Aids Vaccine

[coyotecraft]

I hear they've got a vaccine for Aids now. Been seeing the commercials asking for donations to fund the testing and approval process and to make it ready for the public.
resolveAids.org
The fact sheet about vaccine it pretty educational. I was always told it was hard to find a cure for HIV since there were so many strands of it. But this vaccine seems to work on the five major strands. Idk how many strands there actually are. If it really works 2011 is going to be a good year.

Here the ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6OR-qeD ... re=related

 

[Cryranos]

If it works, it would put some companies out of business.

 

[Glitchfinder]

I've heard people say this a ton of times, so I'll repeat it. There's no money in a cure, only in a treatment. It's the same reason I've heard of unscrupulous programmers who purposely insert a new error for every bug they fix. It keeps people coming back, and earns them more money.

 

[coyotecraft]

If their business is fighting diseases, they'll move on to another.
I know there are medications the keep HIV in control and it has to be taken daily. Whoever manufactures the medicine probably manufactures other things as well. If they manage to eradicate the HIV virus, they'll put their resources to use somewhere else. Not like there is a shortage of diseases.

 

[Glitchfinder]

If their business is fighting diseases, they'll move on to another.
I know there are medications the keep HIV in control and it has to be taken daily. Whoever manufactures the medicine probably manufactures other things as well. If they manage to eradicate the HIV virus, they'll put their resources to use somewhere else. Not like there is a shortage of diseases.

That's not the point, though. The major pharmaceutical companies invest far more looking for treatments to alleviate symptoms than they do into finding vaccines or cures, because medications lose their patent after a certain period of time, resulting in other companies making them and undercutting the company that created the medication. In other words, if a cure was invented, it would result in the same noose that's been hanging over several companies for a few years, where their medications are no longer going to make a profit because there are alternatives. For the current situation, that noose is because the companies are losing their patents, resulting in other companies manufacturing the medicines and massively undercutting the (grossly overpriced) medications. In the case of a cure, the company only makes a profit on the cure as long as the disease still exits. In other words, once AIDS, the common cold, or whatever else you're trying to cure has been wipes from the face of the earth, the cure becomes entirely useless, a la smallpox. (Which, admittedly, still exists, but only in laboratories) In point of fact, the only diseases for which a cure could continue selling are those that arise through natural faults in the human body and cannot truly be prevented, such as cancer. Even cures for genetic diseases would not provide a long term profit, assuming the cure involved genetic engineering.

All in all, some cures will not be invented because there is no profit in doing so, which means that companies will only invest the token amount to make their investors happy. There's a similar problem with businesses becoming environmentally friendly. Unless the move is likely to attract customers and increase profits, most companies refuse to take steps to make their companies greener, because of the initial research and restructuring costs. (Then again, the same thing goes for things like investing in LED-based traffic lights. Despite long-term savings, most cities are not willing to invest the money it takes to replace the lights)

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

Well, I don't know if that applies to viruses, specially one as virulent as HIV. Because of biological reasons, making a vaccine has been incredibly difficult and actually coming up with a "cure for AIDS" is absurd. We're closer to finding a cure for cancer. It doesn't have to do anything with the Pharmaceutical Companies. We simply don't have the technology or research necessary.

 

[arcthemonkey]

I don't have a link for it off the top of my head, but HIV has successfully been cured in multiple cases with bone marrow transplants from delta32 mutants, who are immune HIV.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

That sounds sci-fi impossible. :

 

[Ellie]

This is largely going off on a tangent but slightly related, in reply to Glitchfinder:

What I want to do is buy a top of the range PC, turn it on, turn it off, wait five years, turn it on, and see what the difference in performance is. I am convinced there is some kind of internal timer that makes the computer function differently. My Dad's WinXP machine (bought it when XP came out) was absolute top spec and we were all amazed at things like how fast it opened programs and generally how speedy it was altogether. He wipes it every few months or so to keep it going good (he uses terminal server so he doesn't actually store anything on the PC itself) - and it's been progressively getting slower and slower until now it can't open Internet Explorer in under seven minutes. Same PC, completely wiped. The only difference seems to be the age.

 

[RavenTDA]

Well to what Amy is saying... They of course make things that break. I hear the original light bulbs that were invented are actually STILL working to this day. They have to make them break or else they wouldn't be making any money off of it. Which is pretty terrible considering that it causes so much waste in the environment as well as bleeds consumers. But money is always going to be king. Perhaps making things actually really efficient and for the people would be to have to change the entire government as well. It COULD perhaps work in a sort of communistic environment where everything is controlled but that's always a "work in theory and not in practice" problem. The biggest issue with stuff like that is our social system is very "me! me! me!" rather than "us! us! us!"

As for the vaccine... well sounds like something they came up with like the HPV Vaccine. Where it doesn't always work but it helps. Getting rid of common strains is better than nothing. But the issue here is people are kinda stupid. I can see people getting the vaccine and having more unprotected sex with a slight increase in AIDs cases at first and then later tapering off to less. This would probably work best in places like Africa where it's more abundant. I figure getting rid of common strains will eventually open up to us finding the common strains in the uncommon and chipping away at the virus strains over time... if you can understand what I mean.

As for what Arc is talking about. There's animals that live with AIDs and don't have problem with it. I think they're just carriers of the virus but remain unaffected. So I don't think it's too farfetched to hear about humans carrying the same thing as well. Sounds interesting though that they can transfer the immunity. That is probably a better area to look for a real cure if it withstands all the strains.

 

[arcthemonkey]

The original lightbulbs didn't break because they were made out of extremely expensive metals, from what I understand :D

Also:

This hypothesis was tested in an AIDS patient who had also developed myeloid leukemia, and was treated with chemotherapy to suppress the cancer. A bone marrow transplant containing stem cells from a matched donor was then used to restore the immune system. However transplant was performed from a donor with the CCR5-Δ32 mutation gene. After 600 days, the patient was healthy and had undetectable levels of HIV in the blood and in examined brain and rectal tissues.[14][15] Before the transplant, low levels of HIV X4, which does not use the CCR5 receptor, were also detected. Following the transplant, however, this type of HIV was not detected either, further baffling doctors.[15] However, this is consistent with the observation that cells expressing the CCR5-Δ32 variant protein lack both the CCR5 and CXCR4 receptors on their surfaces, thereby conferring resistance to a broad range of HIV variants including HIV X4.[16] After three years, the patient has maintained the resistance to HIV and has been pronounced cured of the HIV infection.[17]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCR5

 

[EnderX]

I'd like to challenge the assumption you gave in your post, RavenTDA.

I've seen pie charts online that demonstrate AIDS cases divided by location. Africa, in most of these, has over 50% of the chart. I'm assuming this was what you were working off of. There's a slight problem with that logic, though - at least, I've yet to see anything which negates it.

From what I've read, in America, a person is defined as having AIDS (Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome) when three things are true.
1) The person must be infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. (HIV)
2) The person's T-Cell count must be dropped. I do not recall what the specific requirements on the drop are at this time.
3) The person must be infected with an 'opportunistic' disease - an illness that would never be able to strike a healthy person, but can strike those whose immune systems have been weakened by the HIVirus.

The original definition of AIDS for Africa was established in the 1985 Bangui documents, and is notable for the following traits:
1) The presence of an opportunistic disease is not required.
2) The T-Cell count is unimportant.
3) The presence of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus is not required.

Loosely, what the Bangui plan actually was is this:
1) Take a number of sample patients who may or may not have AIDS. Test them in a clinical setting.
2) Find out what symptoms are common among those who test positive for AIDS. (*)
3) Assign each symptom a point value.
4) If a person has over twelve points, 'congratulations', you've got AIDS.

Even aside from the footnote, the problem is that the symptoms used are common. 'Cough' is listed as a two-point symptom, although the document itself does mention it must be a persistent cough. 'Pneumopathy' (any lung disease) is another two points. (So apparently, if you've got a lung disease that makes you cough, you've got four.) Extended weakness is four points. The only symptom on the list actually associated with AIDS is Kaposi's Sarcoma, one of the opportunistic diseases. (It ranks a full twelve points - which makes perfect sense.)

Known malnutrition, cancer, or medical treatment that weakens the immune system automatically exclude the individual from an AIDS diagnosis by this standard. However, it's quite possible that even after excluding those, a combination of two or more diseases could trigger this: Malaria, for example, could theoretically provide nine of the required twelve points by itself. (Weakness - 4 points, continuous/recurring fever - 3 points, coughing - 2 points.)

In theory, lab testing is supposed to be done whenever possible - but I'd suspect, personally, that it's generally not done as much as it should be, and I'm sure that in some cases it can't be easily done - and the default fallback position is the one I loosely outlined above.

If anyone cares to look, there's a PDF version of the document here:
http://www.heart-intl.net/HEART/HIV/Com ... report.pdf
The symptom list and point values are on page 15.


(*)Apparently, many tests were done in prenatal clinics. From what I've read, pregnancy can throw a false positive on these tests. See the problem?

 

[Glitchfinder]

This is largely going off on a tangent but slightly related, in reply to Glitchfinder:

What I want to do is buy a top of the range PC, turn it on, turn it off, wait five years, turn it on, and see what the difference in performance is. I am convinced there is some kind of internal timer that makes the computer function differently. My Dad's WinXP machine (bought it when XP came out) was absolute top spec and we were all amazed at things like how fast it opened programs and generally how speedy it was altogether. He wipes it every few months or so to keep it going good (he uses terminal server so he doesn't actually store anything on the PC itself) - and it's been progressively getting slower and slower until now it can't open Internet Explorer in under seven minutes. Same PC, completely wiped. The only difference seems to be the age.

Amy, you've hit upon something that the manufacturing industry doesn't want people to know. Most manufacturing companies design their products to last slightly longer than the industry standard warranty for that product. Shredders, computers, printers, and most other tech is designed to last slightly longer than a year. Shredders typically get a 5 year cutter warranty, but that's because the manufacturer designed the shredder in such a way that, if something was going to damage the cutting blades, it burns out the motor first, thus voiding the warranty. Laptops typically have a 2 year lifespan at most, and Alienware computers are only covered by warranty if you use them for less than two hours a day. (And they typically burn out in under six months if used normally)

My grandparents had a 30 year old washing machine break down to the point where it could not be fixed, so they had to buy a new one. It broke three days after the warranty expired. Across the board, nothing lasts as long as it used to, with a few industry-wide exceptions. Typically, light bulbs actually last longer than they used to. The 110 year old bulb that is in the bay area (and holds the world record for longest functioning light bulb) is lucky in that it had a near perfect vacuum and seal, has had constant power, and has not faced many of the stressors known to damage light bulbs over time, meaning it's really a fluke, not the rule. On top of that, LED bulbs are actually far more energy efficient and last far longer than any other bulb known, under pretty much any condition.

So yeah. In general, money wins out over customer satisfaction or convenience. Guarantees and warranties are filled with loopholes and hidden details that are designed to make it so they never actually get used, and thus are only intended to woo the customer into buying a product they'll have to replace sooner than they expected.