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Experts Claim HIV Patients Made Non-Infectious

Misanthrope writes to tell us that Swiss scientists are claiming that with proper treatment HIV patients can be made non-infectious. "The statement's headline statement says that 'after review of the medical literature and extensive discussion,' the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS resolves that, 'An HIV-infected person on antiretroviral therapy with completely suppressed viraemia ("effective ART") is not sexually infectious, i.e. cannot transmit HIV through sexual contact.'"

394 comments

  1. I'm not infected baby... Really.... by bagboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I promise...... Trust me....

    1. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by KublaiKhan · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's worth noting that this finding is only valid if there are no other STIs present--so if you've got the clap -and- HIV, you'll still be more likely to transmit it.

      Wasn't there an article a short while ago about how treating concurrent STIs also tended to decrease the rate of AIDs infection in an area? Perhaps this is related?

      --
      In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
      A stately pleasure dome decree
    2. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by Malevolent+Tester · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Given that the same high risk behaviour that spreads HIV also spreads other STDs, I can't see this will actually help much.

      --
      If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
    3. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by KublaiKhan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not all people who contract AIDS are engaging (voluntarily, anyway) in high-risk behavior.

      Also, treating STDs would provide opportunity for conversion of high-risk behaviors into lower-risk behaviors, e.g. you're in the office anyway, why not have a little talk about safe sex while you're there?

      Hence, treating the other (usually more obvious) STDs would presumably impact the treatment of AIDS for a number of reasons--counselling, earlier detection, and possible reduction of the viral load to a less-dangerous level.

      --
      In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
      A stately pleasure dome decree
    4. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by noidentity · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm not infected baby... Really.... I promise...... Trust me....

      Given that this is on Slashdot, that's pretty much a given.

    5. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by ricebowl · · Score: 4, Funny

      Also, treating STDs would provide opportunity for conversion of high-risk behaviors into lower-risk behaviors, e.g. you're in the office anyway, why not have a little talk about safe sex while you're there?

      So...what is it that you do in your office?

    6. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by mrxak · · Score: 1

      This is true, and it's hard to argue that any measure to prevent transmission shouldn't be welcomed, whether or not it cures the person. Unfortunately not everyone with HIV and knows it stops having sex. If there's a treatment that can let them keep doing what they're doing anyway and stop the virus from spreading, great.

    7. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by mrxak · · Score: 0, Redundant

      I'm sure he meant the doctor's office.

    8. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let the bareback bumming commence!!!

    9. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, he means having sex with your mother.

    10. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by lessthan · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you have HIV, that doesn't mean you have to stop having sex. It means you have to start using condoms (which you should have been doing anyway!!). The article is saying that so long as you take your meds, you won't give it to a partner. For example, a HIV positive women slips on broken glass and now there is bloody glass everywhere. Her husband helps her up and gets cut too. It is very unlikely that he'll get HIV.

      --
      Space Shuttle was a program that strapped humans to an explosion and tried to stab through the sky with fire and math
    11. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by VoidCrow · · Score: 2, Funny

      Speak for yourself. Oh, hang on, what am I saying?

    12. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do keep in mind that HIV is transmitted not just by sexual contact. You can also get it if your mother was infected by the time she was pregnant with you, and you can get it by way of blood transfusions at any time if the blood you receive happens to carry the virus.

    13. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I find this to be scary news, not the actual non-infectious part, but the legal part. If legality was helping to hold back the spread of aids it may now be no longer an issue. Everytime there is aids news hopes get real high, then weeks later hopes will take a nose dive with a conflicting report (i.e. aids vaccine and a bunch of volunteers infected, on google news right now their is an article about how preventing herpes outbreaks has failed to decrease the infection rate within that group). My point is, with news like this I think it would be a good statistical bet that some people get infected due to false sense of perceptions. In, swiss I may lose some of my legal rights on top of that..

    14. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by BVis · · Score: 1

      Fundie alert! *plonk*

      And me without mod points... I also couldn't help but notice you're also posting as an AC.. Lacking the balls to stand behind your position?

      --
      Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
    15. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I'm sure he meant the doctor's office.

      No! Really?!?

    16. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Having seen first hand the effects of photocopier glass on the human ass, I can categorically state that it is much safer just to talk about it in an office.

    17. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HIV is not the cause of so-called 'AIDS'.

      ALL 'AIDS' deaths are, in fact, deaths from REAL diseases, redefined as 'AIDS' because the victim is allegedly 'infected' with a harmless (or non-existent) retrovirus, 'HIV'.

      The whole thing is a giant fraud, and shows us the mentality and pure evil of the 'research' and pharmaceutical industries.

      People in Africa are not dying of 'AIDS', they are dying of the SAME diseases they've been dying from for the past 10,000 years. Nothing has changed. Instead of trying to cure the REAL diseases that they actually die from, the pharmaceutical giants are sending over POISONS, known as 'anti-retroviral' drugs, which are DNA chain terminators - in other words, they work in the same way as chemotherapy 'works' - by killing you...

      Where is the 'AIDS' epidemic in the West? REAL STDs are rising year upon year, so young people should be dropping like flies, and the level of 'HIV' 'infection' should be astronomical by now. The CDC say that 25% of people who are so-called 'HIV positive' don't KNOW they are HIV positive. Therefore they can't be taking the 'medications' that allegedly 'save people's lives'. So they should be dropping like flies. But they aren't.

      Because HIV doesn't cause AIDS.

    18. Re:I'm not infected baby... Really.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fundie alert! *plonk*

      Sorry your fundie detector just made a Type 1 error, please recalibrate!

      OPs statment that "the same high risk behaviour that spreads HIV also spreads other STDs" carries with it a connotation that if you have sex you are engaging in high risk behaviour and you deserve to be infected with a nasty disease. Which poster was the fundy again? As a healty (ie. non-fundy) adult, I object to this connotation. YMMV

      And me without mod points...

      Fortunately given your faulty fundie detector, which leads me to my next question: You mod people down merely because they hold (or you imagine they hold) a different opinion from yours?

      I also couldn't help but notice you're also posting as an AC .. Lacking the balls to stand behind your position?

      Does your girlfriend? (ie. "lack the balls") I notice you are posting under an anonymous moniker "BVis" and that your email in not publically viewable, what does that mean?

  2. Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have HIV and I haven't used a condom in several years with dozens of sexual partners.

    Nobodoy has called me back saying they have AIDS, so I must not be infectious.

    1. Re:Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Reminds me of Mitch Hedberg's "indirect" AIDS test.

      "Hey Joe, do you know anyone who has AIDS? No? Cool... 'cause you know me."

    2. Re:Old News by AmigaMMC · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      I was wondering how many minutes it would take for an idiot to make fun of an epidemic that has killed thousands of people. Congratulations on being that idiot!

    3. Re:Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Everything is funny. Some things just aren't funny to you.

    4. Re:Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, don't be surprised if one day you wake up dead then. Courtesy of one of your "partners" who you infected with HIV. Also, they might not have gotten back to you because they might be dead because of you. You don't indicate if you know their state of life/death, so who knows.

      Anyhow, if you are you for real, then you're one sociopathic bastard.

    5. Re:Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      YHBT YHL HAND

      (psst...don't feed the trolls)

    6. Re:Old News by couchslug · · Score: 1

      Kindly turn out for the next RIAA convention!

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    7. Re:Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I have HIV and I haven't used a condom in several years with dozens of sexual partners.

      Just when you thought CmdrTaco didn't post AC...
    8. Re:Old News by krotkruton · · Score: 2, Informative

      Sorry, but it's been over 22.3 years since the AIDs epidemic started, so it's acceptable to make fun of it. Just ask Jared.

    9. Re:Old News by DrStoooopid · · Score: 1

      It doesn't count if you don't leave your real phone number, and go by a nickname.

      --
      There are 2 groups of people you can make fun of on the Internet without fear of attack. The illiterate, and the Amish.
    10. Re:Old News by 4D6963 · · Score: 1

      an epidemic that has killed thousands of people

      Thousands of people? More like hundreds of people!

      --
      You just got troll'd!
    11. Re:Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Excuse me? I'm sorry to interrupt, Senator, but your wife called.

    12. Re:Old News by vishbar · · Score: 1

      Technically AIDS never killed anyone. It weakens the immune system and lets a disease like the common cold drop the killing blow.

      --
      Ride the skies
    13. Re:Old News by prelelat · · Score: 1

      meh, if the swiss aren't lying then the disease will be contained, if you can't transmit the disease then less people are likely to get it. This doesn't mean it will go away anytime soon as you have to be diagnosed before having contact with another partner, and there is always a slight possibility of transmission. But eventually hopefully with this advent its numbers could be lowered so it could be the beginning of the end of an epidemic.

      Besides AIDS is funny now ever since Jarrod got aids to loose weight check your facts :P

    14. Re:Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't indicate if you know their state of life/death

      That's the joke. Re-read grandparent post, then grow a sense of humor. He's clearly not serious.

    15. Re:Old News by AmigaMMC · · Score: 0

      Are you out of your mind? Hundreds of people every year since the 80s. Africa alone has suffered thousands of death. Do better research.

    16. Re:Old News by 4D6963 · · Score: 1

      Are you out of your mind? Hundreds of people every year since the 80s. Africa alone has suffered thousands of death. Do better research.

      WHOOOSH!! Thanks a lot Captain Dimwit. Since you obviously failed to grasp the nature of my previous comment, let me break it down for you. The person I was replying to said that AIDS had killed thousands of people, which is ridiculous, as it killed millions. Instead of going "You mean millions?!" I chose to go the other way by making a comment that would carry the same message with added sarcasm, which is why I said "hundreds" instead. The only problem with my sarcasm is that it was overly subtle for.. people of your kind.

      Now if you weren't the author of the original comment I'd think that this comment was a tongue-in-cheek sarcasm, but given this and your posting record (you must be the first person I see here who posts an entire post over again with one typo corrected), you're either a licensed moron or an incredibly bored troll.

      --
      You just got troll'd!
  3. Encouraging news by KublaiKhan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    One can only hope that the treatments can be made available at a decent price, so that the folks who are most likely to pass it on--poor people who don't know how to use contraception and the like--will be able to be treated.

    Unlikely, though, I dare say...those drug companies do love their income.

    --
    In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
    A stately pleasure dome decree
    1. Re:Encouraging news by nonsequitor · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It is my understanding anti-retroviral treatment is very expensive. For this to have any effect on the spread of HIV, every infected person in the third world needs treatment.

      I wonder how many months in Iraq it would cost to do something like that.

    2. Re:Encouraging news by KublaiKhan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Thus my comment about the drug companies.

      Though IIRC, there was a recent article about a couple of patents being overturned for some AIDS drug or another; this would make (presumably lower-cost) generics available.

      My personal opinion is that these drugs (of all kinds) would likely be a lot less expensive if the companies that made them did not advertise all over the place--because, frankly, they're all only available with prescriptions anyway; why not trust the doctors to prescribe what's best for the patient, rather than what's in this month's issue of People?

      --
      In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
      A stately pleasure dome decree
    3. Re:Encouraging news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "-poor people who don't know how to use contraception and the like--will be able to be treated."

      So you think it's likely that these people you describe, the ones who don't know how to use a condom or reliably take birth control pills, will be able to take their antiretrovirals, usually several times daily, and not appreciably miss doses to keep their viral load down for at least SIX MONTHS (yes - i read the article) is the more likely outcome?

      This is an intersting finding, but not what you think it is.

    4. Re:Encouraging news by rustalot42684 · · Score: 1

      No, they'd be the same price, you just wouldn't have as many morons going to the doctor and demanding Fooviroflex(TM) instead of what was actually best.
      Downside is that then drug companies can't boost consumption (& therefore profits) via ads.

    5. Re:Encouraging news by stranger_to_himself · · Score: 1

      One can only hope that the treatments can be made available at a decent price, so that the folks who are most likely to pass it on--poor people who don't know how to use contraception and the like--will be able to be treated.

      It seems to me that once you have HIV then rich or poor this doesn't help you much, it's more of a help your community. So the incentives for treatment are a bit unusual. If there was ever a case for government funding of a drug, it's here, ie in the absence of any real personal benefit for the individual who would otherwise be asked to pay.

      Also, if this works it doesn't really matter if it doesn't get absolutely everywhere; if you only reduce the transmisability of a disease in a population you can stop an epidemic.

    6. Re:Encouraging news by Tsiangkun · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Those were my first thoughts, make this available as a way to protect the community.

      If we can do bullshit like keep two ounces of mouthwash off a plane, while letting one ounce on, then we can get effective disease prevention to our population.

      Then I thought more, since I live in America where reality based communities don't alway align with the faith based government.

      My government hates sex. My government hates gays. My government thinks AIDS is a gay disease. AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease, and my government is not going to subsidize someones sex life.

      My government will do nothing but continue to say abstinence is the only way to remain disease free.

      Captcha = unfair

    7. Re:Encouraging news by tezbobobo · · Score: 1, Troll

      Not as much as involuntary castration of males with HIV and cutting off the hands of those who inject.

      I wouldn't seriously consider that though. I'm just saying.

    8. Re:Encouraging news by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      Unless you have been reading the literature and noticing that the rates of Gonorrhea, Syphilis and other sexually-transmitted diseases have gone up.

      From that perspective, considering many of these are now drug-resistant strains, it's not really encouraging news.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    9. Re:Encouraging news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually, having worked in third world medical aid I can say categorically that there is a benefit to the patients receiving these drugs. So it's win win for the people taking the drugs (their quality of life is improved, they live longer) and the community.

      Aids is no longer the death sentence it once was. It's like diabetes, if left untreated it is fatal but it can be treated successfully. If they can just eliminate the transmission aspect, then this scourge will be gone in a few generations.

    10. Re:Encouraging news by Belial6 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Part of the problem is that often the patient DOES know better than the doctor. I can honestly say that I have not had a doctor do, or say anything to me that I did not already know since I was about 10 years old. I have on the other hand had doctors tell me things that were simply wrong. I'm sure there are some good doctors out there, but the nature of our medical industry leaves most of us diagnosing our own illness. Not out of hubris, but out of necessity.

    11. Re:Encouraging news by RegTooLate · · Score: 1

      Better yet, how many library of congresses a month would it cost to do something like that?

    12. Re:Encouraging news by nonsequitor · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wow, thats right up there with putting the infected into concentration camps. Your trolling needs work, it has to be believable that you personally hold that opinion to elicit the shrill responses a good troll will get.

      My point above was that this is not viable for mass treatment and will only be available to the privileged elite like Magic Johnson. Though you are technically correct about the effectiveness of your method, you've raised a fundamental ethics question: Is saving the species from disease worth it at the cost of our humanity?

      This is fundamental to the ethical debate behind many emerging technologies like embrionic stem cell research, where the answer is unclear to many. However, I think its safe to say that compulsory mutilation has a lot less grey area.

    13. Re:Encouraging news by tezbobobo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You may have read the article but your missing some pieces of the puzzle. The people who catch and spread aids via condom misuse are those who do not care in the 'heat of the moment'. Birth control pills don't enter the equation because they have nothing to do with the spread of Aids, except perhaps to persuade those who do not have them to use a little more abstinence.

      The best way to deliver these drugs would be to use a system similar to implanon if available, whereby any drug are implanted subdermally and released slowly. The benefit is that by having a steady stream lower doses can be used. Secondly, governments are constantly comparing the future costs of care for incapacitated aids patients to current treatment cost. When a sufficiently effective solution presents itself - if the cost benefit is good - governments *will* pay for it.

    14. Re:Encouraging news by timmarhy · · Score: 1
      god damn it i hate poor people and the people who make excuses for them.

      "poor people who don't know how to use contraception and the like" - ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? if you can figure out how to use your dick, you can figure out how to put on a condom. and cost wise, lets compare patented anti viral drug vs latex.

      LATEX IS WINNER

      --
      If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
    15. Re:Encouraging news by timmarhy · · Score: 1
      i hate to break it to you, but the only reason a competent doctor would get it wrong would be if you threw him a red herring of some kind, or if your symptoms were so nondescript it could be a 100 things.

      i'd say the most likely case here is that the doctor is right, and you just THINK you know better.

      --
      If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
    16. Re:Encouraging news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Idiot.

    17. Re:Encouraging news by spleen_blender · · Score: 1

      "How many months in Iraq" is becoming a unit of measure just as "how many libraries of congress". Very interesting lol.

    18. Re:Encouraging news by ksheff · · Score: 1

      That's assuming that they use the condoms for their intended purposes instead of something like waterproofing the roof of their house.

      --
      the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
    19. Re:Encouraging news by cheater512 · · Score: 1

      You need to watch House a bit. Particularly the Climic bits.

    20. Re:Encouraging news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One can only hope that the treatments can be made available at a decent price, so that the folks who are most likely to pass it on--poor people who don't know how to use contraception and the like--will be able to be treated.

      Huh?! Contraception isn't that hard, just one pill a day, and they even give you sugar pills for the days you don't need them. Compared to that anti-retroviral therapy is real pain in the butt. So I'm not sure that people who "don't know how" to use contraception, that is to say "poor people" and the like (since everyone who isn't as rich as Paris Hilton is obviously too dumb to know how to tie up their laces), will find it any easier.

    21. Re:Encouraging news by Belial6 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Really? So, explain to me what happened to the the test to check for Chicken Pox that seemed to disappear between the time that one doctor told my wife that there was no test to see if a child had chicken pox, and the time that a second doctor schedule the test at the lab. Given that I have had many people express that they have had the same kinds of experience with doctors telling them things that are incorrect, your qualifier of 'competent' must only apply to a small percentage of them.

      Of course there is the alternative that the incorrect information that many doctors give to their patients is not because they got it wrong, but because they are simply lying. I have a hard time believing that any pediatrician is unfamiliar with the test to see if a child has been exposed to chicken pox.

      Don't think that I am characterizing people in the medical field as evil. They are simply human. That means that sometimes they make mistakes, cover their asses, and take the path of least resistance. They are simply human. They sometimes do good work, and sometimes do bad work, just like people in any other field. Thinking that they are somehow infallible gods, just because they are doctors is naive at best. Unfortunately because they are in positions of power, they will often fall prey to the human failures that manifest with people in positions of power.

    22. Re:Encouraging news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I look at doctors as (really expensive) advisors. They can get me things I can't get on my own. Things like various medical tests (blood tests, etc), drugs, therapy, etc.

      Sometimes they do have information that I don't but you have to be really careful. They're just advisors, not the final word and definitely not gods. The medical field is very complex and doctors rarely spend much time with you. You have to bring as much information as possible while not going overboard with you're own assumptions. It's like coming into a new programming job and having to solve a problem in a million line project within 15 minutes. Sometimes you could make it work on your own but very often you're just going to get it wrong. You need the people working on the project to provide some hints, then you have a better chance of solving the problem.

    23. Re:Encouraging news by phantomcircuit · · Score: 1

      Either you have a medical degree or you have not been to a doctor since you were 10 years old.

      Lots of people drop out of med school because it's hard.

    24. Re:Encouraging news by shihonage · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, around 47% of all people diagnosed with AIDS were infected with HIV through male-to-male sexual contact, while people exposed through heterosexual contact comprise around 17% of the total. Male-to-male sexual contact probably caused the majority (66%) of infections in white people living with AIDS. It's not "faith", it's "fact". When political correctness stands in the way of science it becomes a disease in itself. A mental one.

    25. Re:Encouraging news by moosesocks · · Score: 1

      Then I thought more, since I live in America where reality based communities don't alway align with the faith based government.


      You seem to be under the impression that things are better elsewhere. Are they?

      The America-bashing is beginning to get somewhat out of hand. Although it is actually quite a good thing that Americans are once again inherently distrustful of their government, things aren't exactly a bed of roses elsewhere.

      As an American who's been living in Europe for a small chunk of time, I can safely say that we both have our own pile of issues to work out. The American government is certainly not without its faults, especially over the past few years, but it's also not something that we can't fix on our own, nor does it make us all bad people.

      A defeatist attitude will solve nothing, nor is it something that has ever been a characteristic of the American psyche. Although it all appears to be going to shit at the moment, it's still possible to turn the tables, and there's a good chance that you'll have one such opportunity to do so today.

      We're not totally fucked yet.
      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    26. Re:Encouraging news by sayfawa · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree. And I'd just like to add that another couple of problems with doctors is that,
      1) many seem to think they are done learning once they finish med school and get their practice going. They don't seem to have the research mentality that other scientists do. And,
      2) they have to deal with so many idiots who don't know or care about their bodies that they think we are all like that. And instead of giving us "dangerous" information that they don't feel we need to know they just give us the meds and send us on our way.

      --
      Free the Quark 3 from asymptotic confinement! Bring your charm! Don't get down! All colours and flavours welcome!
    27. Re:Encouraging news by ibbie · · Score: 1

      god damn it i hate poor people
      If the above is correct, then I honestly pity you. Being born into a low-income family, regardless of race or religion, does not prevent one from having common sense, nor does it prevent one from being intelligent. The smart ones? They generally find a way to escape poverty, once they have a chance to. And they are often better people for having done so.

      and the people who make excuses for them.
      Now this I can get behind, admittedly with less anger, as excuses don't fix things. Actions do.

      ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? if you can figure out how to use your dick, you can figure out how to put on a condom.


      Have you stopped to consider that the issue might not be figuring out how to use protection, so much as being taught - in no uncertain terms - exactly why it's necessary in the first place? And if they are teaching it, maybe they need to step it up a bit - even if that means subjecting students to viewing the results of the typical safe=off google image search. After viewing something like (NSFW!) this (NSFW!), they might understand that they're not being lectured for the fun of it.

      Granted, I might be feeding a troll, but since it's completely possible you weren't just snarking off to pour gas on a fire, I figured replying would be a better use of my time than just selecting "-1 Flamebait".
      --
      The wise follow a damned path, for to know is to be forsaken.
    28. Re:Encouraging news by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      I have to say I've never seen an antiretroviral commercial. Something tells me that might be really entertaining.

      It's not your personal opinion though. Studies have been done that indicate the drug companies generally spend more on advertising than they do on research. And since they're always whining that they have to charge high prices for their drugs to pay for the advertising....

    29. Re:Encouraging news by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      "will only be available to the privileged elite like Magic Johnson"

      That's a little over the top. Antiretroviral treatment is available to anybody who needs it in most of Europe and Canada and to most Americans. It is much rarer in places like Africa where it's really needed, but it's definitely not a Magic Johnson only type thing.

    30. Re:Encouraging news by king-manic · · Score: 1

      Part of the problem is that often the patient DOES know better than the doctor. I can honestly say that I have not had a doctor do, or say anything to me that I did not already know since I was about 10 years old. I have on the other hand had doctors tell me things that were simply wrong. I'm sure there are some good doctors out there, but the nature of our medical industry leaves most of us diagnosing our own illness. Not out of hubris, but out of necessity. I usually dictate my own treatment etc... but the doctor is there when I'm really wrong or have no idea. Doctors are just people with some experience. Just as anyone can fix a computer or car sometimes you need someone with more then do it yourself experience to get certain things done. To contrast, in Canada were access to doctors is free people live longer then in the US where it is not free. So for the majority of humanity it seems your experience is not helpful.
      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
    31. Re:Encouraging news by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 4, Insightful

      or if your symptoms were so nondescript it could be a 100 things.

      Well shit. If you rule out the hard cases, an RN could do anything a general practitioner doctor can.

      That SHOULD be why they make the big bucks - the hard cases with confusing or nondescript symptoms. As a practical matter, most of them bail on anything they can't churn through in a 15 minute office visit. Even specialists are starting to suck. They can't be bothered to do any research, if the usual blood work doesn't solve the problem, they'll just roll through tests until they get lucky, or you just give up. Or die, maybe. And if your symptoms fall between specialties, you're completely fucked, because they can't be bothered to fill in knowledge gaps with...again...research. Which would help them put evidence together with their own expertise to make a successful diagnosis OR at least find the right specialist. But for most doctors, forget it.

      i'd say the most likely case here is that the doctor is right, and you just THINK you know better.

      I can back up the OP. I had a problem for 8 years that multiple doctors consistently failed at. None even came up with a guess, just saw me for an appointment, sent me off for the wrong test, told me they didn't know what it was, and referred me to someone else. When the 5th doctor in the chain referred me to the first, I said to hell with it and decided to live with the symptoms. I eventually got sick of that, and successfully diagnosed it myself. With Google, effort, and a brain.

      I feel sorry for others though. I'm a scientist and have good research skills. People shouldn't have to be forced to do their own medical care.

    32. Re:Encouraging news by king-manic · · Score: 1

      Really? So, explain to me what happened to the the test to check for Chicken Pox that seemed to disappear between the time that one doctor told my wife that there was no test to see if a child had chicken pox, and the time that a second doctor schedule the test at the lab. Given that I have had many people express that they have had the same kinds of experience with doctors telling them things that are incorrect, your qualifier of 'competent' must only apply to a small percentage of them. Confirmation bias. When he's right, it means nothing. When he was wrong it meant somethign so you remember it. The ratio could be 99:1 and your group of friends will still feel doctors know nothing because of their fickle memory. A Doctor has to discern a problem given a small set of data. They don't have perfect knowledge and if you know something point it out. I'm a web programmer but I don't know all the tools out there. You may be a mechanic but have no idea how to fix a rotary engine.
      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
    33. Re:Encouraging news by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 1

      I'm an engineer by nature, although with no degree. I crave problems to solve. Perhaps I should switch careers from IT to the biomedical field. Remember, you've gotta love what you do, or rather it helps a great deal.

    34. Re:Encouraging news by scottv67 · · Score: 1

      To contrast, in Canada were access to doctors is free people live longer then in the US where it is not free.

      I've seen this comment before on /. as well as similar comments about the infant mortality rate being higher in the US than any other country (which means the US healthcare system is teh suck). When these figures are quoted, are you people including the people who live in the ghet-to in large US cities? People who don't see a doctor on a regular basis and use the hospital E.R. when they have a backache? Are you also including all of the children under 18 who are accidentally shot in drive-by shootings? If so, yes, the US healthcare system looks pretty bad. We have a lot of people who don't survive infancy or don't live to see age 21. But that's not due to our healthcare system. It's due to crappy inner-city living conditions and too many gang-bangers who have no respect for other people's lives.

      Our healthcare system in the US works quite well if you have a job and insurance (that's one hell of an incentive to get out of bed in the morning and drag your ass to work!). I have personally witnessed "no expense spared" treatments which saved the lives of friends or their children. I work in healthcare and I get to see firsthand the technology the doctors have at their disposal to diagnose and treat health issues.

      We have the healthcare infrastructure and the talent to work miracles. But the stats will always be skewed by the people who don't have insurance, people who don't see a doctor until the situation is out-of-control or especially by people who live in the "not so nice" parts of the large cities. Yes, if you are born to a single mom in a bad part of town, the odds are stacked against you.

      If healthcare was "free" like in Michael Moore's movie, would that solve all of these problems? No. I don't think it would. We would still have bad neighborhoods where little kids are accidentally hit by bullets intended for a gang member. The other thing to keep in mind is that quite a few people do have access to "free" healthcare in the US. People who can't pay their medical bills stil receive treatment. The hospital writes-off those uncollectable debts and charges the people with insurance a little bit more to make up the difference (hence the $50 aspirin). Large drug companies have plans to get medications in the hands of people who can't afford the drugs. If you are barely scraping-by, the drug companies will help you get the drugs you need. These programs are not advertised (or everyone would have their hand out) but if you make your "situation" known, there is assistance available. We have "free healthcare" for a certain slice of society and yet we still have many, many people dying way too young.

    35. Re:Encouraging news by ScrewMaster · · Score: 1

      If they can just eliminate the transmission aspect

      So I'm guessing sex is out, then.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    36. Re:Encouraging news by R.Mo_Robert · · Score: 1

      Months in Iraq? I want some standard units, like Libraries of Congress!

      --
      R.Mo
    37. Re:Encouraging news by king-manic · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've seen this comment before on /. as well as similar comments about the infant mortality rate being higher in the US than any other country (which means the US healthcare system is teh suck). When these figures are quoted, are you people including the people who live in the ghet-to in large US cities? People who don't see a doctor on a regular basis and use the hospital E.R. when they have a backache? Are you also including all of the children under 18 who are accidentally shot in drive-by shootings? If so, yes, the US healthcare system looks pretty bad. We have a lot of people who don't survive infancy or don't live to see age 21. But that's not due to our healthcare system. It's due to crappy inner-city living conditions and too many gang-bangers who have no respect for other people's lives.

      Our healthcare system in the US works quite well if you have a job and insurance (that's one hell of an incentive to get out of bed in the morning and drag your ass to work!). I have personally witnessed "no expense spared" treatments which saved the lives of friends or their children. I work in healthcare and I get to see firsthand the technology the doctors have at their disposal to diagnose and treat health issues. Newsflash: Canada has slums too! In fact little towns called reserves are every bit as bad as any ghetto in the US. The best country to compare the US to is Canada. The reason our slums aren't as large and widespread is partially due to universal health care. Medical expenses are a leading cause of bankruptcy which is a major cause for poverty. Without this sword hanging above your family it's a much more peaceful and healthy place. Ethnically and culturally Canada resembles the US. If you did an analysis the key difference is single payer health care.

      And no I haven't watched Micheal Moores propaganda piece, however Canada is an example of how even bureaucratic government wrangling does not obliterate the benefit of universal health care. Of course We lack the sheer incompetences that is the current US admin. Perhaps if it was instituted while enough of the Bush cronies lead the various government agencies, it'd fail as spectacularly as FEMA did during Katrina.

      The US problem is they believe free market fixes everything. However this ideology is flawed as very few things exist in an ideal free market. The US health care system isn't a truly free market. Canada's system is probably closer to an ideal free market then the US system. We have a single payer, pay as you go system. Right now it's crunching under a worse case scenario but that will fade soon. All tax payers pay a set amount, and most services are private. From hospital supply companies, drug companies, the MRI scanning company, to the GP. All private businesses to negotiated with a central body for payment. It gives the people a better deal and actually reduces bureaucracy vs the US system. Where there are dozens of insurance companies all doing essentially the same jobs all working off the same actuary tables, in Canada we just have a central body to regulate our finances for health. The goal of the organization is singular "to make people better" while the US system has mixed goals of "produce most profit" and "to make people better". The lack of a profit margin at every level also helps. Canada health does not aim to make 60% profit off your treatment before factoring the profit of all private companies involved. This alone would negate any and all efficiencies the US systems may have. State of the art treatments are invented and used here as well. Likely similar to the ratio of our populations.
      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
    38. Re:Encouraging news by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

      It's not about the government hating sex or gay people, it's about sex being an optional activity that can be done without negative social effect by smart people not under the influence of something. However implemented across the board by the people doing it most, can be a significant drain on society if we socialize the burden.

      If you have HIV you shouldn't be having sex (with anyone who isn't 100% aware and willing to accept the risk). Even if you are not contagious, that's for the partner to decide, not you. In an educated country like the US, there's no need for any additional money to be spent just to keep you from spreading it. We can argue about national healthcare elsewhere, along with the possible use of this as a treatment for HIV. Some people continue to engage in high risk activities, eventually they will hurt themselves or others. Similarly, people who continue to drive drunk will probably kill someone but we do not punish all of society by banning alcohol. Whether you have HIV or not, the story is the same: if you don't want to get infected, don't sleep around. This isn't hating sex, this is common sense.

      Given that most of this country is educated, and that few are not at least peripherally aware of the risks of promiscuous sex (unprotected or no) there's no need for society to bear the burden locally. The price of being rich and educated, relatively, is carrying a higher responsibility for your actions. Further, if we did see value in implementing this we'd have to fund it at 100%, and we could never remove it (unless the disease was cured). Everyone who had HIV would have to get the treatment. This is a large, permanent burden to place on a country. Finally, how effective would it be in practice? I know several women who managed to get pregnant at one point in their fertile years while using the pill. Big deal, they could handle it. All they had to do was take the pill regularly...yet oops. A different story when you're talking about spreading a fatal illness. For HIV we're talking about getting people to regularly take this treatment -AND- NOT get some other STD -AND- behave themselves for 6 months. Yet somehow they got it in the first place, and all they had to do was wrap it up and/or not share a needle. (I'm lumping those who got HIV through uncontrollable sources and are aware of it, in the category of those who wouldn't be high risk carriers, not necessarily true)

      Now, the 3rd world is an entirely different story. The disease is out of control and education levels are low (along with cultures that have some control over sex). We have a fixed budget that's small compared to our tax burden, and we could calculate the risk v. reward and apply the treatment for maximal effect compared with other treatments in use. We could experiment with it and evaluate the ROI and cut it entirely if shown to be ineffective. That's the burden of the third world, you take what you're given and are grateful.

    39. Re:Encouraging news by megaditto · · Score: 1

      How about we enforce the laws already on the books?

      If you break the law by knowingly infecting someone, you become illegal and are deported. Or a three strikes policy would work as well: 1) get fitted with an electronic penis monitor 2) castration 3) freedom camp for life

      --
      Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
    40. Re:Encouraging news by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      Not counting private cover, the US already spends 1.5 times what Australia pays per head for "free cover". The difference is that over here everyone is covered. You can buy private cover in Australia if a private room or silicone tits are important to you, but you get the same dotors using the same equipment.

      The reason the US spends so much of the tax dollar on health yet still doesn't have UHC is that you guys strangle both the taxpayer and the patient with red tape. Not to mention half the country thinks UHC is a socialist plot of some sort.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    41. Re:Encouraging news by doktor-hladnjak · · Score: 1

      47% of all people diagnosed or 66% of white people diagnosed still does not make it a gay disease. And that's only the numbers for the United States. Once you include the rest of the world, it's overwhelmingly contracted by straight people living in developing countries.

    42. Re:Encouraging news by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 1

      I'm an engineer by nature, although with no degree. I crave problems to solve. Perhaps I should switch careers from IT to the biomedical field. Remember, you've gotta love what you do, or rather it helps a great deal

      I have a whole lot more respect for a good auto mechanic or other problem solvers than your average doctor. Auto mechanic isn't done with your car until it runs right. Networking guy isn't done until your computer has a connection. Doctor can keep running tests forever.

      Problem is, what you need to be a good doctor is good diagnostic skills, but what they teach in med school is a whole lot of memorization. Seems to me med school is good at weeding out people who would make useful doctors.

      The stories I could tell about the pre-meds in Chemistry classes in college... Listening to those whiny little bastards complain because the classes were too hard was A) funny, but B) disturbing, because these are the people responsible for my health care. Anything that required them to actually think as opposed to memorize seemed to cause them physical pain.

    43. Re:Encouraging news by fractoid · · Score: 1

      If I were a mechanic who didn't know anything about rotary engines, and someone brought one to me, I'd look the damn things up and learn about them. Then again I guess that's part of what makes me not a mechanic - although some mechanics will do this. Also, remember that doctors are people too. Half of all doctors are below average competence... 10% are 3x worse than normal.

      --
      Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
    44. Re:Encouraging news by shihonage · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The post I was replying to WAS about the United States. Sigh... it's not our job to police the world. Now that we reestablished the scope - the statistics, sure, you can put a spin on it by omitting the comparison to the 17% of heterosexuals that contract the disease, but that's all it is - a spin. The factual truth is, as far as statistics go, gays comprise the largest single group by far, and yeah, people might say, that DOES make it a gay disease, and yeah, they wouldn't be unjustified in that evaluation. The negative side of the Internet is that people are tempted to try to spin the numbers. The positive side, however, is that anyone with a modicum of critical thinking can look them up. This reminds me of kneejerk reactions to that Japanese guy who implied that your average woman's upper body strength is inferior to that of an average man. Oh no, how dare he cite facts ! That's so rude ! Let's just lie to ourselves instead, it makes us warm and cozy inside (rolls eyes).

    45. Re:Encouraging news by Lulfas · · Score: 1

      Only if we decide we care about curing this in the third world. I don't say this from a personal standpoint, but from the politician's standpoint. People in the third world dying off is a good thing, in that they don't take resources from other people there. There is no advantage gained in saving them all, and a big advantage gained in letting them die off. Again, not my beliefs, but I guarantee you it's the beliefs of those in power.

    46. Re:Encouraging news by lessthan · · Score: 1

      Or maybe you got charged for a placebo...

      --
      Space Shuttle was a program that strapped humans to an explosion and tried to stab through the sky with fire and math
    47. Re:Encouraging news by gordo3000 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Aids is a death sentence. you just have to pick your time horizon. people who have been on antiretrovirals for 15 years are now feeling the effects of basically putting a poison in your body daily for so long. they have severe medical problems that are very expensive to treat and find themselves unable to function. 40 year olds look like they are 65 and have health problems on a similar scale. it's just when you die of kidney failure at 45 have 18 years on the drugs, we don't say AIDS killed you, but that is hiding the issue that still exists.

    48. Re:Encouraging news by Virtual_Raider · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I have a whole lot more respect for a good auto mechanic or other problem solvers than your average doctor. Auto mechanic isn't done with your car until it runs right. Networking guy isn't done until your computer has a connection. Doctor can keep running tests forever.

      There is a fundamental difference between the two activities: ANY technology-related problem can be solved because the whole system is human-designed. It's been understood from the beginning and the goals and functions of every single element are known because it was made to be so. You can read the documentation about it and you will know whithout a doubt how it's supposed to work so you can find out why it doesn't.

      We currently know a great deal about the way a human body does, but it's complexity is vastly superior to that of any known machine, and it's full of parts we don't know how they work, why they work, or even what are they supposed to do. Difficulty of ruling out failures in this environment is orders of magnitude higher. And I am not even counting in infections by external entities such as virus, bacteria, fungi and the like.

      --
      +Raider of the lost BBS
    49. Re:Encouraging news by monoqlith · · Score: 1

      House is an exception, not the rule.

      And it's too bad. Doctors don't spend all day on a case. They are in and out in 20 minutes.

      I wish more people were as competent as House, M.D. was, even if it meant being more paternalistic.

      But not everybody is brilliant, and so we can't afford to have a system which allows the kind of paternalistic medicine House practices.

    50. Re:Encouraging news by Maria+D · · Score: 2, Informative

      We have a running joke in my family, "Never go to doctors until you know your diagnosis and have researched the treatments." If you look at statistics of how many people die to medical mistakes per year, it's quite scary. I have many anecdotes about my family members dying, or almost dying, to easily avoidable medical mistakes or just laziness of diagnostics. And other cases where doctors were just greedy ("business-like"? hmmm).

      My kid goes to doctors less than once a year, and still she accumulated a few ridiculous examples. Once a doctor was strongly pressing for a surgery - and when we equally strongly asked for alternatives, and she explained that yes, we could try a course of antibiotics, but "it will take the whole three or four days, and we could do the surgery today." I could almost see the dollar signs in her eyes. A dentist wanted to do some major procedures under general anesthesia - luckily, we knew that baby teeth should soon fall out and they just started to deteriorate before falling out (like they often do), so we saved the kid the general anesthesia and us several thousand dollars - the teeth fell out within a few months and the next visit to (another) dentist there were no problems. I went to a neurologist with some headaches, and she told me that, first, she gets headaches more often than I do (relevant!) and second, she can prescribe a brain scan (MRI I think) as a helpful treatment (!!!) because it's all in my mind, so once I do an MRI and know it's clear, the headaches will go away. It turned out I had a vision problem and the eye strain was causing headaches, which I figured out later, no thanks to her. I can keep telling these amusing stories all night. The point is that doctors make a lot of mistakes, and some of them just aren't trying (that guy reading his e-mail while "listening" to me describing symptoms? yeah) and those who are trying are limited in their knowledge and skills, just like the rest of us.

    51. Re:Encouraging news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Our healthcare system in the US works quite well if you have a job and insurance

      If you're lucky enough to have a job that does provide insurance, a major health problem will exhaust it and then bankrupt you. If you're not, it goes without saying you can't afford your own, which means you'll never get (more effective) preventative treatment, but just suffer until it becomes an emergency that's serious and convincing enough that you might actually get past triage. Because we as a society aren't quite ready to let people visibly drop dead in the street, rationing treatment this way is not only barbaric but actually more expensive than doing what's needed like the rest of the developed world.

    52. Re:Encouraging news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A better solution would be to hand each patient a cyanide pill or have a .22 short applied to the base of the skull for the benefit of all humans. At minimum, they should be quarantined.

    53. Re:Encouraging news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, or we could just be benefiting from the fact that more people are stuck in waiting rooms for 4-6 hours at a time, thus keeping them off the streets and not doing what they otherwise might be doing.

    54. Re:Encouraging news by codeButcher · · Score: 1

      Someone I know once said he has much more respect for a vet and would rather be diagnosed by one. Consider: a vet's patient can't say what's wrong, the vet needs to figure that out himself; also, a vet needs to know a multitude of body plans, not just one.

      But I don't think he has put his words into practice yet.....

      --
      Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
    55. Re:Encouraging news by PatrickThomson · · Score: 1

      It's more a case that the lie dissuades helicopter parents from wasting hospital resources on diagnosing what's obviously chickenpox by visual inspection. Doctors don't exist to do exactly what you want all the time, surprisingly.

      --
      I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
    56. Re:Encouraging news by Eivind · · Score: 1

      Sure. But living is a death-sentence if you pick your right time-horizon.

      Lots of diseases that we don't think of as death-sentences has the effect of seriously shortening your expected lifespan and seriously damaging your well-being. We don't normally think of diabetes as a death-sentence, nevertheless the things you mention for HIV: Getting more serious health-problems at a younger age and dying on the average significantly younger than other people is true for diabetes too.

      There's a large difference between: "You've got X, in 5 years you are certainly dead." on the one hand and "You've got X, we can't cure you, the disease will likely, even with the best treatment we can offer, shave years or decades off your lifespan and increase the risk that you'll suffer other health-problems."

    57. Re:Encouraging news by Eivind · · Score: 1

      I hate to break it to you, but not only the -quality- of healthcare is important for general health. Also the -accessibility- is important. I agree with your basic idea: US healthcare is probably equal in quality to other top-notch healthsystems in the world today. Where it fails is in -accessibility-.

      A much larger percentage of US citizens, compared to many other countries, are without adequate access to the healthcare-system. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is this situation where healthcare is tied to employment. Which is a bad idea because precisely the same people who are unemployed are often the ones in need of healthcare.

      Universal healthcare does not magically solve these problems, that is correct. But it *helps*. This ain't theory, there are enough countries that has such systems that we just need to look at the stats. Universal healthcare also is not generally more expensive than the current US system. That is because as you correctly points out: even in the US, if you need emergency help, you -will- get it, even if you can't pay and ain't got insurance.

      But the fact that this only happens for emergencies mean that many poor people don't go to a doctor when they should, so what started as a small easily corrected problem escalates until 3 months later they need (much more expensive, and much more risky) emergency treatment.

      In Norway, for example, there are precisely 2 conditions to qualify for full healthcare: 1) You must be legally in Norway (otherwise you get only "emergency care" like in the US) and 2) Your stay, actual or planned, must be longer than a year. (so tourists still need travel-insurance if they're from out-of-EU)

      We spend a -smaller- part of our GDP for healthcare than you, and still get -more- doctors pro capita, a -higher- life-expectancy, a significantly -lower- child-mortality and basically better grades for any stat you can think of. This tells me you must be doing -something- wrong.

      You're world record-holders in spending money for healthcare, yet people still suffer from medical problems to a larger degree than elsewhere. That ain't optimal. Don't be so patriotic that you neglect looking at the facts.

    58. Re:Encouraging news by gordo3000 · · Score: 1

      but you've got a bad example. you will either die of AIDS or the treatment will kill you. there are few diseases like this. you may not like the results of having to treat your diabetes and you may choose to not do the treatment, but if you properly manage your weight, food, and exercise you can live a perfectly normal, healthy life without complications. Blindness, amputations, and organ failure are a result of NOT treating your diabetes. These same things for AIDS are a result of the TREATMENT itself. AIDS kills. we've just been able to extend the time horizon from 10 or 12 years to 20 to 25 years. we are not anywhere near a point where we can say the disease can be managed without causing complications for a regular person without other health problems.

      we are at that level with diabetes. the problem with diabetes (and why we continue to see complications from teh disease) is people lacking the willpower to prevent diabetes (especially the far more common adult-onset) generally lack the will power to handle the treatment. Notice many people with childhood diabetes (I actually only know them by the old names, though now kids are so fat they get adult onset diabetes in alarming numbers, so substitute type I and type II if required) actually continue to live full lives with no side effects other than having to take insulin treatments.

      This is, again , the real difference between other chronic diseases and people trying to lie to the world and call AIDS chronic. my bad knees are a chronic problem. I can live a completely normal life with minimal anti inflammatory treatments and some added care and my lifespan is not notably effected.

    59. Re:Encouraging news by nguy · · Score: 1

      I feel sorry for others though. I'm a scientist and have good research skills. People shouldn't have to be forced to do their own medical care.

      Why not? Think of it as evolution in action.

      Wouldn't it be great if drugs (medical and otherwise) were legalized and stupid people would remove themselves from the gene pool automatically?

      We still need surgeons: operating on oneself is mechanically tricky, but for the rest, let everybody care for themselves.

    60. Re:Encouraging news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too bad that is all undone by the fact that in Canada, you cannot legally seek private healthcare. This would allow people with money to take the burden off the public system.

      It is very possible in the US to get healthcare from the government. A lot of people do not seek it though due to pride. And I still have the choice of paying for and recieving private healthcare when I want to. I live in a city with AWESOME healthcare (bunch of great hospitals, a lot of walk in clinics), and it would go to shit if everyone was forced to use all of the big hospitals and all the little ones had to close overnight because they're privately owned.

    61. Re:Encouraging news by Cougem · · Score: 1

      Actually I've just completed a review on highly active anti-retroviral therapy, and as the west goes, it's not THAT expensive - nowhere NEAR as expensive as the press would make out. There are 2 main therapies at the moment - protease inhibitor-based (PI) therapy, and non-nucleotide reverserve transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) therapy. Both of these, per quality adjusted life year (QALY) gained, cost about £16,000. This is actually not THAT much as things go. The national institute for clinical excellence in the UK recommends that treatments under £30,000 per QALY are perfectly justifyable. This makes HIV treatment actually less expensive than regimes such as haemodialysis, which very few would deny.

      Of course, the ethics of spending so much on a disease which can so easily be prevented, in most cases, is arguable. But who are we to judge?

      Of course, this sum is very high to the 3rd world, but honestly it isn't that extortionate at all, as Western medicine goes (I'm not saying it's justifyable, I just think it's interesting)

    62. Re:Encouraging news by uglyduckling · · Score: 1

      It seems to me that once you have HIV then rich or poor this doesn't help you much, it's more of a help your community. So the incentives for treatment are a bit unusual. If there was ever a case for government funding of a drug, it's here, ie in the absence of any real personal benefit for the individual who would otherwise be asked to pay.



      Uhhhh... I think you've misunderstood the point of antiretrovirals. They very much help the individual. AIDS kills because your immune system is knocked out, and sufferers eventually die of one of a number of fairly nasty illnessess that are very rarely contracted by non-AIDS sufferers. No-one dies of HIV. Taking antiretrovirals will do two things: lower the person's viral load (i.e. how much of the virus they have in their serum) and raise their T-cell count, which is a measure of immune system function. Although people tend to feel more unwell for the first few weeks of ARV treatment, after that they generally feel much better than they did before, and thier quality and length of life improves dramatically.

      As for the point of this article, it's actually a bit obvious and not all that exciting. One of the measures of 'successful' ARV treatment is lowering of viral load. It's common sense that someone with less virus in their serum would be less infective. This has already been demonstrated by giving ARVs to HIV infected pregnant ladies - it is known to lower vertical (mother-baby) transmission. What this study does is give robust empirical evidence of what was already theoretically and anecdotally known. It's a bit like saying (here comes the car analogy) 'a car that uses less gas will go for more miles on a full tank' - fairly obvious, but there is some value in proving it empirically in case something has been missed.

    63. Re:Encouraging news by ultranova · · Score: 0

      It is my understanding anti-retroviral treatment is very expensive. For this to have any effect on the spread of HIV, every infected person in the third world needs treatment.

      Condoms, on the other hand, are cheap, effective, and also keep you from conceiving unless you want to, thus helping to solve the overpopulation problem. But the Pope happens to think that condoms are an insult to human dignity - but apparently dying from an easily preventable illness is not - so it isn't going to happen.

      --

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

    64. Re:Encouraging news by ultranova · · Score: 1

      1) many seem to think they are done learning once they finish med school and get their practice going. They don't seem to have the research mentality that other scientists do.

      They aren't scientists. They are basically equivalent to plumbers, except that they'll fix your body rather than your sewer. The doctors doing research are not the ones taking patients, and vice versus.

      --

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

    65. Re:Encouraging news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to say that your illness you had for 8 years was something benign, but the problem with most people is they go into the doctor and say, "I have a rash, what is it? Fix me." Most of the time, the solution is something simple like they wash their hands to much or got into poison ivy. Plus, when do you expect the doctor to do any research? On their lunch break or in the 5 minutes they have between patients? We do not live in the Wild Wild West anymore when doctors were "family doctors" that could come, look at a symptom, and then go home and think about it while sitting on the porch smoking a pipe.

      As your solution to self diagnosis you list three things: the ability to use Google, aspiration, and the use of a brain (slightly misquoted, but same idea). I am sad to say that most of society is lacking 1, 2 or even 3 of these characteristics.

    66. Re:Encouraging news by famebait · · Score: 1

      When these figures are quoted, are you people including [...] People who don't see a doctor on a regular basis

      Uh, hell yeah? Don't they count? That's exactly the sort of symptom you get when health care is expensive or unavailable, and a reason for changing it.

      Our healthcare system in the US works quite well if you have a job and insurance

      Oh goody.

      I do agree that social factor play a large role, but it still matters a _lot_ that it is easy to get help. If you are just above the (very low) limit for getting free help, you are still just scraping by. It will have to be _really_ serious before you shell out and opt for the effective bankruptcy that will let you get free treatment.

      Poor health also prolongs and induces poverty, so it is doubly important to reach those whether or not they do what you believe one ought to expect of them.

      --
      sudo ergo sum
    67. Re:Encouraging news by rohan972 · · Score: 1

      i'd say the most likely case here is that the doctor is right, and you just THINK you know better.

      I had a well respected doctor tell me and my wife that our latest baby could not breastfeed because of her age (premmy). Even though it was recorded that she had fed immediatly after birth, even though she had been breastfeeding hourly for the past several days, even though he had to have known this as it was written in her file, which he read. But his experience and statistics lead him to believe that babies of that age can't breastfeed, so that was his position.

      It was quite strange to argue with him about it and have him remain unconvinced, in spite of the fact that he knew he was wrong.

    68. Re:Encouraging news by Eivind · · Score: 1

      Sure. But these are differences of -degree-.

      I do agree that diabetes-treatment is better (in the sense that you can live a MORE normal life with diabetes than with HIV), but I still find them quite similar. The treatment has a lot longer history and is less complicated though. I'd not be surprised if HIV-treatment continued to improve over the next years and decades.

    69. Re:Encouraging news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.onthefencefilms.com/video/twowomen.html

      I'm sure this video is as much propaganda as Michael Moore's documentary, but Canadian health care doesn't work for everyone.

    70. Re:Encouraging news by h4rm0ny · · Score: 1

      We still need surgeons: operating on oneself is mechanically tricky, but for the rest, let everybody care for themselves.

      Well wouldn't that be an efficient society - where either everyone spends great quantities of time studying up on diseases and diagnosis that they'll never need, or else everyone saves the time and people get sick or die of things that could be prevented.
      --

      Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
    71. Re:Encouraging news by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 1

      There is a fundamental difference between the two activities: ANY technology-related problem can be solved because the whole system is human-designed. It's been understood from the beginning and the goals and functions of every single element are known because it was made to be so. You can read the documentation about it and you will know whithout a doubt how it's supposed to work so you can find out why it doesn't.

      It may be human designed, but it doesn't mean it was designed properly, or that it was documented. And if the technician diagnosing the problem isn't aware of the arcane problem involved, it may as well have been designed by God as far as he's concerned.

      We currently know a great deal about the way a human body does, but it's complexity is vastly superior to that of any known machine, and it's full of parts we don't know how they work, why they work, or even what are they supposed to do.

      Sure, and it would be unfair of me to expect doctors to know the unknown. But I'm restricting my arguments to diseases that are reasonably well known, and whose description can be found on Google. By me, for instance.

      Difficulty of ruling out failures in this environment is orders of magnitude higher.

      You've never worked on a foreign car. I jest, but seriously - I'm not talking about making diagnoses that would require breakthroughs in medical science. Put it this way - especially in my case, since I was able to make a diagnosis that my doctors couldn't, it would seem that either A) I'm so damned smart that I could be a doctor without any medical training (I'm not), or B) the multitude of doctors I saw couldn't be bothered to do anything.

      In my opinion, there are two problems with medical care. First, insurance companies are beating down the amount of time that doctors can spend on problems. We all know about this. But I also think the medical school process selects too often for unimaginative people who can memorize their way through life. That's among the reasons I had no interest in becoming a doctor. We need better.

    72. Re:Encouraging news by Elyas · · Score: 1

      I'd say another key difference is that it is too friggin cold in Canada be homeless

    73. Re:Encouraging news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been through the same thing you have (although probably not the same problem), and I'll back you up further. I can't agree with your conclusion, however. The unfortunate fact is that it's not simply the doctors' fault, but rather that we simply don't have enough resources for everyone. Even if every single doctor suddenly became extremely interested in every patient, and money wasn't an issue, they just couldn't spend enough time with everyone.

      It is primarily the patients' responsibility to diagnose themselves when any kind of conclusion requires countless hours of study, because no one else has the time. The patients also have the advantage of being able to collect huge amounts of data on themselves, which makes them much better problem solvers than any doctor could be. It's not hard to read even advanced scientific papers as long as you understand the basics of how things work, and patterns are easy to spot when you monitor yourself. If someone isn't capable of that, then maybe they should've spent a bit more time learning all those things that they said they would never need in real life flipping burgers. I don't feel particularly sorry for them.

      This doesn't mean I don't agree with you in general. Doctors are starting to care less and less, to the point of becoming completely useless except for filling out prescriptions and ordering tests. Something should definitely be done about that. It's very wrong if the patient has to do all the work, or start solving things that should be obvious to an expert. We should just keep in mind that they're not omnipotent, and in the end the patient is the person most responsible for his own recovery.

    74. Re:Encouraging news by glorinc · · Score: 1

      As a US-ian living in Toronto, I can say that the Canadian health care system really surprised me -- in a good way. Over the past few years I've been to the doctor a few times for what was obviously a viral (flu) infection. In all cases, the doctors diagnosed it as such, and did not give me antibiotics! That totally blew me away -- in the US, I found that in similar circumstances doctors would say things like: "Well, this is probably a viral infection, but I'll give you some antibiotics just to be sure". As we all know, antibiotics serve no positive purpose for viral infections (in fact, one could argue they make matters worse).

      However, I also met quite a few people that needed some sort of surgery or treatment for a non-life threatening injury. These poor people had to wait in some cases years to get the needed treatment. That's not too cool.

    75. Re:Encouraging news by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      That's true, but there are lots of stories of doctors who fail to treat known conditions, which is the 95% case. I've actually had doctors open up a big book, look up the symptoms and find something like "Most likely it's this, check for this unlikely case". Which they did. But it seems like if they don't bother do this and prescribe the wrong thing and someone dies, then that's clearly negligence.

      But I wouldn't expect them to be able to cure the 5% of bizarre stuff that no one understands and no one has documented a cure for.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    76. Re:Encouraging news by Wdomburg · · Score: 2, Informative

      Very few people in any field are competent and even those that are can make mistakes or have gaps in their knowledge.

      A few years ago my wife was suffering from recurring miscarriages, so we got a consult with a reproductive endocrinologist. His insightful conclusion? That she was ovulating. Yeah, great detective work there. Anovulatory women aren't a particularly high risk group for miscarriages.

      When we finally did retain a successful pregnancy, it was off to the perinatologist. Twin pregnancy on top of all the other risk factors, suspected monoamniotic as well. The highly recommended, highly respected doctor quoted morbidity rates that were about twenty years out of date and outlined a care plan that included none of the intensive monitoring recommended by contemporary studies. When we offered several articles from credible medical journals, she dismissed it with "I don't have time to read something you found on the internet."

      Thankfully we found a doctor who didn't dismiss her patients so easily (and actually did research of her own to make sure she was abreast of new information when faced with less common conditions.)

    77. Re:Encouraging news by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Dude! We should so get Ron Paul to do this if he's elected. I like the idea of Paulcare consisting of a bill to abolish the FDA and legalize all drugs for over the counter purchase. And come to think of it, make them freely importable too. And make it legal for anyone to practice medicine.

      Actually it would probably work quite well after a transition period where a load of people died. Medical costs would drop drastically too.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    78. Re:Encouraging news by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      Wow, thats right up there with putting the infected into concentration camps.

      Actually Cuba did originally plan to confine people with HIV indefinitely, or at least until they died. I think the policy has changed now though.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    79. Re:Encouraging news by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      With intravenous drug users, you could just mix the antiretrovirals in with their heroin.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    80. Re:Encouraging news by king-manic · · Score: 1

      I'd say another key difference is that it is too friggin cold in Canada be homeless I'd say 100 people at the bissel centre here in -30C Edmonton would agree with you. But their homeless none the less.
      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
    81. Re:Encouraging news by king-manic · · Score: 1

      Years might be very rare. I know experts can be in short supply partly due to the US poaching of our doctors and the slow certification of immigrant doctors but it's rarely more then months. My mother has stomach problems took a few months to see a specialists but my GP is available within days and emergency care for my dads bleeding ulcer was very quick.

      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
    82. Re:Encouraging news by nguy · · Score: 1

      Smart people can still go to smart consultants, it's up to them.

      Also: the amount of medical care people need is vastly overrated.

      * Most money is spend on medical care during the last six months of life.

      * Most of the problems that require serious interventions are fairly obvious (broken bones, etc.) and are not that expensive.

      * Most of the costly conditions are due to lifestyle (obesity, lack of exercise, alcoholism, etc.) and are under each individual's control.

    83. Re:Encouraging news by fifedrum · · Score: 1

      What precisely is wrong with putting the infected in concentration camps? How about a nice big building where Doctors and Nurses get together to issue treatments, conduct research and the patients have immediate access to care? They can even have their own cemeteries. How about an island in the tropics all to themselves? We'll even give them an internet feed (usenet read-only, of course)

      Surely it would be cheaper and more successful than the methods used over the last 30 years, AND the sooner implemented the more lives will be spared being infected in the first place. Delaying means you're killing more people.

      We've done it before, loads of times, most recent would probably be the TB epidemics, but surely one could compare it to the lepper colonies of old.

      Afterall, isn't eradicating the disease the goal, the whole point of spending the billions in the first place? And there's no faster way to make the disease extinct than eliminating it from society by taking the vessels into seclusion.

      I'm not suggesting using their bodies as fuel for factories or anything like that, but if no other method is working, and the cost to society is as large as the lobbies say it is, then perhaps we should revert to tried and true methods.

      You say, "Is saving the species from disease worth it at the cost of our humanity?"

      I say the above nonesense IS HUMANITY. That's what it means to be human, to be unforgivably cruel to anyone we percieve as different, unclean or unworthy and cutting off the hand that offends you. BUT if the diease is bad enough, yes, draconian measures ARE worth it. And I'll go ahead and prognosticate, like Phill the groundhog and say humans will do it again. Some disease will appear and we'll isolate the infected and the pyres will darken the sky.

    84. Re:Encouraging news by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      Parents should know what is going on with their children's health, and when a doctor that says they don't know what the spots which happen to look just like chicken pox are, so you should just go home, you can't just take their word for it.

    85. Re:Encouraging news by operagost · · Score: 1

      Or an "Obecalp."

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    86. Re:Encouraging news by operagost · · Score: 1

      Canada's system is probably closer to an ideal free market then the US system. We have a single payer, pay as you go system. Right now it's crunching under a worse case scenario but that will fade soon. All tax payers pay a set amount, and most services are private. From hospital supply companies, drug companies, the MRI scanning company, to the GP. All private businesses to negotiated with a central body for payment.
      You've read too much Karl Marx if you think that having the government choose your medical provider constitutes a "free market."
      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    87. Re:Encouraging news by king-manic · · Score: 1

      You've read too much Karl Marx if you think that having the government choose your medical provider constitutes a "free market." You've sat through too much Fox News if you think the government decided who my GP is.
      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
    88. Re:Encouraging news by sallgeud · · Score: 1

      I've seen this comment before on /. as well as similar comments about the infant mortality rate being higher in the US than any other country (which means the US healthcare system is teh suck).
      I really hate it when I have to do a 2 second lookup to disprove insane claims by US healthcare haters... but here's some help for you:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate
      If you get time, it's also interesting to compare birth rates to these numbers. You'll find they're not too far off in a majority of cases. Nations with higher mortality rates often reproduce more. As for why the USA has a higher infant mortality rate than places like Canada... I'd like to see a correlation to other types of data, such as the cause of death.
    89. Re:Encouraging news by operagost · · Score: 1

      Your government spent 22.8 billion dollars on AIDS research last year.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    90. Re:Encouraging news by iONiUM · · Score: 1

      You're a goddamn liar. I live in Canada, and I've been all around it, including "small reserves". They have absolutely nothing on the ghettos in Baltimore, for example, which is one of a few I've been to in the United States. The US ghettos are horrible.

    91. Re:Encouraging news by king-manic · · Score: 1

      You're a goddamn liar. I live in Canada, and I've been all around it, including "small reserves". They have absolutely nothing on the ghettos in Baltimore, for example, which is one of a few I've been to in the United States. The US ghettos are horrible. So you've visited all of them have you? You must have missed the ones with no running water or electricity, the ones where 90% of the phones lines are off and have "Embargoes" to prevent phone fraud. Suicide, family violence, poverty and sexual assault are noted problems on many reserves here in western Canada. There are some well run and well to do ones but every native friend I know wouldn't go back to his reserve to save his life. Now what do you mean have nothing on? less violence? Yes thats true. Less poverty... no not really. Areas within Canada rate as bad as many third world nations. Less problems? I don't think so.
      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
    92. Re:Encouraging news by lukesl · · Score: 1

      One other important difference is that diabetes really is a huge class of diseases that share the feature of hyperglycemia. There's more than just type I and type II. Twenty years from now, there will probably be 6-7 or maybe 10 different subtypes. HIV/AIDS doesn't show anywhere near the same amount of heterogeneity.

  4. qwertyuiop by overcaffein8d · · Score: 0

    [insert no-sex-anyway geek jokes here]

    --
    Those of us who think they know everything annoy those of us who do.
    1. Re:qwertyuiop by trolltalk.com · · Score: 0

      "[insert no-sex-anyway geek jokes here]"

      4 reasons why they tested this on lawyers instead of lab mice:

      1. Testers might get attached to the mice
      2. Animal rights groups won't protest
      3. There are some things mice just won't do
    2. Re:qwertyuiop by overcaffein8d · · Score: 1

      how was this overrated when i didn't have a rating?!?

      --
      Those of us who think they know everything annoy those of us who do.
    3. Re:qwertyuiop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how was this overrated when i didn't have a rating?!?

      You start off with a default rating of 1, which is obviously too high for that comment.

    4. Re:qwertyuiop by XnavxeMiyyep · · Score: 1

      Hmm, that's only 3 reasons. Let me help

      4. ????
      5. PROFIT!

      Shit, that didn't work either...

      --
      I put the 't' in electrical engineering.
  5. AIDS free world by qmaqdk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If this is true, then it effectively means that the world can be AIDS free in a generation. I'm willing to bet it's not going to happen, though. The drug companies have no interest in this.

    --
    My UID is prime. Hah!
    1. Re:AIDS free world by snl2587 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Drug companies aside, there's no way this would be used anytime soon in 3rd world countries, so the problem will simply continue to grow there.

      What this needs is widespread proof and then some major government backing. Then, maybe.

    2. Re:AIDS free world by dvice_null · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They only talk about sex. How about drug addicts and dirty needles?

    3. Re:AIDS free world by contraba55 · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't be so pessimistic. Assuming this works, I imagine governments will subsidize it. Companies get their money, the infected get their drugs, and then our grandchildren don't worry.

    4. Re:AIDS free world by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We've had a cure for tuberculosis for quite some time as well as polio, yet they are still around. TB still kills many people and has become drug resistant, because people don't take their meds on a regular schedule. If you don't take your aids medicine on time ( a more complex drug regimen), you will still be infectious. But none of that is particularly new. The new aspect is that they say that its not contagious when you have been on the regimen for a while.

      Now, the optimistic among us would have hopped that those on drug regimen knew they could spread the disease and modify their behavior accordingly. So this announcement should actually have little affect. If you were doing what the doctors told you to do, you weren't spreading the disease same as before. Maybe this would act as a motivation for some people? But it also might cause people to engage in riskier behavior and compound the issue.

      --
      Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    5. Re:AIDS free world by _merlin · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well the major infection vector for AIDS is sex. In Africa, it's primarily heterosexual sex; in Australia it's primarily homosexual sex; in Vietnam it's primarily heterosexual sex. Either way, AIDS is primarily spread by people having sex. Drug addicts and dirty needles is just a tiny blip on the radar for AIDS.

    6. Re:AIDS free world by matt+me · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Know anyone with smallpox?

    7. Re:AIDS free world by madbrain · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately it's not possible to guarantee you are non-infectious at anytime. Sometimes the drugs will stop working. And doctors only check viral load every few months. There could be increases in viral load before you or your doctor know it. So you could still become infectious even if you were not before.

      --
      -- Julien Pierre http://www.madbrain.com/blog
    8. Re:AIDS free world by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      If this is true, then it effectively means that the world can be AIDS free in a generation. I'm willing to bet it's not going to happen, though. The drug companies have no interest in this.

      I've been seeing this argument more and more frequently on Slashdot, although not specifically with regard to AIDS.

      None of the conspiracy theorists ever posts any information that leads me to believe that competition has suddenly been suspended in the pharmaceuticals industry, that there's a drug research cabal, or that the international generic manufacturers, who are not limited to manufacturing generics, wouldn't leap at the opportunity to complete a proprietary drug or vaccine and introduce it into less rigorously regulated markets.

      The implicit argument is that drug companies are placing an emphasis on lifestyle drugs, which they likely are, and that they are withholding "cures," which especially in the case of lifestyle diseases is very doubtful. This argument is very hard to mesh with those of pharmaceutical industry critics who argue that the drugs are actually developed by academia and the NIH, but only commercialized by big pharma.

      Frankly I don't believe it. It doesn't explain the development of Gardasil, and it doesn't account for the incredible price that could be charged for a vaccine in comparison to existing therapies while still providing a cost savings.

    9. Re:AIDS free world by timmarhy · · Score: 1
      "The drug companies have no interest in this."

      oh no not this old chestnut. drug companies don't give a fuck if they cure an illness and no longer have to sell drugs to fight it, because there's about 100000000000000000 other illnesses out there for them to work on.

      the myth that drug companys prefer to treat rather then cure is something moronic anti globalism nutcases perpetuate.

      --
      If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
    10. Re:AIDS free world by TubeSteak · · Score: 1

      Drug companies aside, there's no way this would be used anytime soon in 3rd world countries, so the problem will simply continue to grow there. 3rd world pharma companies have been breaking patents on AIDS/HIV drugs for quite some time now with their governments' support.

      Even highly developed countries like Brazil have done so

      Here is the response from The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    11. Re:AIDS free world by WeirdJohn · · Score: 1

      One big difference between TB and Smallpox was that the latter was a purely human disease, whilst TB is endemic in many species, but particularly in ungulates.

      The 'elimination' of TB in 'developed' countries is in a large part due to testing in slaughterhouses, which at times resulted in the culling and burning of entire herds. This is of course economically infeasible in many countries (kill the cattle = starvation for people) and politically infeasible in India (where attempts to cull cattle would result in riots).

    12. Re:AIDS free world by Mechanik · · Score: 1

      If this is true, then it effectively means that the world can be AIDS free in a generation.

      I don't know. Just because someone is not sexually transmissive doesn't mean that they couldn't say infect someone by sharing a needle. IANAD, but I'm willing to bet the amount of virus present in pure blood is much higher than that contained in other fluids like semen.

    13. Re:AIDS free world by Trogre · · Score: 1

      (laughs, in a kind of sad way)

      If infected men would keep it in their pants the world would be 99.9% AIDS free in one generation. No drugs required.

      "Shag a virgin - get cured", indeed.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    14. Re:AIDS free world by Trogre · · Score: 1

      Oh, er yeah I didn't mean to imply that 0.1% of the world would be infected. I meant the number of cases would reduce by 99.9%.

      (In the same context as 97% fat-free = 3% fat)

      The remining 0.1% I mention would be through fringe causes such as mother-baby transfer, non-screened blood transfusions and needle sharing.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    15. Re:AIDS free world by tsotha · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah. I live in the San Francisco area. One of the unanticipated consequences of the AIDS "cocktail" has been a surge in unprotected sex among gay men. From an economists point of view, it's probably a rational decision, but actually eradicating the disease without a vaccine is pretty much a pipe dream.

    16. Re:AIDS free world by stonecypher · · Score: 1

      We've had a cure for tuberculosis for quite some time
      What? No we haven't. Why do you believe this?

      as well as polio, yet they are still around
      There were less than eight hundred cases of polio globally last year. In 1988, just 20 years ago, there were 350,000. It takes time to eliminate a disease. Dropping it by 99.7% in 20 years, globally, is pretty fucking good. Be less cynical.

      Now, the optimistic among us would have hopped that those on drug regimen knew they could spread the disease and modify their behavior accordingly.
      Yeah, if you knew what you were talking about, you'd know that in excess of 95% of sexual transmission of AIDS is due to the carrier being unaware of their status. Getting all preachy and acting like it's just a question of someone Doing The Right Thing is ignorance at its finest: turning a blind eye to what's going on after labelling it with a social stigma and trying to dust it under the rug. The disease is spreading; your rationalization counts fuck all about what's going on, and getting clueless on a soapbox like that is what allows diseases to keep spreading.

      Have you been tested? No? Then shut the hell up, statistics say there's a one in three hundred seventy odd chance that you're one of the people spreading the disease. Maybe more like one in five hundred, given that you're a slashdotter.

      But seriously, the only thing more dangerous in a pandemic than ignorance is misinformation, meaning you're taking a bad situation and making it worse. Staple your lips together and count yourself as having improved mankind's lot in life.
      --
      StoneCypher is Full of BS
    17. Re:AIDS free world by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I read on Retrovirology, an open-access medical magazine that it was just discovered that Miltefosine, a drug made by Aeterna, does the trick by killing of all the Macrofages where HIV still managed to hide. Gosh, I don't Aeterna think they will just ignore this. I mean, they have this drug fully approved for something else on the market already. All they need is just another indication on the box and are ready to make really big bucks.

    18. Re:AIDS free world by Domo-Sun · · Score: 1

      I just have to say, even the proper use of medication to treat a disease, causes resistant strains. Diseases are around not from a lack of, or abuse of a medication, but more so rather because we have unhealthy people in unhealthy environments. And maybe a lack of genetic diversity and a few other things, but not nearly medication abuse alone.

    19. Re:AIDS free world by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're mostly wrong.

      Drug resistance by pathogens which can't be killed entirely...

      *has a Eureka moment, goes off to research...*

      how is it that viral load can decrease if individual copies of HIV can't be killed? And if individual copies can be killed, how come we can't completely eradicate it?

      Is the problem that all white blood cells end up infected and would have to be destroyed, leaving the person defenseless anyway?

    20. Re:AIDS free world by Hugonz · · Score: 1

      Ok, the whole retroviral thingie.. and .. legalize drugs. I'd think no one has got HIV from an insulin shot. Same with heroin, if it were legal.

  6. Proper testing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OK, who is the first person willing to test if this treatment really works? I for one would rather not risk my life for that.

  7. Wow by Hatta · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can you imagine the shitstorm that would ensue if they're wrong? It takes a whole lot of balls to not just put your reputation on the line like this, but the lives of thousands of people too. I really hope they're right.

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    1. Re:Wow by bagboy · · Score: 1

      >>Can you imagine the shitstorm that would ensue if they're wrong? Not to mention the number of people claiming to have been treated for a one-nighter, yet never received any treatment. How would you verify? (See first post.)

    2. Re:Wow by VGR · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They covered their bases. This is one of the most informative and honest articles I've seen in a long time. They make a point of saying, more than once, that they're not positive a treated person is not infectious, but their certainty is equal to the certainty with which the scientific community asserted in 1986 that kissing cannot spread HIV (an assertion that continues to hold up to this day).

      Interestingly, they are not recommending the treatment for widespread use, because many people have trouble rigorously adhering to a treatment schedule, and even a little slip in the treatment could result in the creation of a resistant strain of HIV. I'd hate to be the doctor who has to pass that judgement: "Before I treat you, how do I know you won't skip an occasional treatment, thereby creating a scourge of humankind that's even harder to treat than the HIV we have now?"

      --
      The Internet is full. Go away.
    3. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't worry. MRSA is going to take care of the people that think they can go back to their old lifestyle now that "aids is cured".

    4. Re:Wow by Anti_Climax · · Score: 4, Informative

      I've been trying to find a copy of the article for a while, but I seem to remember someone publishing a write up about "Curing" HIV with anti-retroviral therapy.

      Essentially it went like this: By *religiously* adhering to a multi-drug cocktail treatment (3-4 drugs targeting different portions of the viral replication cycle) over the course of 3-4 years the free virus particles would be filtered out of the body by the lymph nodes and T-Cells at varying stages of infection would be broken down, leaving a person HIV free. They would still test as HIV positive as they would still have the antibodies in their bloodstream, but they would no longer be infectious or subject to relapse.

      Obviously starting treatment when still healthy would be preferable, like Magic Johnson did. He was diagnosed with HIV about 3 years after my Father was. Magic Johnson is still alive and healthy 16 years later, but my dad died almost 15 years ago.

      There was also a "Morning After" treatment that showed promise for preventing infection after likely exposure to HIV. It was an 8 week course of drugs similar to chemotherapy but, if completed, had a significant success at preventing infection.

      It's good to see they're still working toward these ends, hopefully they can stop it fairly soon.

      --
      Even people that believe in pre-destiny look both ways before crossing the street.
    5. Re:Wow by samkass · · Score: 1

      It is definitely possible to prevent infection through immediate and aggressive use of antiretrovirals. It's done all the time to ensure that babies born to infected mothers don't get infected if exposed through the birthing process. However, I've never heard of a case of HIV being cured through retrovirals. There are a tiny handful of cases (covered years ago in Scientific American) of people with natural "immunity" who appear to test positive for antibodies but who have zero viral loads, but that is probably more due to the immune system of the person than treatment. (Apparently, HIV uses some of the same pathways as plague, and so areas of Europe that were especially hard hit in the black death have high rates of HIV resistance.)

      Yes, if you start when you're healthy, you stick rigorously to your medication schedule, and you get a little lucky, HIV can become a chronic illness instead of a killer. But I wouldn't count on it.

      (I'm not a doc.)

      --
      E pluribus unum
    6. Re:Wow by Eivind · · Score: 1

      True. But even if they are very -likely- right, I think most sensible people would take additional precautions. For example, currently doctors are advising against having sex with HIV, even using a condom. There's always a risk that it'll get a hole somehow and so it amounts to gambling with the life of your partner.

      If, however, you are very very likely noninfectious, and in addition to this, you still use a condom, the risk could come down to the level where it's acceptable. Life is risky, yet we all accept to live with a certain level of risk. Normally HIV transmits in something like 1% of the cases by unprotected heterosexual intercourse. If there's a 99.9% chance that you're noninfectios anyway, and a 99% chance that the condom will work as intended, then the combined risk should be in the ballpark of 1:10million.

      Which means if the person has sex twice a week from he/she is 20 and until 80, then it's 0.06% likely that someone will get infected. Which would mean that living in a sexual relationship with this person is considerably less risky than driving a car, so I think it's a risk that people would accept.

      Currently it is in many jurisdictions a crime for someone with HIV (and other similar diseases) to have sex with someone without informing them that they're carriers. A good question is if this risk is low enough that it would be acceptable for such people to have sex -without- informing their partners. It's a -tiny- risk afterall, and people accept tiny risks all the time, without being explicitly informed about them.

    7. Re:Wow by jimicus · · Score: 1

      There was also a "Morning After" treatment that showed promise for preventing infection after likely exposure to HIV. It was an 8 week course of drugs similar to chemotherapy but, if completed, had a significant success at preventing infection.

      Bear in mind that this post is based on living with nurses who claimed to know these things, and I really haven't got time to find hard evidence elsewhere. Take it with as much salt as you think it needs.

      Not only did it show promise, it's available - at least in the UK. But only to members of certain professions who have been exposed accidentally, eg. by a drug addict walking into hospital and stabbing the first doctor they see with a needle.

      I'm also given to understand that HIV isn't particularly infectious a few months after the initial infection anyway. This, however, isn't something that's broadcast terribly loudly because the medical profession doesn't really want to encourage HIV-positive people to start having regular unprotected sex. (I can think of a few other things which would give rise to such an approach - "not particularly infectious != 100% not infectious", and "we've not seen it happen yet, but this is a virus and viruses mutate very quickly").

  8. not that it matters really.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    since it's only a disease of fags and niggers.

    well monkeys too, but niggers and monkeys are one in the same. didn't hiv come from a gang of buck niggers fucking a bunch of monkeys?

    1. Re:not that it matters really.. by tezbobobo · · Score: 1

      and cats. there are many types of feline immuno virii. my cat had one. don't forget cats.

  9. Its no cure (get it & you're still going to di by crovira · · Score: 2, Insightful

    but it does make life possible for those around you.

    I sucks but its a step in the right direction. (But will any company take the next step; after all, once YOU're dead, the disease is eradicated.)

    Sucks to think like an actuary...

    --
    MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
  10. The question remains... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will anyone take the chance that it won't work?

  11. Re:Its no cure (get it & you're still going to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I've got some shocking news for you: even if you don't get HIV, you're going to die

  12. Improbable, Not Impossible by thePsychologist · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's in the article but non-infectious here does not mean it's impossible for HIV transmission during sex. It's only improbable and of course the probability of transfer is unknown - as even in the studies done with these drugs other protection measures were used (of course). Furthermore this is not new; rather it's a statement made by a few experts based on older research. The statement is meant to be a standard taken throughout the healthcare world.

    --
    "What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
  13. I think I'll let the doctors go first... by wtansill · · Score: 0

    I mean, they're certain about this, right? In that case, I think they should waive their ethics in this case and try sleeping with some of their supposedly "non-sexually-infectious" patients, and then report our on their success or failure. Go ahead doc -- I'll wait... <sound of crickets chirping>...

    --
    The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power. -- Daniel Webster
    1. Re:I think I'll let the doctors go first... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      About as certain that HIV causes AIDS. Find me the scientific evidence that HIV causes AIDS, and we'll talk.

    2. Re:I think I'll let the doctors go first... by repapetilto · · Score: 1

      The article begins by stating that the Commission "realises that medical and biologic data available today do not permit proof that HIV-infection during effective antiretroviral therapy is impossible, because the non-occurrence of an improbable event cannot be proven. If no transmission events were observed among 100 couples followed for two years, for instance, there might still be some such events if 10,000 couples are followed for ten years. The situation is analogous to 1986, when the statement 'HIV cannot be transmitted by kissing' was publicised. This statement has not been proven, but after 20 years' experience its accuracy appears highly plausible."
      Maybe you should read the article before being a smartass?
  14. Your best bet... by DarkTitan_X · · Score: 0

    Is abstinence really that difficult? Why even take a risk? I guess the real good news is that men with HIV can now reproduce without risk of having their child be HIV positive. Story might be different for HIV positive mothers.

    --
    ~Mike (Titan_X)
    1. Re:Your best bet... by KublaiKhan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're asking people other than you to change their behavior based on your principles?

      If you can figure out how to accomplish that reliably, then every government, armed service, advertising agency, and school wants to speak with you right now.

      --
      In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
      A stately pleasure dome decree
    2. Re:Your best bet... by MT628496 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Is abstinence really that difficult?
      Not for most of the people on Slashdot
    3. Re:Your best bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It is your duty as modern enlightened people to downmod whoever mentions "abstinence" as a response to sexually transmitted infections.

    4. Re:Your best bet... by TehDuffman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Is abstinence really that difficult? Yes
    5. Re:Your best bet... by PrescriptionWarning · · Score: 2, Insightful

      well its obviously not currently working, so i think thats why they're still trying to find a cure/preventative.

    6. Re:Your best bet... by wizardforce · · Score: 1

      HIV can also spread through "dirty" needles [needles re-used in medicine] blood transfusions + rape. then there's the practice of inheriting wives whose husbands have died from AIDS- those who refuse are often rejected by society and left to fend for themselves which frankly is a tough choice for someone who in all probability has children that would die from malnutrition/lack of medical care otherwise.

      --
      Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
    7. Re:Your best bet... by LordKazan · · Score: 1

      they've been able to fairly reliably block mother->featus AIDS transmission for a while now

      --
      If you cannot keep politics out of your moderation remove yourself from the Mod Lottery.. NOW!
    8. Re:Your best bet... by SilverAlicorn · · Score: 1

      Abstinence really is difficult when reproduction is one of the strongest biological urges humans have.

      Not to mention the fact that sex isn't the only way to spread HIV (needles, blood transfusions). If there's a way to deactivate it for good, do it.

    9. Re:Your best bet... by vertinox · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Is abstinence really that difficult?

      You want the average human to stop doing what evolution has spent 300 million years programming them to do? Its kind of like asking bears to not eat trout. Its what they do!

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    10. Re:Your best bet... by pak9rabid · · Score: 1

      Is abstinence really that difficult? I guess it's about as difficult for the average person as you having the opportunity to turn down someone's sexual advances.
    11. Re:Your best bet... by gad_zuki! · · Score: 4, Interesting

      >You want the average human to stop doing what evolution has spent 300 million years programming them to do?

      Really? Evolution has been progrmaming people to kill their mates through disease? Whoa, I've missed a lot in sex ed!

      I love how only the most base animal desires get propped out by evolution. I love how people just never say "Hey evolution has instilled logic and compassion into humans." Or "Evolution has instilled moral action" Or "Evolution has instilled guilt and conscious thought." Instead its always fuck and kill, and if you think thats all evolution can do then youre sorely mistaken.

      The real question is the ease of being able to control one's sexual desires vs the the control compassion and empathy have on us. Considering your comment could be (and has) been used to justify everything from rape to office sexual harassment, its interesting how society hasnt given up on some basic moral structures. Evolution again! Tricky aint it?

    12. Re:Your best bet... by hxftw · · Score: 1

      Why?

      --
      Just because an idea is popular doesn't make it right.
    13. Re:Your best bet... by ArcherB · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You're asking people other than you to change their behavior based on your principles?

      I'd venture to guess that not having sex if you are infected with AIDS is a pretty universal principle, much in the same way that murder is universally frowned upon.

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    14. Re:Your best bet... by syousef · · Score: 2

      Is abstinence really that difficult?

      Historically it has certainly proven to be. Not everyone on this planet is educated, has enough wealth that prostitution isn't tempting, or even is in a position to say no if they wish to. You're not talking about the abstinence of a few wealthy individuals but of everyone on the planet infected with an STD.

      --
      These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
    15. Re:Your best bet... by hxftw · · Score: 1

      How is it difficult? Can you give me a good reason?

      --
      Just because an idea is popular doesn't make it right.
    16. Re:Your best bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HIV can also spread through "dirty" needles [needles re-used in medicine] blood transfusions + rape.


      Dunno about where you're from, but around here syringes are not re-used in medicine, and whenever a blood donation is taken, blood samples are taken to test for HIV and other blood-borne diseases, and the donated unit of blood cannot be used for transfusion until it's passed the tests.

      Of course, rape, consensual sex where someone doesn't know they're infected, illicit drug use, etc are still likely ways for the virus to be transmitted.
    17. Re:Your best bet... by Crypto+Gnome · · Score: 1

      I'd venture to guess that not having sex if you are infected with AIDS is a pretty universal principle, much in the same way that murder is universally frowned upon. Most people equate "having sex" with "breathing"... At least as far as "even if I could stop, I really don't think I'd want to".
      --
      Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
    18. Re:Your best bet... by schnikies79 · · Score: 1

      The act is the biological urge, not so much the end result.

      There is a lot more sex for pleasure than for reproduction.

      --
      Gone!
    19. Re:Your best bet... by Crypto+Gnome · · Score: 1

      Is abstinence really that difficult? Yes Well, I wouldn't say it's difficult, but it really is very hard.
      --
      Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
    20. Re:Your best bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is abstinence really that difficult? Yes [citation needed]
    21. Re:Your best bet... by ksheff · · Score: 1

      It's not that bad after the first couple years.

      --
      the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
    22. Re:Your best bet... by madbrain · · Score: 1

      Firstable, AIDS is not an infection, HIV is. And there is no law against people with HIV/AIDS having sex anywhere that I am aware of, so it is not a "universal principle". In many states and countries, people with HIV are required to inform their partner that they have HIV prior to having sex, however.

      --
      -- Julien Pierre http://www.madbrain.com/blog
    23. Re:Your best bet... by WeirdJohn · · Score: 1

      Doesn't having a child rapidly increase the rate at which AIDS develops for a HIV infected woman not on retro-viral drugs?

    24. Re:Your best bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not if you spend the whole night reading /.
      I haven't seen a 3D "doable" female since my last economics class at college... (my Mom is not doable, because I am not a perv, and she is not my type anyways...)

    25. Re:Your best bet... by hxftw · · Score: 1

      Just because kids are stupid, doesn't mean abstinence shouldn't be taught. It should be, along with different types of birth control, and how they work. Plus information on different STDs and the risks of transmitting/contracting them.

      --
      Just because an idea is popular doesn't make it right.
    26. Re:Your best bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      rubber dolls don't count. so go ahead and keep doing what you you do best.

    27. Re:Your best bet... by Trogre · · Score: 1

      Considering your comment could be (and has) been used to justify everything from rape to office sexual harassment, its interesting how society hasnt given up on some basic moral structures.

      We're working on it, give us time.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    28. Re:Your best bet... by Trogre · · Score: 1

      Why? What's wrong with you?

      I have a strong suspicion that these communities in which AIDS are prevalent have never been properly educated on what AIDS is and how it is spread. There's a lot of superstitious claptrap surrounding it, the origins of which I'm also suspicious of. One such superstition is that if you shag a virgin you'll be cured in no time. Guess what effect that has.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    29. Re:Your best bet... by rwwyatt · · Score: 1

      You have the poorest understanding of evolution, biology and sexual education of anyone outside of Kansas of which anyone outside of Kansas should be proud. Genetic Evolution such as Natural Selection of Aleles and general natural selection still has not been logically or scientifically refuted as of yet. How does creationism or intelligent design imply the creation of morality? I am moral because I realize the effect of the disparity between rich and poor has on humanity and thus am less likely to be killed in a revolution (thus increasing my likelyhood of natural selection). Why do animal mothers protect their young? There is no scientific answer as to why and they certainly don't suffer the compunctions of an enforced morality. Evolution specifically leads us to avoid disease, but Creationism wants us to embrace it as God's will. Is it God's will to allow someone to die of hunger while he has given us the knowledge to avoid diseased meats?

    30. Re:Your best bet... by Trogre · · Score: 1

      Wow. That's really... ignorant.

      I guess most of /. is clinically dead then.

      Sex is great and all, but you'd be surprised how good life can be without it.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    31. Re:Your best bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I love how only the most base animal desires get propped out by evolution. I love how people just never say "Hey evolution has instilled logic and compassion into humans." Or "Evolution has instilled moral action" Or "Evolution has instilled guilt and conscious thought." Instead its always fuck and kill, and if you think thats all evolution can do then youre sorely mistaken. I disagree. 'Evolution' hasn't done fuck-all for us as far as morals or logic go. True, compassion, guilt and conscious thought are hard-wired into us, but how we use them in our social interactions varies highly between cultures and societies, indicating it's a learned behaviour. Logic and a 'moral sense' must also be learned. See the last three thousand years of human history for the evidence.
    32. Re:Your best bet... by TehDuffman · · Score: 1

      It's not that bad after the first couple years. Yea maybe the first 17 years of your life but not anymore... :)

      Shit, i hate getting deployed and having to go more than 3 months. I can't even imagine getting to deploy to Iraq and having to go 7 to 14 months.
    33. Re:Your best bet... by SashaMan · · Score: 1

      Is abstinence really that difficult? Yeah man! As a die hard slashdotter I've been abstinent for years. Why can't people just be satisfied with their second life avatars and their right hand in their parents' basement?
    34. Re:Your best bet... by madbrain · · Score: 1

      This is just as much about adults as it is about kids. Most humans have urges to have sex they can't hold indefinitely. Abstinence will prevent HIV, STDs and unwanted pregnancies in theory, but it is impossible actually to put into practice. Do you actually know anyone who will abstain from sex their whole life ? And if you are talking about abstinence before marriage, as is apparently taught in some places, that excludes a whole category of people who can't get married - gays, and who are most at risk for HIV. Also, some straight girls who pledged to remain "virgins" before marriage have substituted intercourse with other even higher-risk behavior like anal sex because they just don't know any better.

      What we need a comprehensive sex education program that focuses on safe sex, contraception, and preventing STDs/HIV. I don't think abstinence should deserve more than a footnote in such a program because we already know teaching it alone doesn't work.

      Note that 16 states have already rejected funds for abstinence-only education, the most recent of which being Arizona.

      FYI :
      http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/21606.php
      http://www.avert.org/abstinence.htm
      http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/221980
      http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/reproductive_rights/2008/01/ariz-gov-napoli.html
      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26623-2004Dec1.html

      --
      -- Julien Pierre http://www.madbrain.com/blog
    35. Re:Your best bet... by IdahoEv · · Score: 1

      Just because kids are stupid, doesn't mean abstinence shouldn't be taught.

      That's not what GP said. He said it doesn't work, not that it shouldn't be taught.

      Abstinence should always be taught. But it should never be the only thing that is taught because it has been repeatedly shown that teaching only abstinence is ineffective public policy. If you teach only abstinence, experience shows that more kids will die of sexually transmitted diseases than if you teach about both abstinence and condoms. (and likewise, there will be more unwanted pregnancies, but that's OT.)

      This is so well established at this point that anyone who crows "abstinence only" anymore either wants kids to die or is willfully sticking their fingers in their ears and going "nah nah nah I won't listen to the evidence" because they prefer their ideology to practical results that save lives.

      --
      I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
    36. Re:Your best bet... by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 1

      Is abstinence really that difficult?

      Yes. Yes, it is, for very good evolutionary reasons: organisms that don't find abstinence really difficult don't end up producing a lot of offspring. None of our ancestors were abstainers. We're all descended from a long line of fuckers.

      Of course, sometimes recessive genes manifest, or people get infected with the meme for the most unnatural of all the perversions, chastity. If you're not into sex, that's your right.

      But whatever your own choice, you can sit around and moralize and tsk-tsk all you want about how people shouldn't have sex unless it's under whatever set of conditions your socialization approves of; or you can recognize that the vast majority of people are going to continue to spend a lot of effort on getting laid, and how we can shape policies to minimize harm and maximize happiness in the context of that truth.

      Why even take a risk?

      "A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are built for." -- John A. Shedd (as best as I can figure from Google).

      Doing anything that is at all interesting entails taking some risk.

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
    37. Re:Your best bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


        Evolution solves these problems by letting everyone die.

        And it works on groups with divergent traits, so indeed, you must accept that there will be both smart and dumb infected people - who are hot.

        I simply don't buy the idea that we've risen that far from the primal behaviors. Take a look at the top 100 sample lifestyles by highest percentage of the world's population - its tough out there.

    38. Re:Your best bet... by ksheff · · Score: 1

      lol! forking over $$$ for child support & working most of the time will eliminate most of that urge and being a fat, ugly geek will insure what remains will never be utilized. 7-14 months is nothing. Try 5-7+ years at a time as an adult.

      --
      the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
    39. Re:Your best bet... by stonecypher · · Score: 1

      Is abstinence really that difficult?
      Yes. Success means being removed from the gene pool. Procreation biasses towards procreation. Our fundamental purpose from the biological point of view is to create children. Also, the average person lives approximately 3800 days after infection, and infection is almost 95% likely to have been due to sexual activity. 3800 fear filled days to get drunk and make a single mistake that ends a tree of lives. 3800 desperate, terrified days where having someone to cling to would soothe just a few hours.

      Two people are sitting on a couch. They just ate lunch. There're two candy bars on the table in front of those people. One person is on a diet, and "cannot" have the candy; the other is not. Who do you think wants the candy more?

      Yes, it's very hard.
      --
      StoneCypher is Full of BS
    40. Re:Your best bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait wait. This is Slashdot. 90% of us are abstaining (me included). The other 10% are married.

    41. Re:Your best bet... by jimicus · · Score: 1

      Evolution in very simple terms means "the members of the species who have the most babies are the ones who continue it". Logic would appear to suggest that in most cases, the members of the species best suited to their environment are the ones who have the most babies.

      If intelligence isn't necessary in order for one monkey to reproduce a bit more than his rather dumb cousin, then it won't have much impact on which one makes the most baby monkeys.

      So yes, evolution does have a hand in encouraging people to have sex. It is only human intelligence and compassion which acts as a brake to that.

    42. Re:Your best bet... by 4D6963 · · Score: 1

      Is abstinence really that difficult?

      Every wise man must know that it's foolish to rely on people for safety, mainly on people's will.

      --
      You just got troll'd!
    43. Re:Your best bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was truly beautiful. Thank you sir!

    44. Re:Your best bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not if you are ugly enough.

    45. Re:Your best bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The other 10% are married


      ...and therefore abstaining
    46. Re:Your best bet... by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 1

      Sex is an amazing experience. We are programmed to enjoy it.

      If you can understand why people don't want to give up eating meat, you can understand why people don't want to give up sex.

      --
      "I only speak the truth"
      Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
    47. Re:Your best bet... by vertinox · · Score: 1

      Really? Evolution has been programming people to kill their mates through disease? Whoa, I've missed a lot in sex ed!

      You got it backwards. Human evolution is geared to having humans have sex as much as possible regardless of how well the individual human lives long term, whereas the evolution of a virus is pushed towards propagation any means possible. In the case of HIV it is evolved to propagate through sex.

      I'm not justifying human actions that are wrong because of evolutionary traits, I'm saying that it is unreasonable to expect the majority of humans who have no understanding of their biological functions to be able to withstand their biological impulses.

      Its like expecting a human to not eat saturated fatty foods versus plain old tasteless if you present it to them when they have had no formal education on the fact that it isn't good for them.

      You can't just point at people and say "Don't have sex!". It doesn't work and never will. If it was that easy we'd have gone extinct centuries ago.

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    48. Re:Your best bet... by ElleyKitten · · Score: 1

      Is abstinence really that difficult? Why even take a risk? I wouldn't take that risk, but I'm not going to deny this drug to others because of what I'd think I'd do in their situation.
      --
      "What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
    49. Re:Your best bet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Really? Evolution has been progrmaming people to kill their mates through disease? Whoa, I've missed a lot in sex ed!"

      You should have been paying more attention in biology. When a populous becomes too large it will eventually regulate itself to a sustainable level.

    50. Re:Your best bet... by big_paul76 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, sure, in the developed world.

      Check what's happening in Africa, you see a lot of infants with HIV through the mother-child route.

      I heard the statistic tossed around that given standard western treatment for HIV, you can cut the rate of mother-child infection rate by 95%, but it ain't cheap.

      --
      The plural form of "anecdote" is "anecdotes", not "evidence".
  15. yeah right, you go first by eiapoce · · Score: 1

    the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS resolves that, 'An HIV-infected person on antiretroviral therapy with completely suppressed viraemia ("effective ART") is not sexually infectious, i.e. cannot transmit HIV through sexual contact I can remember also that newspaper were promoting Extasy as a new social drug with no side effects, marijuana as a healthy habit, Avian Flu as doom of the world and RIAA protecting artists revenues... yeah right, I'll keep this news in that space in my mind...
    1. Re:yeah right, you go first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      I can remember also that newspaper were promoting Ecstasy as a new social drug with no side effects, With moderation it's not overly harmful.

      marijuana as a healthy habit, The smoke is bad, but if you vaporize it or eat it it's not unhealthy...

      How would life be if the world smoked weed?
      Guaranteed there'd be peace not greed, ...
      Legalize the plant only time will tell,

    2. Re:yeah right, you go first by milsoRgen · · Score: 1

      marijuana as a healthy habit

      As far as I am aware there is no proof in any credible scientific, peer reviewed journals that states conclusively marijuana is an unhealthy habit aside from the act of smoking. Which is going to have consequences regardless of the material being smoked.

      That is the problem with The War On Drugs, there is no hard science to base their claims on for most substances. It's mostly a do as I say because I said it kind of thing.

      I believe a well informed populace, free to choose what they want to put in their bodies is the key to a more stable society. At least in regards the effects illicit drug use are having in this day and age.
      --
      I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask where they're goin' and hook up with 'em later.
    3. Re:yeah right, you go first by eiapoce · · Score: 1

      [extasy] With moderation it's not overly harmful. Effects of extasy: Psychological difficulties, including confusion, depression, sleep problems, drug craving, severe anxiety, and paranoia - during and sometimes weeks after taking MDMA (even psychotic episodes have been reported). Physical symptoms such as muscle tension, involuntary teeth clenching, nausea, blurred vision, rapid eye movement, faintness, and chills or sweating. Increases in heart rate and blood pressure, a special risk for people with circulatory or heart disease.

      Long term (4 days) effects: Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University demonstrated that 4 days of exposure to the drug caused damage that persisted 6 to 7 years later. Brain imaging research in humans indicates that MDMA causes injury to the brain, affecting neurons that use the chemical serotonin to communicate with other neurons.

      With all respect, you better inform yourself and stop taking drugs before posting bullshit. Source http://www.narconon.ca/Ecstasy.htm
    4. Re:yeah right, you go first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Disingenuous post. Nothing mentioned about dosage required to damage neurotransmitters. Comparing apples to oranges (i.e. the drug vs the effects of legal drugs, as opposed to analysis in a vaccuum). Symptoms list which does not take into account interactions with other natural chemicals. Agenda-based source.

    5. Re:yeah right, you go first by Risen888 · · Score: 1

      Ecstasy alone (that is, MDMA) is surprisingly easy on your system, however, at the doses you need to take to get high, it gobbles up seratonin, so it's not something one should do several days running. Unfortunately, it's damn near impossible to buy it pure, street pills are always cut with speed (usually methamphetamine because it's cheap as hell) or heroin (or some related synthetic opiate, real heroin's expensive). Either of which will fry your little brain like the bacon in a "this is your brain on drugs" commercial.

      Pot, of course, is great for you. (With the disclaimer that smoking anything isn't good for your lungs, obviously.)

      --
      Hey, I finally got my first freak! Took you long enough!
    6. Re:yeah right, you go first by eiapoce · · Score: 1

      According to the number of idiots that i see crashed on the roadside in I think it's very unhealthy. Specially when they get tested for alcool AND marijuana usage and they come out positive.

  16. Still by Nysem · · Score: 1

    I still wouldn't take that kind of risk even if the person that had AIDS (Not necessarily to my knowledge) wasn't "infectious."

    Every other STD out there is still just as infectious/contagious, and there are STDs that are more common than HIV. If people would stop sleeping with everybody, there probably wouldn't be any need for this. You're still gonna die a horrible disease ridden death. Work on finding a cure instead of giving HIV patients an excuse to have sex anyway.

    1. Re:Still by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huh? Have you been living in a hole? People with HIV receiving treatment rarely die from HIV these days. They die of other, non-HIV-related diseases or old age, just like you.

      Following that thought, lots of people dying of old age die "horrible disease ridden death[s]", so there's something for you to look forward to.

      Twit.

    2. Re:Still by doktor-hladnjak · · Score: 1

      Yes, there are STDs that are much easier to catch out there. In fact as STDs go, HIV is perhaps surprisingly one of the least transmissible.

      If you get syphilis, gonorrhea or chlamydia, you'll take some fairly ordinary (probably cheap generic) antibiotics, either one shot in the ass or some pills to take over maybe up to 10 days. Syphilis can kill you over the course of several years, but is easily cured with antibiotics. For the latter two, without treatment you won't even die--you'll just be in a world of suffering and possibly end up sterile. With herpes, you probably won't take anything at all since treatment is limited and the disease can't be cured. Fortunately, it's not fatal though.

      However, if you get HIV you'll be taking expensive, side effect causing anti-viral drugs for the rest of your life. If you're unlucky, you'll still die from AIDS even if you're on the drug cocktails because they don't always work for everybody all the time.

    3. Re:Still by Nysem · · Score: 1

      Those who receive treatment don't live long enough to die of old age unless they contracted it late in their life. (Very rare cases are an exception and I've not seen any). The longest amount of time a person has lived with HIV and hasn't gotten AIDS, that I could find mind you, was up to 25 years, and I'm going to bet that person was rich out of his mind.

      While there are too many factors to determine how long average joes can live with HIV/AIDS, and that it varies from person to person, it is still complete and total bullcrap to say people rarely die of it these days--even more so to then proceed and call me a twit. That's extremely mature, let me tell you. I can see why you'd post as anonymous.

      You're obviously not aware of Africa, and I doubt good treatment that would allow you to live that long with HIV/AIDS is affordable to people in general (And I dont mean just Africa). I would ask you to correct me if I'm wrong but I can tell you're not worth hearing from.

  17. dontaidsmebro by Xelios · · Score: 1

    I swear, sometimes the tags are the best part about /.

    Thanks for the laugh

    --
    Murphey's fighting Occam, and we're in the stands.
    1. Re:dontaidsmebro by smif · · Score: 0

      seconded, brilliant

  18. Re:Its no cure (get it & you're still going to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    You know, for guys in there late 40s, and have good access to healthcare they can expect a good quality of life for almost (if not exactly) as long as their non infected peers. That's not to say it doesn't suck, but HAART treatment is pretty good.

  19. AIDs is still a possible species killer. by Zombie+Ryushu · · Score: 1

    From where I stand, AIDS could eventually be a species killer like in 'I am Legend'. Considering no one who contracts this virus survives.

    1. Re:AIDs is still a possible species killer. by EVil+Lawyer · · Score: 1

      Where are you standing, exactly? The intersection of Total Stupidity St. and Complete Idiocy Lane?

    2. Re:AIDs is still a possible species killer. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Similar to being born, no one makes it out alive.

    3. Re:AIDs is still a possible species killer. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Probably not, barring some kind of major mutation. 1. It's hard to transmit, requiring sexual or blood contact. A significant portion, maybe even a majority, of the American population for example is in monogamous relationships and doesn't do drugs. 2. Its slow to spread. Before you get AIDS, you get HIV, and sometimes HIV never really develops into AIDS, other times it takes decades. In either case the specimen has ample time to reproduce. Even if HIV mutates to overcome both of those things, in the long term it would kill off huge segments of the species where it can easily take hold, it is extremely likely some part of the species will be able to resist it. Now would that be you or me? Different question...

    4. Re:AIDs is still a possible species killer. by Crypto+Gnome · · Score: 1

      From where I stand, AIDS could eventually be a species killer like in 'I am Legend'. Considering no one who contracts this virus survives. Not going to happen anymore, we are "managing" this disease now. Checking the Global Trends graph, the number of people "living with aids" seems to be levelling off.
      --
      Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
    5. Re:AIDs is still a possible species killer. by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Most make it OUT alive.
      They just die about 80 years later.

    6. Re:AIDs is still a possible species killer. by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      No disease can be a species killer, barring really unlikely specialist ones like the (fictional) one in I Am Legend that are incredibly infectious but DON'T kill you yet leave you sterile.

      HIV is a very well adapted virus. It lives in harmony with it's host for a long period of time, allowing plenty of time for spread and lots of time for reproduction (to ensure a good supply of hosts). Ebola is a very poorly adapted virus (in humans). It kills much too quickly to spread far. Fortunately it is well adapted to its primary host, whatever that may be (maybe bats).

      If the virus kills off its host it goes extinct. Evolution is distinctly in favour of viruses that do not kill off their host species.

    7. Re:AIDs is still a possible species killer. by samkass · · Score: 1

      However, there are humans who are highly resistant to HIV. In addition, the HIV strains that are less likely to cause AIDS and kill the host are the most likely to spread furthest, which means that even if HIV was not contained with retrovirals in most of the world, it would likely attenuate over time into a chronic virus like mono or chicken pox/shingles.

      --
      E pluribus unum
  20. Small pox? by SpeedyDX · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just like drug companies had no interest in eliminating small pox? There are plenty of diseases to go around, and more of them turn up all the time.

    Admittedly, I'm too young to appreciate the politics that went on when small pox was "eradicated", so it would be nice if anyone can point out what's so different about the small pox issue and the AIDS issue.

    1. Re:Small pox? by fabs64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Smallpox? You kidding me? The eradication of smallpox was a time of big governments, big non-profits, and a concerted effort for the greater good not for profit.

      Also, back in the late 1700s, someone couldn't patent a scab off of a cows back.

    2. Re:Small pox? by CatPieMan · · Score: 3, Informative

      Small Pox was eradicated due primarily to an immunization effort that spanned the 19th and 20th centuries. Unlike HIV (as far as I am aware), there are two viruses that appear to the human immune system as the same. One causes small pox, the other causes Cow Pox. Essentially, the immunization to small pox is to expose a person to cow pox. They get a feaver for a couple days to a week (along the lines of Chicken Pox), but then become immune to Small Pox.

      With the Small Pox vaccine, once exposed to the alternative, you become immune to Small Pox. HIV is the opposite, once you are exposed, it will kill you.

      As bad as it was, Small Pox was a 20-60% mortality rate (see wikipedia), which is horrible, but there was a chance. HIV is a 100% mortality rate, it just takes a bit longer. If we could find a way to create immunity from HIV, it would die out.

      Most of the treatments for HIV simply extend the person's life, probably with the hope that they live long enough to find a cure. The drugs are not pleasant, and often make the person ill while trying to swallow them.

      I too am too young to really appreciate not having to worry about Small Pox. I'm not even sure I was given the shot, as I was born after it was declared eradicated (1979).

      --
      ---You're all I need, When the water runs deep, You're all I need, Now I cry my soul to sleep -- Collective Soul, Needs
    3. Re:Small pox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it would be nice if anyone can point out what's so different about the small pox issue and the AIDS issue.

      The former was "eradicated" before the trend of drug companies hiring hordes of lobbyists and writing their own legislation.

    4. Re:Small pox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      HIV is a 100% mortality rate, it just takes a bit longer.

      You just described life, the universe, and everything.

    5. Re:Small pox? by Reverend528 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Also, back in the late 1700s, someone couldn't patent a scab off of a cows back.
      Plus you could test treatments on orphans without the risk of being sued.
    6. Re:Small pox? by Chancey · · Score: 2, Informative

      Unfortunately this does not parallel the smallpox eradication... smallpox was a very unique case as far as human diseases go. First, smallpox was eradicated through the use of vaccines (first produced over 200 years ago), which require only one exposure to prevent a person from getting infected. There were also numerous efforts to eradicate smallpox spanning almost 150 years, and culminating in the massive, coordinated effort from the WHO (World Health Organization, not the band) to eliminate smallpox from Africa and India in the 60s-70s.

      To similarly eliminate HIV we would either need a similar vaccine, or to force every single HIV patient in the world (estimated 33-46 million) to adhere to a complicated anti-retroviral therapy for the remainder of their lives.

      The situation for HIV better parallels tuberculosis, which can be effectively cured by common (and relatively inexpensive) antibiotics, but remains prevalent because the treatment regimen is quite long and requires strict patient compliance.

      Also, since smallpox was eradicated by a very well studied vaccine, there was no patent holder to collect royalties...

    7. Re:Small pox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Believe me, you'd know if you've had the small pox vaccine. It isn't a rash for a few days and a fever. It's a boil on your shoulder for 4-6 weeks, and you dousing all of your clothes in bleach until it's gone.

    8. Re:Small pox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I too am too young to really appreciate not having to worry about Small Pox. I'm not even sure I was given the shot, as I was born after it was declared eradicated (1979). I was born in 1975 and I didn't receive the shot until last July, just before I deployed to Iraq. Trust me -- if you had gotten it, you would know (it leaves a scar). And it's not really a shot as you're used to them... the injection site is punctured 3 - 15 times (depending on some criteria I don't know about) with what looks like a thin glass tube. Not the most pleasant shot to receive, but it's not the worst either.
    9. Re:Small pox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HIV has a 0% mortality rate....noone dies from HIV infection, nor does anyone die from AIDS. Most HIV infected AIDS patients die from pneumonia...

    10. Re:Small pox? by madbrain · · Score: 1

      >As bad as it was, Small Pox was a 20-60% mortality rate (see wikipedia), which is horrible, but there was a chance. HIV is a 100% mortality rate, it just >takes a bit longer. If we could find a way to create immunity from HIV, it would die out.

      >Most of the treatments for HIV simply extend the person's life, probably with the hope that they live long enough to find a cure. The drugs are not >pleasant, and often make the person ill while trying to swallow them.

      Only life has a 100% mortality rate, not HIV.
      Nowadays, the majority people with HIV/AIDS who have access to modern treatment die of causes unrelated to HIV/AIDS.

      If untreated, people will go from HIV to AIDS in an average of 8 to 10 years. Then if still untreated, they will die from AIDS in 6 months to 2 years.
      Currently, the estimates are that the HAART drugs extend lifespan to about 25 years from HIV infection on average. If you get infected old enough, it may well not affect your lifespan at all. And new treatments are continually being researched which could improve the average.

      Of course, the drugs can have major side effects. Taking them is no picnic, and even if your lifespan is unchanged, your quality of life will be affected. However the new drugs are always improving, and the side effects are being reduced. Even if there is no cure for HIV/AIDS in sight, the drugs may allow those have access to them to lead a normal life eventually.

      --
      -- Julien Pierre http://www.madbrain.com/blog
    11. Re:Small pox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > HIV is a 100% mortality rate, it just takes a bit longer.

      If you live that long. People with HIV do die from other things. Something 100% mortality rate would have to be fast acting, like .50 between the eyes.

    12. Re:Small pox? by Gyga · · Score: 1

      HIV would be erradicated if everyone with it would follow the intrests of society and stop having sex/sharing needles/donating blood (not a big problem anymore with testing). What should be done is massive mandatory testing. Test everyone on earth, tell them what they have so that they can not spread it.

      --
      I don't preview or spellcheck.
    13. Re:Small pox? by king-manic · · Score: 1

      To similarly eliminate HIV we would either need a similar vaccine, or to force every single HIV patient in the world (estimated 33-46 million) to adhere to a complicated anti-retroviral therapy for the remainder of their lives. Disease is not a all or nothing proposition. It's a biological system with it's own local maximums, minimums, and equilibriums. Reducing the transmission rates in some places will help greatly. Although it's an anti-viral and that class of drugs isn't known to be pleasant and cheap.
      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
    14. Re:Small pox? by flyingsquid · · Score: 1
      I too am too young to really appreciate not having to worry about Small Pox. I'm not even sure I was given the shot, as I was born after it was declared eradicated (1979).

      The smallpox vaccine leaves a scar on your arm, so you'll know if you've been vaccinated. Vaccination against smallpox ended in the U.S. in 1972, although I've seen people born after that date, from other countries, with the scar.

    15. Re:Small pox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If we could find a way to create immunity from HIV, it would die out. Only if you vaccinate the entire world population for one generation, or are willing to accept another jab for every child in countries able to afford the vaccine. Given a long enough timescale, any person not immune is subject to infection, and subsequent transmission: you must either remove every possible candidate for infection and wait for those already infected to be removed from the population (by cure or otherwise), or provide continuing protection to only some.
    16. Re:Small pox? by stonecypher · · Score: 4, Informative

      Wow. So much misinformation in one post.

      How can someone think a rate is 20-60%? That's one to three out of five. It doesn't make any sense. Of course, the source you cite is Wikipedia, which you should know better than, except of course that it says 30-35%, not 20-60% like you claim; at that point it's probably more of a question of measurement differences or other fundamental quality of standard measurements between sample populations.

      Smallpox was still active in the 1960s; why you think it was "eradicated in an effort that spanned the 19th and 20th centuries" is beyond me. Maybe you're misreading the "after successful vaccination campaigns" bit in the wikipedia article; this is one of many reasons why reading an encyclopedia article does not match actual knowledge, since what they're talking about are local, single-city eradications. The actual global eradication effort was begun in the early 1950s by PAHO, which Wikipedia incorrectly cites as 1950 (it started in 1952.) The bulk of Smallpox was driven out of the states around the turn of this century, but the last known US case of non-weaponized Smallpox outbreak was in New York State in 1947, and there were isolated rural cases as late as 1965. The actual eradication wasn't certified by WHO until 1980; cases were found in nature in southern Africa until 1977.

      Incidentally, HIV, like Vareola, doesn't have a mortality rate; it's syndromes like AIDS and Smallpox, not diseases like HIV and Vareola, which have mortality rates. If you understood disease you'd know this. Many people with HIV never develop AIDS at all, and live healthy lives until they die from a car accident or cancer or a bolt of lightning or bad heroin or getting mugged. Now, mortality rates aren't just percentages; they're rates. That's why the correct way to say it is "Smallpox has a thirty eight percent chance of mortality per week." This makes a big difference, but what makes a bigger difference is that AIDS itself doesn't actually cause death. Associated infection does. The AIDS mortality rate is ZERO.

      Why does that matter? Because when you start knowing what you're talking about, you find out that the AIDS associated disease mortality rate is widely different between economic, ethnic and social groups. Why? Because that's not one hundred percent either. Hell, there are two known people who have sero-converted so far (meaning their immune system fought back and won, and they're not even carriers anymore.) We have no idea how they did it, but they did. About five percent of people with HIV do not develop AIDS by the twenty year mark, and show no symptoms whatsoever. The median time between infection and symptoms even displaying is now over ten years. There are known human mutations that create HIV resistance, such as CCR5 delta 32.

      You're just rambling about shit you heard. Get off the soapbox. You're full of crap. No disease has a 100 percent mortality rate over any time frame. You're not even measuring using the right kind of units. The AIDS associated opportunistic infection mortality rate in the United States has been 2.21 per 100 per year since 1998, as accepted by the AMA, the WHO and the CDC.

      Two point two percent per year. One hundred? Go read a book, kid, you're lying through your teeth.

      --
      StoneCypher is Full of BS
    17. Re:Small pox? by Smordnys+s'regrepsA · · Score: 1

      or on your own child. Crazy early Biologists!

      --
      Just -1, Troll talking to another.
    18. Re:Small pox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Short of the diseases/viruses that make up some of the nastier bio-warfare agents, NOTHING has a 100% mortality rate. I am sure there are hundreds of thousands of people with HIV that committed suicide or died in a car crash or were shot in a mugging turned sour, etc. To say that HIV has a 100% mortality rate is as silly as saying life itself has a 100% mortality rate. Same thing with cancer, et. al. Just because it is very deadly and nasty is no reason to cave in to the FUD.

      On a related note, am I the only one who gets pissed when the local news blames deaths on the weather? The weather rarely kills people. What does kill them is standing on the porch with a six pack to watch the approaching tornado or driving 90mph on ice covered roads, or any number of other Darwin Award worthy behaviors. Take some responsibility people.

    19. Re:Small pox? by heinousjay · · Score: 1

      I'm not entirely sure how the cessation of sexual activity is in society's interest.

      --
      Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
    20. Re:Small pox? by Gyga · · Score: 1

      Only those infected. Sure for their genetics it is not good. But for humans as a whole it is better that this one small segment not infect the rest. I wonder if a sort of HIV dating site would work. Meet fellow HIV patients so you don't have to worry about infecting them if you get to the sex part of a relationship...

      --
      I don't preview or spellcheck.
    21. Re:Small pox? by lukesl · · Score: 1

      it's syndromes like AIDS and Smallpox ... which have mortality rates.
      ...
      The AIDS mortality rate is ZERO.


      So AIDS does have a mortality rate, and that rate is zero? By that logic, diabetes has no associated mortality, it's just the heart attacks and strokes that go along with it. Heart attacks have no mortality, since it's the arrhythmias or heart failure that go along with them. Seizures have no mortality, it's the airway compromise that goes along with them. Drunk driving isn't dangerous--it's drunk CRASHING that's dangerous. You can make these arguments about anything.

      How is death even defined anyway, and how reliably can cause of death be determined? If you're going to bitch someone out, you should at least be sure that what you're saying is valid, not just that it accurately describes what it says in your textbook.

      Hell, there are two known people who have sero-converted so far (meaning their immune system fought back and won, and they're not even carriers anymore.)

      That's not what seroconverted means.

      No disease has a 100 percent mortality rate over any time frame.

      Do you mean no disease, or no infectious disease? Do you mean with or without medical intervention? Because there are plenty of surgical emergencies, for example, that are 100% fatal without intervention. What about status epilepticus? Is that 100% fatal? Even among infectious diseases, are you counting rabies or septic shock? Okay, there's one documented case of one person surviving rabies once with lots of medical intervention, but I think we can round up. I'm pretty sure septic shock is 100% fatal over a very short timeframe in the absence of intervention...of course, that's tough to say, as it is defined in terms of lack of response to IV fluids and so forth, which is already an intervention.

      If you're going to bitch someone out for being uninformed and quoting off wikipedia, you should at least get everything you're saying right. You're like those holier-than-thou grammar nazis who insist we should all use "datum, datums, and data" instead of just "data"--maybe they speak Latin, but their stance betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of how data is collected, analyzed, etc. No one who works with data for a living calls things "datums." Similarly, no one serious who works with AIDS patients thinks AIDS is not a deadly disease, just because the mechanism of killing is indirect.

    22. Re:Small pox? by stonecypher · · Score: 1

      Heart attacks have no mortality, since it's the arrhythmias or heart failure that go along with them.
      No, now you're just drawing absurdist conclusions for the fun of it. Cut it out; you're confusing people. The issue is whether the syndrome causes death directly, or predisposes the patient to pick up other deadly syndromes. There's no significant difference between heart attacks and the mechanism by which they function, but there's a pretty big difference between diabetes and heart attacks. Other things lead to heart attacks too. We're not just subdividing something until it gets down to the fundamental mechanic of action; rather we're recognizing that the heart attack that comes from diabetes is a distinct thing from the diabetes itself. That's why not all diabetics have heart attacks, and why not all people with heart attacks are diabetic.

      So AIDS does have a mortality rate, and that rate is zero? By that logic, diabetes has no associated mortality, it's just the heart attacks and strokes that go along with it.
      Wrong. Diabetes kills directly during diabetic shock and insulin shock. However, you are correct to point out that the secondary effects of diabetes, such as heart attack and stroke, are frequently the fatal concern. It's a huge difference in the case of HIV: the HIV virus doesn't actually do anything particularly bad to the body, other than to take out its defenses against other things. That's why AIDS patients get horrible diseases that nobody else gets, like Kaposi's Sarcoma, which a healthy human can just stop in its tracks.

      But yes, look, you're forgetting context. I was talking to someone who thought they were being clinically precise (and citing likelihood ranges of 3:1). When someone like that starts using terminology like mortality rate, then there are very specific rules attached; that's what that terminology is for. Mortality rate never includes related syndromes. If it did, alcohol abuse's mortality rate would be a lot higher - right now it's just things like poisoning, cirrhotic liver, induced epilepsy (epilepsy is a syndrome, not a disease, and can result not only from biological factors but also from damage from alcohol or benzodiazaprene use), polyneuropathy and so on. We do not, however, count pancreatitis: although alcohol's effect on the pancreas makes it more susceptible, to the point where pancreatitis is very likely, it's not actually a direct result of the alcoholism. Pancreatitis is generally an opportunistic infection, and so someone (say) on the space station would not be vulnerable. Similarly, the mortality rate for alcohol abuse doesn't include car accidents, bar fights or risk behavior.

      Am I saying these things shouldn't be counted? No: certainly not. But it's important for people to be able to discuss with or without related factors, depending on intentional context. Mortality rate is without related factors. Morbidity rate is with external factors.

      So yes, you're right. Diabetes' mortality rate is much lower than its morbidity rate, due to related considerations such as heart attack, stroke and other descendant complications. It's really just a question of grandparent poster using phrases such as "mortality rate" of whose implications he was unaware.

      That's common when people try to act like they know things they don't.
      --
      StoneCypher is Full of BS
    23. Re:Small pox? by stonecypher · · Score: 1
      Sorry, hit submit when I meant to hit preview.

      Drunk driving isn't dangerous--it's drunk CRASHING that's dangerous. You can make these arguments about anything.

      Quite right. In order to avoid such arguments, we have seperate terms, one including and one excluding related incidents. This is all specifically contextual to the study of human disease, remember, so the ability to include or exclude related issues is actually pretty important. Sometimes you want them, sometimes you don't, and you need to be clear about which one you're discussing. (Incidentally, drunk driving isn't a disease, but I'll assume you meant alcohol abuse, which is, and under that context your argument is quite correct.)

      Mind you that I'm not saying one should ignore those concerns. What I'm saying is that the grandparent poster used the terminology that suggests such concerns are excluded. All I was doing was pointing out a failure to use correct terminology.

      How is death even defined anyway, and how reliably can cause of death be determined?

      Death is defined as the cessation of systemic action. When your heart stops, you're dead. People can currently be brought back from death for several hours, depending on the nature of the cause. In context with regards to the mortality and morbidity rate, people who are brought back are not counted, and people whose cause of death is undefined or suspect are not counted. What defines suspect is a judgement call with well defined guidelines, and carried out by an ME; when they're pretty sure the cause of death is X, they don't count it, but when there's no question, such as a fencepost through the neck or a pound and a half rock of crack stuck in their sinuses, they count it.

      If you're going to bitch someone out, you should at least be sure that what you're saying is valid, not just that it accurately describes what it says in your textbook.

      I am certain. It's held out in hospitals dozens of times a day. Don't confuse that you don't know these things with that I don't. I just don't write a textbook every time I make a comment to someone. When you explain to someone that they've used an inappropriate sort or container, do you start with a basic introduction to rate of change, or do you just say "you should use a hash table because blah" ?

      You're being unreasonable in that you want for my comment to a third party who fancies themselves familiar with things to be appropriate to you at a completely different level of sophistication. He'll know what I meant. If I had wanted to talk to you, I'd have spoken at your level, to be frank. I'm sure you'll take that as an insult, but you shouldn't. If you were standing in a room with a mechanic, talking to a guy who built his own hot rod, you wouldn't step forward in the middle and say "I'm sorry, mister Mechanic, but (simple mistake 1) and (simple mistake 2), so you should be certain that your explanation of the carbuerator timing is valid, not just that it accurately describes what it says in your textbook."

      Here's a hint, jackass: those textbooks are based on hundreds of years of real world experience. Get off the real world vs academia cross; it's tremendously arrogant and ill informed.

      Hell, there are two known people who have sero-converted so far (meaning their immune system fought back and won, and they're not even carriers anymore.)

      That's not what seroconverted means.

      Yes, it is. Did you intend on filling in an alternative explanation, or did you just really want to catch me being wrong, and decide to invent something? Seroconversion is the successful and final production of antibodies through the DA system in response to a foreign antigen. Once your immune system wins, you have seroconverted.

      Why would you believe that was wrong? That's what every medical dictionary I own says, to varying degrees of accuracy. That's what the clas

      --
      StoneCypher is Full of BS
    24. Re:Small pox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anyone with antibodies has seroconverted, even if their immune system is losing and the infection is still present and contagious.

    25. Re:Small pox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps you should have read Dr.Hadwen's talks, which are freely available on the internet...

      Did you think to ask them what sort of filth they injected you with? And why they did it they way they did?
      It's all smoke and mirrors - Jenner was a fraud.

      Vaccination is a fraud.

    26. Re:Small pox? by lukesl · · Score: 1

      Death is defined as the cessation of systemic action. When your heart stops, you're dead. People can currently be brought back from death for several hours, depending on the nature of the cause.

      I'm sorry, but the definition of "death" is not nearly so simple. Was Terri Schiavo dead? What about anencephalic babies with beating hearts? I bring this up not just to be a jackass, but to raise the point that there is by necessity a degree of uncertainty in the definition of death and, more to the point, in its cause. When a person "dies" of metastatic cancer, for example, there's usually a complicated multi-system picture going on. Or are they dying from associated complications of cancer? The point is that epidemiologists, statisticians, actuaries, etc. come up with imperfect ways to quantify these complex phenomena. I'm just arguing that it's somewhat pointless to get in heated arguments about technical definitions of what constitutes mortality from HIV, for example, when almost any disease can be said to kill by an indirect mechanism. And this is also nontrivial in the context of diabetes, for example, where there are interventions that can reduce mortality from associated complications.

      Here's a hint, jackass: those textbooks are based on hundreds of years of real world experience. Get off the real world vs academia cross; it's tremendously arrogant and ill informed.

      I am an academic, so it's unusual for me to be on the other end of that argument. Of course the textbooks are based on real world experience, but they simplify complex clinical phenomena, by necessity.

      Seroconversion is the successful and final production of antibodies through the DA system in response to a foreign antigen. Once your immune system wins, you have seroconverted.

      No, seroconversion is when antibodies are detectable in the serum. Success or failure of the immune response in clearing the pathogen is not relevant. If your textbook says otherwise, it's referring to acute viral infections that can be cleared, not HIV. In the context of HIV, patients frequently have a period of weeks where viral RNA is detectable, but antibodies are not. Interestingly their viral load can be in the millions, and they will often present with "acute retroviral syndrome," which can look a lot like mono, except it's often worse. Then once their immune system kicks in, they "seroconvert" to positive and their viral load drops down, and the long incubation period begins.

      Status epilepticus' mortality rate is near zero.

      I thought you just said with or without treatment. To clarify, I meant "Is status epilepticus 100% fatal without medical intervention?" I was making the same argument about rabies (which can have an incubation period of 7-10 years) and septic shock, which is not the same thing as sepsis, btw. What Bierce was describing was something closer to SIRS, not SIRS + bacteremia + distant organ failure + hypotension refractory to fluid resuscitation, which is closer to the definition of septic shock. The point I was making was that your assertion that "No disease has a 100 percent mortality rate over any time frame" is simply absurd. There are a huge number of diseases that are 100% fatal if not treated, and some that are 100% fatal even if treated.

      HIV is the disease. AIDS is a syndrome, you mook. You can have the disease for ten years before you have the syndrome. And yes, everyone who works with AIDS patients knows AIDS isn't directly deadly, and it's a fundamental part of AIDS care, because AIDS care comes in the form of staving off all the deadly crap. You can't do anything about the AIDS, but you don't actually have to. All you have to do is stave off the related stuff. Understanding that difference in treatment and care is what's allowing people with the disease to stave off the syndrome for progressively longer times.

      Sorry, a typo, but ultimately a minor one. This paragraph you just wrote, however, is incorrect

    27. Re:Small pox? by lukesl · · Score: 1

      Am I saying these things shouldn't be counted? No: certainly not. But it's important for people to be able to discuss with or without related factors, depending on intentional context. Mortality rate is without related factors. Morbidity rate is with external factors. So yes, you're right. Diabetes' mortality rate is much lower than its morbidity rate, due to related considerations such as heart attack, stroke and other descendant complications. It's really just a question of grandparent poster using phrases such as "mortality rate" of whose implications he was unaware.

      Wait a second, I didn't realize you actually don't understand the difference between morbidity and mortality. I assumed you did and didn't read your post closely enough. Morbidity is the rate of complications that don't result in death, while mortality is the rate of deaths. And the more I thought about it, I realized that regardless of whether epidemiology textbooks define mortality rates as involving complications or not, the actual medical literature does this all the time. There are clinical trials that calculate the mortality rates for people with a certain blood pressure level, for example, or the mortality rates of people with end stage renal disease on hemodialysis. Neither of those lead directly to death (well, rarely), but both predispose people to vascular disease.

      >>Okay, there's one documented case of one person surviving rabies once with lots of medical intervention, but I think we can round up.
      It's more like two a week in the United States. You really shouldn't lean on popular myth so hard. Misinformation is pernicious. Try looking it up before you cite it. Being plain, it's just part of being honest, citing only data you've verified. Anything else is lying.


      If you really think I'm just making stuff up, fine. The reference is here. To clarify, rabies can be prevented after exposure through the use of vaccine and immunoglobulin, which is what you're referring to, but that's totally different than treating it once it makes it to the CNS. The guidelines say that you're supposed to vaccinate people within 72 hours of an exposure, but the mean time to vaccination in one study I read put it around 5 days, and I don't think there are any documented cases of anyone dying of rabies as long as they were vaccinated in the first week.

    28. Re:Small pox? by CatPieMan · · Score: 1

      The case-fatality rate varied from 20% to 60% and left most survivors with disfiguring scars. The case-fatality rate in infants was even higher, approaching 80% in London and 98% in Berlin during the late 1800s. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1200696

      Perhaps the NIH is lying? Or does 20-60% mean something other than 20-60% of the people who contracted the disease died from it? Maybe it is written in the 'incorrect' way because its easier to understand. 38% per week doesn't mean much to most people, 'correct' or not.

      Furthur down in same article as above

      During the past years, there has been a growing recognition of Benjamin Jesty (1737-1816) as the first to vaccinate against smallpox. Ok, so someone who died in 1816 tried to vaccinate, disease gone by the late 1970's. That sounds like an effort spanning the 19th and 20th centuries to me.

      As to the AIDS mortality -- it was phrased poorly. But the question remains, those people who died from the opportunistic infections, would have lived longer if not for HIV? If yes, then I believe that HIV is responsible for their death. You obviously feel differently. However, the CDC would agree with me in that HIV/AIDS is a cause of death. See http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/slides/mortality/ where they say on slide 2 "Deaths due to HIV disease".

      I will admit that the life expectancy is longer than I previously believed. Everything I had heard was 10 years from initial infection to AIDS, then about 2 years until death after that. However, if you will turn your attention to slides 2 and 3 of the previous link (which is http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/slides/mortality/ ), you will see that most people who die with HIV/AIDS, die due to HIV/AIDS. I admit, not 100%, but a fairly high percentage. My initial post was more aimed towards the way that Small Pox was eliminated (immunization) and 100% was not really intended to be gospel.

      You appearantly also have some pent-up hatred towards wikipedia which you are bringing out against me. I've cited my sources, all CDC and NIH links (which are as respected as the WHO, even if they are US government run organizations).
      --
      ---You're all I need, When the water runs deep, You're all I need, Now I cry my soul to sleep -- Collective Soul, Needs
    29. Re:Small pox? by stonecypher · · Score: 1

      Perhaps the NIH is lying?
      Nope. Maybe you should read what they said. The 20-60% figure spans the EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. It was 20% towards the end of the century. I wouldn't have called you out on the made up data if you had cited the paper last time; now it makes sense, since the two numbers are A HUNDRED YEARS APART. Me, I wasn't giving numbers from centuries ago.

      Maybe it is written in the 'incorrect' way because its easier to understand.
      No, the way it's written isn't incorrect, because it regards a time frame. You just cut off half of what they said, because you were too lazy to read the thing you googled up. The error isn't in the NIH paper. The error was that you only copied half of the germane text, apparently without even bothering to understand it.

      38% per week doesn't mean much to most people, 'correct' or not.
      Bullshit.

      Ok, so someone who died in 1816 tried to vaccinate, disease gone by the late 1970's. That sounds like an effort spanning the 19th and 20th centuries to me.
      Oh sure, two disconnected events mean that the second one started at the first one. You're hard to talk to when you spend this little time paying attention to the material you're sourcing or whatever people are saying to you; I already explained this.

      But the question remains, those people who died from the opportunistic infections, would have lived longer if not for HIV? If yes, then I believe that HIV is responsible for their death.
      Yep. And that's why it factors into their morbidity rate. (Not their mortality rate, though.)

      You obviously feel differently
      No I don't. You just seem to be 100% unable to understand what I said. Believe it or not, something can be important and still only apply to one phrase but not the other.

      However, the CDC would agree with me in that HIV/AIDS is a cause of death.
      Nobody ever said it wasn't. I said it didn't have a mortality rate. That you can't sort out the difference between those two things after it's been explained to you makes me wonder why I'm bothering to respond at all. If and when you sort out that "deaths due to" != "mortality rate", let me know. They're citing the morbidity rate. THEY ARE DIFFERENT THINGS. Jesus I hate repeating myself.

      I admit, not 100%, but a fairly high percentage.
      And yet it's the morbidity rate you've now found, not the mortality rate, and even so, even now that you've been caught making up data and calling other people wrong on it, even now you can't see anything wrong with what you said.

      I'm starting to suspect you're a compulsive liar. Anyone else would be apologizing right now.

      You appearantly also have some pent-up hatred towards wikipedia which you are bringing out against me.
      Oh, get off the cross. All I said was "please don't cite this untrustworthy source." There's no hatred involved, and none of my reaction to you inventing data and then calling me wrong based on your lie has anything to do with Wikipedia. You didn't get that data there. Quit blaming your being caught in a lie on someone else's non-existant hatred of a website.

      I've cited my sources
      You cited 0 sources in the prior post. That you've started now, after you were caught lying, is unimportant. That your sources don't back you up in any way is just icing on the cake.

      Please go away. I'm not interested in why you think it's my fault that you got caught making shit up, nor am I interested in your complete and damning inability to read.
      --
      StoneCypher is Full of BS
    30. Re:Small pox? by stonecypher · · Score: 1

      Sorry, no. Those people are sero-active. It's called seroconversion because the blood has been converted from contaminated to non-contaminated (the word is old enough that we thought disease in the blood was the only place they were carried; there was no reason to change the word once we woke up to tissue infection.)

      I would love it if you would cite reference when calling me wrong. That'd make it seem a lot less ... absurd.

      --
      StoneCypher is Full of BS
    31. Re:Small pox? by stonecypher · · Score: 1

      I am an academic

      I don't believe you. Academic text is not peppered with so many fallacies. I actually am an academic, and if you were in a department I ran, I'd have you up for tenure review. Part of being an academic means having a basic grasp of logic. You have displayed, in this most recent post alone, ad hominem, ad verecundiam, hasty generalization, fallacy of confabulation (if you're British you'll call that "anecdotal evidence"), unrepresentative sample, unverifiable source, speculative evidence, fishing for data, inductive fallacy, non-commutation, overwhelming exception, unrepresentative sample, the concorde fallacy, several fallacies of presumption, several straw men and a red herring.

      There is just no way you're an academic. Maybe you're a college student. *Maybe*. Or hell, maybe you work at DeVry or the Zsa-Zsa Gabor School of Diesel Mechanics. But, I guarantee you are not tenured, nor are you a full professor. It's funny: programmers on IRC often insist they're software engineers, then get surprised and angry when I ask them what their engineering practice is, because they are so far from engineers that they don't even know it's illegal to call yourself an engineer in America without the certification they've never even heard of.

      Similarly, I bet you have no idea why I think that if you don't have tenure, you're not an academic (or indeed that there are legal requirements for you to call yourself one.) Maybe you should try asking a lawyer, just for shits and giggles. You might find that just calling yourself an academic doesn't make it true.

      Increased life expectancy of HIV+ patients has not come primarily from better treatment of opportunistic infections, as you suggest, but from increasingly sophisticated antiviral therapies targeted against the HIV virus itself. This is an important point.

      This is a reasonable, understandable misapprehension. Almost all of the real work, the difficult work, goes into impeding the development, reproduction and mutation of the virus. However, in 1996 they had to redefine criteria for when someone had gone from systemic to syndromic because the old criteria had become reversible: the original AZT triple cocktail allowed successful enough manipulation of viral load that viral load was no longer an acceptable watermark.

      Yes, all of the important work is against HIV. However, it's important to remember that you need to look at these in the way you do logarithm coefficients and denominators: smaller is bigger. The important bit here is that these are always expressed as ratios (for reasons that are extremely significant statistically.) When the disease sets your life expectancy to 12 years, and the syndrome to four years, and both get moved back by (say) three years, the difference with regards to the syndrome is much bigger. Increasing life expectancy really is a question of ratios, not linear measurements. When you push the syndrome back two years, then syndromic death another two, it is appropriate to say that the bulk of the progress has been made against the syndrome because the ratio of prior to post expectancies is so much larger.

      Incidentally, you'll find that we've actually made a lot more practical headway in the post-syndromic situation; syndrome used to mean that you were dead in a matter of weeks, and now the median is up around four or five years. (If you look it up, you'll find that the literature says syndrome life expectancy is nine months; that's because the overwhelming bulk of AIDS patients are in areas and demographics that have no adequate responses to syndrome, and that includes about two thirds of the sick US population.)

      The germane bit is there still isn't really that much we can do about the disease. Are the cocktails potent? Yes, but they're really just slowing down the progress of the work that becomes important during syndrome, namely the destruction of the immune system (through false amines, globulin res

      --
      StoneCypher is Full of BS
    32. Re:Small pox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Seroactive" appears to be a less common synonym for "seropositive".

  21. Legal ramifications by Stephmtl · · Score: 1

    If this is proven to be true, would anyone who knowingly has sex when 'infectious' be culpable of criminal negligence? if:
    A. you can easily get the treatment to become non-infectious
    and
    B. it's a well known procedure that you would have a reasonable chance of hearing about

    IANAL, but i'd like to know what one might think

    1. Re:Legal ramifications by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      In many places anyone who knowingly has unsafe sex when infectious is guilty of some form of negligence or assault anyway.

  22. enough! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    enough with the "what could possibly go wrong" tags! yes, there is risk involved in everything, and yes, you can always come up with something that can go wrong! i don't need someone to tell me that, i can figure it out myself just fine, thanks.

  23. Re:Its no cure (get it & you're still going to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    going to di... what? die? just so you know, almost no one in the Western world dies of HIV/Aids anymore

  24. By what means are they non-infectious? by r_jensen11 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is it just sexually? What about blood transfusions? What about sharing needles?

    AIDS is spreading rapidly in different parts of the world by different means. In Africa and India/Asia, it's spreading because of unprotected sex. In eastern Europe and Russia, it's being spread predominately from dirty needles used for drugs.

    1. Re:By what means are they non-infectious? by Rudolf · · Score: 1


      Is it just sexually? What about blood transfusions? What about sharing needles?


      Hello, I'm the summary. You can find me at the top of the page. Please read me:

        'An HIV-infected person on antiretroviral therapy with completely suppressed viraemia ("effective ART") is not sexually infectious, i.e. cannot transmit HIV through sexual contact.'"

    2. Re:By what means are they non-infectious? by 4D6963 · · Score: 1

      Is it just sexually? What about blood transfusions? What about sharing needles?

      What about having children? (That's right, it was about time someone had to think of the children!)

      --
      You just got troll'd!
    3. Re:By what means are they non-infectious? by r_jensen11 · · Score: 1
      From other post:

      Hello, I'm the summary. You can find me at the top of the page I saw that, but I was wondering if there would be any effects for transmissions other than sexual ones.

      What about having children? (That's right, it was about time someone had to think of the children!) FTFA:

      They also note that transmission from mother to newborn also depends on the maternal viral load, and can be avoided by taking antiretroviral therapy. This is predominately what got me to wondering about transmissions resulting from things like blood transfusions and dirty needles.
  25. I can hear the spam comming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am just waiting for Goatse Troll to say "Goatse: HIV free for 15... minutes"

  26. Re:Its no cure (get it & you're still going to by maxume · · Score: 1

    It seems worth pointing out that most people who don't get it are also going to die.

    --
    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  27. Re:it's true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're a little bit inbred, aren't you? I mean your grammar is atrocious. "Cut they are cock is and staple their (wow you got that one right, but I'm sure it's by chance!) pussy is shut..." People like you shouldn't be allowed near computers until they reach an IQ of about 80.

  28. Define non-infectious by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    If you mean they do not carry a sufficient load of antigens and viral packets, then perhaps this is the case.

    If you mean they carry such a low number that they are unlikely (below 1 percent) to infect someone through non-invasive sex, then I could see that.

    If you mean the virus is basically in a semi-dormant stage, then sure.

    But that does not mean the risk factor is 0.000000001 percent. It means it's most likely a very small number.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  29. Article Text by repapetilto · · Score: 1

    Since every other post on here seems to be by someone who hasn't read the article... here it is:

    Swiss HIV experts have produced the first-ever consensus statement to say that HIV-positive individuals on effective antiretroviral therapy and without sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are sexually non-infectious. The statement is published in this week's Bulletin of Swiss Medicine (Bulletin des médecins suisses). The statement also discusses the implications for doctors; for HIV-positive people; for HIV prevention; and the legal system.

    The statement, on behalf of the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS was authored by four of Switzerland's foremost HIV experts: Prof Pietro Vernazza, of the Cantonal Hospital in St. Gallen, and President of the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS; Prof Bernard Hirschel from Geneva University Hospital; Dr Enos Bernasconi of the Lugano Regional Hospital; and Dr Markus Flepp, president of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health's Sub-committee on the clincal and therapeutic aspects of HIV / AIDS.

    The statement's headline statement says that "after review of the medical literature and extensive discussion," the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS resolves that, "An HIV-infected person on antiretroviral therapy with completely suppressed viraemia ("effective ART") is not sexually infectious, i.e. cannot transmit HIV through sexual contact."

    It goes on to say that this statement is valid as long as:

    * the person adheres to antiretroviral therapy, the effects of which must be evaluated regularly by the treating physician, and

    * the viral load has been suppressed ( 40 copies/ml) for at least six months, and

    * there are no other sexually transmitted infections.

    The article begins by stating that the Commission "realises that medical and biologic data available today do not permit proof that HIV-infection during effective antiretroviral therapy is impossible, because the non-occurrence of an improbable event cannot be proven. If no transmission events were observed among 100 couples followed for two years, for instance, there might still be some such events if 10,000 couples are followed for ten years. The situation is analogous to 1986, when the statement 'HIV cannot be transmitted by kissing' was publicised. This statement has not been proven, but after 20 years' experience its accuracy appears highly plausible."

    It then states that the evidence for the Commission's current assertion about the relationship between treatment and sexual HIV transmisson is much more informed than what was available in 1986 regarding the transmission of HIV through kissing.

    For example, they note, Quinn and colleagues found that in sero-discordant couples the risk of transmission depended on the viral load of the HIV-positive partner, and refer also to a prospective study of 393 heterosexual sero-discordant couples from Castilla and colleagues found that there were no infections among partners of persons on antiretroviral therapy, compared to a rate of transmission of 8.6% among partners of untreated patients. They also note that transmission from mother to newborn also depends on the maternal viral load, and can be avoided by taking antiretroviral therapy.

    They go on to assert that effective antiretroviral therapy eliminates HIV from genital secretions. They say that HIV RNA, measured in sperm, declines below the limits of detection on antiretroviral therapy, and that HIV RNA is also below the limits of female genital secretions is, as a rule, during effective antiretroviral therapy. "As a rule," they write, "it rises after, not before, an increase in plasma viral load."

    They also assert that although cell-associated viral genomes are present in genital secretions, even on antiretroviral therapy, these are not infectious virions since "HIV-containing cells in sperm lack markers of viral proliferations such as circular LTR-DNA."

    1. Re:Article Text by Rick+Genter · · Score: 1
      From TFA (thanks for posting it):

      The statement, on behalf of the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS was authored by four of Switzerland's foremost HIV experts: Prof Pietro Vernazza, of the Cantonal Hospital in St. Gallen, and President of the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS; Prof Bernard Hirschel from Geneva University Hospital; Dr Enos Bernasconi of the Lugano Regional Hospital; and Dr Markus Flepp, president of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health's Sub-committee on the clincal and therapeutic aspects of HIV / AIDS.

      The statement's headline statement says that "after review of the medical literature and extensive discussion," the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS resolves that, "An HIV-infected person on antiretroviral therapy with completely suppressed viraemia ("effective ART") is not sexually infectious, i.e. cannot transmit HIV through sexual contact."

      It goes on to say that this statement is valid as long as:

                      * the person adheres to antiretroviral therapy, the effects of which must be evaluated regularly by the treating physician, and

                      * the viral load has been suppressed ( 40 copies/ml) for at least six months, and

                      * there are no other sexually transmitted infections.


      I'd like to give Prof. Hirschel, Dr. Bernasconi, and Dr. Flepp a simple test. They have two choices:

      1) The each have to have unprotected intercourse with an HIV-infected person 3 times a week for the next year. The person meets the criteria specified above.
      2) They retract the statement.

      Which do you think they would choose?
      --
      Don't underestimate the power of The Source
    2. Re:Article Text by repapetilto · · Score: 1

      Well first of all they go on to recommend against unprotected sex. Second nobody likes to be forced to have sex with someone else so I think there would be alot of things going on there besides the researchers trusting their results. I mean if i take your logic a little farther the only people allowed to do research that discovers HIV is less infectious than thought would be those who have a sexual relationship with someone who is HIV positive in the first place. Or else how can we trust what they say? Really I don't see where you're coming from. What do you think motivated this press release?

  30. Drug addicts less significant in Switzerland by DrYak · · Score: 2, Informative

    They only talk about sex.
    Because in Switzerland, that's the main mode of transmission by which people may catch AIDS.

    How about drug addicts and dirty needles?
    There have been extensive efforts against dirty needles. Drug addicts can easily have access to "Kits" that contain proper sterile equipment (syringes, spoons, citrate, alcohol to clean the injection site, etc). They can either buy it cheaply from pharmacies or receive it for free from some organisation. Such efforts have drastically reduced the occurrence of syringe sharing and help drop the HIV transmission rates.
    I think TFA concentrates on sexual transmission because dirty needles have really become rarer in Switzerland, and thus play a less significant role in the AIDS transmission compared to before the introduction of these efforts (or compared to other countries where such efforts don't exist).
    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  31. Breaking news! by TurinPT · · Score: 5, Funny

    Scientists come up with a device to make HIV patients non-infections.
    This scientific breakthrough will bring hope to millions of people infected with the virus.
    Sources indicate it will be named 'condom'.

    1. Re:Breaking news! by rjhubs · · Score: 2, Informative

      condoms break.

    2. Re:Breaking news! by madbrain · · Score: 2, Informative

      Why was this moderated troll ? Just because the moderator doesn't have sex often enough to have statistically experienced or witnessed this ? Oh, I forgot this is slashdot.

      Newsflash, condoms do break occasionally. They also slip.
      The below study shows a 2% rate of failure per condom, and 2.7% per person.
      http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8070546

      --
      -- Julien Pierre http://www.madbrain.com/blog
    3. Re:Breaking news! by broken_chaos · · Score: 1

      There's been a lot of bad moderations going on in this discussion... Parent is -not- a troll. Grammatically, they missed a capital letter (oh no!), but their point is perfectly valid, and very important.

      Condoms, for instance, in preventing pregnancy are only about 80% effective (over the course of a year), meaning they break (or leak/etc.) relatively commonly. Probably the chance is about one in a few thousand, but that's -not- odds I really want to stake my life on.

    4. Re:Breaking news! by doktor-hladnjak · · Score: 1

      Ah, but the devil is in the details. While the percentage of couples using condoms as a primary means of contraception (doesn't mean they use them every time even) who get pregnant is around 15% over the course of a year, once you factor out incorrect and sporadic use that number goes down into the low single digits. And that's just for pregnancy, which is not necessarily equivalent to HIV transmission. More info here.

    5. Re:Breaking news! by egrinake · · Score: 1

      Yes, but the chance of contracting HIV from unprotected sex with an infected partner is between 1:1000 and 1:2000, so the chance of a) the condom breaking, b) your partner having HIV, and c) you getting infected, all happening at the same time is pretty remote. Though, given a large enough population, it will of course happen to someone. But then again, people do get struck by lightning too.

  32. Yes... by msauve · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the CDC.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  33. Re:Its no cure (get it & you're still going to by caluml · · Score: 1

    get it & you're still going to die Or don't get it, and you'll still die.
  34. And then starvation by Gazzonyx · · Score: 1

    I saw an article a year or two ago (Wired, IIRC) that postulated that if you solved AIDS worldwide, you'd have just as many deaths from starvation due to overpopulation. If only it were as simple as solving AIDS, which is, in and of itself, an incredibly hard problem...

    --

    If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.

    1. Re:And then starvation by joshv · · Score: 1

      Funny, because most African "AIDS" cases are virtually identical to the diseases previously caused by malaria, malnutrition and lack of access to a clean water supply.

    2. Re:And then starvation by Domo-Sun · · Score: 1

      Which is a convenient way to get more funding for AIDS remediation.

  35. Harmony Korine by ClioCJS · · Score: 1

    Please watch "kids" (1995ish).

    --
    -Clio
    Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
    Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
  36. Re:HIV viraemia? Help me get $50k! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tell that to my brother and friends who died from AIDS, Pollyanna.

    I'm no doctor, but it seems to me the meds are helping a lot of people, more so than the "HIV/AIDS does not exist" crowd. Do you go to dying people and tell them, "It's all made up! You're not really sick!"?

    Do you believe the moon landings were faked, too?

  37. Duesberg Hypothesis by Braxton_the_Covenant · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Here's a heretical thought: Maybe AIDS isn't contagious in these patients because HIV doesn't cause AIDS and never has been the cause of it. If that sounds crazy, maybe you've never explored the literature that points out the puzzling inconsistencies in the theory underlying the multi-billion dollar HIV research and pharma industries.

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6830231400057553023
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3983706668483511310
    http://books.google.ca/books?id=pRWVZJKO0NsC&dq=Peter+H+Duesberg&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=peter+duesberg&sa=X&oi=print&ct=result&cd=1&cad=author-navigational

    1. Re:Duesberg Hypothesis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree... obviously almost no one here took the read the facts, they just keep repeating propaganda.

      Meanwhile people are dying of kidney disease unnecessarily (among other horrible things that are not making the news), while big pharma keeps making billions and pushing its failed drugs into poor 3rd would countries, who are getting loans after loans to get these drugs, when they should be cleaning their water and getting their people proper nutrition.

  38. Already a way to make non-infectious by Lunzo · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's cheap, small, easily mass-produced, easy to use, 100% effective... It's called a CONDOM.

    How I wish the various religious groups and governments would endorse proper sex education and provision of a plentiful supply of condoms, instead of pushing the abstinence only bulls---, which has completely failed.

    1. Re:Already a way to make non-infectious by bigbrownepaul · · Score: 0

      Education is the key and the religious groups are essential in making this work in the developing world and other areas. There is much denial of the problem amongst political figures in africa in particular, so even if there is a drug that can potentially help it will need proper support and funding from the 1st world.
      I hope that this is possible as stopping the spread of the virus in these areas is critical.

      --
      Being Mutual - Working together for a better society
  39. It is a risky statement. by jd · · Score: 2, Interesting
    HIV mutates fast and confusingly. De-activated HIV, for the purpose of creating a vaccine, can - and has - reactivated itself. HIV is not always immediately detectable - many methods use detection of antibodies, so those with a damaged immune system may carry the virus and be considered negative with such tests. This may have happened with a group of women in Africa who appeared to be immune to the virus (they remained negative, despite repeated exposure to the virus) but then some of them started dying from the full-blown form suddenly. None of the usual intermediate stages. My guess is that they still test negative, though, using the test they've been using so far.

    So, even if they are 100% absolutely right for the samples they have, at the time the experiment was conducted, that confidence must fall as you increase the range of HIV viruses and the range of time they have to mutate.

    You must also consider that we're on some Nth generation of anti-virals because AIDS has mutated to develop resistance to all of the others. The second that happens with the current generation is the second the risk goes from near-zero to infinity, and nobody knows for sure when that moment will be. Hence the use of all kinds of toxic substances and anti-virals mixed together, so that immunity from one won't help, so minimizing the risk of mutant strains surviving. But you know that they will, sooner or later, and that when they do, they will spread. It might be tomorrow, but I'm guessing it's actually not too likely this side of 2020.

    Of course, if everyone considers it safe, and takes no precautions, I imagine the probability of such a mutation surviving and spreading will go up. As such, even if it is "safe" for the moment, it can't be safe forever and when it does develop resistance, it may take years - or decades - for the resistant strain to even get detected.

    --
    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)
    1. Re:It is a risky statement. by joshv · · Score: 1


      HIV mutates fast and confusingly. De-activated HIV, for the purpose of creating a vaccine, can - and has - reactivated itself. HIV is not always immediately detectable - many methods use detection of antibodies, so those with a damaged immune system may carry the virus and be considered negative with such tests. This may have happened with a group of women in Africa who appeared to be immune to the virus (they remained negative, despite repeated exposure to the virus) but then some of them started dying from the full-blown form suddenly. None of the usual intermediate stages. My guess is that they still test negative, though, using the test they've been using so far.


      Or maybe rather than using convoluted logic to salvage your theory that all deaths in Africa are caused by AIDS, we could surmise that these prostitutes died of what prostitutes usually die of - drug and alcohol abuse, or other diseases related to their profession.

    2. Re:It is a risky statement. by jd · · Score: 1
      No, there was no question in the researchers' minds as to what had killed them. I'm willing to accept the researcher's statements on their observations, whether or not I agree with the conclusions from those observations. We already know about the mutating properties of the virus from elsewhere, from repeat examples in just about every research lab, so far from my theory being convoluted, I would argue that it is inevitable and inescapable that some strains will be undetectable by the immune system until after the virus has destroyed the bulk of it, by which time it is far too late.

      The researchers' seemed very certain of their conclusions on what had killed the individuals. Not because of expectation, but in defiance of what they had expected. I don't know the specific details, but if you eliminate looking directly for the immune response, you have several options. You can examine the white cell count, you can look at the T-cell count, you can see if there is any immunity to any other known condition the person has, you can try making a serum and then injecting that into laboratory animals, you can look for late-stage symptoms which are not also attributable to any other probable cause, you could place cells on an agar dish, multiply up the virus, then use a microscope of sufficient power. This list should not be considered exhaustive, or remotely close to it.

      If their research was valid in the first place, we must assume their research was valid in the second, as it is very easy to see that they could use alternative, more time-laborious, methods. It may be simpler to assume something convenient, to save the hastle of considering that the "good news" maybe wasn't, but I somehow suspect microbiology doesn't give a damn about the whims of humans eager to return to the free love of the 60s. Conclusion? The researchers' gave conclusions that would have been easily verifiable for the first round and for the second round. Provided the experiments performed were valid (and we'd know by know if they'd been ripped to pieces) and the conclusions matched the data (we'd know if that wasn't true, as well), we're left with the fact that at least one strain of the virus is not guaranteed detectable at an early stage using current methods.

      Or, if you prefer, if you slam the researchers at the end, you have no reason to believe their claims at the start, which means you'd have to believe that the women were infected all along. Either way, Gibson's fantasy from the start of Neuromancer remains fantasy.

      --
      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)
    3. Re:It is a risky statement. by joshv · · Score: 1

      In countries where people have been dying young of so-called AIDS indicator diseases, since well before the AIDS era, I don't think we need to look for a microbiological causes other than the actual disease agents themselves. Additionally with prostitutes we have a population that is heavily exposed to other STIs, and is more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs. Drug and alcohol abuse are independently associated with immune dysfunction and early death.

      So instead of positing some magical virus capable of mutating beyond all of our abilities to detect it, why don't we study the actual diseases that are killing these people and the life style factors that might make them more susceptible to these diseases. In fact, how do we know it's mutated if we can't detect it? If we know it's mutated, that means we've detected something that looks like other HIV viruses, but with some percentage difference in its RNA.

  40. SWISS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They ARE right, and ARE _VERY_VERY_VERY_ careful

    As a clear, un-ambiguous and reasoned information it
    does not get better than this

    MFG

  41. I call BS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dozens of sexual partners? Puh-leez. This is Slashdot!

  42. Well, this is good fu***ng news by BluntChisel · · Score: 0, Troll

    though how it's news for nerds I don't understand.

    1. Re:Well, this is good fu***ng news by DanJ_UK · · Score: 1

      Obviously due to the high percentage of nerds that practice unsafe sex.

      --
      - Dan
  43. All RIGHT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    GIggity Giggity GOO!

  44. This is way old news by caywen · · Score: 1

    In 1987, they discovered that if you force patients to become programmers, the chances of them infecting anyone drops to about 1 in 22 million.

  45. PARENT POSTER IS NOT A TROLL! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I was wondering how many minutes it would take for an idiot to make fun of an epidemic that has killed thousands of people. Agreed. Sadly, many people just don't understand the tragedy of the condition. This horrible ailment is a serious issue indeed. And the epidemic is only getting worse. I, of course, am talking about being born without a sense of humor. Stay strong, parent poster. We will find a cure.
  46. Is that why...? by interactive_civilian · · Score: 1
    Is that why there are Doctors out there in the world (I noticed this a lot in Japan, but have also seen it in Morocco, the UK, and the US) who will prescribe antibiotics for a cold?

    You really don't need to study all of those years and get and MD behind your name to know that this is wrong.

    --
    "Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
    1. Re:Is that why...? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Is that why there are Doctors out there in the world (I noticed this a lot in Japan, but have also seen it in Morocco, the UK, and the US) who will prescribe antibiotics for a cold?
      They do it because people expect it, or will complain if they don't. Also, there's a good chance that if complications set in it leaves them open to a lawsuit - irrespective of whether it would have doen any good anyway.

      Perhaps the best thing would be to give them a prescription for glucogypsum(tm) or something, just to shut them up. I hear it has very good recovery rates and is 100% safe. Maybe that's what they do... it's not as if anyone demanding antibiotics for a viral illness would notice.
      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  47. Umm...anyone want to volunteer to test the theory? by rdean400 · · Score: 1

    Don't all jump at once.

  48. Re:Its no cure (get it & you're still going to by Trogre · · Score: 1

    That's it, I'm going to take a left off Goldney Ave, drive down Clifton Vale for a bit, and tweak your nose for making such a silly comment.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  49. hmmmm. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't you mean that you are looking for a burrito or enchilada? Of course, with your attitude, you are more likely to get a chile relleno, or even a Fresno pepper; it is called hot, but only for texans.

  50. You ARE kidding, right? by NIckGorton · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For every one antibiotic rx I write for an illness that probably doesn't need it (generally because I am a wimp) I have to convince another ten people who are certain that they need antibiotics... that they don't.

    Generally the reason most physicians prescribe inappropriately is because asshats like Mr "I have not had a doctor do, or say anything to me that I did not already know since I was about 10" know better that they absolutely do need antibiotics (when they obviously don't). It takes thirty seconds to write the prescription and sometimes thirty minutes to escape the asshat.

    I actually had a complaint letter written to the CEO of the hospital where I worked a few years back from a parent who brought their child into the ER with what was obviously a viral syndrome. Their letter literally said I brought my child to the ER to get a prescription for antibiotics, not to be told that he didn't need antibiotics. And I get several complaints yearly from irate people who didn't like my answer that they didn't need antibiotics. I've never gotten a complaint when I prescribed them.

    So you can't have it both ways. If you want a doctor who has real clinical acumen, you can't also have him be a prescription vending machine.

    1. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      And this is yet another reason that people don't trust doctors. Instead of seeing a person as a patient, and quite frankly, the single most experienced person with their body, you see an "asshat". You don't want someone who is a partner in keeping themselves healthy. You want someone who does what you tell them. You, someone who thinks that 30 minutes is WAY to long to discuss a persons treatment.

      I have no doubt that if you went into a restaurant, and the waiter told you what you were going to order, you would tell him no, and order what you actually like. Why in the world would you think that someone would take less part in their own health.

      Your hostile arrogance simply reinforces the distrust of doctors. I know that I don't want someone with your level of hostile arrogance cooking my food, and I definitely don't want someone with your level of hostile arrogance deciding important factors in my health.

    2. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gah. Can you at least get away with prescribing obsolete ones so they aren't exposed to something later and develop a serious resistance?

    3. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by LordVader717 · · Score: 1

      I must admit that I have had my issues with medical doctors. But on the other hand, the Hippocratic Oath requires them to do what they think is best. There is a reason why a doctor prescribes certain drugs. It's part of the doctors treatment, not just another form to fill out. This means that a doctor is responsible for the effects of the drugs he prescribes.

    4. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you keep insisting on receiving antibiotics, when anyone in the know can ascertain within a few minutes you don't HAVE a bacterial infection, then yes.
      You are being an ASSHAT.

      If you have a viral infection, prescribing antibiotics is not just pointless, it's actually dangerous given the threat of anti-biotic resistant bacterial strains developing through overuse of antibiotics.

    5. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by MachineShedFred · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And this is yet another reason that people don't trust doctors. Instead of seeing a person as a patient, and quite frankly, the single most experienced person with their body, you see an "asshat".


      I'm afraid that the terms "patient" and "asshat" are not mutually exclusive. Especially in your case.

      You had some bad experiences with some doctors. Congratulations. Does this mean that every doctor everywhere is as outrageously incompetent as you seem to think they are? This DOCTOR just told you why doctors won't just whip out the Rx pad and write up a script for any old thing the patient wants, and you're arguing that he should just prescribe the wrong treatment for what the patient has.

      Did it ever occur to you that you JUST might have been the exception to the rule, and that most people don't know jack shit about what's going on with their body, THUS THE VISIT TO THE DOCTOR?
      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    6. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by NIckGorton · · Score: 1

      Damn you! You figured out the trick! Now we will have to kill you.

    7. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by NIckGorton · · Score: 1
      Several posters already beat me to rebut most of your post, but I do have a few additions.

      You, someone who thinks that 30 minutes is WAY to long to discuss a persons treatment. Actually I would be pleased as punch if I could have a full hour for every single patient. However last night in the ER, in the ten hours I was there 30 people insisted on coming to the ER making an hour per patient impossible without a rent in the time-space continuum. So in order to spend extra time with the people who were truly sick, I had to spend a little less time with the people who were less sick. Unfortunately its people like you who insist that they deserve 30 minutes to wheedle and annoy your doctor into acquiescing to your insistence on antibiotics or other unnecessary treatments who make it so that I don't have enough time to spend on the patients who really need it.

      Of course the argument could be made that there should be more doctors (on staff in a hospital ER, and in the universe, if you believe that everyone not just yourself deserves an hour or more of time for each visit to the doctor.) Which will make things a great deal more expensive. If you only want that for yourself, you also always have that option. In many places in the US, you can find what are referred to as a 'concierge doctors.' These are physicians who provide exactly what you want: excellent access to physicians (always can get same day appointments, available by phone 24/7), extra time at each visit (an hour or more at each visit, even if its for a sore throat), doctors who will spend extra time to research problems and solutions, and even (gasp) house calls.

      However, to use your restaurant analogy: you aren't getting Le Bec Fin for the cost of a McDonalds Super Value Meal. Concierge practices are expensive, often do not take private insurance. So if you want that, you'll have to pay extra.

      Your hostile arrogance simply reinforces the distrust of doctors. I know that I don't want someone with your level of hostile arrogance cooking my food, and I definitely don't want someone with your level of hostile arrogance deciding important factors in my health. Again, I will use your restaurant analogy, since I worked in the food service industry pretty extensively to get through school. Its a shitty analogy the way you use it, but its a good one for making one point to you. Most people don't assume that waitstaff spits in your food. Most waits don't spit in your food. A minority of patrons (generally asshats like yourself) do think their food is spit-enhanced frequently. A miniscule number of times, some psycho wait does probably spit in your food. So the asshat patron minority does several things: 1) they perpetuate the myth that food is often spit-enhanced, 2) they taint every interaction with waitstaff with a defensive and distrustful feeling that poisons the relationship, 3) in doing so, they actually make it more likely that the few psycho waits really will spit in your food, 4) asshats usually don't tip, so they reinforce the 'patron=prick' assumption psycho waits have, thus increasing the spit risk for even normal patrons.

      But fortunately most people really are decent. Most patients, most doctors, most waits, and most patrons. So the majority of interactions don't go the way yours often do. Most people go to a restaurant assuming that the wait will treat them OK. Most people go to doctors assuming that the doctor really will try to help them to the best of his ability. So perhaps you should ask yourself why you so often have bad interactions with physicians (and waits and cops and salespeople, etc.) Perhaps you should consider for just a moment that the common thread that runs through all of your dysfunctional relationships is YOU.
    8. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      You have misread the thread. You should reread it to understand the two positions.

    9. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by Belial6 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Wow. That is a lot of space used for strawman and ad hominim attacks. Try rereading the thread, and maybe you will understand what the conversation was about.

    10. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by NIckGorton · · Score: 1

      Keep in mind that while you are being so diligent over here, there are literally billions of people in China, India and the like who simply take antibiotics for every illness, bacterial or viral. There is a pool of 2 billion people abusing antibiotics, creating resistant strains. The precautions you take within our tiny population have essentially no impact on the bigger picture. And statistically speaking, me voting in an election will have no effect whatsoever on the leadership of my local, state, and federal government. But I still vote. And statistically speaking, if I don't make decisions about my carbon footprint, it will have almost zero effect on the ultimate result of global climate change. But I still drive my 2003 civic hybrid which my partner and I share (my partner also has a motorcycle), limit my meat intake, recycle, live in a small well insulated house (with solar panels.) If everyone acted in the way you suggest we'd be in deeper shit than we already are.

      And occasionally, you get it wrong and fail to prescribe an antibiotic to someone who needs it. So take your diligent practice and shove it. You're not a scientist, you're a procedure-following monkey. Um, scientists are procedure following monkeys. Disregarding things like biohazard precautions, the scientific method itself is a procedure. Its when you start having the hubris to say that you are above the scientific method that you cease to be a good scientist. Its when you have the hubris to say that regardless of the conclusions of evidence based medicine and research into best practices, you know what's best that you cease to be a good doctor. When I make decisions, you are right that I occasionally get it wrong. However, I think I am a much less dangerous practicing to the best of my abilities according to evidence based medicine than if I practiced as you suggest. Not prescribing antibiotics for viral infections decreases the risk of resistance when everyone does it, but also decreases the risk to individual patients of adverse effects (anaphylaxis, stevens johnson syndrome, antibiotic associated enterocolitis, etc.)

      So yes, I am a procedure following monkey. I also follow the ideal of 'think globally, act locally' in both my practice and my personal life. And you bet your ass I am very proud of that.
    11. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      That is a very naive view. There is no way that our system of medicine can possibly monitor doctors effectively enough to enforce the Hippocratic Oath. That makes the oath a non-issue. We also know that unless the doctor kills you, permanently maims you in a way that can be proven to have been to be from the prescription, or the popular media decides to railroad a particular treatment, doctors are not held responsible for the drugs he prescribes.

      The Hippocratic Oath is just not a factor in most medical care.

    12. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by LordVader717 · · Score: 1

      True, but the point still remains that a doctor is responsible for treating a patient, not just a middleman between them and drugs. As such they have to decide when to refuse a patient's request for a drug, no matter how much fuss they make. If a doctor won't discuss your treatment, or you feel he's not giving you correct treatment, go to a better doctor.

    13. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      I would agree that the doctor is should not be a middle man to drugs. My complaint is that most doctors (notice I did not say all) do not treat patients for anything that is not immediatly obviouse. I have stated in this thread what I believe causes this to happen. Notice that I also did not complain if a doctor refuses drugs anywhere in this thread. In fact, I believe that doctors tend to be a bit quick on the drug prescriptions with some symptoms. Unfortunately, the number of doctors that will honestly discuss your treatment with you is not high enough to go around.

      It is also important to recognize that it is also the patient's responsibility for deciding their treatment.

      "If a doctor won't discuss your treatment, or you feel he's not giving you correct treatment, go to a better doctor."

      I have not only done that, but actually moved to a completely different city to get proper health care for my child. Well, the decision was 50% he had allergies in the city we were moving from, and 50% poor medical care.

    14. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by jp10558 · · Score: 1

      I've always wondered, how do you know if someone needs antibiotics? Several times I've been really sick with something like a flu/cold, gone to see a doctor and been prescrived antibiotics. A week later and I'm cured - but would I just have gotten better anyway if I waited?

      I'm one of those people who likes to avoid the doctor and medicines both because I want any bactiera to not be the resistant kind if I really need something, and because it's 50/50 whether the doctors advice is just rest + soup, but I get to pay several hundred dollars for that (and I like to keep my money for more fun stuff).

      --
      Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
    15. Re:You ARE kidding, right? by Shadow99_1 · · Score: 1

      I've had acute sinus infections yearly since high school, I'm ever reluctant to go to the doctor's to get medicine if I absolutely don't need to. But really in my case I've seen the same thing so many damn times I don't need a diagnosis... I need someone to tell me 'you've used X antibiotic before, maybe we should give you Y this time.' or something like that... Wasting both our time just to say 'yep you have a sinus infection' is frankly silly...

      --
      we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
  51. So who wants to... by Crazy+Taco · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So who wants to be the one to test this hypothesis?

    On another note, how can you say for sure if this even works? Usually whenever an AIDS vaccine is tried in humans, it is given to a population of people at high risk of getting HIV(usually gay men). How can you tell if something like this stops people from spreading it, when their partners are interacting with other, infectious people? They are likely to get HIV regardless, if not from the non-infectious person, then from someone else. How do you figure out which partner gave who what?

    --
    Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
    1. Re:So who wants to... by Mikkeles · · Score: 1
      'How do you figure out which partner gave who what?'

      Track the viruses with RFIDs.

      --
      Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
    2. Re:So who wants to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The statement is based off of many studies, so there's no one answer how they test, but generally speaking, they study "serodiscordant" couples, that is, a couple where one partner is HIV+ and the other isn't.

  52. Re:it's true by megaditto · · Score: 1

    Maybe English is his fifth language or something.

    It's rather silly to dismiss an otherwise valid point because of poor grammar.

    --
    Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
  53. OK, this doctor already did by NIckGorton · · Score: 1

    It wasn't as fun as having sex, but I had made the decision to not take post-exposure prophylaxis after a needlestick in an HIV positive patient when I learned his viral load was undetectable. Having taken PEP before (crixivan gave me a kidney stone and I pretty much puked non-stop) I know the adverse effects. However, PEP decreases the chance of transmission significantly in the case of blood or sexual exposure to HIV.... but you have to take it for a month.

    In my case the infinitesimal increase in a miniscule risk that I would contract HIV from a patient with an undetectable viral load because I didn't take PEP was not worth the certain risk that I would feel craptastic for 4 weeks and possibly have another kidney stone.

    And I didn't seroconvert. That was four years ago, when we were only mostly sure.

  54. Re:Its no cure (get it & you're still going to by NIckGorton · · Score: 1

    Its no cure (get it & you're still going to die The question is whether you will die with it instead of from it. There is no cure for diabetes, but if treated properly you can control the disease and live to a ripe old age and die from something else. Similarly, there is no cure for HIV. However we are getting to the point that HIV is becoming like diabetes: depending on your age at diagnosis, treat it appropriately, and you will live to a ripe old age and die from something else.

    Once you take a disease and extend the average time from diagnosis to death past a certain point that is greater than the average life expectancy, it ceases to be a death sentence and becomes a chronic illness. If you contract HIV at age 40, and on average people live 35 years after diagnosis, and your life expectancy is 73 years, HIV becomes like diabetes. Its just a matter of extending that time from diagnosis to death long enough.
  55. But other infections cause HIV viral load to spike by ThinkTwicePostOnce · · Score: 1

    Other infections (which of course rev up the immune system to fight them) cause temporary spikes in HIV viral load. They say that to be non-infectious, there must not be any STI (Sexually transmitted infections) present. But what about infections that aren't sexually transmitted? Their presence will still rev up the immune system, causing the temporary spike in viral load. Different infectious agents cause widely differing amount of HIV spiking, probably depending on which particular branches of the immune system are revved up to fight the particular infectious agent.

    But it seems they're saying that this spiking only happens with STI's, and that infections that don't happen to be transmitted sexually won't cause HIV levels to spike. I applaud the work, and I don't want to rain on anyone's parade here, but I wonder whether there's a hint of wishful thinking that got mixed up in this mostly logical argument.

    Unless they can state that non-sexually transmitted infections don't cause this spiking there's a hole in the argument. (Perhaps there's some crucial work I've missed on the whole HIV "spiking" phenomenon?) Wish I had more answers, but so far I still have more questions.

    --
    Hide all sigs: Click HELP+Prefs (top), VIEWING (last on right), DISABLE SIGS (3rd on left) and SAVE (hidden at bottom).
  56. Re:Its no cure (get it & you're still going to by mandelbr0t · · Score: 1

    I agree. There's no real need to research further. Spread is prevented, we can ease the suffering of those who have it and use propaganda to convince those who are clean that God has smote the wicked. Problem solved.

    --
    "Please describe the scientific nature of the 'whammy'" - Agent Scully
  57. Re:Umm...anyone want to volunteer to test the theo by madbrain · · Score: 1

    A lot of people in mixed HIV status relationships already have.

    --
    -- Julien Pierre http://www.madbrain.com/blog
  58. Pot meet kettle by NIckGorton · · Score: 1

    Really? Evolution has been progrmaming people to kill their mates through disease? Whoa, I've missed a lot in sex ed! Gee, why just sex ed?

    That box of chocolates you were considering getting your honey for V-Day? You want to give him/her diabetes and coronary artery disease?

    Driving over the posted speed limit, using your cell phone while driving, or driving with less than eight good hours sleep last night with your partner in the car? You want to kill him/her in a fiery motor vehicle accident?

    Taking your honey on vacation this year to some exotic locale? Well the extra radiation exposure from the plane flight might cause him/her ultimately to die from cancer. Not to mention the risk of malaria, dengue, etc.

    Perhaps you can't pull the pole out of your puritanical ass long enough to realize that the reason you have singled out sex as the object of your ire has nothing to do with the risk to which you place your partner and everything to do with the tremendous amount of cognitive dissonance rattling around in your uptight little brain.

    However, consider: those millions of years of evolution made us complex thinking animals who defy the black and white reasoning that you seem to believe rules our decision-making. People's choices reflect the sum of multiple factors with varying levels of influence. A mother who gives her child an ice-cream because he's skinned his knee is not a bad person who has no love for her son. Certainly that sort of use of sugary treats as a comfort may ultimately cause him health problems later on. Mom may even know that.... but her baby is crying and she knows what will make him feel better then. So she may make a decision that is not the perfectly best course of action for her child.

    But you weren't talking about an ice cream and a skinned knee, you were talking about faggots having buttsecks. That's different!
    1. Re:Pot meet kettle by sweatyboatman · · Score: 1

      bravo. mod parent up.

      --
      It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
  59. Re:Its no cure (get it & you're still going to by dfghjk · · Score: 1

    No one ever did die of HIV/AIDS. The opportunistic diseases, though, have been a serious problem.

  60. Be careful saying 100%.... by Zebraheaded · · Score: 1

    I hope you aren't working in the sciences, or as a doctor...if so, you should have learned long ago how dangerous "100%" is. If you're going to be informative, at least be completely so...HIV does not have a 100% mortality rate. A few ways to look at this: 1) No one dies from HIV, they die from complication brought about by HIV. or 2) if 1 person dies from say...a car accident after being infected, there's no longer a 100% mortality rate. 3) Latent infections. Some rare people can be infected for very long period without showing significant ill effects. How long? Who knows, it's only been recognized for about 30 years.

  61. Who else read... by llyenn · · Score: 1

    patents? with so much copyright coverage stuff lately I had to reread the headline several times...

  62. There is a good reason to that by aepervius · · Score: 1

    Evolution instilled fucking : a few hundred million years. Evolution instilled logic : a few hundred thousand to maybe 1 or 2 million. Modern human : a few ten thousand ? One hundred thousand ? So.... You really freaking think something as basic and instinctual will be overrided by a recent development ? Please demonstrate it. All I know is demonstrable is that the most basic emotion (fear etc...) and our basic instinct relatively easily override our logic thinking. Not the other way around. Last I heard sex is also part of this, even if some people refuse adamantly to see it that way.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  63. Poor analogy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Instead of seeing a person as a patient, and quite frankly, the single most experienced person with their body, you see an "asshat".

    False dichotomy. Patients can be asshats. If you are working at a McDonald's and some jerk keeps on demanding you serve him a Whopper is he or is he not an asshat? Is it worth arguing about for 30 minutes?

    You, someone who thinks that 30 minutes is WAY to long to discuss a persons treatment.

    I'm not a doctor and I think 30 minutes is WAY to long to convince someone they do not need antibiotics when you are not going to give them antibiotics anyway and there are others in need.

    I have no doubt that if you went into a restaurant, and the waiter told you what you were going to order, you would tell him no, and order what you actually like. Why in the world would you think that someone would take less part in their own health.

    A bartender would have been a much better analogy. If you want to a restaurant and were obviously blitzed out of your mind, you might demand to be served, but the bartender will probably tell you no. You'll eventually leave or be thrown out and try to get your drink on elsewhere.

    Likewise, if you go to a doctor for antibiotics and his professional opinion is that you don't need them, then leave. Get a second opinion if you think he's a moron.

    1. Re:Poor analogy by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      1) Go to McDonalds
      2) Ask for a Whopper.
      3) Nag them until they call the Big Mac a whopper.
      4) Tip off Burger King about trademark infringement and any libel from the staff.
      5) Split the lawsuit proceeds.

      Important: DO NOT eat the 'whopper'.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  64. Yes but does it work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    with the gpl? Maybe we can finally stop this viral license once for all.

  65. Revised headline... by Cervantes · · Score: 1

    "Experts find way to make sexually active HIV folks non-infectious."

    Today, tens of thousands of hopeful HIV men were gathered in a room as experts promised they had figured out a way to make them all non-infectious.

    Once the men were inside, they locked the doors and proceeded to castrate them all.

    Poor bastards.

    I'm Tom Tucker, with Channel 9 news.

    --
    If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
  66. No, absolutely incorrect by Cougem · · Score: 1

    No, this is absolutely NOT the case, and shows a complete misunderstanding of the story.

    If we exclude the 3rd world for the moment, 99% of HIV transmission in the West is between people who don't know they are infected. How the hell is this meant to prevent that? Highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) is a huge pill burden, and is usually only given to people currently when their CD4 cell counts drop below a certain threshold anyway, but even if that does change, they still need to be diagnosed. Most people get diagnosed because they're showing symptoms, and by then it's too late - if they're sexually active they may well have already passed it on. At this stage they will be told not to have sex, and 99% of normal people will listen, but the damage is done. Even if they become uninfective, so what? Nothing's changed.

    If we include the 3rd world in on it then we also have the problems of drug costs, which you glossed over, but that's really not the problem here.

    The only big development I can see MAYBE is for pregnant mothers, and a reduction in HIV transmission through needle-stick injuries, and the fact that it inherently shows development in HAART, which is great.

    HAART isn't easy by the way. Whilst non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor-based therapies are easy enough, and have few side effects, resistance develops in most patients, who then have to progress onto things like protease-inhbitors, which have problems like greatly increasing cholesterol (and hence probably vascular disease), huge pill burdens, metabolic problems, and such.

  67. OT : your sig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't you mean 0xC?

  68. And that my friends... by RudeIota · · Score: 1
    ... was a brutal (but informative) lesson in pedantry.

    "Get off the soapbox. You're full of crap." - stonecypher
    It's fantastic that you cleared everything up... but regrettable you couldn't do so without showing so much discontented bitterness.
    --
    Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
    1. Re:And that my friends... by stonecypher · · Score: 1

      It's fantastic that you cleared everything up... but regrettable you couldn't do so without showing so much discontented bitterness.
      I live by an extended, metaphoric interpretation of the whorf sapir hypothesis. The whorf sapir hypothesis suggests that the terms in which one is able to speak are determined by the languages available to the mind for framing thought, that thought is actually a direct function of language expression. My uninformed position likens this to structured programming: it gets a hell of a lot closer to the nature of things when you stop looking at just the imperative concerns, and start folding in things like actionable concerns (functional programming,) contextually inbuilt data (object orientation and declarative programming) and range exclusion inferential analysis (backtracking search a la prolog.)

      It's relatively easy for me to say that I believe that misuse of language, and its concommitant blurring of expressive ability, makes people stupider according to the whorf sapir hypothesis; that's relatively easy to understand, whether or not one agrees with me. However, I believe that information poisoning has exactly the same effect, in a broader sense, since information poisoning carries over to other contexts. In my mind, I am standing here, defending your brain. It's not bitterness - it's vengeance.

      And I don't know why you think it's discontented. I quite enjoy red barroning my way around the cerebellar skies.
      --
      StoneCypher is Full of BS
    2. Re:And that my friends... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have to second the notion that you taint your informative posts with your elitist pedantry. Try getting down off your high horse next time. You will find that if you do so people will be far more receptive to you.

      Really. You aren't impressing anyone with your pedantic and rude tone.

    3. Re:And that my friends... by dreamchaser · · Score: 1

      And I don't know why you think it's discontented. I quite enjoy red barroning my way around the cerebellar skies.

      If you are going to be pedantic, at least do it properly. The word you were probably looking for was 'cerebral', unless you do all of your thinking in your cerebellum as opposed to your cortex.

      I'm sure most people read that and said 'wow he sounds so smart', though. That was your intent after all.

  69. Sure it will make AIDS non infectious ;) by jozmala · · Score: 1

    Who is willing to relay their lifes on it?
    I mean, that who non-HIV positive is willing to have sex with a HIV positive using the drug?

    Oh wait, never mind this is slashdot.

    --
    ©God :Copyright is exclusive right for creator to determine the use of his creation.
  70. Just a few additions by Smordnys+s'regrepsA · · Score: 1

    It isn't so much random-druggie-stabbers that the nurses have to worry about, but their own negligence. If they aren't following proper procedure they can cause a Needle Stick Injury (poking themselves or others with a used sharp).

    If you look at most hospital regulations, the drugs that they receive are normal antivirals. HIV is - of course - a virus, so antivirals are a common treatment, but that does not necessarily make it an HIV only medicine. They are not "only available to members of certain professions who have been exposed accidentally," they are available to anyone with a prescription and good insurance. They are amazingly expensive, and make you wish you were dead (intense pain, bad side effects).

    As for transmission rate of HIV from needle stick injuries: 3 in 1000, for standard gage needles - that's without immediate antiviral treatment. Mostly likely your patient doesn't have HIV/AIDS, so your chances are quite a bit better than that 99.7% chance of staying clean.
    *There is a major chance of contracting Hep B from the injury (up to 40% transmission rate for standard gage needles), but only if you were stupid enough to pass on your Hepatitis vaccine.

    --
    Just -1, Troll talking to another.
  71. This is way old science and WRONG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is incorrect

    The swiss (and Europe) is behind in HIV medicine.
    The RNA present even when on MEDS is known to be infectious now.

    Do not let this alter any safe behaviour !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  72. Antiretrovirals do not cure AIDS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Take into account that all those medicines aren't meant to treat AIDS (immunodeficiency) but to get rid of HIV. Those medicines will cause immunodeficiency as a side effect, even if testing positive on HIV wouldn't mean developing AIDS for sure.

  73. What evolution wants us to do...? by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

    The man who pounds another man's face to pulp is decried as an animal and inhuman. In nature, animals of the same species regularly rip each other to shreds.

    The man who pounds a child to death with a rock is decried as an animal and inhuman. In nature, a bear will bite and batter a cub to death in order to make a female receptive to mate.

    The man who forces sex unwillingly upon a woman is decried as an animal and inhuman. In nature, young bucks will stalk does -- often in gangs of three or four -- force them to the ground, then engage in non-consensual copulation.

    The man who has intercourse with a 15-year-old girl is decried as an animal and inhuman. In nature, females are regularly taken as sexual partners by significantly older males as soon as they start ovulating.

    Yet when it comes to simple sex and the question of abstinence, we stand up and cry "we're just animals! Human animals!" Well, sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Society demands that we set limits on animal behaviour and use our higher cognitive skills to control ourselves.

    Now I'm not going to stick up for abstinence or free-love or anything in between, but the argument "of course we're going to have sex -- we're animals" shows an extreme lack of maturity and leads to the philosophy that we exist purely to feed the id.

    So please people, exercise some self-control. But remember that self-control does not necessarily mean "not having sex" -- "choosing to have sex" is a form of self-control too. It's doing it because "you and me baby ain't nothin but mammals" that isn't.

    Choose, be responsible for your actions and live with the consequences. Be human, not animal. Peace out!

    HAL.

    --
    Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
  74. 'Wild Strain' vs 'Individual culture' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One facet of the infection and virus suppression cycle that this article fails to mention is the concept of the wild strain. As the virus is suppressed in a host by anti-retroviral therapy over time, the remaining active copies of the virus in the host will mutate to survive. In general the trade-offs made by the virus for local survivability make it less virulent.

    It seems likely that this is partial cause for the lower (or stopped) rates of infection under a patient who is responding well to treatment.

  75. HIV 100% mortality by jimbolauski · · Score: 1

    I'm sure Magic Johnson would disagree, he has had HIV for nearly 20 years.

    --
    Knowledge = Power
    P= W/t
    t=Money
    Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
  76. Alcohol... Seriously by Albinoman · · Score: 1

    I will bet almost everyone you know has had some level of intimacy where alcohol was involved. Almost every guy that I've got to know enough to know how they starting seeing their girlfriend/wife, did it with a few beers in them. Show me anyone who has had numerous relationships, and I will show you someone who likes to drink.

  77. Bathhouse party at 8pm!!! by elrous0 · · Score: 1

    Finally a chance to attempt my dream: the "Bareback Dutch Congo Line"

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  78. HIV doesn't cause AIDS. by feld · · Score: 1
  79. Hell, everybody dies... by crovira · · Score: 1

    But you won't be taking them witn you using AIDS.

    Bring some other means to the party.

    --
    MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
  80. Anyone can claim anything about HIV. by qwan · · Score: 1

    Yes anyone can claim anything about HIV, if you watched the documentary "The other Side of AIDS". Google it up. In fact that has what Robert Gallo been doing since he told us that HIV caused AIDS. But to tell you the truth after watching the documentary The other side of Aids, I am still not questioning the "theory" that HIV causes AIDS. One reason is because this documentary is not conclusive and that makes it so wonderful. It is not like those Conspiracy theory documentaries that you see and then they tell you to believe them. It makes you think. I am not an expert to question if HIV causes AIDS, but I have enough of common sense and logic to question if an ELISE test or a WESTERN BLOT test(and 30 other approved test kits) which do not detect the HIV Virus at all can be used to determine if a Person is HIV+. Yes I(and a friend) did a lot of research after watching the documentary and we visited a 5 laboratories and spoke to many pathologists and my friend even took an HIV test, and guess what, none of the test detect HIV virus. To make it clear, lets take a malaria test, the malaria test actually detects Vivax or Falciferum(pardon the typos) and even gives a count of how much pathogen is in the blood. But none of the 30 test kits give a count of even detect the HIVirus. All these tests are if-you-get-this-that-means-you-have-the-virus-tests. In fact on many websites selling the ELISA and Western Blot test kits they have a very clear warning saying "This kit does not detect the HIV". Now that was shocking Even though there are group of well known scientists out there who question the accuracy of these tests, people believe that a combination of ELISA and western Blot tests are accurate. I have seen two cases where a T.B. patient and a rare disease(I don't remember the name but he told me that it is a rare disease related to the Immune system) where they were HIV+. Both of them cousins who had the same relatives, one a pathologist and other a doctor. The T.B. patient was the first case. Since the pathologist knows how inaccurate HIV tests are and just because it was his relative recommended that he take a T.B. test and if it was positive(T.B.) then he should cure it and then only take an HIV test again. The doctor(their relative too) also suggested this. Well after a year and half he took the HIV test and it came negative. He took around 5 Different types of HIV tests after that and still was negative. The sad part is that most pathologists and doctors like them know that it is inaccurate but will not "come out in the open". Only their relatives and close friends are saved. They don't speak about it because of the "scorn factor"(which I am going to get over her too :-)) Well so coming to the point. This means that there are many false HIV positives out there. We don't even know if there are less dangerous germs that will cause the similar antibody responses in a human being. Like maybe waterborne germs. This could explain why India and Africa have HIV+ in large numbers even though they are not having as much sex as developed nations. Some contribute it to condoms and other things, but people actually living there know what is the truth. These people could be drinking contaminated water and food and that is why they are roaming around with high antibody counts as their body has to continuously fight against a constant "invasion" of germs due the unhygienic living conditions. I remember a case of a British guy who was diagnosed HIV+ and he took all the possible test to confirm it and then after 6 months was HIV-. No one can explain why, well I think they have to look at the other side. So that is why many quacks and many ayurvedic healers have "cured" HIV+ patients. Well the truth is they never cured anything maybe Tulsi and garlic are natural germ killers and that would have reduced their anti-body count. So in this case I feel all these people are not HIV+ at all. That is the reason they are not spreading it. It is just these inaccurate test that are "declaring" them as HIV+. These scientists migh

    1. Re:Anyone can claim anything about HIV. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wall of text hits you for 10,400. You die.

  81. Wonderdrug by dj245 · · Score: 1

    What we need is a new wonderdrug. Its the world's most powerful antibiotic. It cures the flu and the common cold. It even cures headaches! And best of all it only costs $15 retail for a 30 day supply. Its called Placebofen and side effects may include nausea, upset stomach, sexual side effects, increased gambling habits, drymouth, and dizziness.

    --
    Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
  82. Re:AIDS free world, no way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It effectively means nothing. Do you really think that the same people who contracted Aids by un-safe sex are going to take more care when it concerns other people's health ?
    Not a chance ...

  83. New Homosexual Disease Now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


    People still need to curb bad sex habits. A person couldn't drink from a gutter expecting not to get sick, and a person can't go to a bathhouse and have anal sex ( putting penis in a sewer ) with many strangers and not expect they will breed disease. Homosexuality breeds diseases and saying AIDS carriers can be made safe for sex
    only hastens AIDS and the diseases to come around as they are.

    "S.F. gay community an epicenter for new strain of virulent staph"

    (01-14) 14:11 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- A new variety of staph bacteria, highly resistant to antibiotics and possibly transmitted by sexual contact, is spreading among gay men in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles, researchers reported Monday.

    The study released online by the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found the highest concentrations of infection by the drug-resistant bug in and around San Francisco's Castro district and among patients who visit health clinics that treat HIV infections in gay men in San Francisco and Boston.

    The culprit is a form of MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a bug that was once confined to hospitalized patients but, since the late 1990s, has been circulating outside medical settings, afflicting anyone from injection-drug users to elementary school students. A strain called USA300 has been a leading cause of MRSA infection in this decade, and an exceptionally drug-resistant variant of it is now on the loose, researchers say.

    The study estimated that 1 in 588 residents living within the Castro neighborhood 94114 ZIP code area is infected with that variant, which is resistant to six types of commonly used antibiotics. The risk of contracting this difficult-to-treat bug is 13 times greater for gay men than for the rest of the city's population, researchers found.

    "We probably had it here first, and now it is spreading elsewhere," said Binh An Diep, a researcher at San Francisco General Hospital and lead author of the report. "This is a national problem, and San Francisco is at the epicenter."

    The germ typically causes boils and other skin and soft-tissue infections and, despite its resistance to some drugs, is still treatable by surgical drainage and several classes of antibiotics. What is unusual in this case is the high percentage of infections - up to 40 percent - occurring in the buttocks and genitalia.

    Although researchers have stopped short of declaring this form of staph a sexually transmitted disease, the infections are found where skin-to-skin contact occurs during sexual activity.

    Most of the infections are limited to the skin surface, but the bacteria can invade deeper tissues or disseminate through the bloodstream. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, various forms of MRSA are causing 95,000 of these more costly and potentially life-threatening infections - and 19,000 deaths - annually in the United States.

    Until last year, staph infections had never been linked to sexual activity. Early last year, New York City physicians traced three instances of staph infection apparently spread by sexual contact. Their report was published in February in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

    A month later, doctors from the Albany Medical Center in New York reported in the Journal of Urology three cases of multi-drug-resistant staph in the groins of three patients - one of whom developed a form of rapid-tissue destruction popularly known as "flesh-eating bacteria" disease. The patients recovered after treatments with surgery and antibiotics.

    San Francisco General Hospital physicians have been battling an aggressive strain of MRSA, called USA300, since 2001. The most recent study estimates that this strain alone is infecting about 2,000 city residents a year.

    But the latest problem is being caused by a new variant of USA300 that was first detected in a San Francisco patient in 2003. Among the six antibiotics it is resistant to are three that are normally considered for treatment of

  84. why you should worry about doctors by big_paul76 · · Score: 1

    If you're looking for a reason to not trust doctors, try this one on for size - when's the last time you heard of a doctor being fired? If you're like me, that was oh, back in _never_.

    It's like that joke about, what do you call a guy who finishes last in his class at med school? Doctor.

    One might suggest that this has to do with the very competitive nature of med school admission and med school itself being so demanding that duds just don't make it through. But all you need to do is look at the case of Dr. Charles Smith in Ontario up here in in Canuckistan. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr_Charles_Smith)

    I don't know of any other field where you never, ever, hear about someone being fired. Any profession will likely have a non-zero number of incompetent individuals (for a variety of reasons) but for doctors, it seems they just keep on practicing no matter what.

    --
    The plural form of "anecdote" is "anecdotes", not "evidence".
  85. Re:Small pox? try a history lesson by big_paul76 · · Score: 1

    Just like drug companies had no interest in eliminating small pox? There are plenty of diseases to go around, and more of them turn up all the time.


    Yeah, you're absolutely right. It was GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer that lead the charge to eradicate smallpox in India, while the WHO and the UN and other governments didn't care.

    Anyway, as I come back from sarcasm land, you seriously don't think that drug companies played any significant role in the eradication of smallpox, do you? It was basically entirely a WHO project. Drug companies, like most in the west, didn't and still don't give a damn about people in the 3rd world dying.

    --
    The plural form of "anecdote" is "anecdotes", not "evidence".