Friday, November 14, 2008
News A Medical Breakthrough
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 6:28 AM
Good news...
Doctors in Berlin are reporting that they cured a man of AIDS by giving him transplanted blood stem cells from a person naturally resistant to the virus.
There's almost always a "but" when it comes to treatment breakthroughs where AIDS is concerned, and here it is:
Top American researchers called the treatment unthinkable for the millions infected in Africa and impractical even for insured patients in top research hospitals.“It’s very nice, and it’s not even surprising,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “But it’s just off the table of practicality.”
The patient, a 42-year-old American resident in Germany, also has leukemia, which justified the high risk of a stem-cell transplant. Such transplants require wiping out a patient’s immune system, including bone marrow, with radiation and drugs; 10 to 30 percent of those getting them die.... Moreover, the chances of finding a donor who is a good tissue match for the patient and also has the rare genetic mutation that confers resistance to H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, are extremely small.
Back to the lab.
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1
Ok so it isn't a widespread cure YET but that is still pretty cool. It opens up avenues for research.
2
I am going to get bitched out about this but remember the days we actually cured, that's right folks CURED sickness?!? Polio? Yeah we cured that, and smallpox.
Am I crazy to think that big pharm. has not interest in actually curing HIV/AIDS? I mean they make a shit load amount of money on keeping people wity HIV drugged up and if they actually cured it, well wouldn't that cut into their profits?
Am I crazy to think that big pharm. has not interest in actually curing HIV/AIDS? I mean they make a shit load amount of money on keeping people wity HIV drugged up and if they actually cured it, well wouldn't that cut into their profits?
3
@2 --- ugh. Stupid point. Those diseases were NOT cured as you say, merely controlled.
"Big pharm" would make tons of cash with a cure.
Do you even know how research is conducted and how costly it is?
"Big pharm" would make tons of cash with a cure.
Do you even know how research is conducted and how costly it is?
4
@2 I think you mean prevented and eradicated, not cured.
Some people do think that pharmacutecal companies are not as invested in finding a cure to AIDS as in coming out with drugs. I doubt anyone is sitting there cackling away at how they can withhold a cure and make more money, but it might be true that they are unconciously putting more effort into finding treatments than cures. This might also be becuase so far there has been no luck with cures but treatments are getting better and better so it seems like a more promising area in the short run.
I do think there are people working on a cure, but it may just not be possible right now. But things like this are really cool and make it seem like it might be possible eventually.
Some people do think that pharmacutecal companies are not as invested in finding a cure to AIDS as in coming out with drugs. I doubt anyone is sitting there cackling away at how they can withhold a cure and make more money, but it might be true that they are unconciously putting more effort into finding treatments than cures. This might also be becuase so far there has been no luck with cures but treatments are getting better and better so it seems like a more promising area in the short run.
I do think there are people working on a cure, but it may just not be possible right now. But things like this are really cool and make it seem like it might be possible eventually.
5
It sounds like Dr. Fauci is toeing the party line. This is a first step that we can hope (a little) will lead to a real cure. It is unfortunate that the greatest handicap faced by American researchers is that they are working in the American medical research system. When/if a cure is developed, I fully expect to see it come out of Europe.
7
@2
1. The amount of people with HIV is relatively low
2. The treatments for AIDS are getting better
3. The nature of transmission makes it more preventable than polio or small pox.
4. Virii aren't curable, merely treatable and preventable.
1. The amount of people with HIV is relatively low
2. The treatments for AIDS are getting better
3. The nature of transmission makes it more preventable than polio or small pox.
4. Virii aren't curable, merely treatable and preventable.
8
That's too bad, I'd happily donate my marrow to infected AIDS patients who match me. Several times, if I could. Well, at least it opens up good research avenues.
10
Wait a minute. Leukemia is terminal enough to justify high-risk treatment, but AIDS is not?
What the fuck?
AIDS is both terminal and contagious, wouldn't that make it a bit higher up on the nothing-to-lose scale?
Last I checked AIDS doesn't ever go into remission, either.
Not saying leukemia isn't serious. Just really boggling that somehow AIDS is not as serious.
What the fuck?
AIDS is both terminal and contagious, wouldn't that make it a bit higher up on the nothing-to-lose scale?
Last I checked AIDS doesn't ever go into remission, either.
Not saying leukemia isn't serious. Just really boggling that somehow AIDS is not as serious.
11
the whole conspiracy idea sounds plausible until you consider the windfall profits a 'cure' would net. the first company to develop a treatment that renders aids as ineffective as smallpox would make billions, not to mention the inevitable nobel prizes and what have you.
12
There was actually some buzz about bone marrow transplants as treatments for AIDS in the late 1980s, but the problems were huge then as they are now. High failure and death rate. Incredibly painful. Unbelievably expensive.
Indeed, if you stack 'em up, the drugs are by far a safer, cheaper, less painful way to go. That's not to say some good research and treatments might come out of this medical oddity, though.
@2, I think at this point there are so many different companies making HIV drugs that the profit windfall is not that enormous. If one company could pull out a vaccine and "save the day," it would be a huge PR triumph for them over everyone else. They salivate over chances like that, so I don't really think they are all scheming with each other to withhold an easy cure. I honestly think they just can't do it.
The Merck vaccine trial (which I was in) was such a catastrophic disaster that no pharm company is going down that route for a long, long time. Merck's legal department has been shitting a brick for months and months, and now that there's a medical precedent no other pharm company will touch vaccine research here in the US. If something goes wrong, they'll be sued into oblivion.
Indeed, if you stack 'em up, the drugs are by far a safer, cheaper, less painful way to go. That's not to say some good research and treatments might come out of this medical oddity, though.
@2, I think at this point there are so many different companies making HIV drugs that the profit windfall is not that enormous. If one company could pull out a vaccine and "save the day," it would be a huge PR triumph for them over everyone else. They salivate over chances like that, so I don't really think they are all scheming with each other to withhold an easy cure. I honestly think they just can't do it.
The Merck vaccine trial (which I was in) was such a catastrophic disaster that no pharm company is going down that route for a long, long time. Merck's legal department has been shitting a brick for months and months, and now that there's a medical precedent no other pharm company will touch vaccine research here in the US. If something goes wrong, they'll be sued into oblivion.
15
And @ 10, while AIDS is indeed very serious, with anti-viral medications people seem to be able to re-constitute their immune systems and live reasonably healthy lives. With certain leukemias, a bone marrow transplant is the only option once standard chemotherapy has failed.
Before the drug Nazis get on my case, yes I know they can have very tough side effects and yes I know they don't work for everyone. I live with someone who takes them.
I have also seen someone who went through a bone marrow transplant for leukemia, and did not survive. It was a horrible thing to see. A treatment like that is so painful, so dangerous, and so invasive that it should truly only be a last resort.
Before the drug Nazis get on my case, yes I know they can have very tough side effects and yes I know they don't work for everyone. I live with someone who takes them.
I have also seen someone who went through a bone marrow transplant for leukemia, and did not survive. It was a horrible thing to see. A treatment like that is so painful, so dangerous, and so invasive that it should truly only be a last resort.
17
There's almost always a "but" ... where AIDS is concerned ...
Dan, I'm appalled that you of all people would say such a thing.
AIDS is not just a gay disease; straight vanilla people can get it just as easily.
19
@2,
It's my understanding that most real research is done by government, non-profits, and educational institutions (usually with government money). Big Pharma will use that research to develop treatments, but most of their research is devoted to making me-too drugs (slightly different formulations of popular drugs like Viagra or Allegra). If there's any conspiracy, it's that Big Pharma won't put real money into developing real treatments, but reap the profits from government-funded research in those areas, and price gouge us for those treatments.
It's my understanding that most real research is done by government, non-profits, and educational institutions (usually with government money). Big Pharma will use that research to develop treatments, but most of their research is devoted to making me-too drugs (slightly different formulations of popular drugs like Viagra or Allegra). If there's any conspiracy, it's that Big Pharma won't put real money into developing real treatments, but reap the profits from government-funded research in those areas, and price gouge us for those treatments.
21
@10, it's not about whether one disease is more terminal or more deserving of treatment than the other, it's about the likelihood of finding a successful match. For a bone marrow treatment for leukemia, you have to find a donor whose bone marrow is a close enough match to your own that your body won't reject it.
A donor who matches that criteria is hard enough to find, and many people never get the match they need. But for the marrow to work in curing AIDS, it must be a match but it must also have a rare genetic mutation, which means you are taking something that is already difficult to find and making in exponentially more difficult.
A donor who matches that criteria is hard enough to find, and many people never get the match they need. But for the marrow to work in curing AIDS, it must be a match but it must also have a rare genetic mutation, which means you are taking something that is already difficult to find and making in exponentially more difficult.
22
@17, I really don't think Dan meant anything even remotely close to what you are inferring. I think he was just referring to the practical and economical hindrances that have come along with every breakthrough in HIV/AIDS research in the last 20 years.
23
@22, I think that 17 was being silly, kind of taking a swipe at all the "Dan! I'm shocked at your racism! White people voted for prop 8 too!" posts.
I know I lol'd.
I know I lol'd.
24
some body to tell about treatment of duchenne muscular dystrophy through stemclls.
my e-mail is jitamar@hotmail.com.
my e-mail is jitamar@hotmail.com.
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