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Can A New HIV Drug Kill The Virus That Causes AIDS? (scmp.com)
"A team led by scientists from the University of Hong Kong has developed a new antibody drug that will not only protect people from contracting HIV but also serve as a long-acting treatment for the virus, unlike current medication that must be taken daily." Slashdot reader hackingbear shared this article from the South China Morning Post:
There will need to be a further battery of tests before the drug, named "BiIA-SG", can be part of the global battle against the virus, which causes Aids. The research team has so far only tested the drug on mice but is now looking to experiment on larger animals such as monkeys, before conducting clinical trials on humans. Still, Professor Chen Zhiwei, the team leader and director of HKU's Aids Institute, stressed the scientific discovery had yielded "one of the most potent and effective antibody drugs". This is because the study showed that mice given the drug before being infected with HIV were protected from the virus for about a week.
In addition, the experiments, which also involved experts from mainland medical and research institutions, found that when mice were infected with HIV before being treated, 42 per cent had an "undetectable level" of the virus for at least four weeks after one injection of antibodies... The tests found that the drug was effective against 124 strains of HIV, including those that are commonly found in infected people from Hong Kong and mainland China.
In addition, the experiments, which also involved experts from mainland medical and research institutions, found that when mice were infected with HIV before being treated, 42 per cent had an "undetectable level" of the virus for at least four weeks after one injection of antibodies... The tests found that the drug was effective against 124 strains of HIV, including those that are commonly found in infected people from Hong Kong and mainland China.
Perhaps we should wait for a publication in a good science jounnal, not a press release to the local cal newspaper...
They don't have to ask, the paper shows that it does kill the AIDS virus. The only real question is whether it kills it efficiently enough to be a viable treatment..
So the answer is not always 'no' and your knee-jerk reaction just makes you look like an idiot. If you're trying for karma, you should at least reference Betteridge, but that doesn't make you any more right. it just baits the mods who like to think they can reduce the world to simplistic memes into modding you up.
Most people with AIDS doesn't fuck men in the ass.
Even if this drug doesn't work in humans, HIV will eventually be eradicated with currently existing medicine. Once the medicine that HIV patients take becomes cheap enough to deploy around the world, by keeping their viral load levels to an undetectable level, they will no longer transmit the virus to other people even if they are having unprotected sex. If everyone in the world with HIV is medicated, they won't spread it to anybody and eventually the last remaining carriers of the virus will die from natural causes. Long-acting injections in the form of depo shots are already available for patients with poor drug compliance issues, too.
Unfortunately, due to corporate greed a lot of these medications still cost over $1000 per month and the day where everyone regardless of income or background gets access to HIV medication is probably hundreds of years away, unless something fundamentally changes on a global scale with regards to patents on life saving drugs. I worry that humanity's going to fuck itself over with disease the longer we allow intellectual property law to prevent life saving generics from being created and distributed. This is why drug patents and research paywalls need to be violated and broken at any cost for the greater good of human health.
So it looks like another of those scourges evangelicals claimed was a "curse from God" is about to bite the dust.
A cynic might suggest that the old Hairy Thunderer is losing his touch. Or maybe God just doesn't give a rat's ass who you sleep with.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
How ugly that it seems to pay to NOT cure something. Jonas Salk wasn't the greed-filled developer of his vaccine. He didn't develop it to reward stockholders. He did it to save lives and the fates of those infected with polio, a common disease of a couple generations ago.
So far, we don't know about the business model that might result, or even if the drug is effective and safe over the long term. So far, Truvada seems to be the best prophylactic out there, outside of abstinence. Abstinence is never going to work. The drug's vendor, Gilead, by keeping their prices at $1500+ a month for Truvada, has the blood on their hands of those that can't afford it, and get infected, and can't control it, and die hideous deaths.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.