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45 Comments
- febryle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16travisf: As a physician who cares for AIDS patients, I find your comments offensive and ignorant. While many AIDS patients got the virus through risky behavior (same sex, IV drugs) the vast majority these days get AIDS through heterosexual sex and simply don't know better. I've taken care of 80 year old grandmothers with HIV (her husband died mysteriously of "pneumonia" only to find out on autopsy that it was pneumocystis), mothers with children who got it from husbands who didn't know they had it, etc. The fact of the matter is that since the virus typically doesn't deplete the immune system enough to cause clinical disease for about 10 years, there are millions of people with HIV who don't know they have it.
You can't tell people to wear a condom if they don't know how (many people have never even seen one) or can't afford them. Do you think we should let the millions of african women who have AIDS because they've been raped "die off"? Will that really stop the spread of AIDS?
Before making offensive statments you should learn about a topic so you don't come across as an idiot.
Thank you. - CnorthMSU, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm a tad leery of reading these kinds of headlines and what they become in the minds of the general public. Anyone who understands the basic molecular biology that the HIV virus uses to infect individuals and to propagate would recognize that while current forms of the virus that have been identified may be "weak", that is not an indication that HIV as a whole is becoming less dangerous. It does regularly mutate, and eventually you get a different strain of the virus (this is in part how drug resistance develops).
Consider influenza. While we might consider it "weak", we also know it has the potential to kill millions of people if it mutates in just the right way (the 1918 flu pandemic killed over 20 million people). That is why every year around flu season people start getting freaky about "sensitive populations should get vaccinated". - jmaze, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Actually, HIV has never been definitively shown to cause AIDS. Researchers working on HIV cannot say exactly how the HIV retrovirus destroys cells. No scientific study has ever been done that shows that HIV is the cause. The only basis for this assertion is a correlation between AIDS patients who are HIV positive, which is re-enforced by the fact that the WHO has a different name for a disease with all the same symptoms of AIDS, but in a patient who has never tested HIV positive. Not all people opposing the acceptance of HIV as the cause of AIDS are bigots. I for one, don't believe any of that crap about homosexuality or immorality causing AIDS. I just feel, as many of my peers in the scientific community do, that more research is needed to determine the cause of AIDS.
Scientists that promote this viewpoint are being shunned because those researchers who do work on AIDS would lose all of their money if HIV were not the cause. Everyone focuses their work on curing HIV infections, and all their work would be useless if it were shown that HIV is as harmless as most other retroviruses.
This has gone on way too long, and I apologize. It just bothers me a great deal that no alternative causes are even being looked for. - Permanent4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Saying that AIDS is weakening is like saying the New England Patriots aren't as good as they were last year, or that Microsoft isn't the monopoly it used to be. Until you defeat it in a way that matters, it's still a threat.
- Wamzlee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You are either with us, or against us, with this war on AIDS!
FREEEDOM! WMD!!!! - zediker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1So they found a strain that had a bad mutation, so what? Its only a matter of time before a favorable mutation occurs and its no longer weak.
- ILL_Robinson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Lead title of digg should be "AIDS virus 'could be weakening'" - reflecting the actual title of the article and not a misleading one.
Interesting piece, but no digg from me. - birdadderley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That is great news, but like silent1985 Zediker said it's the mutations. Yes we may get rid of 1 or 2 strains of it, but remember, nature doesn't like being tampered with. Is it not bad enough that the HIV viron can take the hosts' proteins and stick it into its surface proteins so it can hide from your system? The Antigen level drops to almost zero after the first infection and waits until your antibody level starts to drop; then the antigen level skyrockets and that's when it destroys your immune system. The virion is known to hide in the lymph nodes for years before remission. I doubt a virion such as this will ever be stopped. We produce a drug, nature produces a version where the drug is broken or isn't bound to.
- wildjohn999, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What about heart disease, cancer, and influenza? More people die from these non-publicized/non-politicized diseases. Where is the press and mucho funding for these diseases?
- Fowz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I hope that I am still alive when the cure is found.
- thisisjace, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1travisf: Just because you love the feeling of a condom doesn't mean others should die because they either fu**ed up or were fu**ed over.
- Jarrod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1zer0status: Do you honestly think no one's ever heard your "theory" before? Every hillbilly and redneck has at some time or another uttered an exact copy of your comment, verbatim. Thanks for the oh-so brilliant insight!
- stuffedstich, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0also travisf, some people are born with aids. Should they die because their parents made a mistake? i hope not.
- kevin.gc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah, we almost got it, just give us a little help and we can win the war on AIDS!
- jmaze, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0http://www.duesberg.com/
And another, but I'm going to stop now, as this is not the focus of this Digg story. - bacomage1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Way to refer to AIDS as a "virus". Cause everyone who knows a thing about it knows that "virus" is the most accurate description of it.
- jmaze, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/kmsdtrib.htm
Here is an article for those interested in my comment. - silent1985, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0aren't you all being a little too optimistic they said the tested 12 samples HIV is mutating exponentially where each strain of the virus is different. that's why there was a problem making vaccine
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If you know you have it and you willingly pass it on, it is illegal. You can get the death penalty for it here in the US. It has happened before.
- Web_Weasel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0With all the disaster and doom in the news these days it's nice to read about something good once and a while.
- Dr.House, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0this is good news but we still have a ways to go before we can go to town without condoms. I don't know about you guys but VD's don't seem very fun.
- TooBIG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0You know there will never be a fix for it at least in our lifetime, drug companies, doctors, ect. need aids and all these other things to make money and ther eis no way it's gona go away...
- T-DOT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Way to refer to AIDS as a "virus". Cause everyone who knows a thing about it knows that "virus" is the most accurate description of it."
I noticed that. But to be fair, they did refer to the HIV virus in the article. - mckirkus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Not just AIDS. My ex GF told me to get an STD test before she'd accomodate my needs. They wouldn't even test for the herp. She (doctor) said so many people have it now that they simply don't test because people needlessly freak out and jump off buildings.
So the point is that someday we'll all have AIDS but it won't kill us anymore. I guess Ebola is a victim of its own success too, it's hard to stagger out of the village to infect others when you're suffering from massive, multiple orifice hemmoraging. - green1152, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The question is what's next, if this is true?
- cantimolto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i have to seriously question the nature of this study. 12 samples is nowhere near enough to make any claims. I know BBC isn't a scientific journal, but i want to see more facts and figures.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0the virus is actually more fit for its host not less fit because it can now survive in it longer without killing the host which in a sense is killing the virus. The goal is not to die so if a virus can learn to not kill the host then it is in fact more, not less fit
- IraqManiac, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"So the point is that someday we'll all have AIDS but it won't kill us anymore. "
or we could completely eliminate it... that would make more sense - ironbear, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I know people get it due to ignorance or even mistakes from medical instituions, but heres the deal If I ever got it I'd take myself out of the general population or kill myself, either way I could get the virus to die."
Ignorance spreads like a virus, too, zerostatus.
Weak evidence. Weak story. Still a strong virus, unfortunately. No digg. - wildjohn999, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"You know there will never be a fix for it at least in our lifetime, drug companies, doctors, ect. need aids and all these other things to make money and there is no way it's gona go away..."
this is simply retarded. - TheNino85, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"AIDS virus is weakening"
Famous last words. - tastypastry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0there will never be a cure, they want you to die.
- randokam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Some studies suggest recent strains of HIV are more sensitive to drugs while others claim strains are becoming more resistant."
this is all ne1 needs to know about this article. they got nothing.
no digg... - echimu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Bottom line:
"HIV is still a life-threatening infection" . (dot) - kevin.gc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Attempting to have sex while also harboring a venereal disease should result in forced sexual quarantine (for as long as the person has the disease).
This way, we can slowly eradicate all venereal diseases and finally have safe sex. - BobbyG, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0One word: FUZEON
- joebus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0lol yea but zer0status... that isn't the American way -_- it would be inhumane and people would yell. yea its a good idea i think but others don't. I don't like articles like these because they create a false hope. History in science has proved that virus's and bacteria mutate there way around medicine and then we would have to make a new vaccine. We haven't been able to create a single vaccine for Aids, so how are we gonna be able to create many?
- digital.dreamer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Great news.
- chuckfoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Seems like every time they need more more they release one of these stories.
- dynamx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Two words: Magic Johnson
- funderbolt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0In Soviet Russia, not only does the virus infect you, you infect the VIRUS!
- kevin.gc, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Yeah, we almost got it, just give us a little help and we can win the war on AIDS! (was being sarcastic)
- rc_collins, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Sweet!!! I hate wearing rubbers.
- Zer0Status, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Alright my opinion, is probly not a popular one. Let's go back to the black plauge era of medicine where people were rounded up and dumped, we could make AIDS colonies like The lepers had, if we isolate those with the disease we run a better chance to get rid of it. I know people get it due to ignorance or even mistakes from medical instituions, but heres the deal If I ever got it I'd take myself out of the general population or kill myself, either way I could get the virus to die. I think a drastic measure needs to be done because the numbers just keep growing. That's just my opinion though.
- travisf, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0So uh, why do we fight AIDS? What's wrong with letting it kill off all the people who insist on having unprotected sex?
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