Could this be for real ?

Stem cell transplant has cured HIV infection in 'Berlin patient', say doctors

The `Berlin patient`, Timothy Ray Brown, a US citizen who lives in Berlin, was interviewed this week by German news magazine Stern.

Source

Sadly, no. It was a unique case with unique circumstances.

A snip from the below article.

"We tell our patients that this was a very particular situation. What made this work was that he got a very rare donor. It opens doors for us, but we are years away from potentially making gene therapy more broadly available," Fischl said. "It shows us the hurdles we have to get over to get to the cure."

http://health.usnews.com/health-news...e-caution.html

I find such articles quite unhelpful, as it only encourages "they'll find a cure eventually, so I don't have to be careful" attitude. It's worrying how attitudes towards safe sex have gone downhill in the past few years and I don't think many will pay attention to the "a lot more must be done until we find a cure" message hidden in the article.

Post ressurection!

excellent study on the effects of more socially responsible computer tycoon.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-1...dians-hiv.html

I'm no entirely sure, whether a cure for HIV/AIDS will only benefit societies. I could think, that if such a cure would be widely available, that there will be a sudden rise of:
-STDs
-unwanted children being born
-infidelity/adultery

..and given the positive attributes of curing such a terrible disease, would the negative attributes outweigh/neutralize the benefits..what do you guys think?

Where have you been in the last 10.000 years?

You of course can promote such Reaganite notions, but I clearly believe that medical research gradually will find cures, medicaments, vaccinations etc which will be good really. But just as with other diseases, it took, takes and will take decades. Look at cancer. Lots of relatives, particularily out of the family of my grandmother on the motherside lost their lifes due to cancer. My older brother was the last one who in the end died and I am the first one who survived. For 23 years up to now, two or three "compromises" to be done, but practically no time-limit. Sure, I know that any particular day may bring the end. But I am in favour of optimism.

- Unwanted children being born, due to the existence of cures and vaccinations against HIV etc ? hardly more than now. And many children would not lose father or mother during childhood

- infidelity/adultery ? not more than now

- STDs ? no, not more than now. Beside the fact that some STD-related diseases which were deadly some 30 years ago can be cured fairly easily these days

The Docs around the globe are heavily working on such stuff like STDs and HIV, but also on cancer, Parkinson's Disease and much other things. As the saying goes " we are really working, but wonders take a bit longer "

Holy smokes Falty...sarcasm from you?! I guess there is hope for the world.

Well, to answer your question...I believe that there would be a significant rise of that...especially when for many people, the main turnoff is catching something, which is as affective as HIV/AIDS IMO.

Dear Lost, as much as I love desagreeing with you - a real pleasure - you would have first to proove a decrease of all that when HIV appeared in order to induce an increase from a cure.
I just gave a lesson on logic and fallacies today, how ironic is that. *insert old greek smiley here*

In Olten I suppose, where things before the railways-age looked as follows

..not necessarily. It could simply be a sudden increase after the vaccine has been implemented and used for a certain period of time.

Lost inbroad
I kinda see your logic although the rises in HIV and STDs have been increasing rapidly over the years and these are new diseases which recently surfaced as a result of increase rates of these activities.
Therefore with or without the cure, rates in infidelity/adultery I believe will continue to rise.

It's a virus. Never in history has a virus been cured. If they find a way to cure HIV, then bravo, because it will open a lot of doors to curing a lot of viruses. But I'm not holding my breath. I'm amazed that any layperson would.

You needn't cure a virus. What must be cured is the disease caused by a virus. Stopping viral activity or elimitating viruses in situ is very difficult indeed, but it's possible, albeit only in certain cases. Ever heard of interferon or aciclovir?

Well you don't cure viruses, you cure people. I'm not sure what you mean but people/patients can be cured of a number of viruses.

They can't even cure athlete's foot let along something more serious.

Athletes foot, or 'tinea pedis' isn't a virus, it's a fungal infection. Obviously you can't compare it with HIV, but it can be pretty nasty.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Well, not your particular type of athlete's foot!

I sort of agree with LiB on this one.

Also bear in mind that AIDS/HIV isn't the first nasty STD and nor will it be the last. When a cure becomes available (as eventually I'm sure it will) people's attitudes will laxen and that will make it easier for some new STD to spread. Scientists can then start all over again and absorb billions of dollars and decades of research to fix that while millions of people die in misery in the meantime.

I can't help feeling that those billions would have been better spent on prevention rather than cure.

Going by the number of cases of HIV, not to mention other STDs, can you really say the threat of catching one is an effective detterent?

Also, new diseases are not prevented from coming in to existence just because another one exists already. Having syphilis in the world did not stop HIV coming along. All that happens if you have more people in the world getting new diseases, the millions of people dying in misery while they try to fix the next disease would merely be conflated with the millions you decided not to cure for fear that another would come along.

People who worry about promiscuity becoming an issue aren't exactly pro contraception either.