Comparatively small amount of pain + a commonly used pain killer with less chances of complication will always be the route, rather than using the less common pain killer and risk any complications.
Man cured of HIV
- Thread starter Rebelius
- Start date
Comparatively small amount of pain + a commonly used pain killer with less chances of complication will always be the route, rather than using the less common pain killer and risk any complications.
There are some very interesting opinions on HIV in here lol
I think the take home message from that article is that it basically isn't a cure at all, rather than a bit of a lucky side effect. The HIV vaccines that are in trial (/soon to be on trial) at the moment are basically the same as those that have already been trialled and failed. The massive ability of the virus to mutate is the main issue behind this and it is likely that for a long time yet we aren't going to get any closer to finding a vaccine (if a vaccine alike others we already have is at all possible).
The issue of gene therapy mentioned is interesting, but without a change in the current thinking of government, it is unlikely this will ever be properly considered as a treatment. The threat of therapy genes getting into the germ line (cells involved in reproduction) and escaping into the population is enough to make most government scientists turn a funny shade of blue.
I think the take home message from that article is that it basically isn't a cure at all, rather than a bit of a lucky side effect. The HIV vaccines that are in trial (/soon to be on trial) at the moment are basically the same as those that have already been trialled and failed. The massive ability of the virus to mutate is the main issue behind this and it is likely that for a long time yet we aren't going to get any closer to finding a vaccine (if a vaccine alike others we already have is at all possible).
The issue of gene therapy mentioned is interesting, but without a change in the current thinking of government, it is unlikely this will ever be properly considered as a treatment. The threat of therapy genes getting into the germ line (cells involved in reproduction) and escaping into the population is enough to make most government scientists turn a funny shade of blue.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 8 Jan 2004
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- 32,928
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- Rutland
Anaesthetics aren't all that safe, if they can be avoided they should be.
Midazolam is the way to go, it can hurt horribly but if you don't remember it all the better.
I got told I would be out cold and would wake up in my bed. Then some big nurse got me in a body lock and I realised they were lying
Amazing step forward for medical research! They said it was too dangerous to be put into every day treatment. This chap was only given the transplant as he needed it for his leukemia treatment. However, this doctor suspected that giving him HIV resistent bone marrow may result in immunity. And it worked! Ticked me off that something this amazing was on the news after about two other stories.. as if it's not that important..
After all it's only a fatal disease!
yeah but if it doesn't work, you've just completely destroyed the guys immune system for nothing, which combined with his HIV means he's going to die pretty soon.
With regards to Bone Marrow donation, i have put my name down for it, and was under the impression they had changed the way they got it. Instead of getting it from the hip (or other place) they filter out the stem cells from your blood and develop the bone marrow from that
Not as commonly as morphine though
It'll be a few years before it replaces morphine as the standard, a lot of doctors don't like to be out of their comfort zone with regards to drug treatment.It took a while to move onto use of volatile anaesthetics just because of a couple of incidents where they induced malignant hyperthermia, which is extremely rare. Just shows you how cautious they are ;p
OT, but i always thought that morphine was the best (in terms of blocking pain i mean). i mean it's an opiate right?
Fentanyl is around 80x more powerful than morphine, carfentanyl is around 10,000x more powerful.
Non opiates like the toxins from cone snails are around 1,000x more powerful than morphine.
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Fentanyl is also an opiod
It's also easily abused and there have been problems with administering it to patients in a slow-release (transdermal patch) mechanism which caused a lot of patients to OD.
Soldato
- Joined
- 17 Jun 2004
- Posts
- 3,691
Thats is what makes it so insidious, its not till years after you have it that you know about it. Think cold war, middle east or south africa. It would be a perfect weapon for the time frames involved in them conflects.
1 in 1000 Europeans have a natural resistance. Oh, if only I could know if I'm the one!. The fun to be had
HIV isn't the only STD matey
HIV is one of a few related viruses. It isn't a disease at all, let alone hundreds.
Is this the "delta32" genetic thing possibly related to the Black Death of the mid 13th century?
1 in 1000 Europeans have a natural resistance. Oh, if only I could know if I'm the one!
You could find out with a test, I think. If my memory serves me right, the genetic mutation that causes the resistance is known.
I'll look it up now...yes, it's CCR5-delta 32. One hell of a useful mutation, because it blocks a variety of viruses.
Interestingly, it's one of the pieces of evidence put forward to support the hypothesis that the Black Death was not bubonic/pneumonic/septacemic plaque caused by the bacteria Ysernia Pestis, at least not in northern Europe, Great Britain and Ireland. That's how I first heard of it a couple of years back, when I was reading up about the Black Death. The prevalence of CCR5-delta 32 mutation is far, far higher in that area (and amongst the descendants of people who were in that area back then) than elsewhere. It was argued that this is a result of the death rate being so much higher in people without CCR5-delta 32 than those with that it skewed the prevelance of CCR5-delta 32.