wtf... sorry man x x

didnt realize, cuz of too many tabs... will request a move

ty for not flaming

killingpeople

I just hear bout this! I really hope it leads to a bonafide cure.

Rwolf

Interesting. For sec I thought it was about that "assassin" cell that attacked the HIV only.

ebagg

I thought they already proved concentrated cash cures AIDS, according to South Park and Magic Johnson....

very interesting, I hope it leads to a cure.

PixelMasher

ebagg : exactly what i was gonna say when i saw the headline :P but seriously, it would be cool if this does lead to the destruction of aids.

Tulkamir

killingpeople wrote: »

I just hear bout this! I really hope it leads to a bonafide cure.

Haha, you are terrible.

Seriously though, this is great news. Be great if this does lead to something more.

Kovac

Hate to sound so cynical about these kinda things but I've seen way too many online posts of 'university or person X found cure for aids/cancer/etc,' people post all over saying 'why isn't this getting more headlines/press?!?!?!?!,' then nothing comes from fruition from it. Once these incurable diseases become a mainstreamed medical process and thousands are actually proven cured by it I'll hold my breath for it.

diminished_Self

hate to burst bubbles, but this isnt going to be "cure" aids for anyone but those extremely lucky few who find a genetic match and have shit tons of cash.

Top American researchers called the treatment unthinkable for the millions infected in Africa and impractical even for insured patients in top research hospitals.

“It’s very nice, and it’s not even surprising,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “But it’s just off the table of practicality.”

The patient, a 42-year-old American resident in Germany, also has leukemia, which justified the high risk of a stem-cell transplant. Such transplants require wiping out a patient’s immune system, including bone marrow, with radiation and drugs; 10 to 30 percent of those getting them die.... Moreover, the chances of finding a donor who is a good tissue match for the patient and also has the rare genetic mutation that confers resistance to H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, are extremely small.

bolding and italics mine.

source: www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/health/14hiv.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Tulkamir

Yeah, but from what I understand it is the kind of thing that can show the potential in something like gene therapy, which can cause more research to be put into it and ultimately result in treatments that are more viable .

John Warner

yeah exactly. it's a clue in the right direction.. and last time i checked they didn't have shit else. this might be a step towards something great.

i remain skeptical that anyone with power wants there to be a cute for aids.. but hell. i'm paranoid. it's not like people want.. money.. or anything.

Jeremy Lindstrom

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/14/not-the-cure-for-aids/

ElysiumGX

I don't know what to believe about AIDS, from all that I've read over the years.

First, AIDS isn't a virus, it's an advanced stage of infection.
The testing for HIV does not sound accurate or reliable at all. The test doesn't find the virus, but the presence anitbodies that would react to proteins similar to the virus. And many of those tests fail, only to be repeated until they don't fail. Many false positives occur in Africa, where the testing procedures they use there, would not accurately determine infection in other parts of the world.
In many of the cases where someone was "cured" of HIV/AIDS, they probably never had it to begin with and were simply taken off the medication and regained their health. The man in this article was taken off his often fatal medication and treatment after the transplant.
Also, no one dies from AIDS...but the complications from AIDS. And, even the article above states this, the treatment of HIV/AIDS is itself often fatal. The body's immune system can no longer fight illness.

I think the real AIDS scare is the lack of information and understanding we as a soceity have about it. The people who are tested are the ones that believe they have it. Once someone is falsely diagnosed with HIV...what steps are taken to confirm it? What happens to a non-infected person who is given treatment? You can't listen to the media.

It doesn't make sense to me.