New HIV Vaccine?

Lohrno · Post by **Lohrno** » December 1, 2004, 8:40 pm

Slashdot is reporting an article on WebMD found here that there is a promising new sort of vaccine for treating HIV!

This is a pretty big step! It doesn't seem to get rid of it, but it does seem to stop it from infecting the immune cells...

-=Lohrno

Asheran Mojomaster · Post by **Asheran Mojomaster** » December 1, 2004, 8:46 pm

Seems a string of possible scientific breakthroughs in the past week or so. If any 1 of these turn out to be true it will be very exciting.

Rivera Bladestrike · Post by **Rivera Bladestrike** » December 1, 2004, 8:59 pm

A vaccine like this should be government given and made as cheap as possible to stop such an epidemic... I really hope that if this is the type of vaccine that can be administered to all people then it would be made available to all people to stop this terrible disease.

Raistin · Post by **Raistin** » December 1, 2004, 9:51 pm

I hope this isnt true. Humans are far out living what earth can supply. HIV/Aids, Cancer, and rednecks shooting eachother is the only way to some what blance out the world population. All these diseases are a nasty thing and I dont wish any of it on anyone, but if its either have AIDS thin out the stupid/unlucky ones to save earth, Im all for it.

Akaran_D · Post by **Akaran_D** » December 1, 2004, 10:15 pm

...
I'm at a loss for words that someone would NOT want a HIV vaccine.

Raistin · Post by **Raistin** » December 1, 2004, 11:05 pm

Why would I want one? Im not gay or black so surely I wont be getting HIV like Freddie Mercury who was gay, and Magic Johnson who is black. White straight people are immune to HIV. Clearly true followers of god won't get this holy vengence for sins.

Akaran_D · Post by **Akaran_D** » December 2, 2004, 12:21 am

Good troll man, good troll.

Lynks · Post by **Lynks** » December 2, 2004, 12:26 am

I hope it wouldn't give an excuse to people to stop trying to be careful, if this turns out to be the real deal.

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » December 2, 2004, 12:59 am

Raistin wrote:I hope this isnt true. Humans are far out living what earth can supply. HIV/Aids, Cancer, and rednecks shooting eachother is the only way to some what blance out the world population. All these diseases are a nasty thing and I dont wish any of it on anyone, but if its either have AIDS thin out the stupid/unlucky ones to save earth, Im all for it.

Never fear, it will no doubt be far to expensive to stop AIDS sweeping through africa. And the stupid breed far too quickly for an STD to cull the herd.

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » December 2, 2004, 1:52 am

My old roommate from college, has been working on an HIV vaccine at St.Jude in Memphis since he finished his PhD in 97. Back in 2000 he was trying to get FDA approval for human testing but couldn't get it pushed through so is still makeing modifications. I have a lot of confidence in him though, if this dosen't work I'm sure he will figure it out eventually.

Marb

Rivera Bladestrike · Post by **Rivera Bladestrike** » December 2, 2004, 2:11 am

I want to fuck whoever I want, so yes, everyone should get this, except for conservatives.

Lohrno · Post by **Lohrno** » December 2, 2004, 3:41 am

Lynks wrote:I hope it wouldn't give an excuse to people to stop trying to be careful, if this turns out to be the real deal.

Don't worry, some other deadly STD will likely come along after this.

-=Lohrno

Kilmoll the Sexy · Post by **Kilmoll the Sexy** » December 2, 2004, 10:22 am

We don't have to worry about diseases to thin out the human race. As long as there is Islam, there will be suicide bombers doing that job. Why automate when you can have humans doing the job I guess.

Seebs · Post by **Seebs** » December 2, 2004, 12:49 pm

There is no truth to the rumor that this vaccine is inject in the rectum with a meat syringe.

None at all. Zero truth to that.

Lalanae · Post by **Lalanae** » December 2, 2004, 1:10 pm

If this is true, I bet we'll see an increase on other STDs as people become more careless. HIV has never been a big fear of mine. I save that fear for other more common STDs, like herpes, which you can get even if you use a condom.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » December 2, 2004, 1:26 pm

surprised Nature hasnt released it online.

current issue is still November for Nature Medicine

http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage. ... index.html

Xatrei · Post by **Xatrei** » December 2, 2004, 1:33 pm

Reading over the article, it seems to me that the word "vaccine" in this case is a bit of a misnomer. This treatement involves custom creating a unique treatment for each patient from the subject's own already HIV infected blood. The treatment resulted in the abatement of HIV progress within the subjects, not the spread of the disease to new patients. This in itself is awesome news on the treatment front, but doesn't - at least currently - do much on the prevention front. This particular treatment is not going to result in anyone being able to go get a HIV immunization any time soon. It does provide a promising avenue of research on that front, however.

krin · Post by **krin** » December 2, 2004, 1:39 pm

Seebs wrote:There is no truth to the rumor that this vaccine is inject in the rectum with a meat syringe.

None at all. Zero truth to that.

Were you a control group participant? ;P

Skogen · Post by **Skogen** » December 2, 2004, 1:45 pm

Is it just me, or does it seem to anyone else that a huge-ass chunk or AIDS research goes towards treatment, and less so for a researching a vaccine. Would anyone have any info on this?

Akaran_D · Post by **Akaran_D** » December 2, 2004, 2:07 pm

Economy wise, reearching a vaccine is bad for corporate capatalism.
Curing the symptoms pays much better than eradicating a cow.

Skogen · Post by **Skogen** » December 2, 2004, 2:13 pm

Akaran_D wrote:Economy wise, reearching a vaccine is bad for corporate capatalism.
Curing the symptoms pays much better than eradicating a cow.

too true. Same reasoning goes into why we don't have the everlasting light bulb yet.

Voronwë · Post by **Voronwë** » December 2, 2004, 2:14 pm

there is a tremendous amount of federally funded research towards a vaccine i would imagine.

but you did outline the exact reason why federal funding for medical research is critical, because if left to market forces, you increase risk that certain avenues will be substantially underfunded.

archeiron · Post by **archeiron** » December 2, 2004, 3:18 pm

Voronwë wrote:there is a tremendous amount of federally funded research towards a vaccine i would imagine.

but you did outline the exact reason why federal funding for medical research is critical, because if left to market forces, you increase risk that certain avenues will be substantially underfunded.

It is equally important to note that the nature of the HIV virus makes finding or creating a vaccine incredibly difficult by modern standards. I would venture that lateral thinking in the current medical paradigm will be need to find a "cure" rather than a conventional approach. My guess at the most likely standard solution would be through retrovirii.

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » December 2, 2004, 6:36 pm

Kilmoll the Sexy wrote:We don't have to worry about diseases to thin out the human race. As long as there is Islam, there will be suicide bombers doing that job. Why automate when you can have humans doing the job I guess.

Ummm, yeah.. more people are killed every year in California alone by booze than died in NY 3 years ago. The risk of dying from terrorist attack is so statistically significant, really, be afraid, be very afraid.

Skogen · Post by **Skogen** » December 2, 2004, 7:10 pm

Kilmoll the Sexy wrote:We don't have to worry about diseases to thin out the human race. As long as there is Islam, there will be suicide bombers doing that job. Why automate when you can have humans doing the job I guess.

Islamic suicide bombers? Huh? I have a greater chance of being attacked by a shark & hit by lighting in the same day!

Don't under estimate diseases...we haven't had a gool ole' fashoin case of pestilence in this country since the early part of last century....and that was a strain of the flu! How many thousands died of that in this country...about half a million I think. I know it was around 40 million worldwide. It killed more people that WWI, which had just ended.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » December 2, 2004, 8:04 pm

archeiron wrote:It is equally important to note that the nature of the HIV virus makes finding or creating a vaccine incredibly difficult by modern standards. I would venture that lateral thinking in the current medical paradigm will be need to find a "cure" rather than a conventional approach. My guess at the most likely standard solution would be through retrovirii.

Don't interrupt the conspiracy theories. We all know the reason there is no cure for HIV is drug companies and their evil rackets.

Glaxo Smith Kline, (GSK) is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer with 25% of the world market. They are developing vaccines for many diseases including HPV that causes cancer, meningitis, pneumonia and others. But perhaps their most exciting effort is finding a way to stop HIV.

Glaxo joins many other companies, university based scientists, and the NIH in trying to build an AIDS vaccine.

According to Dr. Gerald Voss, the associate director of Glaxo’s HIV vaccine program there are two objectives.

Glaxo is developing a preventative vaccine to be given to people who do not have HIV that would protect them from HIV and would reduce transmission of the illness.

Also in development is a therapeutic vaccine that people with HIV could take as part of their therapy. To try to make such a vaccine makes sense as a Spanish study of the vaccine Remune has shown it helps people’s antivirals keep HIV down.

Glaxo has tested their vaccines successfully in monkeys and is in the middle of a small trial collaborating with the NIH. There are 30 volunteers so far enrolled in this study, which will have a total of 84 volunteers.

Their efforts to develop a therapeutic vaccine are scheduled to begin this year.

They are hoping to have the therapeutic vaccine ready by 2008 and the preventive vaccine available by 2011.

Of course they could fail. But every time a big company or a university scientist or a small biotech firm decides to try to beat this virus, we learn and what we learn always turns into actions that help us fight the disease.

The good news is that one more big company is joining the competition to build an AIDS vaccine.

That was from 2002. No idea on the current status.

Aaeamdar · Post by **Aaeamdar** » December 3, 2004, 11:25 am

Vacines are very good business. Especially one everyone will want. Treat HIV and you have a small population hooked for life, but as far as the name brand inventor of the treatment is concerned, life = apx. 7 - 10 years (patent is 17 years from date of application. patent takes 1-3 years to approve. FDA takes another 5-7). Give that the HIV population in America plus other wealthy nations is very very small, but given that 80%+ of citizens of all wealthy nations would be vacinated, its really a no brainer that an effective vacine will far out pace the profitability of any treatment.

Thess · Post by **Thess** » December 3, 2004, 6:45 pm

Teaching abstinence really seems to be working well!

Rivera Bladestrike · Post by **Rivera Bladestrike** » December 3, 2004, 8:03 pm

Especially in states like Texas which has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy!

Lohrno · Post by **Lohrno** » December 3, 2004, 8:04 pm

Thess wrote:Teaching abstinence really seems to be working well!

Case in point: http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/12/02 ... index.html

-=Lohrno

Niffoni · Post by **Niffoni** » December 4, 2004, 12:46 am

While there's just no question that abstinance-only education (especially the misleading and outright bullshit-laden ones currently in practice) do more harm than good to children, I'm wary of the Waxman report. Both sides have been playing politics with this issue, and that report seriously sets off my spin-alarm.

Lohrno · Post by **Lohrno** » December 4, 2004, 4:05 pm

Niffoni wrote:While there's just no question that abstinance-only education (especially the misleading and outright bullshit-laden ones currently in practice) do more harm than good to children, I'm wary of the Waxman report. Both sides have been playing politics with this issue, and that report seriously sets off my spin-alarm.

=D

Actually I agree. But little these days does not set off my spin alarm.

-=Lohrno

Lalanae · Post by **Lalanae** » December 4, 2004, 4:19 pm

The abstinence programs, which have been embraced by President Bush, will receive $170 million in the current government spending year, more than double what the government was spending when Bush took office in 2001.

Here is some of the BS Bush wants taught to your children:

A.C. Green's Game Plan, named for the professional basketball player who said he would not have sex before he was married, raises question about whether condoms can stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, Waxman's report said. "The popular claim that condoms help prevent the spread of STDs, is not supported by the data," the program's teacher's manual says.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other researchers have found that consistent and correct condom use does protect against transmissions of many STDs, the report said.

Other programs asserted as fact sharply contested claims, the report said. The FACTS middle school program, developed by Northwest Family Services, says, "Conception, also known as fertilization, occurs when one sperm unites with one egg in the upper third of the fallopian tube. This is when life begins."

In another instance, the Why kNOw curriculum asserts "twenty-four chromosomes from the mother and twenty-four chromosomes from the father join to create this new individual," the report said. The correct number is 23 each.

Some curriculums also rely on what Waxman called damaging stereotypes about boys and girls, including that girls care less about achievement and their futures.

The Why kNOw curriculum teaches: "Women gauge their happiness and judge their success by their relationships. Men's happiness and success hinge on their accomplishments."

Sick.

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » December 4, 2004, 4:51 pm

The Why kNOw curriculum teaches: "Women gauge their happiness and judge their success by their relationships. Men's happiness and success hinge on their accomplishments."

Apparently using pop culture references as fact is de rigueur for republicans and their idiot offspring.