[TheMarchingMule]

"With the latest advances in treatment, doctors have discovered that they can successfully neutralise the HIV virus. The so-called ‘combination therapy’ prevents the HIV virus from mutating and spreading, allowing patients to rebuild their immune system to the same levels as the rest of the population."

http://sciencedaily.com/releases/200...1020103343.htm

 

[Chrispy]

Well, that's sweet. How much will it cost?

 

[PFKMan23]

I really hope that that is true.

 

[penger]

Nice to see that there's been a breakthrough in research on this front.

 

[Quaddy]

this is not as simple and sensational as your headline makes out, reminds me of false advertising.

they have been researching similar things in the cancer field also, but for specific cancers, again unfortunately it is all the early beginnings, fingers crossed for the future generations!

the things they work on in medical journals are probing the very pinncales of this type of work and whilst it is excellent news, it is many many years off in terms of widespread application.

go search for something printed ten years ago in medical journals, we still dont have it!

 

[bhd812]

combination therapy is old as hell, well..
I wonder what drugs are used in each class and what Class's are used (NRTI,NNRTI,PI,FI).

that article does not have to much info that rings "new" to me, anyone got a link to the study itself? its been awhile since i looked into this...

 

[003]

Umm, you can already kill the HIV viruses in your body, with an induced coma and lowering the body core temperature to a very low degree will do it.

But that does not cure it, there are still the mutated t-cells floating around which will just burst and produce more of the virus. And you can't kill your t-cells, that would effectively do what AIDS by definition does.

 

[MD1032]

So basically this treatment effectively treats symptoms of AIDS effectively to the point where the patient is able to function normally, but doesn't actually eliminate HIV? I think they left that part out.

 

[blessingx]

We can't even get current treatments distributed world-wide. I'd say this is all extremely optimistic for real world-wide applications.

 

[pne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quaddy /img/forum/go_quote.gif this is not as simple and sensational as your headline makes out, reminds me of false advertising. they have been researching similar things in the cancer field also, but for specific cancers, again unfortunately it is all the early beginnings, fingers crossed for the future generations! the things they work on in medical journals are probing the very pinncales of this type of work and whilst it is excellent news, it is many many years off in terms of widespread application. go search for something printed ten years ago in medical journals, we still dont have it!

care to explain in greater detail why this is the case?

 

[Quaddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pne /img/forum/go_quote.gif care to explain in greater detail why this is the case?

its simply what happens time and time again with medical research, the media gets hold of it, and splashes it on the front pages as a cure all, or end all, and its teeny tiny footsteps into it, because the ratification and standards and criteria and years of data collection and trials is what is required for it to even get anywhere.

then the pharmacutical companies have to go through all their red tape etc etc

it takes a decade or more usually from what i have seen in the past.

 

[swt61]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MD1032 /img/forum/go_quote.gif So basically this treatment effectively treats symptoms of AIDS effectively to the point where the patient is able to function normally, but doesn't actually eliminate HIV? I think they left that part out.

No, they stated such. They stated that patients need to start and remain on the therapy.

Researchers have found that they can totally eradicate the virus with drug cocktails if they catch it in the beginning stage. Once most people contract the virus within a week they go through flew like symptoms, but most don't recognize it as anything other than a flew. If they can start drug therapy within that first few weeks, they can totally eradicate the virus with no more treatments necessary. This is very difficult to do in practice however.

 

[coolshot]

we already do combination therapy to where you can reduce the virus to nearly undetectable levels. However its costs tons of money to do it. I work in a pharmacy and it costs like $35 bucks per name brand copay(all these are name brands still) if your covered. So expect to pay like 90-120 for all your meds as your taking 3 or 4. I look at the reciept and these things cost around $1100 each so expect to pay that if your not insured.

 

[greydragon]

I guess it is something to cheer about, but quite short on an actual cure.

I was quite ecstatic for a bit when I read the title, "Researchers Knock Out HIV"--very misleading, sensational label for what is actually a 'treatment' or AIDS.

 

[pne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quaddy /img/forum/go_quote.gif its simply what happens time and time again with medical research, the media gets hold of it, and splashes it on the front pages as a cure all, or end all, and its teeny tiny footsteps into it, because the ratification and standards and criteria and years of data collection and trials is what is required for it to even get anywhere. then the pharmacutical companies have to go through all their red tape etc etc it takes a decade or more usually from what i have seen in the past.

I've always wondered about the red tape part. Will the government restrict human testing even if there are volunteers? Is there no way to bypass the baby steps portion and jump directly into testing with human subjects? Say if I had contracted HIV, and went to one of these pharmaceutical companies willing to be a human guinea pig?