At least 5 people have been cured of HIV. Is the AIDS pandemic ending?::undefined
We have tests, we have treatment, we have cultural awareness and more common preventative sex practices in at risk individuals, we have huge public health apparatus domestically and internationally to trace and track cases, we have drugs that keep HIV from turning into AIDS, we have drugs to “prep before you have sex” to prevent transmission. I think using the word AIDS and pandemic in the same sentence is a bit alarmist at this point. However I also think to say it’s “cured” is also a step too far. It is a deadly communicable disease that we have made exponential strides in managing over the last 3 decades
As always, if a headline is in the form of a question, the answer is: No.
As it was a few years ago, the only “cure” is bone marrow transplants from somebody with the gene variant that is resistant to HIV. And bone marrow transplants, since in their application need to wipe out your existing immune system, are riskier than just continuing to be on ART.
The other potential cures in the article have only been tested on monkeys and mice, and even if they end up working on humans that’s many, many years away.
The article is kind of a waste of time if you already know about the bone marrow application, as expected. Actually, that’s kind of harsh, it’s mostly positive, which we need more of, but from a science news perspective there’s not much there.
Perfect case of Betteridge’s law of headlines. No, the AIDS pandemic is not ending. Almost nobody has access to this level of care and that will not change until we fix some other things (you can all see my home instance lol). But this is promising for our understanding of the virus and the human body as a whole, so it’s not sensationalism, just overly optimistic.
Yeah the unfortunate reality is that the current status of aids is that it didn’t need to be a problem even despite not having a cure or vaccine. For proof look at the American gay community. We don’t really have much of an hiv problem outside of our poorest portions. Basically every slutty middle class gay man in America is on prep or knows to take pep if exposed. Condoms are widely used. Those with HIV often are able to prevent it from progressing to aids and to keep their viral loads below transmissible levels. And we’re on the verge of an HIV vaccine. Gonorrhea is a bigger problem.
But in many countries the meds that keep this scourge under control are hard to access at best. My biggest hope here is that some health organization buys out the patent on this drug and goes full Jonas Salk with it. We needed it 40 years ago in America, but now here it’s nice to have for most. In Africa it’s desperately needed precisely because of the reasons it won’t be accessible. Hiv needs the smallpox treatment.
It would be nice to get some primer on the article, since I don’t have time to read this all. But this is great news! I hope that whatever method they are using scales, and also generalises to all AIDS patients, with whatever variants they are having.
