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Possible HIV Cure
Dec. 14th, 2010 01:51 pm"Evidence for the cure of HIV infection by CCR532/32 stem cell transplantation"
http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/cgi/content/abstract/blood-2010-09-309591v1
As a child of the 1980s, I grew up at the same time as the AIDS epidemic first thrust its way into the public conscience. It went from being the 'homo killer' joke of the early 80s to a 'welfare solution' amoungst poor urban black populations to a nightmarish plague by the end of the decade once heterosexual whites got infected. I have never experienced a uniform ugliness like that of AIDS; not just the haunting images of stick thin men in hospital beds, with skin so translucent that you can only imagine shattering with a touch, appealing for research into the disease. It was the way it was co-opted into the political and class warfare of the time. I can, with complete clarity, remember the smug satisfaction one special guest on a news program took from the rise of cases, using it as the 'clear sign' that the lifestyle of gays made it possible. Or the worthless, greedy, largely minority poor deserved it for their drug addictions and petty crime. The first time you personally experience real evil makes it impossible to recognize at that moment, but you carry that stark re-action along with you.
I entered sexual maturity in a time when the worst thing that could happen was sex with the wrong person would kill you. My father worried about getting someone pregnant, or catching an embarrassing disease that forced you to endure a couple of shots from a disapproving doctor. Instead, sex involved a life or death risk. Considering, I was lucky. As a non-drug using straight male, my chances of accidentially contracting HIV were lower than others. AIDS was still weighted towards junkies and gay men. That would change quickly.
But even so, it always lingered there as that death sentence; can't be cured, can't be stopped. Catch it and boom, your life is entirely different and considerably shorter from that point on. If I have to live with that basic level of tangible fear, I can only imagine how completely paralyzing it must have been when it first emerged. Especially amoungst already vulnerable populations and seized on as a 'righteous' and deserved affliction.
If this is true, if this result can be reproduced, the impact is going to be as tremendous as that of the disease itself.
http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/cgi/content/abstract/blood-2010-09-309591v1
As a child of the 1980s, I grew up at the same time as the AIDS epidemic first thrust its way into the public conscience. It went from being the 'homo killer' joke of the early 80s to a 'welfare solution' amoungst poor urban black populations to a nightmarish plague by the end of the decade once heterosexual whites got infected. I have never experienced a uniform ugliness like that of AIDS; not just the haunting images of stick thin men in hospital beds, with skin so translucent that you can only imagine shattering with a touch, appealing for research into the disease. It was the way it was co-opted into the political and class warfare of the time. I can, with complete clarity, remember the smug satisfaction one special guest on a news program took from the rise of cases, using it as the 'clear sign' that the lifestyle of gays made it possible. Or the worthless, greedy, largely minority poor deserved it for their drug addictions and petty crime. The first time you personally experience real evil makes it impossible to recognize at that moment, but you carry that stark re-action along with you.
I entered sexual maturity in a time when the worst thing that could happen was sex with the wrong person would kill you. My father worried about getting someone pregnant, or catching an embarrassing disease that forced you to endure a couple of shots from a disapproving doctor. Instead, sex involved a life or death risk. Considering, I was lucky. As a non-drug using straight male, my chances of accidentially contracting HIV were lower than others. AIDS was still weighted towards junkies and gay men. That would change quickly.
But even so, it always lingered there as that death sentence; can't be cured, can't be stopped. Catch it and boom, your life is entirely different and considerably shorter from that point on. If I have to live with that basic level of tangible fear, I can only imagine how completely paralyzing it must have been when it first emerged. Especially amoungst already vulnerable populations and seized on as a 'righteous' and deserved affliction.
If this is true, if this result can be reproduced, the impact is going to be as tremendous as that of the disease itself.
