Baby with HIV cured

[Dick Whitman]

By accident:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/health/for-first-time-baby-cured-of-hiv-doctors-say.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

So now two people have been cured, in absolute terms. And I'd imagine plenty of people are cured, functionally, via antiretroviral drugs.

One thing that surprised me in the story was that only 200 babies a year in the U.S. are born HIV-positive. I thought it would have been much more than that. Are pregnant women automatically tested?

 

[Versatile]

Only gay men get AIDS. They don't have babies.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Only gay men get AIDS. They don't have babies.

You jest, but heterosexuals rarely get AIDS. At least in the United States. (Not sure why it spreads more easily in Africa, seemingly. I'm sure there's an explanation out there.)

But: Drug-addicted prostitutes do. And you'd figure more than 200 of them per year would have babies.

 

[Versatile]

Not if they have sold their ovaries for heroin.

 

[LongTimeListener]

A cure for HIV seems like it would remove the consequences of bad choices and set society on the path to hedonistic ruin. I'm against it.

 

[Brian]

A cure for HIV seems like it would remove the consequences of bad choices and set society on the path to hedonistic ruin. I'm against it.

Yep, those babies in Africa simply made the horrible choice of being ****ing born. Get a clue.

 

[Armchair_QB]

A cure for HIV seems like it would remove the consequences of bad choices and set society on the path to hedonistic ruin. I'm against it.

Yep, those babies in Africa simply made the horrible choice of being ****ing born. Get a clue.

It's called sarcasm...

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Only gay men get AIDS. They don't have babies.

You jest, but heterosexuals rarely get AIDS. At least in the United States. (Not sure why it spreads more easily in Africa, seemingly. I'm sure there's an explanation out there.)

Not as many condoms.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Only gay men get AIDS. They don't have babies.

You jest, but heterosexuals rarely get AIDS. At least in the United States. (Not sure why it spreads more easily in Africa, seemingly. I'm sure there's an explanation out there.)

Not as many condoms.

That's part of it, I'm sure. But I don't know that it gets us all the way there. It's simply difficult to spread, via vaginal sex. Not impossible, obviously. But difficult. Are sub-saharan Africans so wildly promiscuous that they buck the odds? Are they engaging in a high frequency of heterosexual anal sex?

 

[qtlaw]

Nancy Reagan says "Just say no!" Yeah, that worked pretty well.

 

[Dick Whitman]

It would've helped if doctors were able to confirm an infection in the first place. What I've read on this says that since they didn't, there's really no way to tell if it's a "cure" or a "preventive measure."

Story says that's just semantics when it comes to babies, though.

 

[Football_Bat]

A cure for HIV seems like it would remove the consequences of bad choices and set society on the path to hedonistic ruin. I'm against it.

Yeah, just look at the 70s.

 

[Dick Whitman]

It would've helped if doctors were able to confirm an infection in the first place. What I've read on this says that since they didn't, there's really no way to tell if it's a "cure" or a "preventive measure."

Story says that's just semantics when it comes to babies, though.

Not really, because the whole reason they said it was successful is because they started the intense treatment much earlier, as opposed to starting lighter treatment until they confirm infection, which could take weeks.

In other words, there's no reason to believe this exact treatment, if started when the baby is six weeks old instead of one day old, would be effective at all.

Right. Nor would it work when a person is 30 years old. It's a cure that is applicable to newborns and newborns only, before the virus has an opportunity to form this reservoir.

 

[Dick Whitman]

So, as it stands now, calling it an "exceptionally narrow-use and slightly more complicated version of a vaccine" would be more accurate.

Exceptionally narrow use in the United States.

Not exceptionally narrow in places where pediatric AIDS is prevalent.