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Nanoparticle Completely Eradicates Hepatitis C Virus
Diggester writes "While Americans worry every year about getting a flu shot or preventing HIV/AIDS, the deadlier silent killer is actually Hepatitis C, killing over 15,000 people yearly in the U.S. since 2007 — and the numbers continue to increase as the carriers increase in age. While there is no vaccine, there is hope in nanoparticle technology. The breakthrough came from a group of researchers at the University of Florida, creating a 'nanozyme' that eliminates the Hep C 100% of the time; before now, the six-month treatment would only work about half the time. The particles are coated with two biological agents, the identifier and the destroyer; the identifier recognizes the virus and sends the destroyer off to eliminate the mRNA which allows Hep C to replicate." Reader Joiseybill adds a link to coverage in the IEEE Spectrum, and points out that the 100 percent success rate, while encouraging, is so far only in the lab.
Well, there are more than a hundred discoveries like these that demonstrated effectiveness of curing the uncurables in the past decade. Of those which went through the testing in man, well, maybe 2 or 3...
Back then, avastin, glivec and so on were expected to be magical cures for cancers.. now they exist only as expensive life-prolonging (with or without quality) therapy and only for those who are rich.
However a 97% effective life-long treatment will be "safe" and approved.
Reduce the dosage until its only 97% effective, then rinse -n- repeat every 6 months or whatever as the virus regains a foothold.
Its a recipe for developing treatment resistance, but that just means more R+D profit, so...
Remember homeopathic stuff doesn't work. At some dilution the treatment effectiveness will drop from 100% to 97%.
Also you can mix stuff in as a "manufacturing byproduct" if necessary to encourage long term treatment WRT the byproducts. Maybe lead or mercury resulting in semi-permanent long term IV EDTA therapy.
An alternative is to engage the finance department with a fairly trivial question, "Assume a monthly symptomatic treatment income of $500/month is obtainable... what would it cost to purchase a lifetime annuity yielding $500/month? Oh, $X you say? Well we can price the one time cure at $X*1.1 and it'll be all good"
That industry might be corrupt and evil. But they're (unfortunately) not stupid. We're not dealing with real estate agents or used car salesmen here.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
"While Americans worry every year about getting a flu shot or preventing HIV/AIDS, the deadlier silent killer is actually Hepatitis C, killing over 15,000 ..."
The flu kills each year an average number of 25000-36000 people in the US, depending on the statistics.
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/us_flu-related_deaths.htm
the flu kills more then terrorist, yet we spend more money defending against terrorist.
wtf?
Be seeing you...
Excuse me, but not all needle users are junkies. Tainted blood supplies in the early 70's gave it to me. I hope this "cure" is gentler than Interon+ribaviron.
What a cunt. They're human beings.
You think people who take drugs don't deserve to live? Fine. Go and live in a world without all the music, books and films created by drug users. No more Rolling Stones for you. No more Burroughs. No more Blake or Shelley. No Hunter S Thompson. No Carl Sagan. None of the beauty and insights and technical leaps forward that people who take drugs have given the world.
In fact, no more computers for you. Piss off.