[90Brougham350]

The man who may hold the key to a cure for Aids was urged by doctors last night to come forward for the sake of millions of virus carriers worldwide.

The case of Andrew Stimpson, 25, who was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 2002 but found to be clear of the virus in 2003, has stunned the medical world. If doctors can establish why this happened, without treatment, it could benefit the 34.9 million virus carriers worldwide.


http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article326894.ece

Might just be a fluke, but who knows, there might be something more to it. Goodnight everyone!:bouncy:

 

[DopeStar 156]

Let's hope it's not. I'd hate to be that guy if he's lying. If he didn't really have it, he'll have AIDS by the end of the week. If I had it and this guy publically created a huge hoax about this, I'd stab myself with a needle, then stab him with the same one and tell him to get to work on it now.

 

[ben72227]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Stimpson

Hmmm, its probably just a messed up test (for the positive). Otherwise, this man is the missing link, and will go down in history as the greatest scot ever:histeric:.

It looks pretty recent (i.e. Nov. 13). I'll have to see if its made headlines by the end of this week...Of course, it doesn't surprise me THAT much, they've found that HIV has become increadibly weak (as most virus do, eventually) in the last few years, and if this guy really did fight off the disease...Hmmm. This disease is so powerful though, that You have to be a bit skeptical. I mean, one man out of millions...And a scot too?:histeric: Hmmm.

 

[Playdrv4me]

It is more likely that he was mis diagnosed (false positive) to begin with, than that he actually eradicated the virus in his system.

There have been numerous cases of LTNP's (long term non progressors) in caucasian men of european descent, whom carry the virus for years and years with no progression, but Ive never heard of any real case where someone has it and then suddenly doesnt.

More-over, it seems quite the opposite is happening. Recently they discovered a super-strain in the northeast which actually caused a person to go from infection to full blown AIDS in an extremely short time. I havent heard more about it but it was pretty scary stuff.

 

[psykiv]

Honestly, I'm not sure if I want it to be true or not.

Let's say they do find a cure for HIV. The world population would increase in two ways: more babies will be made because HIV is no longer a threat (guys would actually go with women who no longer have it) and since people aren't being completely destroyed and ultimately die because (not from) of it, we will have a higher population.

This means more competition and less of everything else.

 

[RobertCTS]

Has anyone ran this thru any of the Myth Busters yet?:hmm:

 

[Elvis]

I'm not sure it's possible to eradicate a virus from your system once you get it. If I'm not mistaken, once you get the flu, you always have that virus in your body, but your immune system knows how to keep it in check so there's no problem.

Probably a false positive. I remember that there was a lot of that going on in the 80's and early 90's.

 

[Playdrv4me]

Has anyone ran this thru any of the Myth Busters yet?:hmm:

LOL

 

[Playdrv4me]

I'm not sure it's possible to eradicate a virus from your system once you get it. If I'm not mistaken, once you get the flu, you always have that virus in your body, but your immune system knows how to keep it in check so there's no problem.
Probably a false positive. I remember that there was a lot of that going on in the 80's and early 90's.

I think youre right about the virus thing.

The ELISA Blot tests (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay) have become extremely sensitive in the past few years. I believe we are on about the fourth generation or later at this point. This is good in the sense that the chance of it NOT being picked up after approximately 90 days post infection are just about zero, BUT it can lead to false positives because of the tests extremely high sensitivity.

This is also why DNA PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests, while more able to detect tiny amounts of viral infection sooner, are not the gold standard. They are simply too prone to false positives, and thus are always confirmed with an ELISA test if a positive result is given.

 

[ben72227]

Honestly, I'm not sure if I want it to be true or not.

Let's say they do find a cure for HIV. The world population would increase in two ways: more babies will be made because HIV is no longer a threat (guys would actually go with women who no longer have it) and since people aren't being completely destroyed and ultimately die because (not from) of it, we will have a higher population.

This means more competition and less of everything else.

Well, actually HIV doesn't kill that many people (in relation to other things such as starvation, malnutrition, genocide (i.e. 800,000 people were killed in less than 100 days in Rwanda in 1994), and other diseases...

Besides, Africans will have babies regardless - they do right now. Many of them are born with HIV, either because the parents don't car or are ignorant to how the disease is spread.

And the world population is (slowly, but surely) stabalizing. Most countries have reached level 4 of popluation growth (that's where the population merely replaces itself, i.e. for two parents there are two kids). Of course, in China it's even lower (1 kid per family) due to their family planning (*cough*forced abortion*cough*), the only REAL obstacle is India and the middle east, who still have large families.

Africa is no bother though, those people (for the most part) refuse to grow their own food, and rely on foreign aid to survive (I mean, they whine about not having food in Niger, but I mean, Niger is smack dab in the Sahara desert, you can't grow food in a desert people...). Anyways, Africans are still at stage 1 of population (they have high birth rates, and high death rates) so they balance themselves...

 

[Rolex]

In science the simpliest explanation is usually true. I'll put my money with the rest of you guys and vote that he had a false positive test, and was never actually infected with the HIV virus.

The last BIG breakthrough with HIV was in the headlines a few weeks ago. The cocktail of meds they put infected patients on will kill the HIV virus, but portions of the virus "hide" in cellular DNA where they cannot be reached by these medications. Scientists discovered that some relatively common medication (I don't remember what) actually caused the "hidden" virus to emerge where it could then was exposed to the antiviral meds.

This was my understanding anyway.

 

[Playdrv4me]

Sneaky little buggers

 

[ben72227]

The last BIG breakthrough with HIV was in the headlines a few weeks ago. The cocktail of meds they put infected patients on will kill the HIV virus, but portions of the virus "hide" in cellular DNA where they cannot be reached by these medications. Scientists discovered that some relatively common medication (I don't remember what) actually caused the "hidden" virus to emerge where it could then was exposed to the antiviral meds.

Yeah, it was Valproic Acid (trade name, Depakote, used to treat people with epilepsy)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valproic_Acid

 

[Rolex]

Strong work BEN!

I would still be interested to see what the outcome of this story is.

 

[ben72227]

Strong work BEN!

And I'll be expecting some positive points for that...oh, wait...we don't have points anymore:hmm: What? when did this happen?