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Subscribe to RSS“Treatment is Prevention.” It is a simple slogan that has dominated this year’s International AIDS Conference, springing from a 2011 study that showed when HIV patients receive proper drug treatment, they not only remain healthy, but are also virtually incapable of infecting others.
The solution to AIDS -- the terrible plague that has killed 64,000 Americans and 35 million people worldwide over the past 31 years -- does not require waiting for a vaccine, which remains at least a decade away, or exploring research avenues towards a “cure,” something achieved in one man with a dangerous, terribly expensive and complex bone marrow transplant. All that needs to be done is to find all who are infected, get them treatment and the virus will die out. That would lead us to a future “generation without AIDS,” another refrain heard often at the conference.
Jacquelyn Martin / AP
The world's largest AIDS conference returns to the United States for the first time since 1990.
As America’s leading AIDS physician, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases puts it: “Now we have the tools that we know work and that if we implement them, we know they will ultimately be effective."
But Fauci and most other experts are well aware that it is not so simple.
In the United States there are 1.2 million people living with HIV infection, the virus that causes AIDS. About 20 percent of them don't know they are infected.
“Between 60-70 percent of all new infections come from an individual who's infected, does not know that he or she is infected and infects someone else,” Fauci says. “So if you just imagine if you can get into the community, penetrate the community to the higher risk people, get them voluntarily tested and linked to this continuum of care, you would have a major impact that would be almost immediate.”
But there are massive problems facing this strategy, according to numerous sessions at the AIDS conferences. There are reports of people losing their homes, their friends, their jobs and their family connections when others learn they are HIV positive. The stigma of AIDS may be less than it once was, but it is far from gone.
No wonder many people do not volunteer for the test, even though screening now only involves a cheek swab and a wait of 20 minutes. All too often men have sex with men and yet do not want to admit it to themselves it has happened, let alone to the community in which they live.
And just testing is hardly enough. People have to get medical treatment and then stick with it. For example, physicians have long known that many well-off heart patients with access to good health care fail to properly take their medicines after they have had a heart attack, putting themselves at greater risk for another. Take that general problem and put it into heavily AIDS-infected populations that have long lacked access to adequate medical care, such as African-Americans and Hispanic men and women, and one can see that “a continuum of care” is often difficult to achieve. Efforts to cut expenditures on medical care for poor people will make the challenges even greater.
But success stories can also be heard at the conference sessions. Washington, D.C. has brought down its huge HIV rate by offering testing in many places, including the Department of Motor Vehicles, drug stores and mobile vans. The nation’s capital has also made great efforts to reduce the stigma and get people into proper treatment. Rwanda, the east African country that was the scene of one of the most brutal massacres of modern times, has managed to bring down its huge infection rate through testing and treatment.
However, those positive stories do remain rare, existing only when there is a huge commitment from the top levels of society, a source of funds and a political will to support the programs. Sadly, in many parts of the United States and much of the world, both are still lacking.
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Related:
Man believed cured of AIDS says he's still cured
Leave a Comment:
why wouldnt the united states simply make avalable the CURE that they already have?
oh yea thats right profits...why put out the cure when you can treat everyone with meds that they will have to buy for the rest of their lives.dont forget just as with cancer (which they already have a cure for as well, but you will never see it),they can treat you as long as you can pay for the treatment,,but they wont cure you.even in remission you must take many meds,,and that means more and more profits
if a desease threatens the fabric of the nation as with small pox and polio,,they (with old age tech and understanding) sure came up with a CURE really quick, and made sure that EVERYONE was permited to have the drug.
but if its only some or a few are affected then you will NEVER see the CURE (oh they have the cure dont ever doute that) but you will never see it. not when they can make massive profits off of treating you for the rest of your life.
its all a scam dont ever think it isnt,, if a strain of aids became airbourne and it started to look like the nation would be over run with it , they would have a complete cure in a matter of days....
when a group wanting a cure becomes a corporation,,there is no longer a need for a cure then it becomes about treatment and prolonged profits,stockholders and dividends...
people want a cure, corporations want profits and there is no profit in a cure,,,,its really just that simple,,just like there will always be war because there is no profit in peace..
At a world cost of 64 billion, we could end AIDS, and have the first generation without it.
What's more important, wars, or defeating AIDS.
Wars!!!!!!!!!!
OK sjhrace, why don't you share with us what the cures to AIDS and cancer "they" discovered are, since you seem so well informed. And btw, please tell us also who "they" are.
There is no "cure". To cure would mean to remove the virus that causes the disease. Man has yet to find a way in which to remove all viruses from a body. Every. Single. Last. One. It is like dumping a huge amount of fine sand in a house. There are ways to remove the sand in great quantities, but there is likely to always be at least one grain of sand you missed. That one grain of sand, that one HIV virus, even after removing all of those other HIV viruses, is enough for it to exponentially grow and multiply to previous levels.
Timothy Ray Brown is not cured. He just has enough resistance now to live with HIV without drugs. The HIV virus is still inside of him. He could still pass it on to another human being, but now there is a much lower chance.
That is what these treatment drugs do. They reduce the amount of HIV viruses so much in infected peoples' bodies that there are not enough viruses present to truly affect their body anymore. They make the possibility of transmission low. So low that the amount of cases starts to decline (this threshold was passed recently). There is still always that chance of transmission, but again, it is extremely low.
The only way to "cure" AIDs is like how smallpox was cured. Get rid of the virus entirely by stopping transmissions. In that case, it was simply vaccinate everyone so that infected people could not pass it on to them. In this case, it is have the infected get treatment so they don't pass it on. For this reason, getting rid of AIDs will be a lot easier than getting rid of smallpox.
Even if there is a cure of something, do you think corporations would allow it?
It's more profitable for treatment than to cure something. The whole point is to make more money, not to help people.
truth seeker:::thats simple "THEY" are the corporations that manufacture and develop meds....
look at it from there point of view: would you rather cure a person and charge them $1000
or would you rather treat them with meds for say 20 years and charge them $20 a pill that they have to take 2 times a day and make $14,600
its simple,,,stockholders want profits not healthy people....if people stop being sick,,they dont make any money....why is that so hard for you to see?
Maybe because I'm a researcher who worked for quite some time on HIV and I know first hand how difficult it is. The thing is, we are mortal, always were and always will be, no matter how much progress medicine works. If we find a cure for cancer (and chance are there will not be a single one considering the complexity of the disease), something else will come along. You can bet on that.
Or you could keep your d*ck in your pants and needles out of your arms.
How about you're at a wreck and need to put your hand over an artery that is gushing blood and you have a cut on your hand.
What if some dumb dentist, reuses a needle that he injected an HIV infected person with.
There are more ways to get it than by "d*ick".
If it were not for Homo's and Drug addicts we would not even have an AID's problem.
Armyret world wide HIV is more rampant in heterosexuals than it is in homosexuals. It is only in the west where it is more prevalent the the gay population.
Right armyret, because homosexuals spontaneously generated it. Get a grip on reality and actually do the research.
Right Eric, that's how almost all of it spread.
Still if one kept their d*ck in there pants it would prevent the majority of it, hetro or homo.
Here is a 99.95% effective AIDS prevention strategy:
I am a 43year old mother of two, a son who is 26yrs old and a daughter who is 10yrs old. I am a nurse and work very hard in the dialysis field! i have had pt and friends with hiv and aids. I even have worked in S.F. CA. but my world came crashing down when my very well educated son who is bisexual slept with his long time GIRLFRIEND who just came back from a duty station overseas for three months and slept with a local the then came home and slept with my son who was at that time 17yrs old!!!! It changed my wourld and my family's world!!! I just came back from DC on the 22nd of july from a birthday trip for my now 11 yr old and to see and hear all the names and see the quilt with all the names of people that have died or have been touched by this is so heart braking. we are all on borrowed time in the world and are given things in our lifes that are sometimes hard to understand but standing there with my 11 year old and helping unfold a quilt just to be a part and change a life as she puts it was so much more then fussing about who's falt it is and what cure we need to fined!!! i would like to say my son has been on his two little pills for 9 years now and is nondetectable for 81/2 years and i know god willing there will be a cure one day!!!!! and all we can do for people that hate and judge is pray for them....those without sin cast the first stone.....and yes im still waiting to see the one who says they have no sin!!! GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!
So how is Hilary going to stop the but-hole bangers?
There is also heterosexual transmission, mother to child transmission (if they don't go on retrovirals), so........it's not just about gay sex.
It is mostly about male gay sex. Female gay sex is safer than heterosexual sex. The key is monogamy. Condoms are the fall back to monogamy. Circumcision is BS. It is either cosmetic surgery or mutilation depending upon the eye of the beholder.
Dale...no it's not. AIDS is more rampant among heterosexuals in African nations.
Freddy...how about you just STFU. It's obvious from your retarded comments that you have an IQ equivalent to that of a gnat. Go back to watching Larry the Cable Guy and let the big people talk. jesus.
Dale;
The World Health Organization begs to differ...
http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/malecircumcision/en/
You might want to tell that to the 85% of HIV positive folks in the world who got it from heterosexual sex.
There are some lunatics who put HIV infected needle on the seat at theater.
There are more ways to get HIV than just having gay sex. Get a clue and get educate.
If it were not for Homo's and Drug addicts we would not even have an AID's problem. They started it and passed it along to the Normal population.
ArmyRet please do some research before spreading anopinion that is frankly wrong.
The epidemic is believed to have begun in a hunter group in Africa. The oldest sample HIV has been detected in is from a hunter in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from a sample stored in 1959. It was also detected in samples from his wife indicating he had passed the infection on.
Zhu, T et. al (1998, 5th February) 'An African HIV-1 Sequence from 1959 and Implications for the Origin of the Epidemic' Nature, 391(6667)
And it is originally believed to have started in a type of monkey that was capable of spreading something air or waterborn to humans...
The UN and some other fuddy duddies want to mandate taxpayer funding to treat EVERY potential AIDS case. Is it me, or is this political disease getting special treatment that other diseases don't get?
What diseases are you talking about? At least with AIDs, a virus, there is a known course to take in which the virus can be removed from the face of the Earth.
If 20% of those with aids don't know it and continued drug abuse and gays not always protecting themselves.How is aids going to disappear for any length of time? Sounds like wishful thinking by throwing money at it.
Robert Bazell, I would like to know what happened to the broad spectrum anti-viral DRACO which was making so much news not too long ago. Was it killed by big pharma? It's just disappeared from the news.
A cure for this and other viruses would certainly be a lot less expensive then medicating people for the rest of their lives, and that would be much better for the public and those who pay into health care, but much worse for the pharmaceutical companies, so I have to wonder.
I would really appreciate an update on that, sir.
sjhrace
It's not that simple. Smallpox and measles are caused by bacteria and they respond well to medications. HIV, which causes AIDS is a virus and they don't react to medication, partly because they keep mutating. Otherwise don't you think that there would be a cure for the common cold (actually not so common due to different viral strains).
Eric 913730
While your analysis is possible it is less likely to occur. Most infections are from unprotected sex with an infected person or shared needles between drug users. Sorry, all of you who want to find other routes of infection, these are the most common.
Treating the disease is not the best course. Prevention is. That means less unprotected sex, less casual sex between high risk partners (sorry again, usually gay men or IV drug users).
Of course pervention is more difficult because a certain percentage of the population will not change their behaviour, whether it is sexual practices or drug usage.
Smallpox and measles are both caused by viruses, however they do not mutate as fast, unlike HIV which is a retro virus with a rapid mutation rate.
Yes, the HIV that one person has is not the same as the next person. It is one reason why some people diagnosed with HIV in the 1980's died in just a few weeks even if they had been healthy previously, and some are still alive.
85% of new cases worldwide are from heterosexual partners. In some countries, it is still possible to receive blood that is contaminated with HIV.
What is is with people and "Big insert name of business here"? It's always "big oil", "big pharma" or "big any business that is successful, making money and employing lots and lots of people". Have you all drank the liberal kool-aid and think that all business is evil and uncaring? Try stepping away from CNN and MSLSD for a bit and try to understand the way that business works. Also try to understand the way the federal government works to thwart business.
Pharma is regulated by a huge number of laws and regulations, all designed to "protect you from harm". What that does is make developing drugs hugely expensive and takes them forever to get to where they are needed...to the sick. Maybe you should be more upset and fearful of "big government" creating all of those expensive and time-consuming regulations.
Think about this. What is more dangerous to a person with a brain tumor, AIDS or prostate cancer...a lopw cost drug that may result in side effects that you can have today that saves your life...or a perfectly safe drug that you can't afford that comes out five days after you are laid to rest?
Pharmaceutical companies are in business to make money! HEAVEN FORBID! THEY MAKE A PROFIT? Yes, how else are they going to develop the drugs that help us with everything from hemorrhoids to herpes. Thank goodness they make lots and lots of money so they can keep doing what they do. Have you noticed that we are living longer and living better? Or are you too busy getting mad at the companies that are making life better instead of the government that makes life more difficult?
Krestov
My error. You are correct they are viruses.
The biggest challenge to preventing AIDS is ending sodomy and drug abuse, really . . .
Really! :-o
We can all thank the homosexuals fot this disease.
Really Mikey? Well we can all thank you heterosexuals for Hep B & C, Syphillis, and and and and....
STFU. Idiot.
i cannot believe the amount of ignorance and stigma i am reading in this post. its extremely disappointing.
Agreed.
There are actually some theories to suggest HIV was transmitted from an ape to a homosexual man in Africa. Because the homosexual man did not want his sexuality known (which could have lead to being killed), he resorted to bestiality. That is why the first transmissions were prevelant among gay men after he left his home country. Again a theory, but if it is true then HIV would have never surfaced into humans if there was not such extreme anti-homosexual violence.
I am a Christian myself who believes it is morally wrong, but at least if violence against homosexuals had stopped earlier then the whole AIDs epidemic, and all of the pain and suffering associated with it (to Christians, non-Christians, heterosexuals, and homosexuals)--it all would have never happened.
There is no "cure". To cure would mean to remove the virus that causes the disease. Man has yet to find a way in which to remove all viruses from a body. Every. Single. Last. One. It is like dumping a huge amount of fine sand in a house. There are ways to remove the sand in great quantities, but there is likely to always be at least one grain of sand you missed. That one grain of sand, that one HIV virus, even after removing all of those other HIV viruses, is enough for it to exponentially grow and multiply to previous levels.
Timothy Ray Brown is not cured. He just has enough resistance now to live with HIV without drugs. The HIV virus is still inside of him. He could still pass it on to another human being, but now there is a much lower chance.
That is what these treatment drugs do. They reduce the amount of HIV viruses so much in their bodies that there are no longer enough to truly affect their body anymore, and they send the possibility of transmission so low the amount of cases will drop. There is still always that chance of transmission, but again, it is extremely low.
The only way to "cure" AIDs is like how smallpox was cured. Get rid of the virus entirely by stopping transmissions. In that case, it was simply vaccinate everyone so that infected people could not pass it on to them. In this case, it is have the infected get treatment so they don't pass it on. For this reason, getting rid of AIDs will be a lot easier than getting rid of smallpox.
There is no effective vaccine yet.
Sorry if I confused you. But what I said was AIDs will be a lot more easier to eradicate because unlike smallpox, you do not have to vaccinate everyone. You only have to treat the infected so that they are almost 100% incapable of passing the disease on. Rather than vaccinate billions, you only treat the 30 million.
As long as there are queers and lesbo's there will never be a cure, maybe this is god's punishment on that type of life style, let them die sooner than later. Save us billions in tax payer money.
As long as there are idiots like you common sense will never prevail. Your phony god hasn't got anything to do with it either. There's no cure for Hepatitis C either...is that your god's punishment too?
STFU. Idiot.
so freedom-supporter you think you know what god thinks? do you know the part when he says THOSE WITHOUT SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE? or maybe you think you have no sin awwww so your JESUS!!
This article is full of B S. Aids is the easiest disease to get rid of.. Just ask yourself , How do you get Aids ??
Actually there should be no disease called Aids.. Usually low class trash gets Aids due to their animal behavior.
I say the hell with them all !!!!
Seems to me this article is biased:
While this statement is undoubtedly accurate, it is the only place where a source of HIV is suggested, and it suggests MSM (men who have sex with men regardless of their "orientation"). HIV is a disease that does not discriminate. It used to be most prevalent in MSM for the reason stated in this article. Because of homophobia and gay stigma, most same-sex encounters were done anonymously, and without protection. Greater acceptance and equality for LGBTQ people has improved the use of protection and long-term relationships. This isn't to say that the problem is gone - there is still far too much stigma, particularly in the USA and Africa, surrounding MSM and HIV. This stigma still forces MSM to remain anonymous for fear of brutal assaults, loss of job, loss of family and friends, and even loss of their home. Full legal equality would be a great first step to encouraging people to accept each other as they are - something that isn't likely to be forthcoming in the next few years at least (again, in the USA specifically).
Marcher,
Sorry but the data is not biased. It's how it gets reported that is biased. And I agree with you - this article IS biased. Against the facts. I think this guy was totally beating around the bush by avoiding even the use of the word homosexual.
So look at that data on the CDC website for even the last 5 years and it will tell you facts.
However, it will NOT provide documentation for things that can't be quantified like "full legal equality". The lack of legal equality has nothing to do with stopping AIDS - condoms do not take sides when it comes to heterosexual or homosexual couples. And I know not one person who is part of a heterosexual relationship who has died of AIDS. I know a number of gays from high school and my spouses gay cousin who have all died. Also, data regarding homosexual partners suggest that men who are homosexual will cheat on their partners just like heteros, only perhaps more frequently. Full legal equality wont change those figures, either. The best thing gays can do for the gay movement, is live their lives like heteros - don't parade your sexuality. It's vulgar and tasteless, regardless of a person's sexual orientation. And it turns people off.
People could use a condom & eliminate it now. Unfortunately, all of the Baby Boomers who caused this disease are unwilling to take personal responsibility to use a condom because they've grown up without ever having to be responsible.
Robert Bazell,
("Chief Science and Medical Correspondent" If that's the case then please use HONEST legitimate references)
WHY are you profiling the population of the persons affected with the highest rate of aids as "African-Americans and Hispanic men and women." Even if this might be a recent development, this has NOT been the case for the last 30 years.*** (For some reason, the data charts on the Center For Disease Control website won't open so I can't verify your claims at the moment)
It is VERY common knowledge that this scourge is primarily the result of the sexual practices of homosexual men - regardless of race. A few years ago it was WHITE men at the top of the list of those infected. You reference Blacks, and Hispanic men AND women, yet you fail to be upfront enough to even use the word "homosexual" in your article. And no, simply mentioning "men have sex with men and don't want to admit it" does NOT cut it when it comes to reporting with integrity.
It IS the GAY MALES who are primarily responsible for populating our society in the United States with AIDS. Yes, there are transimissions from drug users, but the numbers are far lower. And it's not much of a stretch to say there's a strong probability that a good number of people who engage in high risk drug use also engage in high risk sexual activity - like you said they just dont want to admit it.
And lastly, you write "All that needs to be done is to find all who are infected, get them treatment and the virus will die out." Really? No possibilty that a new strain will develop resistance to the treatment? This is truly oversimplifying a major medical issue (and you do somewhat admit that, so I'm just underscoring this fact).
It would be so very appreciated if all these online news outlets which are bending over bassackwards to color the "gay" issues as completely benign and claiming they are finding support in most corners - would just STOP the antics. Make it real. Make it honest. And when it comes to gay marriage, stop trying to force the issue with the general public - a majority of whom still oppose this, mainly because the gays THEMSELVES say "why do you care what we do" and THEN still proceed to make sure people DO CARE by parading themselves in the public and media every chance there is. Just STOP. Or at least be HONEST. Fair enough?
Lying RATS. They know HIV did not cause AIDS which is the same reason they could not make a vaccine.
It is stealth infections caused by using spirochetal slime in vaccines they KNEW could not be killed. They have been allowed to murder the public on purpose for 30yrs. because they knew using HeLa cells in the HepB vaccines was made from a woman who had Syphilis and it cannot be decontaminated and when it worked so well on Gay men to hide the infections in prion synergy that folded their genes into the stealth spirochetes genes in the 15-24 mths. it takes to recombine they bought your lives to now tolerize any and all infections proven in masses suffering the lies of AUTISM and all SYNDROMES OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN. These criminal should be in jail for Crimes Against Humanity not sitting in high offices legislating more garbage to murder the public.
And you can thank our Honorable Pres. who won US patent relief hoarded for 30 yrs. so all could see the lies of all the bits and peices...and stupid wonders why Repub.s number one agenda is to remove him from office...
When it comes time for truth do you think they will continue to add antigens to the mix or do you think they will treat the masses for the real AIDS this time? Well lets see---what choice will the people have? Chemo/Rituximab they now trial in all the so called Syndromes----or antibiotics to systematically kill all the infections in hiding and then stem cells to raise the gates of the immune system that genetically altered organisms in vaccines have destroyed....
The choice may or may NOT be yours because as the 1 in 29 who suffer the lies of Autism, who got it from their parents who don't even know they are sick----as a sexually transmitted disease they can tell you how and when and you the tax payers get to pay not only for them infecting us, but for trying to save us too...