Expert: The world is on the cusp of beating HIV/AIDS

[Bluebear]

IDS is no longer a death sentence, and the global pandemic can be defeated by getting drugs to the millions dying needlessly in developing nations, an expert on HIV/AIDS says.

"I think we are done with the mortality of AIDS in treated people. Only five years ago hope was an abstract notion, now hope is a reality," said Dr Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, in Sydney to open the International AIDS Society conference.

Dr Kazatchkine, a French immunologist, said 2.2 million lives had been saved in a recent global increase in drug therapy in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Russia and eastern Europe. But considerably more money was needed to deliver anti-retroviral drugs to the more than 70 per cent of patients in poor countries still without access to drug treatment. Anti-retroviral drugs block the AIDS virus but do not kill it, so they must be taken for life.

Dr Kazatchkine rejected the common argument that the world could not afford to fund the vast quantities of drugs needed to offer poor AIDS sufferers the same long-term survival prospects enjoyed in the West. But, he said, the global pharmaceutical patent system might collapse in the process, as governments overrode patents to make cheap generic drugs. "Don't tell me this is unaffordable. Yes, everyone needs to put more money on the table, but the message is we should be able to win the battle."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/world-on-cusp-of-beating-aids-expert/2007/07/22/1185042950456.html
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End of AIDS may be in sight
Researchers dare to hope that new drugs will vanquish HIV

SYDNEY, Australia - A new generation of HIV drugs is so promising that researchers are talking about eradicating the virus, an international AIDS conference will be told in Sydney next week.

The International AIDS Society conference from July 22-25 will bring together 5,000 experts from around the world to hear presentations on the cutting edge of HIV/AIDS research...

"Eradication was talked about when anti-retroviral therapies became available in the mid-1990s, but went off the agenda because of the toxicity of the drugs -- people thought it was going to take 50 years," Cooper told reporters.

"Now with some of the newer drugs and newer strategies, it's back on the agenda again."

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=0395816d-1952-47e1-8c57-c01e08d1737c

[Madspirit]

1. k&r...n/t

[Bluebear]

2. Can you imagine? nt

[Madspirit]

5. It would change everything

I have lost so many friends to this disease. We all have.
Lee

[NMMNG]

3. Wouldn't it be wonderful?

:applause:

[whistle]

4. That should really piss off neocons and RW fundies who have waited

...27 years for HIV and the AIDS epidemic to wipe out every gay person, IV drug user and sodomizer on the planet:nopity:

[rainbow4321]

8. Chimp and his fundies need to take a walk thru an HIV clinic

And they will see how the faces of those living with HIV/AIDS have changed...it now includes young/old/straight-gay-bi/middle aged professionals/every lifestyle from construction workers to men walking around with cowboy hats to women who look like they are office workers just at a doctor's visit during their lunch hour. Best way to describe the setting--just go to your local mall in any city/suburb and look around at the people. They are the ones now living w/ the virus, they are the faces we see in the clinic.

Some of the patients I see have the virus under control but it's disease processes like diabetes, hypertension, obesity that these people are trying to manage.
I looked at a book the other day that had some prices for the HIV meds out on the market---ranging from $300/month to $1100/month PER prescription.
At some point the repukes will have to realize that the people living with the virus are in a very broad group now that they cannot ignore or blow off in favor of the pharm companies' $$$$!!

[entanglement]

15. The average AIDS sufferer outside the West is anything but that

They are mostly heterosexuals. Plenty of young children with HIV / AIDS too. I wonder what the hate-filled fundies think about that.

[pink-o]

6. Anti-retroviral drugs block the AIDS virus but do not kill it, so they must be taken for life.

...this is what worries me. With the drugs doing such a good job of keeping the virus dormant, many researchers have stopped looking for a vaccine. And since Big Pharma finances drug research, why should they try to find a cure that would just cut into their huge profits?

My friend was diagnosed HIV pos 3 years ago and is responding beautifully to the drugs. However, he can never quit or lose his job, since no way could he afford his own health care now. He and others like him dream of a cure: maintenance is just a temporary stopgap.

Apparently, finding a vaccine for a retrovirus like HIV is totally confounding, as it mutates, hides and basically cannot be killed without taking the cell with it. So yes, I understand the complexities of developing a vaccine, but it also angers me that it's in the hands of Big Pharma, with their obvious conflict of interest. Don't get me wrong, I want to see everyone on the maintenance drugs, but not at the cost of bringing forth a cure.

[Bluebear]

7. Well, read the second article in the OP, they ARE talking about eradication again

But you are correct, your friend must stay employed, and how lucky he is from the western world. If you are from Africa, of color, in poverty, it is still a death sentence and that is disgraceful!

Best of luck to your buddy!

[OzarkDem]

9. Now lets do the same for cancer

The number one killer in our country deserves attention, too.

One of the reasons we were able to get a handle on AIDS in the US is because laws were passed to allow HIV and AIDS victims to have full access to free health care and support services when they were sick to keep them from becoming homeless. And see how well it worked.

Yet today, as many as one third of cancer victims who could be cured die instead because of lack of affordable screening and treatment.

Doesn't it make sense that we should make the same commitment to cancer as we have to AIDS, now that we know the great rewards that can be had for making a commitment?

Face it folks, I'm not going to stop talking about this until all of you start talking about it.

[JackBeck]

10. I thought it was heart disease.

Anyway, most progressives think outside of the boarders and recognize that HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic that deserves immediate attention. At least 40 million people worldwide are infected with HIV/AIDS. If anything, we should be paying more attention to Hepatitis C, where over 300 million people are infected.

[Recursion]

18. Or malaria and TB

Not to keep spamming this link, but I was amazed at how little attention it's been getting:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-aids_goeringjul07,1,3373841.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Again, I hate to harp on this but I've started two threads on it and not so much as a yawn, which boggles my mind. We've completely misunderstood and mistargeted the AIDS pandemic in the developing world.

Our method of counting HIV-infected persons in the developing world is drastically flawed; in India's case, it was 100% too high. The half-million people dying in Africa every year are for the most part dying of the same things they were dying of 20 years ago: malaria, tb, diarrhea, and other diseases stemming from insufficient food and unclean water. Drugs won't help them: local development will.

[Bluebear]

11. There is a big difference. Millions could be saved from HIV *NOW*

There is no cure for cancer yet, and I fervently hope it will come.

But HIV/AIDS can be a treatable disease now, but only if you are from the Western world and insured. It's a disgrace that lives could be saved but aren't now, and this is speaking on a global scale, not just an American one.

[IndyBob]

12. I may have something to add...

having taken the "cocktail" for the last 10 years. It sure as hell beats dying, I'll say. I'm fortunate to be insured, but it is still $60/month. Without coverage, $1300/month.

I too would prefer a cure. Until then, I'll accept life. I had a lover that died at age 24, year 1994.

It is those less fortunate than I that I worry about.

[Bluebear]

13. We are lucky to have you, Bob.

:hug:

[entanglement]

14. The scientific breakthroughs (e.g. integrase inhibitors) are laudable - but

the fact that 70% of the people around the world have "no access to treatment" (a euphemism for "condemned to die because they are too poor") is shameful - a damning indictment of the profit system which puts patents and profits above human lives.

How on earth is the mother of a 3-year old in Botswana to afford $20,000 a year on retro-viral therapies for herself and her child when she won't make that much money in a whole lifetime - or several lifetimes for that matter?

And if drug companies like Novartis have their way, even the current (relatively inexpensive) generics reaching the poor will dry up and disappear.

[Recursion]

17. She needs water and food more than drugs, frankly

It's useless to talk about drugs when that mother doesn't yet have clean water or sufficient nutrition.

Back in the 1980's, half a million Africans were dying every year from famine and acute diseases. Did we magically cure, hydrate, and feed them all in the interim? No, they're still dying from it but governments have realized they get more foreign money by calling their causes of death AIDS. We've been overcounting HIV infection rates in the developing world for over a decade: not surprising, since Glaxo/Merck/Lily/whoever gets money if we send drugs to Africa but not if we clean up their water supplies and get them doing sustainable, high-yield agriculture.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-aids_goeringjul07,1,3373841.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

There's a plague out there killing millions every year, but it's not what we think it is...

[Recursion]

16. Is this just CYA for the fact that we've been overreporting AIDS cases for a decade?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-aids_goeringjul07,1,3373841.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

We'd been using a sampling technique that practically guaranteed an overcount of AIDS patients in the developing world.

[beyurslf]

19. I don't hold my breath too much. Every time my mom reads one of these articles, she calls

me up and tells me all about it.
I have this recurring dream where they develop a vaccine to prevent new infections but not a cure to help those already infected. Crazy.