"German Man Cured of HIV?"

Already posted this. See here: http://emptyclosets.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41342

 

Magic Johnson had AIDS he seems to be cured.

 

Magic Johnson is merely a testament to the highly manageable nature of HIV treatments today. When they were first introduced just a mere fifteen years ago, the projected lifespan of an HIV patient jumped to twenty years post-exposure...and this number grows as we're beginning to realize that the original estimates were highly conservative. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that current HIV drugs can prevent progression of AIDS up until natural death, however the side-effects and 33% initial failure rate still indicate that there's much work to be done.

 

There are also men who have had HIV for decades without even knowing, and they never wound up getting sick or anything. we're talking someone who has gone for like 50 years without ever knowing.

 

Before we had the anti-viral drugs that we have now, people with AIDS developed other problems- dementia, cancer, for example. And the evidence was that the virus was able to affect other cells besides white blood cells.

It will be interesting to see what his long-term prognosis is.

There's been several stories in the news the past couple of weeks about new "cures" for HIV or drugs that will "prevent" HIV infection. After seeing these kinds of stories for over 25 years now, I'm not optimistic. Really, the only thing that will really prevent HIV is an immunization but it's looking more and more like an HIV immunization will be like the flu shot- it won't prevent the infection but it will better help your body fight it.

Back in the mid 80s, we figured out how to prevent HIV infection: avoiding high risk sexual contact, avoiding exchanging body fluids and using a condom.

So, here we are all these years later, talking about expensive drugs (we're talking $12-20 thousand per patient) and expensive treatments (chemo and stem cells are probably over $100,000). All because we don't seem to be able to put on a $1 condom?

 

:eusa_clap Well said!

I find that story about the German man quite interesting, thanks for posting. In reality though anti-retro viral drugs are so good these days, that in the Western world most people with HIV have normal life expectancies. So I doubt anyone would ever risk death with chemo, in order to "cure" themselves.

 

I'd just like to point out that this is six of one half a dozen of the other. This man had a bone marrow transplant due to leukaemia - what this means is, in effect, large swathes of his cellular immune system was replaced with another person's. The immune system is tasked with destroying all that is not recognised as 'self' to this end this man's new immune system must be partly suppressed with drugs to stop it from killing him. Net result - you're still popping expensive meds on a daily basis and you still have a compromised immune system. This is a huge non story.

 

I agree that for this particular man, he has been dealt a crap hand in life. But I dont believe this is a non story. Quite the contrary, events like this lead to medical advancements. History of medicine are riddled with stories like this, and accidental finds. Shucks most people would think fungus in a petri dish would be a non story but without it Penicillin wouldn't exist.