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Two More HIV Patients Now Virus-Free Thanks To Bone Marrow Transplant
Diggester tips this quote from NBC News:
"Two men unlucky enough to get both HIV and cancer have been seemingly cleared of the virus, raising hope that science may yet find a way to cure the infection that causes AIDS, 30 years into the epidemic. The researchers are cautious in declaring the two men cured, but more than two years after receiving bone marrow transplants, HIV can't be detected anywhere in their bodies. These two new cases are reminiscent of the so-called 'Berlin patient,' the only person known to have been cured of infection from the human immunodeficiency virus."
they had HIV such a thing...
I bet you're cheeks are absolute garbage. Turn to dust and die now!
In other news, a representative from Chick-Fil-A has stated that the company does not support bone marrow transplants.
I do you a big favor, and later you do me some favors, deal?
Don't they have to take stuff to immunosuppress for the rest of their life with the bone marrow transplant? Trade one immunodeficiency for another?
There is not test or proof that they are 100% virus free. The test can only show that there is a high STATISTICAL probability that they MIGHT be virus free.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Their HIV Positive!
There is not test or proof that they are 100% virus free. The test can only show that there is a high STATISTICAL probability that they MIGHT be virus free.
It reminds of the story about three professors walking down a country lane in Scotland. They see a black cow. The astrophysicist immediately declares, "All the cows in Scotland are black!". The professor of statistics interjects, "You are generalizing too much. All you can say is, the statistical probability of finding a black cow in Scotland is above zero. That is all."
The professor of mathematics looks at them and says, "That is also a generalization, my friend. All we can say now is, this side of that cow is black".
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I can see already by the downmods that this thread is going to be regarded as very politically incorrect on Slashdot. Any statement criticizing the holy Chick-Fil-A will offend a lot of delicate readers with mod points.
Just how prevalent is this genetic mutation? IANAD, but assuming there must also be a very close match as with other transplants, will this help a few or many?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Just goes to show, when you have a virus you can't get rid of, reboot and re-install.
Where's the guy who's going to claim that there's no real scientific evidence to prove that HIV is related to AIDS?
The first humans cured of the HIV virus, and they get the reward of taking immunosuppressive medications, possibly for the rest of their life. This is the medical equivalent of napalming the village in order to save it...
Light a fire for a man and he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
Usually, as far as I know, a bone marrow transplant occurs after the patients immune system is erased by radiation. Since HIV does its thing by controlling the victims immune system it stand to follow that the HIV virus would take a severe beating if not an out and out death sentence for HIV virus.
The catch is that this is a very high risk procedure and expensive and painful to the donor as well. If we could clone some bone marrow cells from a patient know to be HIV immune or resistant and then install them in the AIDS patients it might be the answer although expense and risk will remain high. For patients in poorer nations this would not be available at all.
I have a biochem phd friend who told me at least a yr ago that they'd isolated the gene that provides the hiv resistance & that it should be possible in theory to extract marrow from an infected patient, splice in the magic gene, grow & transplant new marrow & get same result as this. the problem would be that it would be cost-prohibitive to scale (since it would be individualized). at lunch today one of my DBAs told me he'd heard about this on npr this morning (2 patients declared "cured") so I assumed this was what they'd done (& told them what friend had told me last yr). interestingly it then occurred to me that you should be able to do the same thing w/a transplant from a resistant donor which ended up being what actually happened...
This sounds hugely expensive. I hope the taxpayer isn't footing the bill.
IF I live a risky lifestyle I should have to live with the consequences. It's a free society and you shouldn't be prohibited from taking risks. But you should also be responsible for the results of treating your body without respect.
Didn't they already do this with Magic Johnson for exactly $200,000??
You can't even call the Corporate Office and get a person on Sunday. But anyway i think August 1 will be "interesting" for CFA.
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I know it's heresy to say so, but HIV is only junk DNA that the immune system didn't clean out. If the bone marrow transplant made their immune systems healthy again, it means it they wouldn't have junk DNA floating around their bloodstreams because it was able to clean it out. Of course, that shoots holes in the theory that HIV "causes" AIDS and throws out 20+ years of HIV research, but maybe researchers will get on the right path to finding a cure.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=E44431DB-E7F2-99DF-3E691F52A173BA33
The print article was interesting. I didn't know there were a small number of people with HIV that can successfully contain the virus and never get AIDS, without any kind of treatment or drugs at all.
Lots of people don't realize anyone can be a bone marrow donor.. Be the Match runs a large registry. I clicked a few buttons on the website, and 2 weeks later, had a cheekswab in the mail. Probably simpler than registering to be a donor on my Drivers License, because I didn't have to wait at the DMV :)
This is somewhat off-topic, since it doesn't have to do with the treatment, or treatment for aids, but Bone Marrow transplants are needed for lots of cancers too.
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
No way. Circumcision and not using condoms is the way to be HIV free. I heard a priest say so.
What kind of bone marrow they are looking at, does this mean I kind sell my bone marrow to the highest bidder? Or does it need a specific kind of bone marrow or patient?
These two new cases are reminiscent of the so-called 'Berlin patient,' the only person known to have been cured of infection from the human immunodeficiency virus.
There is some evidence to suggest "Berlin Patient" Timothy Ray Brown may not actually be cured of HIV. They just don't know for sure.
In other news, millions of smokers were unlucky enough to get lung cancer. Film at eleven.
Most BMT (or more specifically) PBSCs (peripheral blood stem cells transplants) generally use both Chemo (Poison) and radiation.
The fun part is the nurse who gives you the Chemo. She takes some SERIOUS precautions when handling that drug.
"Sincerely, Repressed Gay"
I have as much right not to be offended
No, you have no right not to be offended. Where do you think you get that "right"? Who has ever had that "right"?
You sound like one of those hypersensitive delicate flowers who prance around, all swishy-swashy, getting all butthurt by anything that doesn't go exactly how you want it to.
You are the very definition of a hysterical, politically correct whiner.
Hey, you forgot to click "Post Anonymously" on your second post, but you did on your first post. Now everyone knows that TheGoodNamesWereGone (1844118) is the one with a major hard-on for the Butt Boys.
Obviously this is far from a mass cure. Even if it is develops into a technique that can be widely applied, for low cost - there will be plenty who can't afford it (because pharmaceutical companies, when it comes down to it, care about shareholders not sick people) and there will be plenty who don't know they are infected, and continue to infect others. If any treatment requires your 'good' cells to overwhelm the cells with HIV DNA in them, its going to take a long time. This is not a shot-in-the-arm treatment.
It's not very covered here but one of the side effects of HIV is cancer. When it's eating your nummy nummy T-cells sometimes it messes up and gives you cancer. That side-effect cancer is what they are treating here, and are killing two birds with one stone by using CCR5 Delta-32 bonemarrow.
Of which we've been fed hundreds of similar stories about HIV/AIDS over the decades.
1> You'll forget all about it in a day or so... 2> It won't change anything about the current theory on HIV/AIDS... 3> You'll come away from this feeling like everything's going to be OK, while still believing everything about HIV/AIDS you've been told by "the authorities", who constantly lie about HIV/AIDS stats, your risk of infection with "HIV", and your chances of developing "AIDS"...
Back in the early 90's Oprah promised us that half the heterosexual population in the US would have AIDS. Where's the US AIDS "epidemic" ?
this great man cure my hiv/aids with is herbal remedy drugs called INDI-DRUGS... contact him to cure your own too via: indianspell@yahoo.com