It means you start mumbling random R.E.M. lyrics in your sleep. Bleh.
Posted on 06/05/2011 10:00:37 AM PDT by Morpheus2009
Since the HIV virus was discovered 30 years ago this week, 30 million people have died from the disease, and it continues to spread at the rate of 7,000 people per day globally, the UN says.
There's not much good news when it comes to this devastating disease. But that is perhaps why the story of the man scientists call the "Berlin patient" is so remarkable and has generated so much excitement among the HIV advocacy community.
Timothy Ray Brown suffered from both leukemia and HIV when he received a bone marrow stem cell transplant in Berlin, Germany in 2007. The transplant came from a man who was immune to HIV, which scientists say about 1 percent of Caucasians are. (According to San Francisco's CBS affiliate, the trait may be passed down from ancestors who became immune to the plague centuries ago.)
What happened next has stunned the dozens of scientists who are closely monitoring Brown: His HIV went away.
"He has no replicating virus and he isn't taking any medication. And he will now probably never have any problems with HIV," his doctor Gero Huetter told Reuters. Brown now lives in the Bay Area, and suffers from some mild neurological difficulties after the operation. "It makes me very happy," he says of the incredible cure.
The development of anti-retroviral drugs in the 1990s was the first sign of hope in the epidemic, transforming the disease from a sudden killer to a more manageable illness that could be lived with for decades. But still, the miraculous cocktail of drugs is expensive, costing $13 billion a year in developing countries alone, according to Reuters. That figure is expected to triple in 20 years--raising the worry that more sick people will not be able to afford treatment.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
What does “functionally cured” mean?
He still looks sickly.
“HIV advocacy”?
I am happy that science is making advances, but “HIV advocacy?” They make it sound like a badge of honor.
It means you start mumbling random R.E.M. lyrics in your sleep. Bleh.
Who is going to pay for this? AIDS is not exactly a rich man’s disease.
The gay dream: You can still be gay and promiscuous as hell and not die of AIDS.
Not that other gross things won’t kill you, but not AIDS.
Now we just have to take 1% of the people on the planet and steal their bone marrow!
AIDS “research” has already topped $50 billion and no cure. While out of political correctness, siphoning off money for research for incurable diseases such as cancer.
And WTF is “functionally cured”?? Is this another MSM liberal description such as “unexpectedly”?
read the comments. Our society is sick.
Now we just have to take 1% of the people on the planet and steal their bone marrow!
Now we just have to take 1% of the people on the planet and steal their bone marrow!
Junk Science+Political Correctness+Billion$$$$$$$$ = HIV/AIDS panic.
Does anybody even take this seriouisly anymore? Even the WHO has pretty much said, “uh .... nevermind”.
LoL
What about Magic Johnson? He refused the traditional treatments and from what I understand... is free of the disease now.
Well, this is good news for the San Fran bath houses. Yea.
Functionally cured means that the guy is not showing a terribly weak immune system, which is the signal of the onset of AIDS (low count of white blood cells). The real beef with the so-called cure however, is the issue of a person’s own immune system rejecting a bone marrow transplant. This means that even with the figure of 1% of the Earth’s population being resistant to the effects of AIDS, you have even fewer people than that as the person to whom they donate bone marrow is donated is anything but guaranteed to accept the bone marrow without getting sick from rejection by his/her own immune system.
“And he will now probably never have any problems with HIV,”
Even if he goes out “bare-backing” and contracts it, again?
That's 1% of the Caucasians.
(Hmmmmmmm, I wonder how $much I could for mine?)
read the comments. Our society is sick.
Totally agree. The old saying goes that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Well make that pound a ton in the case of AIDS, even this “cure” would only work for a minute sliver of those infected with HIV. Because first, you have a shrinking European minority, compounded with the fact that not everyone’s body can accept the bone marrow without rejection.
I think the reason he's alive today is because he refused the treatments, which are incredibly toxic.
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