AIDS (not quite) CURED.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110603/us_yblog_thelookout/first-man-functionally-cured-of-hiv

Timothy Ray Brown suffered from both leukemia and HIV when he received a bone marrow stem cell transplant in Berlin, Germany in 2007. The transplant came from a man who was immune to HIV, which scientists say about 1 percent of Caucasians are. (According to San Francisco's CBS affiliate, the trait may be passed down from ancestors who became immune to the plague centuries ago. This Wired story says it was more likely passed down from people who became immune to a smallpox-like disease.)

What happened next has stunned the dozens of scientists who are closely monitoring Brown: His HIV went away.

Hell yeah. It's about god damn time. Quick, get this shit to Africa.

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

Caucasian bone marrow is about to sky rocket in value.
Youd better buy up all you can before its to late.

Quick, whats the shelf life for bone marrow?

[Bruno]

This might actually help Africa if you can get the cost of the procedure down to under a buck.

[AFK]

This better not end up being another "cold fusion" moment. 

[Jasper]

It's too much to hope for.  It'll be some time before serious research happens, which then may fail to reproduce the results.

[Cainad (dec.)]

We needs us some stem cell-derived, vat-grown marrow if this is gonna work at all. Bone marrow transplants are painful and I'm pretty sure they're expensive.

[Jasper]

Yeah that's the other thing.  Inconvenience to the supplier.

Bring on the test tube marrow babies, I say.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

This is old news and nothing has ever come of it. Doesn't mean nothing will, just that nothing has yet.

[East Coast Hustle]

Yeah, this is 4 year old news. And for this to work as a large-scale cure, every person with AIDS would have to have a coresponding marrow donor who was immune to HIV. I don't think there are enough of those in the world for the plan to work.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

Dang.

But.

But.

But . . . they know at least one way to cure it. Why isn't this resolved already?

Here I was all excited and now it's just another verse in the song called "People Suck".

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Dang.

But.

But.

But . . . they know at least one way to cure it. Why isn't this resolved already?

Here I was all excited and now it's just another verse in the song called "People Suck".

BMTs are not a trivial exercise.  The match has to be damn near perfect, and then there's a 50% chance it will take.  If it doesn't, you die.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

Dang.

But.

But.

But . . . they know at least one way to cure it. Why isn't this resolved already?

Here I was all excited and now it's just another verse in the song called "People Suck".

BMTs are not a trivial exercise.  The match has to be damn near perfect, and then there's a 50% chance it will take.  If it doesn't, you die.

This is true. It isn't anything pleasant to go through on either end. And if there's any complications from any sort of infection from the recipient it can go tits up and . . . yeah. You're right.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think that the direction the research was taking after this discovery was pretty fucking complex... basically trying to figure out if there is a way to alter a recipient's DNA to make them produce their own HIV-resistant cells. We're talking fullscale genetic engineering on a very, VERY advanced level that we think is theoretically possible, but just don't have the technology for yet.

[Freeky]

I think that the direction the research was taking after this discovery was pretty fucking complex... basically trying to figure out if there is a way to alter a recipient's DNA to make them produce their own HIV-resistant cells. We're talking fullscale genetic engineering on a very, VERY advanced level that we think is theoretically possible, but just don't have the technology for yet.

Couple this with the hysteria over genetically altered pants, of all things, and you've got an unreachable cure.

[Jasper]

It's going to take a lot of research, and a lot of time, and a great deal of money, but you know what?

Okay.

We're humans.  We're not strangers to great works that take longer than lifespans.  We've gotten good at building big things like pyramids and cathedrals in less than a lifetime, and in good time, we'll have cures to AIDS, cancer, and other diseases too.  We are humans, and humans kick ass at doing things that take a long time.