Scientists on brink of HIV cure

[Starving Artist]

If this is true and not just another hype it would be one of man kinds greatest feats ...defeating a virus that is almost designed to kill us specifically. A virus that if had shown up earlier in history it would have mad the black plague seem like a Sunday tea party . I hope to God this is true . If we can kill such an elusive seemingly intelligent virus like HIV I have no doubt that in the near futur cancer and such could be cured also .

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...-HIV-cure.html

[Mifuyne]

As much as I would love that they found a cure for HIV, theres always a lot of "we're on the brink of [insert random thing here]".
Unless they start clearing HIV on many people, it doesn't really matter what they say.

[Promethieus]

We've been on the brink of curing cancer for years too. This doesn't really seem like any spectacular news to me.

[Zogarth]

We are always "On the brink of" with nearly everyting. Would be nice if they could actually make it work.

[Starving Artist]

We are always "On the brink of" with nearly everyting. Would be nice if they could actually make it work.

Even if it worked for only 50% of infected it would at least bring hope to some ...

[Tanteslem]

Great news for the rich and powerful! Unfortunately 99% of the people infected with HIV would never afford the medication.

[Unionoob]

"On the brink of" come just from journalists, in reality doctors maybe just have an idea how they might fight HIV...

[Deleted]

Great news for the rich and powerful! Unfortunately 99% of the people infected with HIV would never afford the medication.

Like how a lot of middle and lower class people can't afford any medication, right?

So sad to see that some people think "the rich and powerful" are the only ones with a good life.

[Gilian]

Great news for the rich and powerful! Unfortunately 99% of the people infected with HIV would never afford the medication.

First sentence in the article: "Danish scientists are expecting results that will show that “finding a mass-distributable and affordable cure to HIV is possible”. "

If you read the article it really sounds like 'on the brink of'. They are conducting human trials after they found it to work in the lab.

[Deleted]

"On the brink of" come just from journalists, in reality doctors maybe just have an idea how they might fight HIV...

Precisely, here's how it goes:

[Maelle]

Great news for the rich and powerful! Unfortunately 99% of the people infected with HIV would never afford the medication.

This is true, while it's good news, we still lose ridiculous amounts of human lives in poor countries (where HIV is most common) to stuff like cholera, TB, and malaria, all of which have had treatments / cures / vaccines for decades.

"Danish scientists are expecting results that will show that “finding a mass-distributable and affordable cure to HIV is possible”. "

The above diseases I mentioned also fill this criteria.

There is western poor, and there is third world poor.

[Tanteslem]

Like how a lot of middle and lower class people can't afford any medication, right?

So sad to see that some people think "the rich and powerful" are the only ones with a good life.

Poor African countries is what I was aiming for, not middle class.

[Dundebuns]

Sensationalist woding from a tabloid unfortunately. The research is interesting though, as it's using a different methodology to kill the virus, one which is becoming more popular in fields of research; getting the body to kill the virus itself, by getting rid of the virus ability to hide so the body can recognise it for what it is.

defeating a virus that is almost designed to kill us specifically

This is a very worrying quote from the OP, making it sound like it was made with the intent to kill, possibly a blow back from conspiracy theories that HIV is man made. HIV more than likely came about by humans eating unprepared bush meat (read, monkeys) that were infect with SIV, the simian variant of this virus. This is most likely the vector for an inter-species transmission.

[WarpKnight]

A virus that if had shown up earlier in history it would have mad the black plague seem like a Sunday tea party

Interesting thought, that..

[Arcrin]

there has been a cure for years but its just too expensive to mass produce to all the world. and at the same time the medicine company is making good money on them right now why cure something that makes a fortune? same goes with cancer and lots of mental diagnostics WHY would a company which sole purpose is to grow larger eliminate their income?

lots of mentals like Adhd and such can be cured with sugar pills as placebo.

remember medicine is poison sent into your body to kill the bad organisms but it kills the good ones too.

[Deleted]

Poor African countries is what I was aiming for, not middle class.

Like most breakthroughs you mean? That's an entirely different discussion.

[Mihalik]

This is a very worrying quote from the OP, making it sound like it was made with the intent to kill, possibly a blow back from conspiracy theories that HIV is man made. HIV more than likely came about by humans eating unprepared bush meat (read, monkeys) that were infect with SIV, the simian variant of this virus. This is most likely the vector for an inter-species transmission.

Indeed press sensationalism when it comes to scientific developments is becoming increasingly annoying.

Altought the reasons why this is happening are fairly simple. Explaining the significance of Higgs-Boson, the Large Hadron Collider in scientific terms to the general public is fairly difficult. (Sometimes because the general public is simply stupid as a brick, sometimes simply because the science is confusing as hell unless you really have a good grasp of the concept already.) Same happens with medical research.

So to sell the news to a clueless public, often written by equally clueless reporters, the media comes up with stupid terms like God Particle or announces the imminent doom of the universe caused by the LHC creating Black Holes because some dude said it will, or they announce the CURE for cancer, HIV, Ebola and whatnot 14 times a year, simply because CURE FOR CANCER FOUND is a better headline then SCIENTISTS MAKING PROGRESS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF ONE POTENTIAL CURE THAT WORKS 15% OF THE TIME.

[Zhira]

Great news for the rich and powerful! Unfortunately 99% of the people infected with HIV would never afford the medication.

I can almost guarantee you that IF the cure for HIV becomes a reality, it will be either free or very cheap.

[Darsithis]

As someone living with HIV, this is still exciting, even if it's not that plausible. Will it happen? Probably not; we've been saying this stuff for a decade. Would I love it to happen? Absolutely. Being HIV free would be a huge relief.

[Mihalik]

there has been a cure for years but its just too expensive to mass produce to all the world. and at the same time the medicine company is making good money on them right now why cure something that makes a fortune? same goes with cancer and lots of mental diagnostics WHY would a company which sole purpose is to grow larger eliminate their income?

lots of mentals like Adhd and such can be cured with sugar pills as placebo.

remember medicine is poison sent into your body to kill the bad organisms but it kills the good ones too.

Sweet Bejesus load of New Age mumbo jumbo.

You just defeated your own arguement there. There is a cure. But it's very expensive. So we are not going to sell it. Because we don't want to take your money. But we are making money by selling less efficient medicine. Altought we could charge stupid amounts for a real cure, for those who can afford it, and keep selling the cheap stuff to poor people and keep taking their money too.

If companies have some magic medicine to cure this or that, they will sell it. They will patent the crap out of it, put price tags that would ruin Bill Gates himself on it, but they will sell it.

Anyways HIV treatment or Cancer treatments are usually only a fraction of the Pharmaceutical companies incomes. Big Pharma makes most of it's money selling Aspirin, Antibiotics, Viagra or Suppliments like vitamins and shockingly Holistic treatments. Usually when you buy "natural or alternative" medicine, its manufactured by the same Big Pharma company that sells you the "poison" (real medicine) only under a different brand name.

The nature of mental illnesses is complicated. Mental Illness is not treated by magic pills. It is treated trough patient care, and medicine is only a component of it.
Some mental problems are very effectivly treated by placebo, exactly because it is a mental problem, where the patient needs to believe he is being treated.

ADHD is a different topic. I could go on and on about it for hours. I don't say it doesn't exist and sometimes needs actual medicine as a treatment, but I am absolutly convinced that especially American doctors and parents are trigger happy with the damn thing. They started replacing simple discipline and proper parenting with medication. It is horribly overdiagnosed. And funny enough the Pharmaceuticals never gone around telling parents, your kid needs Ritalin. It started with the parents, doctors gave in and now you have a fictional epidemic of it.