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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.
If you have to ask, the answer is always No.
Perhaps we should wait for a publication in a good science jounnal, not a press release to the local cal newspaper...
stop fucking men up the ass.
But then conservative Republican politicians would have to go back to their wives!
And we can't have that.
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.
Goldman-Sachs said it was more profitable to treat rather than cure so I think this will cost at least $10,000 a week because some life saving or life extending drugs are costing $500,000 a year!
1) Either physically impossible or theoretically possible but actually impossible. With our current knowledge that is.
2) ?
3) Nothing makes that impossible.
4) Nothing makes that impossible. Many types of cancer have >90% survivability with near 100% survivability when detected in early stages.
5) Genetically inferior?
Because sex vacations are the leading cause of infection? Really...
3) Since arguably HIV doesn't have anything to do with AIDS...
Which nut-case website should I have been reading to learn the "truth", here, or is this just the standard "thing you always thought was true, isn't, and then it is, then it isn't again"?
I was under the impression you can't catch it from being peed on, but as I demonstrated above, I - apparently - don't know anything about HIV.
5) We can see that with you.
was an insightful post until you resorted to needless rudeness
Not ‘needless’ at all because GP’s list contains an item that had already happened.
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 $1500+ a month for Truvada, has the blood on their hands of those that can't afford it, and get infected, and can't control it, and die hideous deaths.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Have you at least HEARD of Africa? It seems like we need to start there...
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Just give it a few hundred years and someone will find a way to spread it from chimpanzees to humans again.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Gay and bisexual men account for 70% of infections
That's in the US. The US makes up about 3% of the world's HIV cases.
Oh. I thought we were talking about the world. You know, with the development of the drug _not_ being done in the US, most humans _not_ living in the US, most HIV/AIDS patients _not_ being in the US. ...