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To: metmom
I am no expert...but have we ever killed a virus?
8 posted on 03/21/2008 5:48:32 AM PDT by 50sDad (Liberals: Never Happy, Never Grateful, Never Right.)
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To: 50sDad
I am no expert...but have we ever killed a virus?

There are vaccines against many of them (smallpox etc.), but the development of one for AIDS just hit the wall. I am not a doctor or researcher, but IIRC, that particular virus mutates rapidly.

There are anti-viral treatments that reduce an already-infected individual's viral load. The treatments are currently expensive and of limited effectiveness, but progress is being made.

25 posted on 03/21/2008 6:14:29 AM PDT by nina0113 (If fences don't work, why does the White House have one?)
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To: 50sDad
I am no expert...but have we ever killed a virus?

Viruses are easy to kill outside of the body. It's when they get inside that they're hard to kill without killing everything else around them.

A vaccine works by predisposing the immune system to recognize the invading virus and yank it out of the system before it multiplies. The classic example is polio.

The problem with HIV, and flu (though different families of viruses) is that they change their coat so frequently that the immune system can't keep up. Like some generals, it's always prepared to fight the last war. The flu virus changes in somewhat predictable ways so that a new vaccine can be prepared each year to at least offer some protection against the "new look" for that cycle. HIV is unpredictable at present.

29 posted on 03/21/2008 6:17:58 AM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: 50sDad

While we haven’t totally done away with polio, I believe that the vaccine has done wonders to stop it in Western civilization.


34 posted on 03/21/2008 6:22:08 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
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To: 50sDad
I am no expert...but have we ever killed a virus?

Smallpox.

115 posted on 03/21/2008 7:36:04 AM PDT by null and void (..for dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.)
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To: 50sDad
I am no expert...but have we ever killed a virus?

Smallpox was eradicated and, last I read, exists only in research facilities and biological weapons storage. Polio has not been wiped out, but clearly decimated.

127 posted on 03/21/2008 7:56:38 AM PDT by Digital Sniper (Hello, "Undocumented Immigrant." I'm an "Undocumented Border Patrol Agent.")
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To: 50sDad
I am no expert...but have we ever killed a virus?

Polio is or was nearly dead. But it was killed by "starvation". The vaccine prevents one from getting, and also from spreading, the disease.

However, unlike antibiotics used against bacteria, a vaccine doesn't kill the infection, a virus in this case, if you've already gotten it.

223 posted on 03/21/2008 1:52:35 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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