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Three-Dimensional Structure of HIV Revealed

Mutatis Mutandis writes "The BBC is reporting that a team of scientists from Oxford, Heidelberg and Munich has created the first accurate three-dimensional images of the HIV virus. The virus was found to have an average diameter of 125 nanometers, well below the wavelength of visible light. In the past the structure of viruses with a regular structure has been produced by 3D reconstruction techniques that work on a set of electron microscopy images of different viruses, but the irregular structure of HIV does not allow this. Scientists have now used a tomography technique that employs a series of images taken from a single virus, somewhat similar to the better known X-Ray CAT scan, but on a quite different scale." Structure also has a video of the 3-d rendering available for download. Relatedly an anonymous reader writes "A research team at Brown University has genetically modified bacteria found in yogurt so that the bugs produce a protein proven to block HIV infection in monkeys. The results offer hope for a microbicide that can prevent the spread of HIV, which now affects about 40 million people."

189 comments

  1. great by caffeinemessiah · · Score: 4, Funny

    now every grad student taking a bioinformatics class gets a pop quiz tomorrow!

    --
    An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
    1. Re:great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Person 1: The three dimensional characteristics of what were revealed?
      Person 2: HIV
      Parson 1: Are you positive?
      Person 2: of course I'm positive.
      Person 1: Gaffaws

  2. Monkeys?? by mattkime · · Score: 5, Funny

    the bugs produce a protein proven to block HIV infection in monkeys

    ...but what about treatment for those that don't believe in evolution?

    clearly, another example of the scientific elites pushing their liberal agenda

    --
    Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
    1. Re:Monkeys?? by Jaruzel · · Score: 1

      I don't think the parent is flamebaiting, I think the parent is trying to be sarcastic...

      -Jar.

      --
      Together, We Can Make Slashdot Better. I Do NOT Mod ACs. - Check Me Out
    2. Re:Monkeys?? by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      You're trolling the wrong disease. His Noodliness obviously made man and monkeys similar enough to each other for testing purposes.

      True ID trolls are all about the inflated reputation of the H5N1 avian flu strain, which could never "evolve" into something that could harm humans.

      (Unless, of course, you don't consider viruses to be life.)

    3. Re:Monkeys?? by cnettel · · Score: 0, Offtopic
      Aren't most ID proponents (like even many old-fashin creationists) keen on the idea that some evolution is possible, microevolution or maybe even some new species, but that certain changes are too big "leaps" (the human eye being a popular example)?

      That's of course BS, but the interesting part for someone really believing in ID would of course be -- wouldn't the jump between easily infecting birds and easily infecting humans be such a leap? One way is of course to say "no, it's not a leap", but any other explanation, like intermixing with an existing human virus, would naturally also burst their little bubble on that ID would be needed to explain the variety of life at all.

    4. Re:Monkeys?? by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Aren't most ID proponents (like even many old-fashin creationists) keen on the idea that some evolution is possible, microevolution or maybe even some new species, but that certain changes are too big "leaps" (the human eye being a popular example)?

      Most ID proponents are for any argument which will support their position in a public debate & let them get religion into science classes. They don't really care whether they believe that argument, as long as they can fool the public.

    5. Re:Monkeys?? by hcob$ · · Score: 0, Troll
      Aren't most ID proponents (like even many old-fashin creationists) keen on the idea that some evolution is possible, microevolution or maybe even some new species, but that certain changes are too big "leaps" (the human eye being a popular example)?

      That's of course BS, but the interesting part for someone really believing in ID would of course be -- wouldn't the jump between easily infecting birds and easily infecting humans be such a leap? One way is of course to say "no, it's not a leap", but any other explanation, like intermixing with an existing human virus, would naturally also burst their little bubble on that ID would be needed to explain the variety of life at all.
      Ohhhh, nice straw man tactic there... "Here's my oposition's argument: blah, blah, blah." "And now, this is why that argument is wrong: Blah blah more freaking Blah!"

      But honestly, debate the topics, not the easily defeated topic you want your opponent to stand for.

      Most ID proponents are for any argument which will support their position in a public debate & let them get religion into science classes. They don't really care whether they believe that argument, as long as they can fool the public.
      That argument sounds errily simlar to what can be said about the litigation nation of the left. I don't like that cross, I'll sue you till you take it down or go broke. You can't state your opinon of me (even though I call you a liar, bigot, racist, and any number of things) or I'll SUE YOU! I don't like this, I don't like that, Sue, sue, sue, SUE!!!!!!!!

      Don't get me wrong. The right is just as bad with it's, "This is God's Punishment/Plan/Will." If you read your nice little Bible, tell me this: How is man supposed to know the Plan/Will of God? Isn't that elevating yourself to the same status as your deity??

      I know this is going way offtopic here, but... Why, why, why, why, why do evolution and Creationism/ID have to be mutually exclusive? Why can't those(like me) who believe in God think that, "Yes, God put everything in motion, but he gave everything in that creation 'free will' (for lack of a better term for chemical processes, motion of atoms, bacteria, virus co-mingling) to evolve into the universe we know today?"

      Maybe I'm an old fogey and just think that there is always room for the almagamation of multiple ideas.... Oh, and to the far RIGHT and far LEFT, GET OVER YOURSELVES AND START THINKING FOR YOURSELF!
      --
      Cliff Claven
      K.E.G. Party Chairman
      Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
    6. Re:Monkeys?? by iainl · · Score: 1

      Why can't those(like me) who believe in God think that, "Yes, God put everything in motion, but he gave everything in that creation 'free will' (for lack of a better term for chemical processes, motion of atoms, bacteria, virus co-mingling) to evolve into the universe we know today?"

      You're quite welcome to believe that. But doing so means you don't support Intelligent Design. For that matter, the mere fact that you said that it's what you think, rather than claiming to have some sort of backwards proof to your claim that really boils down to the standard argument from incredulity makes you stand out as someone who isn't arguing for ID.

      If you go and read the Wedge Strategy document, or indeed much of the writing from the primary people behind the ID movement, the "whatever it takes to get it into the classroom" slur looks pretty accurate.

      --
      "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
    7. Re:Monkeys?? by DdJ · · Score: 1
      ...but what about treatment for those that don't believe in evolution?
      They've had one for ages!

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_science
    8. Re:Monkeys?? by Vinnie_333 · · Score: 1
      ...but what about treatment for those that don't believe in evolution? clearly, another example of the scientific elites pushing their liberal agenda

      We can't let these activist scientists run our lives!

      --

      "We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
    9. Re:Monkeys?? by pmenefee · · Score: 1
      Don't get me wrong. The right is just as bad with it's, "This is God's Punishment/Plan/Will." If you read your nice little Bible, tell me this: How is man supposed to know the Plan/Will of God? Isn't that elevating yourself to the same status as your deity??
      Man, I lost you there. How exactly does that make one equal? If my kids understand my will (Get your room clean before I get home.) That doesn't make them equal to me. In fact I believe it's quite the opposite, they know MY will and it's not theirs. As for the rest of your post I agree; both sides are too extreme.
    10. Re:Monkeys?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am not a god to my offspring. My offspring have, or will at some point in their lives have roughly the same status that I have now. At no point in creation will I have the same status as my diety. A better analogy would be comparing a man and his dog. Therefore you comparison falls short as well.

    11. Re:Monkeys?? by pmenefee · · Score: 1
      A better analogy would be comparing a man and his dog.
      I'll by that, it's a much better analogy. But I'm sure many a hunter and dog owner would agree that their dogs aim to please and by that they must know the will or wishes of it's master.
      At no point in creation will I have the same status as my diety.
      Yup again I concure. But I'm surprised you haven't berated the extremes in that point of view as well. Because I'm sure you agree with me in that there has to be more than the two extremes of deity and humanity. Knowing and wanting what my master wants doesn't make me anymore his equal than my dog knowing I want the morning paper and fetching it for me makes him human. Knowing and understanding are two intirely different things.
  3. Cool by 0racle · · Score: 5, Funny

    When can I buy the plushie?

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
    1. Re:Cool by deglr6328 · · Score: 4, Informative

      right now.

      --
      - "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
    2. Re:Cool by JD+Stokes · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      JD Stokes does not merely buy plushies, JD Stokes is a PLUSHIE BUSINESSMAN.

    3. Re:Cool by jibjibjib · · Score: 0

      In soviet russia, plushies buy YOU!

    4. Re:Cool by catnap_seven · · Score: 5, Funny

      My guess would be Burger King, judging by the colour scheme

    5. Re:Cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    6. Re:Cool by The+Spoonman · · Score: 1

      Damn! Beat me to it! hehehe. I have almost the whole set of Giant Microbes. They're in a display cabinet in the living room 'cause I just love telling people what they are. :)

      --
      Which is more painful? Going to work or gouging your eye out with a spoon? Find out!
      http://www.workorspoon.com
    7. Re:Cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh you just KNOW that will make some PR lackie's day.

      "The Burger King logo looks like HIV!"

  4. Science Triumps Agai... err... by Humorless+Coward. · · Score: 0, Troll

    ...zzzz....

    All this, just to say the scientists can now _see_ the virus?

    I guess that tricky wavelegnth of visible light thing had them befuddled.

    No sig.
    No sig necessary.

    1. Re:Science Triumps Agai... err... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks for the deep insight. I tell you what though, I bet those scientists can spell "Triumph" correctly.

  5. Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by putko · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I remember hearing this fringy-sounding stuff that HIV hadn't been proven to cause AIDS, and that a Nobel prize winner -- the guy who invented PCR -- was in agreement.

    One of the complaints was that nobody had bothered to isolate HIV, infect creatures, make sure they got AIDS, and so on -- the sort of things that scientists do to prove that something "causes" something.

    Among other things, there was the complaint that some people have HIV, but don't get AIDS. And others have AIDS, but no HIV.

    Does anyone know why they didn't bother to follow the normal procedures before deciding that HIV was the culprit? That just seems odd.

    --
    http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_s tone_your_children/dt21_18a.html
    1. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by c0dedude · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes, HIV causes AIDS. To think otherwise puts millions in danger. The idea that it does not has been rejected for years by mainstream science and is perpetuated by a self-denying HIV infected population, not by science.

      --
      Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
    2. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by putko · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well what about this stuff (these guys are respectable, so WTF??): http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/controversy.htm

      * Dr. Kary Mullis, Biochemist, 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry:

      "If there is evidence that HIV causes AIDS, there should be scientific documents which either singly or collectively demonstrate that fact, at least with a high probability. There is no such document." (Sunday Times (London) 28 nov. 1993)

      * Dr. Heinz Ludwig Sänger, Emeritus Professor of Molecular Biology and Virology, Max-Planck-Institutes for Biochemy, München. Robert Koch Award 1978:

      "Up to today there is actually no single scientifically really convincing evidence for the existence of HIV. Not even once such a retrovirus has been isolated and purified by the methods of classical virology." (Letter to Süddeutsche Zeitung 2000)

      * Dr. Serge Lang, Professor of Mathematics, Yale University:

      "I do not regard the causal relationship between HIV and any disease as settled. I have seen considerable evidence that highly improper statistics concerning HIV and AIDS have been passed off as science, and that top members of the scientific establishment have carelessly, if not irresponsible, joined the media in spreading misinformation about the nature of AIDS." (Yale Scientific, Fall 1994)

      * Dr. Harry Rubin, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley:

      "It is not proven that AIDS is caused by HIV infection, nor is it proven that it plays no role whatever in the syndrome." (Sunday Times (London) 3 April 1994)

      * Dr. Richard Strohman, Emeritus Professor of Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley:

      "In the old days it was required that a scientist address the possibilities of proving his hypothesis wrong as well as right. Now there's none of that in standard HIV-AIDS program with all its billions of dollars." (Penthouse April 1994)

      * Dr. Harvey Bialy, Molecular Biologist, former editor of Bio/Technology and Nature Biotechnology:

      "HIV is an ordinary retrovirus. There is nothing about this virus that is unique. Everything that is discovered about HIV has an analogue in other retroviruses that don't cause AIDS. HIV only contains a very small piece of genetic information. There's no way it can do all these elaborate things they say it does." (Spin June 1992)

      * Dr. Roger Cunningham, Immunologist, Microbiologist and Director of the Centre for Immunology at the State University of New York at Buffalo:

      "Unfortunately, an AIDS 'establishment' seems to have formed that intends to discourage challenges to the dogma on one side and often insists on following discredited ideas on the other." (Sunday Times (London) 3 April 1994)

      * Dr. Gordon Stewart, Emeritus Professor of Public Health, University of Glasgow:

      "AIDS is a behavioural disease. It is multifactorial, brought on by several simultaneous strains on the immune system - drugs, pharmaceutical and recreational, sexually transmitted diseases, multiple viral infections." (Spin June 1992)

      * Dr. Alfred Hässig, (1921-1999), former Professor of Immunology at the University of Bern, and former director Swiss Red Cross blood banks:

      --
      http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_s tone_your_children/dt21_18a.html
    3. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by soundofthemoon · · Score: 5, Informative

      This isn't a new idea, that HIV isn't the cause of AIDS. You get these kind of weird ideas when laymen try to apply "common sense" in place of domain knowledge. HIV is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system, so it has unusual characteristics and effects compared to most other viruses.

      A common argument goes that when a person is most sick with AIDS they have a low HIV load, which "doesn't make sense", since in all other viral infections the viral load is high when the infection is acute. However, since HIV destroys the immune cells in which it grows, you can actually see a low viral load as the infection progresses because it has no place left to grow. But by then the immune system is no longer effective at fighting off other infections and the infected person gets very sick.

      As for the procedures that were followed, I think researchers have done a very good job at studying HIV and its transmission. However no ethical researcher would intentionally infect a human with a fatal disease, and HIV is specific to humans. SIV (a related virus that infects simians) has also been studied and it's pretty well accepted by now that SIV causes an AIDS-like condition in monkeys, and that HIV is actually the agent that causes AIDS in humans.

    4. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by putko · · Score: 1

      Here's an article on this. One guy, who supposedly should know his stuff, says that SIV and AIDS are different enough that proving something about SIDS isn't the same as proving something about AIDS.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/761979.stm

      --
      http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_s tone_your_children/dt21_18a.html
    5. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by c0dedude · · Score: 5, Informative

      How many peer reviewed journals are cited above? ZERO!
      Here's an easy to read summary of the real evidence: http://www.avert.org/evidence.htm
      And a more detailed summary: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/evidhiv.htm

      Here are some of the proven, reviewed, science backed theories, quoted from the NIH site above:

      "AIDS and HIV infection are invariably linked in time, place and population group."

      "Many studies agree that only a single factor, HIV, predicts whether a person will develop AIDS."

      "HIV can be detected in virtually everyone with AIDS."

      "Newborn infants have no behavioral risk factors for AIDS, yet many children born to HIV-infected mothers have developed AIDS and died."

      "The HIV-infected twin develops AIDS while the uninfected twin does not."

      These are peer reviewed scientific theories. Anyone can cast doubt on them, but to do so with such little evidence is irresponsible, especially considering the gravity of the disease. No serious journal proposes that AIDS is not caused by HIV.

      --
      Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
    6. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by kg4czo · · Score: 1

      ummm... I'm looking at a bunch of quotes that are 8 years old or older. The relationship between HIV and AIDS has been demonstrated in a minor amount of cases (see here.

      Some people never show symptoms of HIV infection, some develop full blown AIDS and die shortly after. But, the few cases that do tie HIV and AIDS together have pretty much convinced many scientists that HIV and AIDS have some sort of real link.

    7. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Hammer · · Score: 1

      Most of the quoted statements are more than 10 years old. None is less than 5 years old.

      I'd say that it is a fairly safe assumption that HIV is one of the most important factors in AIDS. Maybe not the only one though.

      Saying that HIV does not cause HIV is borderline criminal.

    8. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by ebrandsberg · · Score: 2, Interesting

      May I point out that none of these is newer than 2000? There can be two reasons though:

      1) Anybody making any argument against this simply gets ridiculed out of the medical field
      2) Nobody is convinced that HIV doesn't cause it.

      The scary part is that there is/was a fair amount of evidence that HIV may not the sole cause of AIDS, as in many countries, the determination of who had AIDS wasn't based on the presense of HIV, but of the immune effects itself. There could be many other causes of "AIDS" as determined by symptoms, and if the international medical community isn't paying attention to this, we could be curing the wrong thing for a vast majority of people.

    9. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by jongi_ct · · Score: 1

      I leave in South Africa where more that 10% of our Population are said to be HIV+. This question was onced asked by our State President Thabo Mbeki,"Does HIV cause AIDS? Can a virus cause a syndrome? How? It can't, because a syndrome is a group of diseases resulting from acquired immune deficiency." He said that the question still unresolved by scientists is: what contribution does HIV make to the collapse of the immune system?
      Answer:HIV does not Cause AIDS, according to Mohammed Ali Al-Bayati,President, Toxi-Health International,

      1) The HIV-hypothesis is not supported. HIV is a harmless virus in both the in vivo and the in vitro settings. Read more here... http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/324/7331/2 37

      jongi

    10. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by flyingsquid · · Score: 2, Interesting
      The NIH (ahref=http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/evidhiv .htmrel=url2html-6476http://www.niaid.nih.gov/fact sheets/evidhiv.htm>) has a pretty good overview. In short, the "HIV does not cause AIDS" camp sounds pretty flaky. HIV has been isolated and introduced to chimps and shown to cause AIDS in them, for instance.

      True, sometimes in science you do have the radicals and visionaries who nobody will listen to, like the continental drift people before seafloor spreading was discovered. On the other hand, you have the dead-enders and lunatic fringe, people who refuse to accept an hypothesis even when confronted with a mountain of evidence. So how do you tell the difference between a minority camp with a legitimate hypothesis, and a minority camp that's completely out to lunch? What I've noticed is that the dead-enders tend to have one thing in common, which is that they have an anti-hypothesis, rather than a hypothesis. They will give you a million reasons why X can't be true, but they can't provide you with a reasonable alternative hypothesis.

      For instance, there are still paleontologists who forcefully argue that the Yucatan asteroid/comet impact did not wipe out the dinosaurs... but they can't provide you a decent explanation for what did kill them. There are some ornithologists who refuse to believe that dinosaurs evolved from birds (feathered dinosaur fossils notwithstanding), but they can't tell you what birds did evolve from. Likewise, the Intelligent Design people argue that evolution couldn't cause the diversity of life on earth, but they can't tell you what did. But it's not enough to poke holes in a well-established theory to have it overturned- you've got to provide an alternative that better explains and predicts the facts.

      Our understanding of the AIDS epidemic is hardly complete, but without a good alternative hypothesis, these guys sound a lot like lunatic fringe. In general, dissent is healthy, but in this case I think these guys are just spreading dangerous misinformation when millions of lives are on the line.

    11. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by ultranova · · Score: 1

      Among other things, there was the complaint that some people have HIV, but don't get AIDS. And others have AIDS, but no HIV.

      According to Wikipedia (and some other sources, but Wikipedia was easiest to link to) most people who get infected by Tuberculosis never develop any symptoms, since their immune system keeps the bacteria under control (but is unable to completely destroy it, unfortunately).

      And AIDS is a symptom, not a disease in itself. Anything that hinders the immune system could cause it, from genetics to radiation to malnutrition. That HIV is not the only possible cause of such symptoms does not prove that it is not a cause for them.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    12. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
      Anything that hinders the immune system could cause it, from genetics



      [nitpick]

      Immune deficiency caused by genetic factors would not be AIDS, since it is not Acquired, but innate.

      [/nitpick]

    13. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a syringe with HIV in it. Would you be willing for me to inject you with it? Or are you confident that AIDS would not result?

    14. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by HappyEngineer · · Score: 1

      Those two links are very convincing. The only thing I don't understand is why no one has done studies with animals. Surely it would be beneficial to try and infect an animal in the lab with HIV. That sort of thing is done all the time in labs when testing medications for other diseases. Why hasn't it been done with HIV so that the AIDS drugs can be tested on those animals? I assume that if such a thing had been done that one of those links would have mentioned it. If no one has tried this then why not? If someone has tried this and failed then it should be mentioned alongside the other evidence. Failing to infect mice with HIV wouldn't prove anything, but it should definitely be mentioned so that readers know that there's a reason for the lack of animal studies.

    15. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Ihlosi · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The only thing I don't understand is why no one has done studies with animals. Surely it would be beneficial to try and infect an animal in the lab with HIV.



      The H in HIV stands for "human".

    16. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    17. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it is entirely possible that the immunde systen can be rendered useless without the presence of HIV, it is also possible, due to the nature of how HIV attacks cells, to catch HIV and have your immune system by chance defeat the virus.

      now don't think you can go whore it up with no consequences, the chances are worse than winning the lottery or getting hit on the head by airplane parts.

      although when one is tested for AIDS/HIV what is tested for is the body's antibodies for that virus. so one who gets the virus and defeats it will still have the antibodies but probably not the virus itself.

      but there is no good reason at all to suspect that HIV does not cause AIDS at this point. secondly one can't isolate the virus and infect someone with it to test it because the virus doens't seem to work on animals other than humans. if it did it would be well known and any animal who bit an HIV + person would be immediately destroyed.

      that to say the nature of HIV make it unethical to carry out all of the exatcly proper procedures to prove with absolute certainty that HIV cuases aids. tho they have shown that HIV attacks T-Cells. that can be done in a peatrie (sp?) dish.

    18. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by anum · · Score: 1

      "The scary part is that there is/was a fair amount of evidence that HIV may not the sole cause of AIDS, as in many countries, the determination of who had AIDS wasn't based on the presense of HIV, but of the immune effects itself. "

      I think you may have reversed cause and effect here. In many countries it is difficult to test each person for HIV so they go off the symptoms instead. Unfortunately, AIDS can manifest in many ways some of which look just like other diseases. If there is any incentive (not saying there is, I just don't know) then yellow fever or malaria can easily be interpreted as AIDS from just the symptoms.

      As tests get cheaper and easier true numbers of HIV will tell us if this sort of misdiagnosis of AIDS is common or not.

      --
      I don't think, Therefore I'm not.
    19. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by bit01 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      I'm not saying your wrong, but the evidence you've given only proves correlation, not causation.

      It could well be that HIV is an opportunistic infection that happens when some unknown virus causes AIDS. Or that HIV works in tandem with another virus to cause AIDS.

      At one stage there were some cases of HIV not leading to AIDS that have not been explained, though I don't know if that's still true.

      Given the medical establishment's very poor record on comparatively simple diseases like stomach ulcers (helicobacter pylori) I am inclined to be very wary of evidence from studies funded by drug companies with a major financial interest in perpetual treatments, not cures.

      ---

      Open source software is everything that closed source software is. Plus the source is available.

    20. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
      It could well be that HIV is an opportunistic infection that happens when some unknown virus causes AIDS.

      If this were the case, shouldn't HIV be detectable in an individual at the same time as other symptoms of AIDS occur, not years before this point, when the individuals immune system is still effective ?

      Or that HIV works in tandem with another virus to cause AIDS.



      A mystery virus that has escaped detection so far ?

    21. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Essef · · Score: 0

      "HIV can be detected in virtually everyone with AIDS."

      Actually HIV is detected in EVERYONE with AIDS. This is because by definition
      you have AIDS if HIV is detected in your system.
      If you're dying from an immuno-deficiency and HIV is not detected, you are diagnosed as not having AIDS!

      --
      "My mind plays tricks on my all the time 'cause it's way smarter then me"
            - Ricky - Trailer Park Boys.

    22. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by zerocool^ · · Score: 1


      And there are many animal strains of similar diseases. For example, in cats, it's FIV. Check wikipedia.

      --
      sig?
    23. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I think researchers have done a very good job at studying HIV and its transmission.

      Indeed, I have also studied it in dept from the many video fragments available on the web.

    24. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not so fast. The HIV=AIDS myth is likely the greatest blunder in scientific history. Here is the full text of the NIH document you refer to (which is anonymous and NOT peer reviewed) along with the dissident refutation of each point (with references). Also, do some reading at http://virusmyth.net/ and then comment. (the text below can be also seen at http://www.healtoronto.com/nih/ with diagrams and charts) "The Evidence That HIV Causes AIDS", is a document that was created by the Office of Communications and Public Liaison of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/National Institutes of Health (NIAID/NIH): www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/evidhiv.htm (November 1994, updated on November 29, 2000). It is the most comprehensive document we know of to attempt to answer the many arguments that HIV does not cause AIDS. In the following rebuttal we argue that the NIAID/NIH document is seriously flawed for both failing to respect the standards of scientific discourse and failing to provide credible evidence to support its fundamental claims. Science is normally advanced through publications that: are signed by its authors; include a comprehensive list of citations; include contact information for at least one author; are modifiable only through additional publications (including errata); are open to rebuttal through published letters in the same journal; are peer reviewed; rely largely upon other peer-reviewed literature to back up their assumptions. The NIAID web page has none of these characteristics. On the contrary: it is anonymous; citations are restricted to the protagonist case; it changes occasionally without warning or explanation; it has no forum for those who disagree with parts of it to respond; it gives no information about the review process, if any, used to validate it; prejudges the issue by labelling the dissident case as "myth" and the protagonist case as "fact"; fails to detail the dissident case in the same details as the protagonist case. This rebuttal limits itself to revealing the fallacy of the key assertions made in the NIAID/NIH document: (A) that "HIV fulfills Koch's postulates as the cause of AIDS"; (B) that "modern culture techniques have allowed the isolation of HIV in virtually all AIDS patients, as well as in almost all HIV-seropositive individuals" and that a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been clearly identified; (C) that so-called HIV antibody tests, when positive, indicate specific "antibodies that indicate HIV infection." That is, such antibodies are caused by HIV infection and nothing else. Here we present evidence that all the various "HIV tests" (antibody, antigen, PCR (viral load) or by "modern culture techniques") have never been validated by the only possible standard of viral purification, nor has a unique AIDS-causing retrovirus ever been properly identified. Without the unequivocal gold standard of viral purification all the correlations put forward in the NIAID/NIH document as evidence that HIV causes AIDS have no solid foundation. A point of clarification: This rebuttal draws largely on two major critics of the HIV/AIDS hypothesis: Papadopulos-Eleopulos et al. (known as the "Perth Group") and Peter Duesberg. On one essential point they hold fundamentally opposing views; Peter Duesberg accepts the isolation of HIV and the antibody tests as proof of infection (albeit with a harmless passenger virus) while the Perth Group does not. Readers might like to read The Last Debate (1999) which the Perth Group wrote to compare and contrast their views to those of Peter Duesberg. You can find Duesberg's defence of his position here. A/ CLAIMS THAT KOCH'S POSTULATES HAVE BEEN FULFILLED NIAID: "HIV fulfills Koch's postulates as the cause of AIDS." The following is a short summary showing how HIV fails Koch's Postulates: EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION: Koch's Postulate #1. The microorganism must be found in all cases of the disease (NIAID/NIH). NIAID: "..

    25. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's nice and all, except for the fact that now we've isolated HIV virus and even photographed it (so to speak). That seems to be over half of their argument right there: "HIV doesn't exist because nobody has ever seen it"

    26. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by denebian+devil · · Score: 1

      It could well be that HIV is an opportunistic infection that happens when some unknown virus causes AIDS. Or that HIV works in tandem with another virus to cause AIDS.

      Actually, it's the other way around. "Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (or acronym AIDS or Aids), is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)"

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aids

      HIV is the infection, and is generally asymptomatic. AIDS is what happens when the HIV damage is so bad that you start to get symptoms. The way that one AIDS case manifests can be very different from another because basically what happens is the AIDS sufferer's immune system is so damaged that opportunistic infections start to take over, infections that someone with a healthy immune system can combat, often with little or no symptoms.

    27. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by AndersOSU · · Score: 2, Informative
      from the avert website:
      One line of argument can be based on animal experiments.43 In some studies, chimpanzees deliberately infected with HIV-1 have gone on to develop AIDS-like conditions (though this appears to be rare),44 while HIV-2 has had the same effect on baboons.45 Macaque monkeys have developed AIDS after being infected with a hybrid virus called SHIV, which contains genes taken from HIV.46 And in mice engineered to have a human immune system, HIV produces the same patterns of disease as in humans.47

      sources:
      #43 "Evidence from Animal and Laboratory Models", NIH, 1995
      #44 "Progressive infection in a subset of HIV-1-positive chimpanzees", O'Neil et al, J Infect Dis 182(4), October 2000
      #45 "Human immunodeficiency virus-2 infection in baboons is an animal model for human immunodeficiency virus pathogenesis in humans", Locher et al, Arch Pathol Lab Med 122(6), June 1998
      #46 "Chimeric simian/human immunodeficiency virus that causes progressive loss of CD4+ T cells and AIDS in pig-tailed macaques", Joag et al, J Virol 70(5), May 1996
      #47 "The SCID-hu mouse as a model for HIV-1 infection", Nature 363(6431), June 1993
    28. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by denebian+devil · · Score: 1

      And AIDS is a symptom, not a disease in itself. Anything that hinders the immune system could cause it, from genetics to radiation to malnutrition. That HIV is not the only possible cause of such symptoms does not prove that it is not a cause for them.

      True, AIDS is not a disease in itself. And there are other immunodeficiency conditions out there. But those other conditions have their own names (or if they haven't been discovered already, will have their own names). AIDS is specifically the name to describe the immunodeficiency condition caused by having HIV. Just because two conditions have similary symptoms and appearances does not mean that they are "the same" if it is known that they have two separate and distinct causes. The causes are just as important as the effects.

    29. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This isn't a new idea, that HIV isn't the cause of AIDS. You get these kind of weird ideas when laymen try to apply "common sense" in place of domain knowledge. HIV is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system, so it has unusual characteristics and effects compared to most other viruses.

      The people who argue that HIV doesn't cause AIDS are like people who argue that the person who pulled the trigger didn't kill the person who got shot. The actual cause of death is loss of blood. (The cause of loss of blood is a ruptured aorta. The cause of the ruptured aorta is a high velocity projectile. The cause of the high velocity projectile is a triggered gun. The cause of the triggered gun is the person standing behind it.) It isn't definite that someone will die if you pull the trigger of a gun pointed at their chest, but only dumb people would argue that the shooter didn't cause the victim's death.

      Likewise, HIV doesn't kill you itself. It only destroys your immune system. If you lived in a perfectly sterile bubble, you could live a long, if not boring, life without an immune system. It's the sea of pathogens which we live in that take advantage of your depressed immune system which actually does you in. But saying that HIV didn't cause your death is deluding yourself.

    30. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Ihlosi · · Score: 1
      you lived in a perfectly sterile bubble, you could live a long, if not boring, life without an immune system.



      Not even then. Cancer would eventually kill you, albeit more slowly than pathogens would.

    31. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm posting AC to say, "I just gave you a +1 Informative, but only because there's no "+1, Mofo Actually Provides Citations." You rock. Somebody give Anders a nice cup of tea.

    32. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by nobody69 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually HIV is detected in EVERYONE with AIDS. This is because by definition
      you have AIDS if HIV is detected in your system.
       
       
      Ahem, no. If you have Human Immunodefiency Virus antibodies in your system you are diagnosed as HIV-positive. If you are HIV-positive, and your immune system is giving up the ghost because the t-cells are being killed off by the HIV, you are diagnosed as having AIDS.
       
        If you're dying from an immuno-deficiency and HIV is not detected, you are diagnosed as not having AIDS!
       
       
      There are other ways to become immuno-deficient that are not due to HIV. Frex, you could have a genetic condition such as SCID (Severe Combined Immuno-Deficiency), radiation exposure leading to ARS (Acute Radiation Syndrome), or even immunodeficiencies resulting from chemotherapy.

      --
      "Bugger this, I want a better world." - Jenny Sparks
    33. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by c0dedude · · Score: 1

      The big block o' unreadable text argument is out of style. Please try again w/formatting.

      --
      Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
    34. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by AxelBoldt · · Score: 1
      that HIV hadn't been proven to cause AIDS, and that a Nobel prize winner -- the guy who invented PCR -- was in agreement.

      I think the last Kary Mullis has said about HIV/AIDS was in his 1998 book "Dancing Naked in the Mind Field". Lots of research has happened since then. BTW, in the book he also states that he believes in astrology and UFOs/alien abduction. It's a good read.

    35. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by AxelBoldt · · Score: 1

      Given that your favorite website hasn't been updated in years and your newest quote is from 2000, it seems that the dissident position is thoroughly dead by now. The undeniable successes of anti-retroviral therapy probably did it.

    36. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by Essef · · Score: 0

      Actually I think you are missing my point. I know the difference between HIV infection and AIDS. I was refering to the "artificial" link between HIV and AIDS. i.e. if I show up in hospital with a severe case of tuberculosis and my bloodtest reveals HIV, I will be diagnosed as having AIDS.

      If I were to try and make an independent determination about whether HIV causes AIDS, there will be overwhelming "evidence" that HIV causes AIDS 'cause all collected data will show that 100% of AIDS patients are HIV+.

      It is perfectly possible to "acquire" immunodeficiency through recreational drug use and chemotherapy (AZT e.g.) as you point out. At present it is impossible to tell for certain whether AIDS patients are indeed dying from HIV-induced immunodefiency simply because the data is messed up.

      To put it another way, tying HIV to AIDS by definition creates an artificial causal link between the two, which messes up all current statistics related to AIDS. This is especially so because it became politically incorrect way back in the eighties to suggest that "lifestyle" (e.g. recreational drug use amongst at-risk groups) could be related to AIDS.

      Check out the following site:
      http://www.aliveandwell.org/

      --

    37. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by nobody69 · · Score: 1

      Re:TB + HIV+ = AIDS
      If that is the case, and your t-cell counts are within the normal range, the doctor is jumping the gun, probably in the same form of verbal shorthand that leads to doctors saying "Your upper respriratory infection's viral, here are some antibiotics" rather than saying "Your upper respriratory infection's viral, here are some antibiotics to prevent any secondary bacterial infections." Lazy and kind of condescending, especially when you call them on it and they don't back down (Frickin' MDs - don't get me started). She should say "You are really at risk for and could be in the early stages of AIDS."
       
      Re: Artificial causal relationship.
      I took a quick look at the Alive and Well site. It was interesting, but I have heard most of it before in the early '90s, when I was a wannabe gene jock. Some of the bullet points in the side bars are misleading enough to raise some questions about the sites axe-grinding. Frex, one sidebar claims that HIV shares 'genetic structure' (I assume they mean RNA, but they don't define the term) with all other retroviruses had retroviruses are found in healthy people - these points are true, but all bacteria share the same genetic structure (one double-stranded loop of DNA) and are found in healthy people, which doesn't mean that E. coli can't make you sick. I am also skeptical of the claim that retroviruses never kill cells. The sidebar right below that (this is on the 'A Closer Look at HIV' page) says that AIDS only appears after the antibodies are present while VZV antibodies mean immunity, but the proteins on the surface of the HIV particle change rapidly due to mutation, so the antibodies represent immunity to some/most particles, but not all of them. Maybe these are not the end of the world, but it doesn't suggest to me that the authors are trying to be as clear as possible. On the page 'Questioning the Test', I can't find a reference from this century - Am I to think that there have been no changes in HIV testing methods since the 90's? In fact, looking at the References page, there appears to be less than half a dozen, out of more than 200, references to publications since 2000.

      --
      "Bugger this, I want a better world." - Jenny Sparks
    38. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1

      >>Or that HIV works in tandem with another virus to cause AIDS.
      >A mystery virus that has escaped detection so far ?


      Human Herpes Virus 8, the virus which causes Kaposi's sarcoma, has been identified for some time and it's link to AIDS patients is well documented. Of course, HHV8 is not required for AIDS so far as I know, but it certainly makes HIV much much worse.

      From the cited article;
      The results suggest that HHV-8 might be a cofactor for HIV progression and that HHV-8-infected endothelial cells might play a relevant role in transendothelial HIV spread.
      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd= Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=1597617 7&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_DocSum

      --

      ___
      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
    39. Re:Does HIV Really Cause Aids? by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1

      HIV can be detected in virtually everyone with AIDS.

      HIV is not the only cause of severe immune suppression.

      Starvation, for instance, can cause sufficient deterioration in the human immune system to meet the criteria of AIDS, minus the presence of HIV. This is relevant when looking at AIDS statistics from third world countries where determinations are made based on symptoms rather than viral load or antibiody reactivity.

      --

      ___
      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
  6. So now that we've got the 3D model by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does that mean we can start using it in Counterstrike mods?

    1. Re:So now that we've got the 3D model by foo+fighter · · Score: 1

      Wait til we get those 3d printers that have been hyped for the past decade. That'll be some fun.

      --
      obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
  7. All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by Rxke · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I live in Belgium, a country that takes pride in its high quality of education. But just yesterday a survey showed that about 70% of the youth doesn't have a clue how you can contract HIV, and a very high percentage takes no protective measures at all. Staggering numbers for a developed country. One of the people that was involved in organising the survey said this was partly to blame to the false sense of security. Rumors about new cures, tales about how good the HIV treatments work. Youth these days seems to think it isn't that deadly after all, at least not deadly enough to be very wary... Sensibilisation campaigns seemed to be inadequate to change this view.

    1. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apperently quality is relative.

    2. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by BewireNomali · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's the same way in the states. I live in NY, which has a relatively high percentage of HIV cases (HIV is very prevalent amongst poor African American and Hispanic communities - with additional stressors of a dense population). A friend teaches teens and told me that one of her students commented that it "wasn't a big deal" and that he'd just take "the pills" if he contracted it. He concluded by saying he wore no protection for sex.

      There is a perception that it is a rare, chronic, and treatable disease.

      --
      un burrito me trampeó.
    3. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by TallMatthew · · Score: 1
      There is a perception that it is a rare, chronic, and treatable disease.

      It is.
      It is.
      It is.

      HIV spreads through sexual contact, which is what makes it as prevalent as it is, but it's still relatively rare in the general population. If you are exposed to it, you're far less likely to actually gain the infection compared to other blood-borne illnesses like Hepatitis C. And if you are HIV positive, the likelihood of going into full-fledged AIDS is still relatively low, particularly if you take protease inhibitors, which can reduce your viral load to nil.

      These people who think that it's not that big a deal, while being incredibly naive and stupid in their assumptions, aren't necessarily wrong. If you care for yourself properly, you can live a full life (though the meds aren't a party).

    4. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by Ours · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And what really enfuriates me, is that people panic and floc to not-yet-proven (or just plain paranoid) methods to protect themselves against the latest very exotic, very rare decease they heard about on TV...
      People run around like headless chickens when a few die of mad cow or whatever but nobody cares about AIDS killing thousands daily.
      The latest mediatic decease ends up killing less then you normal flu, or the car, or alcohol.
      Fear and ignorance go hand in hand my friends while the real risks are ignored.

      --
      "You superiour intellect is no match for our puny weapons" - The Simpsons
    5. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by eatjello · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not that big of a deal?
      Society treats you like a leper. Most people wouldn't shake your hand if you told them you were HIV positive. Many people are so afraid of HIV, they would rather throw away the cutlery you ate dinner with than "take a risk" and wash it, if they invited you to dinner at all.
      Intimacy is all but impossible. How many people would knowingly have (protected) sex with an HIV-infected partner? Most people would not dare kiss you if you are HIV positive, much less any other intimate activity. With appropriate protection, it is perfectly safe, but good luck convincing someone of that.
      The financial strain is huge. Repressive therapy is quite expensive, and even if the patient is not paying the costs, someone is. The majority of HIV positive patients worldwide can't afford a tenth of the medication they need. Without adequate treatment, these same people will develop AIDS within 10 years of infection, and then the medical bills skyrocket, as even a minor cold calls for hospitalization.
      HIV is a slippery target. Every day could be the day that the virus mutates again, and becomes resistant to current therapies. Those who contract this new variant could very well be dead before medicines catch up.

      In short: Use protection, every time. That's all it takes. Would you play Russian roulette with a 1000-shot revolver? I hope not. Knowing only 1 in a thousand people dies of AIDS is no comfort when you are that 1.

    6. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by LiTa03 · · Score: 1
      But just yesterday a survey showed that about 70% of the youth doesn't have a clue how you can contract HIV, and a very high percentage takes no protective measures at all.
      Same in France... but it used to be different.

      I really loved the messages we got back in the late 80s - early 90s. There were no mixed messages back then. After some pretty bad scandals with contaminated blood, the government changed their tune from hope (we'll have a cure within 5 years) to gloom. The message I remember from then was:

      If You get the virus, it's only a matter of time before you develop AIDS and die a horrible death.

      The corollary was "use condoms, they're safe"... condoms you could purchase from pharmacies for 1 franc (10p? 20c?).
      A second corollary was: If you ever wanted to have unprotected sex with your partner, you'd wait 3 months and could go to the clinic to have a free, anonymous test. In those days, a contaminated person could still show negative if contaminated within a 3 months window. Anyway, you'd have a chat with the nurse, she'd tell you all about the risks involved with unprotected sex, re-explain the vectors of contamination (but you did learn that in school too) and would let you off with "even if it's safe to have sex with your partner, there's an element of trust involved for both of you and the only 100% safe-sex practice is to use a condom".

      At the same time, there was also a big show of solidarity towards HIV-positive people (I remember of a full mouth kiss on TV between an actress and someone infected... she wanted to remind people that saliva is not a vector). But! When you're HIV positive, eventually you die... Cyril Collard, Freddy Mercury, etc etc etc...

      Fast-forward 15 years, kids are having sex younger and younger, they think anal sex is safe, they think a cure will be found, condoms are fucking expensive so people don't use them, and those free HIV tests? You'd be hard pressed to find a free clinic.

      In Britain... Well, I'm showing my ignorance here, I have lived here for the past 12 years but have only been to hospital once (that was enough) and to the GP twice (second time was enough). What I hear is that tests aren't anonymous and that your employer is allowed to know if you went for a test (probably not true, but that's what I heard).
      Condoms are real expensive here too... So people don't use them or don't know how to use them and they get infected by all sorts of VDs (not only HIV). Britain also has the youngest mothers in Europe!

      It's not only France and Britain. If you want to see how bad sexual practices in the devoloped world have become, watch the movie kids (set in NYC).

    7. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by drgonzo59 · · Score: 1
      Good point. That is why I always wonder why so much research time and money is put in to HIV/AIDS. It seems to be a completely preventable disease. Why isn't all that money put into educating people and controlling blood transfusions. If the money must be used for research, why not study the Avian Flu or Malaria -- things that could spread without individuals being able to do much about it.

    8. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Could it be that money doesn't do all that much to educate people? Marketing doesn't work by educating, education does not (mostly) work better when you (just) throw money at it.

    9. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also living in Belgium, I do have some questions about the conducted survey. I searched a little, but I never found how the survey was done and what kind of people did they ask to participate (social diversity?).
      It just says: 13.000 people between 15 and 24. Great, I bet there are more idiots in Belgium, so if they dont provide more info it might be possible that those 70% where just plain idiots.
      I'm just pointing this out because there are social/intellectual/other seperators in belgium (especially in high school, where there are about 4 levels of segregated schools, according to intelligence - hence also social status), and so the question that needs to be asked is: was the survey well conducted.
      If the survey was done among university students, I guess the results would at least be reversed: most people know about aids and how to protect themselves, but that doesn't mean they care and practice safe sex.

      The question then remains (as always) : did the participants answered correctly and truthfully. If the survey was done in some schools, you can bet that there were a lot of jackass-classes who just fill in the wrong answers. I mean, the schools are obligated to teach about sexual reproduction and safe sex, so how the hell can these people not know about it?

    10. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by Fred_A · · Score: 1

      AIDS tests (and for other STDs I believe) are still free and anonymous in France.
      A list of places is of course available on the Web : http://www.sida-info-service.org/orienter/depistag e.php4

      There is currently a big push by nonprofit orgs (nonprofits are an important part of the social and cultural life in France) to restart a full scale campaign instead of the low key background noise we have had those last few years.
      Visitors to Paris in the summer will for example invariably be greeted with cheerful posters in the street of groping couples with messages along the lines of "have all the fun you like but remember to wear a rubber".

      Apparently this kind of thing doesn't have much effect.

      --

      May contain traces of nut.
      Made from the freshest electrons.
    11. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by papa248 · · Score: 0, Troll

      People run around like headless chickens when a few die of mad cow or whatever but nobody cares about AIDS killing thousands daily.

      I call bullshit. AIDS does not come after me, infect me and my family, and kill me. I personally have to do something to infect myself with AIDS like do drugs or have unprotected sex. You're damn right that I don't care about AIDS killing thousands daily, since in MOST of the cases, those people killed themselves.

      --


      The higher, the fewer.
    12. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by Belial6 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because to properly control AIDS, much of our social structure would need to change. Some changes are:

      *Acceptance that people are not going to stop having sex
      *People are willing to risk death for sex
      *Acceptance that when we hit puberty, we are adults, and will start having sex
      *Honest prostitution would need to be legal and acceptable
      *Dishonest prostitution (currently the most common dating ritual) would need to be shunned
      *The truly stupid would need to be rounded up and incarcerated for their own and our protection. I don't mean the generally stupid, or those that disagree with me. I mean people like my neighbor that thinks her cats don't need to be fixed because it is their responsibility not to get pregnant. If she is to stupid to understand what a cat is, she certainly is not going to be convinced that she needs condoms.
      *Acceptance that people don't choose sexual partners due to their intellegence
      *Acceptance that people will have sex with other people that they don't like
      *Acceptance that in fact when desperate enough, much of the poplulation will have sex with people they don't find attractive
      *Acceptance that the difference between men and womens sexual behaviours is more due to social pressures than biological ones

      I'm sure that there are many others, but these prevent education from being effective alone. We live in a world of self denial, and I don't see that changing soon.

    13. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Well, I live in Brazil and here things are a bit different, at least in the past.

      Past government was "aggressive" in its campaign. No false morals, church displeased - but it worked quite well, considering what were their inital expectations.

      Funny, isn't it? And in fully developed countries we see all this misinformation.

      Ok, I'm gonna tell a personal (true) tale. It happened to me around 1996/1997, I was then 23 year old. At that time I was spending a year England. Once, while living there, I met a swedish girl. We got together and, you know, after dating her two weekends we finally reached the point to have sex.

      At the "D", actually, already at about the start of the "action", I told her: "a second, I'm getting a condom". Her answer? A somewhat "surprise"/"displeased" question: "Why a condom, I'm no prostitute?!". Detail, she was not the "most virginal" girl in the neighbourhood, if you understand me.

      I replied: "Yep, I know, but I don't know with whom you've been before, and you don't know with whom I've been before, either. It is protection for you, too". And we had our good moments, with protection.

      But her initial answer really shocked me. Later, talking with other friends - French, Italians, I discovered there was a kind of "awkward" understanding that you only needed protection when going with prostitutes, but not with the regular girl you meet (well, at least the German seemed a bit more informed).

      I realized someone really screwed up in their information campaigns, because you indeed need protection in *either* case, especially these days. People look healthy, but they may not be...

      Here in Brazil the campaing was much more direct in these aspects. Unfortunately, Lula's government failed to continue the good work of the previous government in this area.

      So now, not only aids continue to be a problem, but we also have a problem of young teenagers (and we are talking about 12, 13, 14 years old girls) getting pragned.

      Well done, president Lula!

    14. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by smellsofbikes · · Score: 1

      Ya know, I think like you. But one of my friends is a young gay guy who is 'in love' with a guy in California and is planning on moving out there to spend the rest of his life with this guy -- which he knows quite well won't be very long. He says, and I quote, "I will never be anything worthwhile anyway, so I might as well die happy."
      Unbelievable.
      And he's a nice guy, and not particularly stupid. He's just wired differently than I am.

      note please I have no problem with his sexuality. I quotate 'in love' because A: he's gone through a dozen other boys with whom he was 'in love' in the last two years and B: the guy in California is a bit of fluff who is a male escort, and is certainly not 'in love' with my friend.

      So people do, indeed, walk directly into the furnace, thinking that it's no big deal -- DYING. Not thinking "oh, I won't catch it" or "oh, it's treatable" but "oh, dying is okay if I'm not alone."

      Un
      freaking
      believable.

      --
      Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
    15. Re:All these 'almost there' cures announcements... by drgonzo59 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      People don't have to stop having sex, they just need to be careful. It is like saying that "because driving kills most adults in US -- driving should be stopped". But all that needs to happen is for people to be careful. and here is where education comes into play. Dating doesn't have to be stopped, people should just not have unprotected sex on the 3rd date. Honest prostitution should be legalized. The number of the truly stupid would have to be reduced. On a large scale, education and better living standards might help. But if they choose not to listen, they will eventually end up in jail or dead -- it is their choice. They should be informed about and then decide.

      Those who are extremely stupid will end up in jails anyway -- it will be expensive to feed them but so be it, I'll pay taxes to keep my white trash neighbours in jail before I'll pay taxes to fund their drug use and their welfare checks.

      We do live in a world of self denial, we are even in denial about our denial (the same thing really...). Everyone today will defend their and others behaviors as "just natural" -- the animals do it, so I will do it too, It's in my genes and I can't help it. "The genes made me rob that store, your honor!" Pesonal responability and restraint is something that is fading away and there is not sign of it coming back.

  8. 3d modeling by Statecraftsman · · Score: 1
    So does this mean people can put together 3d structures that interfere with HIV? I'd really like to know more about how a picture of a virus and information on its geometry can help us in viral combat.

    can't wait for google to make google hiv so I can fly around on it surface.

    1. Re:3d modeling by Mortiss · · Score: 3, Informative

      This image cannot be used for structural modelling of potential inhibitors because its resolution is too low. You need an x-ray crystal structure with Angstrom resolustions to be able to do this (these images have resolution of ~4 nm which is still very impressive for electron microscopy)
      However, partial structures of HIV surface proteins (gp120 and gp41) are available but I am not sure if they have been used to model potential inhibitors.
      On related note there is a newely FDA licensed inhibitor compound (T20 peptide) that blocks the function of fusion subunit of HIV surface protein (gp41) and it has been developed thanks to the structural information on this protein.

    2. Re:3d modeling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      step 1. Publish stereo pictures of HIV
      step 2. ...
      step 3. Profit

      step 4. More funding for AIDS researchers. Same reason NASA publishes those Mars Rover pics and Hubble pseudocolors.

      I hope this answers your inquiry as to how a picture of a virus and information on its geometry can help us in viral combat.

    3. Re:3d modeling by Mutatis+Mutandis · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The biggest advance of the study is that it illuminates how the maturation process of the virus works.

      HIV contains an enzyme, known as HIV protease, with related functionality to the proteases found in "biological" washing powders: It cuts other proteins in pieces. In HIV one of its functions is to cut a protein called gag, which helps the virus to assemble and leave a cell, into two others, known as matrix and capsid. The matrix supports the outer membrane of the virus, while the capsid surrounds the critical part of the virus that enters an infected cells, i.e. its genome and some other enzymes. The gag and matrix proteins form round shapes, but capsid assembles to a conical structure.

      This maturation process (probably and mostly) happens after newly made viral particles leave cells, but before they can infect other cells. Apparently, if I understand the paper correctly, the capsid assembles from one end the virus and just stops to grow and seals when it reaches the other end.

      Maturation is a potentially interesting drug target. But medical possibilities aside, the gag protein has interesting applications in biotechnology, as it forms a self-assembling nanostructure. You can already get commercially grown gag nanoparticles. The building blocks of HIV are potenial building blocks for the next generation of computers, strange as it may seem...

  9. For those infected by phorm · · Score: 1

    The results offer hope for a microbicide that can prevent the spread of HIV, which now affects about 40 million people.

    I'm assuming this means that it would help already-infected individuals to contain and/or resist the virus? Personally while it might be a nice addition to existing safeguards (being careful of partners, condoms, etc) I wouldn't exactly trust eating yoghurt to keep me safe from HIV.

    1. Re:For those infected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *ahem*. You don't eat the yoghurt.

    2. Re:For those infected by Mostly+a+lurker · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, the idea is a microbicidal cream that will form a barrier against HIV. I must admit to confusion over why this would be such a great breakthrough. It is unlikely to provide better protection than a condom. I guess women could use it where their partners refused to use a condom. Perhaps one idea will be to use it in conjunction with a condom in the way once recommended with nonoxynol-9. Note that creams and gels with similar objectives are already being evaluated (supported by the Gates Foundation and others).

    3. Re:For those infected by lisaparratt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      One would imagine it's not used in sexual situations at all, but as a preventative measure during medical procedures.

    4. Re:For those infected by hcob$ · · Score: 1
      I guess women could use it where their partners refused to use a condom.
      Mmmmm.... Cherry Yogurt Sex... I can see it now... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... Cherrrrrryyyyyy....
      --
      Cliff Claven
      K.E.G. Party Chairman
      Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
    5. Re:For those infected by Creedo · · Score: 1

      I guess women could use it where their partners refused to use a condom.
      I guess this is the part where I get a little confused and old fashioned. If you are worried about catching a fatal disease from the person you are about to sleep with, wouldn't it make more sense to simply NOT SLEEP WITH THEM?

      --
      All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
    6. Re:For those infected by nursegirl · · Score: 1

      That's fine for women in relationships where the balance of power is pretty even. In my work I see a lot of women with heavily imbalanced sexual relationships where they don't feel safe saying "no," and their partners don't want to wear condoms, but where the partners are OK with safe sex measures that don't inconvenience the man. So, they'll use diaphragm+spermicide. If they could use diaphragm+spermicide+microbicide, that would be incredibly helpful.

  10. obligatory by pyros · · Score: 4, Funny

    Frink: Take an ordinary double-helix ...

    Wiggum: Woah! Slow down there egghead.

  11. The Real Puzzle by Proto23 · · Score: 1

    How come AIDS targets homosexuals in the West, but heterosexuals in Africa?

    1. Re:The Real Puzzle by mrak+and+swepe · · Score: 1

      It doesn't.

      The 'S' in AIDS stands for 'syndrome'.

      Syndrome: A group of symptoms that collectively indicate or characterize a disease, psychological disorder, or other abnormal condition.

      A group of symptoms is, clearly, unable to target anything or anyone.

    2. Re:The Real Puzzle by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      You assume that it "targets" anybody and you also assume that AIDS is still more prevalent in (western) homosexuals than heterosexuals (something that hasn't been true for 15-20 years, IIRC). You're also taking the African heterosexuals at their word; it would seem that most African countries are even more homophobic than the United States.

      Heterosexual, homosexual... if you want to focus on sexual deviation, consider: the disease was first found in primates, and then "somehow" made the species jump. Wrap your head around that.

    3. Re:The Real Puzzle by daverabbitz · · Score: 1

      >Heterosexual, homosexual... if you want to focus on sexual deviation, consider: the disease was first found in primates, and then >"somehow" made the species jump. Wrap your head around that.

      Duh, just ask any raving loony, havn't you heard "the CIA sprays HIV virus".

      This was intended as a joke.
      IANARL

      --
      What could be better than a jet powered motorcycle? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8l6GTHLSWE
    4. Re:The Real Puzzle by Essef · · Score: 0

      How come AIDS targets homosexuals in the West, but heterosexuals in Africa?

      ... because recreational drug-use amongst homosexuals in the USA induces immuno-deficiency.
      ... because malnutrition in Africa induces immuno-deficiency.

      Once you are immuno-deficient and HIV+, you are diagnosed as having AIDS.

      --
      "The shit-apple does not fall far from the shit-tree"
          - Mr. Lahey - Trailer Park Boys.

    5. Re:The Real Puzzle by Martin+Blank · · Score: 1

      It's more likely that if it made the jump, it happened because someone butchered an infected ape, and the blood got into a cut or something similar to that.

      There's also the recent revelation that ebola infections may be coming not from apes infecting humans, but from fruit bats. Several species of fruit bat were found to harbor ebola, but they don't get infected by it. However, the bats are common fare in the areas where ebola most commonly turns up. It's possible that HIV had similar alternate infection vectors.

      --
      You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
  12. Re:Compared to some other viruses, by EVil+Lawyer · · Score: 0

    i think this is actually genuinely humorous, and does not rely on true hateful/hurtful feelings to be humorous.

  13. Is the model available in std 3d formats? by waferhead · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Anything one can load in Blender etc?

  14. Short answer: Yes. by jd · · Score: 4, Informative
    Long answer: There have been plenty of studies with Rhesus Monkeys that do indeed show that injecting the HIV virus does cause AIDS. The alternative theory was devised by a French scientist whose name escapes me, but appears to have been motivated more for fame, glory and nationalism than anything. The argument is often repeated, but repeating it doesn't make it valid, it simply makes it heard more often.


    With the HIV virus, we know the mechanism by which infection originates, spreads, disables the immune system, etc. There isn't a vast amount we don't know. The HIV virus took a while to isolate and sequence, but when compared to other viruses, it was damn quick.


    What we don't know is the history prior to the first recorded case, whether or not a guy in England really DID somehow eliminate the HIV virus from his body (he refuses to get re-tested after he got a negative), why some people do not produce HIV antibodies when exposed to the virus (are they immune, as some claim, or is their immune system just not capable of detecting it?) and how a virus so astronomically unstable can function (one problem with producing a vaccine is that de-activated HIV can re-activate itself, becoming extremely dangerous).


    Now, there are indeed cases where medical science seems to have jumped to conclusions. BSE and CJDnv are supposedly caused by prions, but infected brain tissue retains its ability to transfer the deadly agent after being cooked at high temperatures. Also, it is unclear how proteins (a prion is just a protein) can get through the stomach wall AND the blood-brain barrier in order to cause damage.


    Even in this case, although there are plenty of skeptics of the prion theory, I know of nobody who is seeking to ridicule the work. Rather, they are pursuing their own lines of enquiry with some measure of dignity. That's how you can tell the good from the great. The merely good will sometimes bolster their egos by proclaiming themselves the One True Word, denouncing everyone else. The great let the results speak for themselves.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  15. Tomography by tchiwam · · Score: 2, Informative

    It would be nice to know what methods they used for tomography. With the latest methods it can be possible to get better Tomography resolution than the measurment device has by itself. The geometry of the measurement itself would be great to know too.

    Also it is today possible to solve many million unknowns by using stocastic inversion, something that was taking ages and truly huge amount of memory not so long ago, can now be done on a deskside.

    For example it is possible to reconstruct the shape of an asteroid using only a single value like light intensity or radio signal intensity over a period of time. That would be like a 1x1 sensor size with multiple projection and arbitrary geometry.

    1. Re:Tomography by cerebis · · Score: 1
      I don't follow the research, but I fully expected this 3D model would be the product of xray crystallography, where we could expect a much higher resolution than that of tomography; down to the sub Angstrom level when you're lucky (very unlikely with virues though).

      The reason was, as I am aware of the difficulties of collecting useful xray diffraction data on large assemblies (even when they're broken down into constituent parts), and an awareness of the great deal of funding channeled into HIV research, I really expected they would have collected tomographic data long ago.

    2. Re:Tomography by mrigney · · Score: 1

      The data set is a collection of electron microscope images. Purified samples of the HIV in an aqueous solution are deposited on a grid and snap-frozen in liquid ethane. The rapid freezing produces vitreous (no crystals) ice which is suitable for imaging. The grids are imaged at tilts up to 60 or 70 degrees (-68, +64 in this case) and the tilt images are combined after aligning based on fiducial markers (small gold particles, necessary because there is always some shift in the field of view as the grid is tilted.) After aligning, the 2-dimensional projections are combined into a 3-d volume using IMOD. This processing could be done on a desktop, but a small cluster is more useful.

    3. Re:Tomography by Mutatis+Mutandis · · Score: 1

      You cannot use X-ray crystallography on the whole HIV particle, if only because there is too much variation in size and shape between individual viruses. You can never grow a regularly ordered crystal of it.

      Cryo-electron tomography does not offer the resolution of X-Ray crystallography, but it can be used on single particles without the need to grow crystals, and it is also quite suitable for the study of particles the size of viruses. It also provides images that are fairly close to the body-temperature "biological condition".

      X-Ray crystallography is a great technique, but its problem is that there are many proteins that don't crystallize properly. Some critical HIV proteins are notoriously hard to do and people have been working on them for years... And the tricks that are then used to get crystals, such as cutting out specific parts of proteins and/or adding stabilizing substances, result in reconstructions that are less than lifelike.

      A method that has been used in the past with good results is to combine results from the two methods by fitting the X-Ray data in the CET model.

  16. Why not use honeypot approach to fighting viruses? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Create some type of fake T-cell that when the HIV virus bumps into it, it thinks it's a real T-cell and attaches itself and attempts to infect it. Except that it is not the target T-cell, and then it dies. Kind of like a roach motel for HIV.

  17. Hopefully it won't happen, but... by themysteryman73 · · Score: 0

    Too bad if, once a cure is released, people stop using protection only to find that the cure has only a 50% success rate or some such.

  18. Professor Peter Deusberg by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The guy's name is professor Peter Duesberg. I did a speech based on his book "Infectious AIDS, Have We Been Misled" 7 years ago when I was in college.

    To start out with, Deusberg was a good scientist, making important discoveries regarding oncogenic viruses, and was consequently recipient of the NIH's "Outstanding Investigator" grant. Whether his theory is correct or not, what is certain is that he has been the subject of career assassination for political rather than scientific reasons, for his views in the early days of the AIDS crisis. It was essentially argued that dissent from the HIV=AIDS model would cause confusion and interfere with efforts to prevent the spread of HIV\AIDS. Deusberg's university treated him as a paraiah and his NIH grant was rescinded. Science cannot operate properly if opposing views are silenced for political reasons.

    The nobel laureate you refer to is Kerry Mullis. Despite inventing PCR the guy is a self described nut and LSD user. I wouldn't put too much weight in his testimony. Mullis argues that the Viral Load test, based on PCR, is far less precise than it is claimed to be. I don't know if this is true or not.

    While I'm not agreeing with Deusberg's hypothesis, like any dissident his criticisms have focused on weaknesses in the HIV-AIDS theory over the years.

    Deusberg has made a number of very good points regarding HIV, which are only now starting to be considered. Among them;

    HIV is an opportunistic infection. People most often become HIV positive because they engaged in some other activity which damages the immune system such as the use of certain drugs (such as amyl nitrates or injected drugs) or hemopheliacs. Even before the AIDS crisis, hemopheliacs still had a dramatically shortened lifespan and increased suceptibility to disease. Deusberg claims (and I would tend to question, but don't have facts on hand to refute) that the death rate for hemopheliacs does not indicate their being hit by a lethal epidemic during the time of the early AIDS crisis and that their lifespan has steadily increased. The fact that HIV is an opportunistic infection suggested to Duesberg that it could be a marker for another condition or conditions which causes immune suppression. (Hemopheliacs, even without HIV, are immune suppressed.) While Deusberg gives a general notion of an immune system collapsing under excessive strain, it seems that Human Herpes Virus 8, common to AIDS victims, has been shown to also cause immune suppresion. HHV8 is transmissible via saliva and probably acts synergistically with HIV to dramatically speed up the progression of the disease. HHV8 is the virus responsible for Kaposi's Sarcoma, a symptom previously attributed to HIV.

    Azidothymidine or AZT, which has been shown to reduce HIV viral load, has side effects that are essentially identical to AIDS including immune suppresion. AZT has never been proven to increase lifespan in a reliable, controlled study. The infamous Concord Study which attempted to prove the benefits of AZT, was hopelessly flawed. Subjects receiving the drug were aware of it and shared their medicine with the control group to help them. AZT was a chemotheraputic agent for cancer which was discontinued due to its severe side effects sometime before the late '60s. It's approval for use against HIV essentially circumvented the normal FDA approval process, due to the crisis of its introduction. It has been argued that AZT prevents seroconversion to HIV positivity and I think it's still used for this purpose.

    Finally, unrelated to Deusberg, the CDC seems to be working off an outdated model for the evolution of infectious diseases (Burnette and White's model) which was based on analysis of airborne infection rather than fluid borne infection, which seems subject to different pressures. B&W's theory suggests (incorrectly) that all lethal diseases will, in time, evolve to benign co-existance with their host. This is generally true for airborne diseases. B&W's theory demands that HIV be a virus that was newly int

    --

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    It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
    1. Re:Professor Peter Deusberg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Where to start ?

      First. HIV is NOT an opportunistic infection.

      An opportunistic infection is an infection that gets the opportunity because of a weakened condition of the immune system. HIV is an infection that attacts and weakens the immune system, so that it leaves its victim viable to opportunistic infections (such as Herpes, or many diseases that were considered gone and conquerored). AIDS is the
      condition of having such a weak immune system because of HIV, and that you die BECAUSE OF opportunistic infections.

      Thus: HIV attacks immune system. Patient is uprotected against opportunistic infections. Patient dies.

      With respect to antiviral therapy. How do you explain the fact that since the introduction of antiviral therapy in the Western society, morbidity and death rates have gone down drastically, while people that do not receive therapy but are diagnosed with HIV, die (like in Subsaharan Africa ?) at quick rates ?

      The truth is, yes, most antiviral drugs have side-effects. In fact, most drugs have side-effects. But these drugs save lifes (in the Western world). Because of advances in drug efficacy and regime potency, most people that start now with therapy and adhere to their drugs and whose HIV as a consequence does not develop antiviral resistance, see
      a rebound in their immune system (measured by CD4 cell count) ! Many studies have confirmed that over and over again.

      Stop fooling yourself and do something constructive.

      Regards,
      anonymous HIV researcher.

    2. Re:Professor Peter Deusberg by Essef · · Score: 0

      Thus: HIV attacks immune system. Patient is uprotected against opportunistic infections. Patient dies.

      Actually, HIV could be an opportunistic infection, since the test for AIDS is

          a) Whether you are dying from a list of "known" opportunistic diseases
          b) Whether you also have HIV immunity

      The truth is, yes, most antiviral drugs have side-effects

      I'm sorry, but if one of those side-effects is actually to cause the very disease that it said to prevent then what's the point? Btw, it is a myth that people who take supposed HIV-suppressant drugs like AZT actually live longer. There are plenty of documented cases where people are living with HIV without taking any immuno-suppressant medication.

      --

    3. Re:Professor Peter Deusberg by Mutatis+Mutandis · · Score: 3, Informative

      On the Western blot test: The virus has parts that can be allowed to be highly variable without seriously affecting its activity, and parts that need to be conserved because otherwise it would be deficient and longer replicate. On an intact, infective virus the parts exposed to the outer world tend to be highly variable ones, while the conserved ones are kept buried inside.

      Immunological tests are done on viruses that are broken up and no longer infective: Not only is this safer, but it allows the individual proteins to bind to their target sites, which is obviously impossible if they are bundled together in the virus. Nevertheless, the designers of the tests do have to take into account the variability of the virus, and AFAIK HIV testing kits are specific for regions.

      There is not a shred of a rational reason to doubt that HIV causes AIDS, as it has been very convincingly demonstrated that inhibitors of HIV enzymes delay progression to AIDS and can suppress the disease symptions. That the early tests on AZT were not so convincing is irrelevant; we now know that if patients are given only AZT, the virus will become resistant to it in a matter of weeks.

      That other viruses can also suppress the immune system is not surprising -- such a capability is obviously beneficial to a virus and would evolve naturally. HIV has an substantial and little understood arsenal of immune-suppressing tricks. And BTW immuno-deficiency this is by no means its only harmful effect, it also causes damage to the nervous system and the brain, in ways yet unclear.

      As for the idea that HIV may have evolved from a less dangerous human virus: This is not impossible in theory, but there is strong evidence that HIV originates from SIV, and no evidence for another origin. Also, the co-evolution of a virus with its host tends to make it less and not more harmful to the host; this is the trend that was observed for syphilis and has recently been reported for HIV as well. It is not in the interest of a disease to kill its host.

    4. Re:Professor Peter Deusberg by Phanatic1a · · Score: 1

      The history of syphilis is a good illustration of this process at work.


      How? If anything, syphilis is the exact opposite case; in its current form after countless generations of infecting people, it is less virulent and severe and more prone to latent infection.

    5. Re:Professor Peter Deusberg by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1

      How? If anything, syphilis is the exact opposite case; in its current form after countless generations of infecting people, it is less virulent and severe and more prone to latent infection.

      Syphilis (according to some sources) existed as a non sexually transmitted disease prior to it's time as an STD, in the form of yaws. Yaws was much less virulent than syphilis. The rise of European cities and the resulting increase in promiscuous sex coincided with the rapid spread of syphilis. In other words, a change in human society influenced the nature of the STD which spread through it.

      Currently, if Syphilis presents symptoms it's more likely to be cured by antibiotics. That's a bit of a complicating factor in its evolution since the most virulent forms would be treated. I'll detail Ewald's theory a little later today in a reply to another poster replying to my coment, to clarify things.

      --

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      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
    6. Re:Professor Peter Deusberg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it can't be an opportunitic infection, cause you find it in people with still functional immune systems. Your refutation to the AZT is nonsense as well, ofcourse you can live with HIV, afterall, it isn't a killing disease of itself, it just takes out your immune system after some years, how long exactly depends on your particular immune system everyone differs afterall. However at the end of the day, wether you took medicines or not, near one and all get AIDS. There are a few notable exceptions, which are suspected to be due to genetic background, but that is about it.

    7. Re:Professor Peter Deusberg by AxelBoldt · · Score: 1
      Btw, it is a myth that people who take supposed HIV-suppressant drugs like AZT actually live longer. There are plenty of documented cases where people are living with HIV without taking any immuno-suppressant medication.

      You, or anyone with similar insights, should start a life insurance policy for people who have tested positive for HIV and who refuse to take any anti-viral medications. According to your theory, these people will live long and prosper, and you'll get rich. And you will prove your theory along the way. What's stopping you?

    8. Re:Professor Peter Deusberg by nobody69 · · Score: 1

      There are plenty of documented cases where people are living with HIV without taking any immuno-suppressant medication.
       
      Two Points:
       
      The virus doesn't necessarily start killing T-cells immediately. It has a long, and highly variable, incubation period. Iirc, this is because it has to have it's surface antigens mutate to a form not recognized by the hosts immune system. Therefore, it can be present in the body without killing T-cells, which would allow an infected person to survive without the meds.
       
      Second, just because "plenty" of HIV+ people are getting by without meds doesn't mean that the meds don't work. "Plenty" is a pretty vague concept - is it 10,000 people in the USA, or a million in the world? Those might sound pretty big, until you consider the approximately 900,000 other people in the USA, or the 39 million other people in the world that do need the meds do help keep the virus at bay.
       
      A special bonus point:
       
        I'm sorry, but if one of those side-effects is actually to cause the very disease that it said to prevent then what's the point?
       
      If you take a look at the insert that you get with prescription drugs you'll see that lots of drugs do cause the exact symptoms they are supposed to help in some cases. Frex, my wife is narcoleptic and takes prescription meds to help her stay awake (which is nice since she drives a lot for work), but right on the side of the bottle there is a little sticker that says "May cause drowsiness".

      --
      "Bugger this, I want a better world." - Jenny Sparks
    9. Re:Professor Peter Deusberg by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1

      Thanks for answering my question re: the Western Blot test. That makes a lot of sense.

      That the early tests on AZT were not so convincing is irrelevant;

      It is relevant if you want to consider any epidemiological data which includes people being treated with AZT.

      There is not a shred of a rational reason to doubt that HIV causes AIDS

      Agreed. HAART therapy often has the effect of sending KS into remission, (even though the virus which causes KS is oddly not cleared more effectively after the introduction of HAART therapy.)

      To argue from my standpoint for a moment rather than Deusberg's; HIV is not simply "the virus which causes AIDS" though it seems to do that. HIV is relativly weak when it starts out. Only a minority of infected needlesticks lead to seroconversion. Because of this, HIV is also a marker viruses for immunosuppresion. A person who seroconverts to HIV is likely to already have other illnesses, particularly HHV. The presence of HHV dramatically increases the time from seroconversion to full blown AIDS.

      As for the idea that HIV may have evolved from a less dangerous human virus: This is not impossible in theory, but there is strong evidence that HIV originates from SIV, and no evidence for another origin. Also, the co-evolution of a virus with its host tends to make it less and not more harmful to the host; this is the trend that was observed for syphilis and has recently been reported for HIV as well. It is not in the interest of a disease to kill its host.

      If you believe that syphilis was yaws before it was syphilis, then the pathogen became much more harmful as it became a sexually transmitted disease.

      The notion that HIV came from SIV is predicated on the paradigm that you use for describing the evolution and virulence of infectious diseases. The current theory assumed from the beginning that HIV must have come from a different species and only considered evidence which fit that model.

      If you use a different model for the evolution of infectious diseases, there is less need to describe HIV as coming from SIV.

      A number of strains of HIV-2 have been identified, classified into four clades (A, B, C, D) which are no more closely related to each other than they are to different strains of an SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus) found in wild sooty mangabey monkeys in West Africa.
      http://www.aidsmap.com/en/docs/F8ABA3D3-E6A0-42AC- A801-8F06B6EBD4C7.asp

      HIV-2 is significantly less virulent than HIV-1, the virus mostly responsible for the "AIDS epidemic."
      HIV-2 appears in the more socially stable and religiously conservative West Africa.

      I'll outline Ewald's theory of infectious diseases breifly. If you review the existing evidence through the lense of that theory, it should be clearer why HIV does not have to have recently come from SIV in order to be an epidemic and why pathogens can sometimes increase in virulence.

      The older views of the evolution of infectious diseases are based on the observation of airborne pathogens. There are several key differences between airborne and fluid borne diseases.

      1. Airborne diseases benefit from a host that can walk around. If you stay at home, you're not spreading the cold.

      2. Airborne diseases typically spread just one strain of the disease at a time.

      3. Airborne diseases are typically suppressed quickly by the immune system. Even though Herpes Zoster, the virus which causes chicken pox, stays in your body for life you're only contagious for a small amount of time. So the virus only has a small window of time to spread.

      However, the more of a host's resources that a virus can manage to use, the more transmissible it will be. Some of the worst flu pandemics occurred after poorly fed soldiers were being carted around Europe in boxcars during WWI. When people can be very sick and still move around and spread their sickness, it

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      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
    10. Re:Professor Peter Deusberg by Mutatis+Mutandis · · Score: 1

      To argue from my standpoint for a moment rather than Deusberg's; HIV is not simply "the virus which causes AIDS" though it seems to do that. HIV is relatively weak when it starts out. Only a minority of infected needlesticks lead to seroconversion.

      Warning: I am not a virologist! The following is my best understanding of the issue, given for what it is worth. It may be wrong.

      As far as I know, the way in which HIV interacts with the immune system is far from fully understood. To enter cells, HIV needs the CD4 receptor, but it also needs a co-receptor, and this can be CCR5 or CXCR4 (and possibly others). So HIV strains are labeled X4-tropic, R5-tropic, or dual, depending on their binding ability. An X4 strain targets different immune system cells than an R5 does, and with different effects. The X4 strains are very destructive.

      In the early periods of infection, before AIDS develops, R5 viruses dominate. In the minority of people that have CCR5 receptors with mutations, the virus doesn't get a hold and they can remain free from disease for a long time. However, if R5 viruses are present in large numbers for a sufficient time, they evolve into the X4 viruses that are associated with the late stages of AIDS. To the best of my knowledge, it is still very unclear whether X4 strains can replicate only after R5 strains have damaged the immune system, whether the immune system actually selects for X4 viruses by becoming more effective on R5 strains, or whether X4 simply evolves after the virus has taken out all the R5 target cells.

      The point is that mutations both in the genetic sequence of HIV itself, and of the receptors in the patient's cells, can be conclusively linked to infection, replication, and disease progression. Whether an infected person will develops AIDS and how long this will take is clearly dependent, not just on the presence of HIV, but also on the properties of the virus and on the properties of the receptors the virus uses. That indicates that HIV is far more than a marker virus.

      HHV-8 on the other hand, is not predictive for AIDS, although it is for KS. The presence of this virus is far more likely in HIV infected people, perhaps only because it is easily suppressed by a healthy immune system, and perhaps because some of the proteins HIV codes for to assist its own lifecycle, are also useful for HHV-8.

      If you use a different model for the evolution of infectious diseases, there is less need to describe HIV as coming from SIV.

      The relation between HIV and SIV is rather more than an assumption or description: We have quantifiable evidence, in the form of the genetic sequences of isolates. Cladograms derived from these cannot really prove that one virus evolved from another (indeed a radical cladist would be opposed to the very notion that a cladogram can show ancestry) but they do indicate which viruses share common ancestors, what the likely nature of that ancestor was, how different SIV/HIV strains are associated with different primate hosts, and (with the many caveats of molecular biology) approximately when viruses jumped species.

      The results indicate that SIV and HIV viruses are very closely related. Both HIV-1 and HIV-2 seem to have made the species jump several times, i.e. there are HIV-1 viruses that are more closely related to SIV strains than to other HIV viruses; and the same for HIV-2.

      If HIV would have evolved from a harmless human virus, the cladogram would look very different. There would be a common ancestor human virus, separating the HIV tree from the SIV tree, and other human viruses (other descendants from the harmless ancestor) would sit on the same branch.

      And if SIV would have developed from HIV, an HIV-like ancestor would be at the "root" of the tree, instead of an SIV-like ancestor. This is not the case. There is a common SIV-like ancestor, from which have originated several SIV viruses that have made the ju

    11. Re:Professor Peter Deusberg by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1

      You, or anyone with similar insights, should start a life insurance policy for people who have tested positive for HIV and who refuse to take any anti-viral medications.

      To argue from Deusberg's view for a moment, he would say that HIV is a marker for other pathogens and immune suppressing behavior. People with HIV would still be likely to live shorter lives under either paradigm.

      Not that anyone here is likely to start up a life insurance company any time soon, even if they could think up a novel business paradigm.

      --

      ___
      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
    12. Re:Professor Peter Deusberg by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1

      First. HIV is NOT an opportunistic infection.

      I know that HIV weakens the immune system. HIV is ALSO an opportunistic infection. Compare HIV infection rates to somthing like chlamydia. HIV infection rates are miniscule by comparison. You typically need some other complicating factor like a genital sore, blood contact, etc to get HIV seropositivity.

      Those who are most likely to die of HIV are those whose immune systems were already compromised; those who are starving, use drugs (even non-injected drugs such as amyl nitrates), or who are hemopheliacs.

      --

      ___
      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
  19. Bullshit by Stickerboy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Look, all these guys have at one time or another been respectable, but the truth is, HIV is a well-characterized virus with dumptrucks full of money poured into research into how and why it works.

    The fact that I can pick out one name, Harvey Bialy, google him and find out he's currently on South Africa's payroll (who deny pregnant mothers with AIDS AZT or other basic anti-HIV drugs, btw) says volumes.

    HIV's genome has been sequenced and studied, and scientists know in general how it works. Instead of copying and pasting one of my microbiology textbooks, I'd suggest looking up the "HIV" Wikipedia entry - it's got a good summary of the parts listed. You might try the "AIDS reappraisal" entry, where all the bullshit claims are addressed.

    Have you taken a look at what all those "respected scientists" are actually saying? It sounds a lot like the utter crap being spewed by the "respectable scientists" employed by the Creationism... er, I mean the Intelligent Design idiots. "There's problems... there's questions..." Not a single decent counter-hypothesis as to the origin of AIDS or why the volumes of peer-reviewed AIDS research is WRONG.

    If they were truly so adamant that HIV did not cause AIDS, there would be a simple way to prove it once and for all: they should all get together and perform a witnessed scientific study whereby they all inject a reasonably large dose of HIV virus into their bloodstreams and monitor the results. Dr. Barry Marshall, in fact, won a Nobel Prize for proving that H. pylori causes GI ulcers by doing just that.

    Now to answer your original claims, that some people with HIV do not get AIDS and some people with AIDS do not have HIV, both of them have answers (the Wikipedia page, in fact, covers the 1st one). Some people have genetic mutations to coreceptors that HIV needs to infect CD4+ T-cells (CCR5 and CXCR4 being the 2 most common). Those mutations render the virus unable to infect the cells without further mutation of the virus. This is, in fact, a huge avenue of biomedical research - my medical school is participating in toxicology trials for a proposed drug using this.

    The other claim, that some patients with AIDS do not have HIV is a very rare autoimmune condition. Through molecular mimicry or another similar means, a patient's CD4+ immune cells are targeted for destruction by the patient's own immune system, which leads to the loss of those cells and the development of AIDS. Nobody knows why yet (this is VERY rare), but it probably is caused by cross-reaction with similar antigens from a foreign source (bacteria, virus, fungal, etc.). The body has a bad propensity to attack itself - look up rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Goodpasture's, Hashimoto's, or late-stage Lyme Disease among others.

    --
    Light a fire for a man and he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
  20. Hmmm. Maybe. by jd · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Most people like reassurance. They go towards the calming, soothing voice of the shephard like all good sheep. (Well, maybe that's a bit harsh. I'm sure there are some rebellious sheep out there.) In other words, people tend to prefer their horrors at a distance. They don't like the idea that THEY might be next.


    The survey itself should be examined, though. It is very easy to put in leading questions, especially in a subject area that invites more tales of bravado than facts. It would be good if a more comprehensive survey could be done across Europe, not only looking at risky behaviour, but also looking at limits of knowledge.


    eg: One antiviral used to treat AIDS in Africa was banned by the FDA in America as it is extremely toxic and rapidly kills the person taking it. The FDA is also sponsoring the use of the drug in Africa, which got some media attention recently. How many people read those reports? What is the general awareness like of the toxicity of the available treatments?


    The problem with AIDS is that it isn't as dramatic as, say, Ebola, or as colourful as the Black Death. Unlike, say, Spanish Flu, the death rates are given in decades rather than days. A year, for a teenager, is forever. The incubation period for HIV is variable but 5 years is not unusual. What's five times eternity?


    It's hard to get a handle on how many people are infected, or what their distribution is, but if you were to start with five hundred million, concentrated in areas that have reached one extreme or another, you'd probably be reasonably close.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  21. I've got to admit... by neoshroom · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've got to admit obliterating AIDs from the world with only a submachine gun does sound appealing.

    --
    Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
    1. Re:I've got to admit... by Zentac · · Score: 0

      No it sounds horible, although I had to gigle, you dont seriously sugest blowing all infected people to peaces do you?

  22. Very Informative - MOD parent up by Macka · · Score: 0, Offtopic


    I never seem to have my mod points when I want them most.

  23. Damn Brown's: The HIV code. by Proto23 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Several pre-release copies of the new book by renowned writer Damn Brown are already uploaded to several hidden peer to peer networks. The publisher together with the RIAA (here's another film in the making) is actively suppressing distribution and persecuting anyone touching the Damn file. Hence we can only provide you with a synopsis. I hope you understand. From: http://www.hypnocrisis.com/index.php?/archives/17- Damn-Browns-The-HIV-code..html

  24. Re:Why not use honeypot approach to fighting virus by bronney · · Score: 1

    I watched a show no TV about HIV. It's not as simple as that. The truth of the matter is, which "people" are afraid to publicize:

    The HIV virus mutates too quick for any attempt to find a cure to be effective.

    The host then went to show a "3d graph" of the flu mutation strands, as big as a basketball. He then goes, if this is the flu mutation strands per year, per the entire human population, THIS (shows a graph probably 100 times as big as the basketball), is the HIV mutation strands per PERSON, per year.

    And that's just per person.

    The truth is, yes we have way to battle HIV, but the damn bug fights back so quick that by the time we fought off 1 strand, we already have 100 other mutated strand.

    To this date, I've never taken a flu shot.

  25. I'm sorry if this sounds like a troll, but... by 0m3gaMan · · Score: 0, Flamebait


    I'm getting pretty irritated with the amount of money which is continuously poured into AIDS research. There are dozens of other diseases which deserve more attention, NONE of which can be prevented by something as simple as wrapping your pecker, for instance.

  26. We are old by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 1

    When I was a kid the dutch tv station Veronica had aired an program about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. It was explicit and used porn actors to show in full detail how to use condoms. Couple that with movies about people dying, some hardhitting campaigns and it was pretty hard not to grow up being aware that screwing without a condome was bad for you.

    Even then an awfull lot of people didn't do the safe sex thing.

    It also put a strain on people. Not nice to be constantly reminded as a young male/female that doing what comes natural can kill you. There were ways around it like mutual masturbation replacing intercourse but for many that is just not good enough.

    After the sexual freedom of previous decades our generation was definitly handicapped. Sleeping around was not just cheating anymore, you put yourselve and your partner at real risk.

    So fast forward to now and those hardhitting campaigns have stopped. Sexually transmitted diseases off all sorts haven't gone away but the urgency has been removed. It just isn't seen as an issue anymore. Can you blame people? Either you live you live in blissfull ignorance OR you have to turn down that easy girl/boy who fucks everyone and remain a virgin until you meet another virgin.

    Cause just condoms alone are not good enough, have you ever tried eating a girl with one of those rubber sheets to prevent direct contact? It is not easy I can tell you. I am not 100% certain but I think the female fluids are just as capable of spreading aids as sperm and it is a lot harder to catch them in a rubber.

    So given the choice between being fearfull and ignoring the danger most people choose to ignore the danger. It is not just aids. The amount of women who are infertile is sky-rocketing. Sure sure, genetic changes. Eheh. Ask a doctor. Most of the women who have trouble getting pregnant can only blame it as the result of a sexually transmitted disease.

    AIDS is a killer but others STD's are far more common and can have very big impacts as well. Going infertile can be a pretty big deal for a woman. Especially if it turns out the female got it from a cheating partner.

    But what can we do? Terrorize people into being completly paranoid about sex? People have to rationlize dangers otherwise we would never get out of bed. How many people die each day on the roads because of unsafe driving? That is a real risk wich many of us can see directly as we pass yet another accident scene each day on the way to work. Does that stop us from driving to fast, in crappy cars, while drunk? Nope. Remember, it is not just how you drive but the millions of other road users as well. Sleep around and you are having sex with not just your partner but all the people they had sex with as well. One happy STD chain.

    STD's are nasty but they are something we just have to live with for now.As long as people are not so ignorant as to stop funding research I think we can handle it. Just life as usual.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  27. Re:Why not use honeypot approach to fighting virus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Great plan. You make the fake t cells, I'll do the rest.

  28. Re:Why not use honeypot approach to fighting virus by zoloto · · Score: 1

    whoa, they still do that?

  29. dumptrucks full of money? by drgonzo59 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Speaking of dumptrucks full of money, I still don't understand why are so many resourses being poured into HIV/AIDS research? I would think all that money could go into educating people and focusing on prevention. AIDS seems to be a completely preventable disease -- all that needs to change is sexual behavior and blood transfusion methods. It is not a disease that someone gets from shaking hands or riding on a bus with others, or eating contaminated food, not even by being bitten by insects. In other words the individuals, except in very rare circumstances have control whether will get HIV/AIDS or not. I understand that the infants born with it have no choice -- but the mothers do. Educating the children or the mothers could help stop the spread.

    The point is not that AIDS research should be completely stopped but that it should be proportional to how contageous it is and how much the individuals can prevent it. It seems that research should be more focused on Avian Flu, SARS, Malaria and such.

    I would also argue that cancer and heart disease to a certain degree is preventable, if the invididuals care enough to lead a healthy life-style, but with these two it is not as clear cut and there might be a strong genetic component to them but there isn't a one-time event of infection that can be obviously avoided.

    To put it another way, if I smoke, eat fried fatty foods and have sex with anyone without protection, knowing what that will do to me -- why should I be shocked if I get cancer, AIDS or die of a heart disease. And why should researchers spend years on end and millions of tax money to save my sorry ass if I clearly made my choice?

    1. Re:dumptrucks full of money? by Kesh · · Score: 1
      I would think all that money could go into educating people and focusing on prevention. AIDS seems to be a completely preventable disease -- all that needs to change is sexual behavior and blood transfusion methods.

      Let's be honest here: while prevention is a laudable method, do you really think a public awareness program is going to much of an impact on human sexual behavior? Yes, we need better blood transfusion safeguards, but we damn well better work on a cure/innoculation for it, because people are going to have casual sex.

    2. Re:dumptrucks full of money? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So all that's needed is for a people to stop engaging in the activities that evolution has built in numerous drives for them to do? That's gonna work.

      If the whole windows virus mess has shown anything it's that educational solutions to infection don't scale. Sure they may prevent individuals from getting infected, maybe even many individuals, but it's useless at the societal level.

      As for the other diseases, Malaria excepted, are double digit percentages of the population of some countries currently suffering from these diseases? Or have a relatively tiny number of people died from them?

      By the way, sex is not inherently unhealthy. It might be somewhat risky in the current human environment, but that's a different matter, and one we should try to address (by pointing dump trucks full of money at it)

    3. Re:dumptrucks full of money? by scrub76 · · Score: 1

      The reason is that sexually transmitted HIV (the most common kind) is not much of a choice for many of the people who get infected. In sub-Saharan African, women and girls make up almost 60% of those living with HIV (www.unaids.org). Adolescent women are particularly vulnerable because they lack the social status and resources to negotiate safe sex with their partners, and most interventions (such as condoms) are overt (requiring knowledge of both partners) and male-focused (yes, there are female condoms, but they are rarely used).

    4. Re:dumptrucks full of money? by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      When you have people believing that AIDS is a curse by the gods that can only be remedied by raping ten virgins, yes, prevention is going to be a huge deal.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    5. Re:dumptrucks full of money? by drgonzo59 · · Score: 1
      Well, it works for me: I will not have sex with a stranger now that I know about HIV/AIDS and all those STDs! Most people that I know would probably do likewise. The thing is that people don't need to have sex, they want to have sex. The good thing is, they can still have sex but they just need to know to protect themselves. Why should my tax money pay for someone who can't keep it in their pants and doesn't want to be bothered with a condom, and then gets AIDS. Most often than not AIDS is a choice (albeit, an indirect one) not an accident. When someone says -- 'I will have unprotected sex with stragners and I don't care what happens', they might as well sign a medical insurance waver that says 'If I get AIDS, don't waste public money and research time treating me, I wanted this!'. By the way, if there is proof that cancer and heart disease is also mostly environmental, then I would also argue that less money should be funneled into that research as well.

      People just need to know about consequences and making choices, that's the point.

    6. Re:dumptrucks full of money? by AndersOSU · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You seem to not recognize that there are some pretty significant sociological issues preventing people from getting this kind of education, in addition to the problem that people are programmed to have sex.

      For instance Catholic Bishops and priests teach their very God fearing populations that if they use contraceptives, including condoms they are committing a mortal sin. The attitude seems to be that people don't care if they're having sex outside of marriage, but they do care if they are using a condom...

      It really isn't as simple as being careful about sex - because even if you do have sex in the confines of marriage there is no guarantee that your partner is faithful - centuries have of human history indicate that there will always be affairs, and an unfaithful partner in a country with ~30% infected population can very easily be a death sentence for both partners.

      So even being careful about having sex isn't sufficient, sure total abstinence may work, unless you're a woman in sub-Saharan Africa who is betrothed to her 30 something husband at age 12...

    7. Re:dumptrucks full of money? by Paradox · · Score: 1
      Speaking of dumptrucks full of money, I still don't understand why are so many resourses being poured into HIV/AIDS research? I would think all that money could go into educating people and focusing on prevention. AIDS seems to be a completely preventable disease -- all that needs to change is sexual behavior and blood transfusion methods. It is not a disease that someone gets from shaking hands or riding on a bus with others, or eating contaminated food, not even by being bitten by insects. In other words the individuals, except in very rare circumstances have control whether will get HIV/AIDS or not. I understand that the infants born with it have no choice -- but the mothers do. Educating the children or the mothers could help stop the spread.


      HIV is an unusual virus with a lot of strange behavior. The fact that it's taken so long to image should show that. It should also show that by studying a well-known example of this sort of virus, we're learning how to discover and image viruses that we may not even yet be aware of because normally used techniques destroy evidence of their infection.

      Information we gather to treat HIV is invaluable in dealing with other diseases.
      --
      Slashdot. It's Not For Common Sense
    8. Re:dumptrucks full of money? by drgonzo59 · · Score: 1
      sex is not inherently unhealthy

      With HIV/AIDS plus Herpes and other STDs casual sex without protection has become inherently unhealthy. It is kind of like smoking. If one chooses to engage is unprotected sex with random partners, the odds are that person eventually will get a nice bouqet of STD and perhaps AIDS, just like if one smokes for the most part of their lives, they should not be surprized if they eventually get lung cancer. This needs to be told to everyone, which involves of course raising the living standards and improving education anywhere from Africa to the NY "Projects." I'll agree to funnel my tax money into that rather than to pay to save those who already decided to throw their lives away.

    9. Re:dumptrucks full of money? by drgonzo59 · · Score: 1
      unless you're a woman in sub-Saharan Africa

      But I think that is the real problem, not AIDS. A cure for AIDS would be just a small band-aid, there will always be "another AIDS" that comes after it, and will affect the same segment of the population. Don't you think that poverty, starvation, a total lack of education, explotation of human beings is a much larger problem, that if fixed, will also get rid of AIDS.

      It is not only true of Africa, poor kids in the NY "Projects" are not too far from that condition. But the thing is if we vaccinate them for AIDS, don't you think there will be another disease like Malaria, or say some STD, even substance abuse, that will eventually shorten the lives of those people? So why not try and raise the living standards in those countries.

      Here is when a good number of people will object and say: "Who are we to impose our democracy and education system on some tribe in Africa, their way of living is their business!" -- and to that I would say that "if there there are human rights violations, if children are starving, if girls are forced into prostitution or early marriage, if life expectancy is only 30 years then we have the duty to help." If we would ask those 12 year old brides: "Would you like to go to school and learn a trade so you can be independent? Would you like to have a choice to whom you will marry?", I bet most of them will say "Yes" to that. Now that will increase her life expectancy by much longer than just vaccinating her against AIDS.

    10. Re:dumptrucks full of money? by drgonzo59 · · Score: 1

      They why not try to raise the living standards in those countries. Don't you think that if we vaccinate them for AIDS and leave them to be the way they are, we are not helping them that much. For them there will always be "another AIDS", it could be an STD, it could be Malaria, or substance abuse of just starvation. Finding an AIDS vaccine will make some drug company very-very rich. And then when another disease comes, some other company will become wealthy and so on, but the people who suffer the most will still be living in the same conditions, just dying from a different disease.

    11. Re:dumptrucks full of money? by AndersOSU · · Score: 1

      Standard of living isn't just about education and food, it's also about better jobs, and healthcare, among many other things. Working on AIDS falls squarely into the better healthcare arena. Whether or not there is a new disease on the horizon we should still be trying to eliminate the current ones. Should we stop research on heart medicine because if we cure heart disease Americans will just die of cancer? Besides, heart disease is symptom of a social problem - poor diet, one that can be rectified through education.

      If we could raise sub-saharan africa's standard of living overnight, and there were enough jobs, food, and (currently existing) medicine to go around, and if it we're all somehow fairly distributed AIDS would still be a tremendous problem - one that won't fix itself. Some countries have >30% of the population afflicted - undoubtedly there is a higher percentage of infected people in the 16-50 age range. If there is a one in three or better chance that any woman you meet is infected with AIDS how do you go about living a normal life? Monogamy is a great ideal, but if we can't achieve it in societies that genuinely believe that the consequence of unfaithfulness is eternal damnation, how are you going to combat human nature with education?

      Furthermore, AIDS attacks rich and poor, educated and illiterate, guilty and innocent alike. How is it comforting to a rape victim, or a child bride, or a child born with AIDS to tell him that we don't need a cure, AIDS is a social problem?

    12. Re:dumptrucks full of money? by nuklearfusion · · Score: 1
      With HIV/AIDS plus Herpes and other STDs

      There is actually a vaccine out for Herpes now [1]. AFIAK, AIDS and Herpes are the two major STDs that cannot be cured. Others are just minor nuisances and/or can be vaccinated against. Furthermore, it is important that we continue to work on vaccines against difficuilt viruses, because, if we get good at making them, we will be able to prevent outbreaks that cause this much havoc in the future. And make no mistake about it - HIV/AIDS very nearly became a huge catrostrophy (not that it isn't already bad with 25 million dead)[2]. [1]Raven et. al. Biology. 7th ed. 2005. McGraw Hill. [2] TFA

      --

      There's no such thing as a stupid question, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots.

    13. Re:dumptrucks full of money? by nuklearfusion · · Score: 1
      They why not try to raise the living standards in those countries. Don't you think that if we vaccinate them for AIDS and leave them to be the way they are, we are not helping them that much. For them there will always be "another AIDS", it could be an STD, it could be Malaria, or substance abuse of just starvation. Finding an AIDS vaccine will make some drug company very-very rich. And then when another disease comes, some other company will become wealthy and so on, but the people who suffer the most will still be living in the same conditions, just dying from a different disease.

      Why not develop a vaccine now, to give to the people while we try to raise the standerd of living in these countries. right now, disease (including HIV/AIDS) are one of the big problems leading to bad living conditions (either directly or indirectly.)

      --

      There's no such thing as a stupid question, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots.

  30. What's really scary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    is how very similar it is to the Burger King logo

    BK logo

    HIV

    1. Re:What's really scary by stupidNewbie · · Score: 1

      If only I had some mod time I would +5 funny... even insightful... after all, that creepy Burger King dude always looks like he's up to something sinister... replete with the wicked grin... muahahhahhahahaaa

  31. Gay guys... by Nuclear+Elephant · · Score: 0, Troll

    Gay guys...eating yogurt?

    1. Re:Gay guys... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that supposed to be clever, or just stupid and offensive?

    2. Re:Gay guys... by pmenefee · · Score: 1

      Good greif, lighten up there buddy. I thought it was clever. This whole post needed a laugh.

  32. Western Blot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Kary Mullis is saying more research needs to be done. And he has some good points that HIV isn't always the cause of AIDS-like symptoms, so additional testing must be carried out before giving all kinds of anti-HIV drugs to a patient with AIDS symptoms.

    In my opinion, he does not have proof that HIV does NOT cause AIDS.

    Are we supposed to risk the creation of millions of orphans in Africa because of the doubts of one Nobel laureate? What about all the other Nobel laureates? There are many of them, do we throw their opinions away because Kary Mullis is some kind of uber-Nobel prize winner? His expertise is not in the area of disease identification. That said, having read some of his points .. he has some validity but is well short of scientific proof that HIV does NOT cause AIDS. I have not read his opinions on the recent showing that those taking the newer AIDS treatments have shown marked improvement in their symptoms and immune cell levels.

    I recall a claim made by a Duesberg follower that a virus would be stupid to kill its own host (apparently smallpox didn't get that memo).

    It was probably not right of the scientific community to go after Duesberg the way he did, but on the same token Duesberg didnt have to become close minded to hold on to his theories.

    To answer your question about "Western Blot", the virus HIV has a defect in it's error correction mechanism and is unable to ensure that it is not creating proteins to which the body has antibodies to. This means that if say there are a million copies of the virus .. a few thousand may be invisible to the anti-body while thousands more are susceptible to it. That's one of the reasons why AIDS cant kill off a person rapidly.

    1. Re:Western Blot by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1

      To answer your question about "Western Blot", the virus HIV has a defect in it's error correction mechanism and is unable to ensure that it is not creating proteins to which the body has antibodies to. This means that if say there are a million copies of the virus .. a few thousand may be invisible to the anti-body while thousands more are susceptible to it. That's one of the reasons why AIDS cant kill off a person rapidly.

      Another poster answered my question. The antibodies are responses to more stable internal structures of the HIV virus, rather than to the rapidly mutating viral coat.

      --

      ___
      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
  33. Just one nitpick by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 1

    In the case of an autoimmune response causing immunodeficiency, then the disease isn't actually AIDS.

    AIDS - Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome. Note the Acquired. If it wasn't actually *acquired* from somewhere but instead happened due to a genetic defect, it isn't actually AIDS by definition.

    Thus, in the case you state, the immune deficiency is not actually AIDS. (There ARE other known immunodeficiency disorders. While they aren't caused by HIV, in fact many are caused by genetic defects, they aren't AIDS either.) Most likely the idiots claiming "AIDS without HIV" are actually confusing an immunodeficiency disorder that is not actually AIDS and calling it AIDS, even though it isn't actually AIDS.

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  34. "Cure" Misconception by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think there's a bit of a misunderstanding regarding our ability to create a "cure" for AIDS. I'm not as well versed as I once was, but the gist is that the enzyme which replicates the HIV genome creates a lot of errors when doing it's work. This is actually a major problem because it causes AIDS to evolve at an incredibly rapid rate. As alternate versions of the virus appear, each with small, subtle differences, it gets tough creating a single drug that properly treats the virus. I recall documented cases where HIV had grown resistant to AZT for precisely this reason. And the virus mutates so frequently that the next generation medications may be highly effective, but will also likely only last for a relatively short amount of time. All this does is underscore what some were saying earlier: this is not a disease we should hope to "cure", though we should certainly not give up hope. However, we must spread the understanding that it must be prevented through safe sex, clean needles, etc.

  35. Re:DON'T SLEEP WITH THEM? by capoccia · · Score: 1

    works great in the us. won't work in africa where a woman's philandering and infected husband won't take no for an answer in the bedroom.

  36. HIV Mythology Continues? by cannuck · · Score: 1

    Will people in $10 white lab coats say/do anything for $300,000 of tax money from the N.I.H. ? The mythology of the so-called HIV - which looks like a :cabbage" one day - a "pine tree" the next day, and a "frog" the next. More smoke and mirrors here? An animation yet!

    Here's an interview with the supposed discoverer of so-called HIV, Luc Montagnier: http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/dtinterviewlm.h tm

    On the other hand here's the protocol discussed at the Pasteur Institute (that no one follows?)

    "The Rules of Isolation

    The rules for isolation of a retrovirus were thoroughly discussed at the Pasteur Institute, Paris, in 1973, and are the logical minimum requirements for establishing the independent existence of HIV. They are:

    1.Culture of putatively infected tissue.

    2. Purification of specimens by density gradient ultracentrifugation.

    3. Electron micrographs of particles exhibiting the morfological characteristics and dimensions (100-120 nm) of retroviral particles at the sucrose (or percoll) density of 1.16 gm/ml and containing nothing else, not even particles of other morphologies or dimensions.

    4. Proof that the particles contain reverse transcriptase.

    5. Analysis of the particles' proteins and RNA and proof that these are unique.

    6. Proof that 1-5 are a property only of putatively infected tissues and can not be induced in control cultures. These are identical cultures, that is, tissues obtained from matched, unhealthy subjects and cultured under identical conditions differing only in that they are not putatively infected with a retrovirus.

    7. Proof that the particles are infectious, that is when PURE particles are introduced into an uninfected culture or animal, the identical particle is obtained as shown by repeating steps 1-5.

    "

    You know the old "scientific method" approach before calling research - scientific

  37. Canadian Teenagers, STD Rates Up, HIV Rates Down by cannuck · · Score: 1

    Statistics Canada - the Canadian federal government agency - has research that shows STD (Sexually Transmitted Diseases - gonnorhea, syphyllis and chlamydia) are skyrocketing in Canadian teenagers because of unprotected sex - while at the same time the rates for HIV in the same Canadian teenagers are going down!!

  38. More info on the technique, please. by foo+fighter · · Score: 1

    I'm interested in how they got these pictures. Was this the use of a start of the art technique? Or a new application of a technique that is more tried and true? Is this something that I can do at home with my kid? (I'm only half kidding about that last question.)

    --
    obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
  39. Faith in science by panxerox · · Score: 1

    Its taken what, 15 years to get to the point of saying "The results offer hope for a microbicide that can prevent the spread of HIV, which now affects about 40 million people." the point that we have taken this long to get to the "hope" point bodes ill for science's ability to respond to emerging threats or to bioterriorism.

    --
    "It's so convenient to have a system where everyone is a criminal" - A. Hitler
    1. Re:Faith in science by drohno · · Score: 1

      ..except the rate of progress is progressing: It tooks about 14 years to sequence the HIV DNA, more recently it took only 31 days to sequence the SARs virus.

  40. Yogurt?!??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Y'mean all I gotta do is have some Yoplait, then I can go play?

  41. Commercial product announced: Yoplait Again (TM) by behindthewall · · Score: 1

    Well, maybe not so much this crowd. ;-)

    (For the age challenged: Back in the '70's, people (e.g. in the U.S.) "played" a lot more, to put it one way...).

  42. An engineer's take on "breaking" AIDS by mprinkey · · Score: 2

    OK, I have a question for those M.D. types about. Has anyone investitaged the possibility of breaking virus by hitting them with carefully tuned chorus of electromagnetic (and/or ultrasonic) waves? If they can build up a 3D model of the thing, then they can identify vibrational modes in the virus structure, right? If you can catalog several of these modes and expose infected tissue to EM waves that will excite vibrations at those frequencies, it seems natural to think that you could literally shatter the virus mechanically. By using many different frequencies, damage to other benign cells and structures could be avoided as all of the driven frequencies would dump energy into the virus' protein sheath. Other cells might only have a resonance close to one of the frequencies and not absorb much energy.

    I've long since wondered if this could work. Maybe the differing composition of the human body would complicate things or maybe the frequencies involved would be too readily absorbed by other tissues. Just thought I'd ask.

    1. Re:An engineer's take on "breaking" AIDS by cweber · · Score: 2, Informative

      [While I am not into HIV virus research, I am a Ph.D. level structural biologist and feel qualified to answer this.]
      Won't work, unfortunately. Remember that a virus is an inanimate object composed of self-assembling parts. You can shake them apart all you want, they'll just reassemble. Unless you find a way to permanently damage the individual protein and nucleic acid subunits. However, I'm guessing the collateral damage to human tissue would be very high.

    2. Re:An engineer's take on "breaking" AIDS by smellsofbikes · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm neither a PhD nor an engineer.
      Specificity is a big problem. There are roughly 40,000 proteins in the human proteome; an average protein is roughly 450 amino acids, the average amino acid contains about 20 covalent bonds, so the proteome alone has roughly 400M different covalent bonds in it. I submit that no matter how specific a frequency you can tune, it will vanish into the overlap from other proteins. Absorption bands are pretty broad. I'm assuming you'd focus on proteins, coz we can rebuild those; there are many less RNA macromolecules so there will be less overlap (although I still think it'd be far, far too broad an absorption spectrum) but if you screw up there you'll be destroying things that are much more difficult for the cell to rebuild: tRNA is an example of a serious problem since if you don't have any, you can't make any.
      I've built ultrasound transducers and know a bit about their design. It's really difficult to get even relatively narrow bandwidth on the designs I've seen, when you're talking about the required specificity. Within 0.5% of a given frequency, sure, but within 0.00005%? When you're trying to wipe out just one protein or just one RNA, that's the kind of notch you'd need to hit, I suspect.

      --
      Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
  43. Windows on a Mac! by ModernGeek · · Score: 1

    These must be some pretty good scientists, as they were able to get windows to run on a mac (in the background). However, they were only able to get it to run on a PPC mac, and not an Intel Macintosh. So close, but so far.

    --
    Sig: I stole this sig.
    1. Re:Windows on a Mac! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The PPC Mac is running the monitor on the left running OS 9 (You can see the control strip across the screen). The right monitor with the windows logo is run by the PC behind it. You can see the Windows sticker on the side of the computer just behind the monitor.

    2. Re:Windows on a Mac! by 16777216 · · Score: 1

      The mac is hooked up to the large ( sony ) monitor ya dingle!

      --
      I am. Lower your shields and power down your weapons, they are useless. Your biological and technological distinctivenes
    3. Re:Windows on a Mac! by ModernGeek · · Score: 1

      I guess I forgot to turn on the sarcasm switch. No one here seems to pick it up automatically anymore, as everything seems to be taken literally. I guess it's just a side effect of hearing things like "RIAA says Making Files Available Breaking the Law". If someone said this ten years ago, people would think they were joking, now days it is reality.

      --
      Sig: I stole this sig.
  44. It's called RAPE you moron! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are many examples of women in poorer countries who get AIDS because they were raped by men they knew, including husbands, brothers, fathers, etc. It's a sad fact, but these women now not only have to live with having been raped, they also now have to live with AIDS.

    1. Re:It's called RAPE you moron! by Creedo · · Score: 1

      There are many examples of women in poorer countries who get AIDS because they were raped by men they knew
      Thank you, Captain Obvious, for enlightening me. And, in your infinite fuckwit wisdom, maybe you can tell me why an attacker would stop to allow the application of a cream, when they wouldn't stop to apply a condom. Perhaps it's possible that my comment pertained not to the people who are forced into this position, but rather the many who enter into it by choice. Perhaps it's too mentally taxing for you to understand that some comments pertain to subsets of all the possibilities.

      --
      All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
  45. The article itself is really weak on detail... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I assume it's electron microscopy that was used, but they don't flat out mention it. What is the resolution of the structure? Have HIV or any HIV fragments been crystallized and what is the progress, if any of an x-ray crystallographic structure (and at what resolution)?

    Anyone know of a better link?

  46. Issues with cynovirin by theufo · · Score: 1
    "A protein called cynovirin binds to HIV and prevents it from entering cells in the mucous membranes - a feat confirmed in both laboratory and animal studies."


    This raises some issues.

    First of all, proteins are notoriously easily taken care of by antibodies. Very small peptides are an exception, since they often are too small for the variable region of antibodies to bind to them strongly enough. The article doesn't mention the molecular weight.

    Also, HIV mutates very quickly, especially gp120 which cynovirin is said to bind to in a published article (Vaginal microbicides and teenagers. Current Opinion in Obstetrics & Gynecology. 15(5):371-375, October 2003. Rupp, Richard E.; Rosenthal, Susan L.). This protein probably can't bind even 5% of the HIV variants which exist to date and if this is used as a drug in a patient, resistance is a breeze to develop.

    But even if this and dozens of other problems were circumvented somehow, it still wouldn't "cure" HIV, only slow down infection a bit. It doesn't work on already infected cells and since it's a protein, you'd need to supply it by IV injection, unlike the existing HAART drugs.

    A much better strategy (currently in development) is binding to *human* proteins which are required for viral binding or replication. This would prevent resistance. The mutations in patients with slow or no progression to AIDS might give clues about the proteins we should investigate.

    IANABY
  47. You must be pro-life. by ClioCJS · · Score: 1
    You must be pro-life, pro-drug war, anti-sex-before-marriage, and/or any combination of the above.

    This is similar to the "if you don't want to get caught, don't break the law" argument.

    People are simply not going to behave the way you (or the establishment) want to. It's like a pro-lifer saying "If people would just stop having babies..."

    Pie in the sky. You probably think the war on drugs (and terror) can be won too.

    --
    -Clio
    Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
    Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
    1. Re:You must be pro-life. by drgonzo59 · · Score: 1
      You must be pro-life

      The problem is not with me but with your "you must be ... therefore you are..." type arguments. So instead of evaluating the argument you just guessed and put me into a category (I never said I was anything) then attacked that category. So that still doesn't say how my argument or opinion is invalid, it doesn't say anything about me it just shows that you are ignorant. No wonder your score is 1. Learn to talk to people and provide constructive criticism if you want to be taken seriously...

    2. Re:You must be pro-life. by ClioCJS · · Score: 1
      Unfortunately, many categories of people are making things worse for the rest of us.

      The most constructive thing I can say is get a clue and/or wake up and smell the coffee.
      --
      For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication. --Friedrich Nietzsche

      --
      -Clio
      Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
      Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
  48. Re:Compared to some other viruses, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    agreed. tasteless but funny nonetheless.

  49. Patents by can56 · · Score: 1
    Which firm(s) have the patents on the results of this research?

    40+ million deaths from a virus ... no problem.

    A few million males with penile problems ... profit!

  50. If only... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hope they find a cure someday.

    If only we knew how it spreads...

  51. HIV research is wasting money on perverts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think HIV research is detrimental to the people who live godly lives and refrain from sodomy, fornication and indulgence in drugs. They are not threatened by HIV and AIDS, but there are many other illnesses that would benefit from more research to better save the lives of godly people. Researching HIV is wasting money on the perverted!