Nobel Prize Winner For Medicine Sees End To AIDS Spread Within Years

Luc Montagnier, co-winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine, Saturday stood by his view that a "therapeutic vaccine" for the AIDS pandemic could be created within four to five years.

"It is difficult to say, but it is perhaps a case of four to five years," he told AFP, following a press conference in Stockholm ahead of receiving the prestigious prize next week.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[miamia]

I don't trust an industry that profits more when more people are sick.
Why should they find a cure, it's not profitable?

[poster1122]

Certainly, for the people afflicted with the virus, I understand the urgency to find a cure and the impulse to want to believe that a cure is around the corner.

However, the theories about the cures being suppressed are wishful thinking. Curing a virus is extremely difficult. The reason is that a virus at its core is a pathogen that rewrites portions of your DNA. In the case of HIV, it redesigns portions of our immune system so that it effectively doesn't know how to operate anymore. Worse, it enlists the immune system (which is actually supposed to protect us) to help it spread. By rewriting the function of the system, it ceases to be an immune system.

A cure means not just eradicating the virus because once infected, your body becomes a manufacturer of more. It means either rewriting all the affected cells to the "correct" form (which we don't really understand well enough yet), or stopping further infection of cells and creating an alternate immune system to attack the diseases cells that doesn't kill healthy cells (always an incredibly difficult problem).

A vaccine is more plausible in the short to medium term because we have better understanding of the mechanism by which the virus binds to cells. That's why we've had a good deal of success with protease inhibitors, for instance. A better understanding might allow us to shut down the receptors entirely, giving the virus no access point into the cell. But it's not a trivial task.

[carolsstudio]

I appreciate your clear headed analysis.
Are you a medical professional?

[poster1122]

Wow, it's interesting reading all these conspiracy theories about HIV. Where to begin?

HIV is an incredibly complicated virus. Using state-of-the-art research on it, we've only begun to unravel how it works. That's why protease inhibitors took so long to develop.

The first cases of AIDS appear in the 1950s (hence the conspiracy theory that it was a side effect of the polio vaccine, which is also pretty ridiculous). Given that it can take 5+ years for HIV to express itself as AIDS, you're looking at infection during the 40s at the latest.

You're telling me that doctors, using 20s and 30s technology were able to create a virus as complex as HIV? Do you know what medical technology was like during that period? They barely got a hold on infant mortality and women dying in labor at that point. Diseases such as diabetes were identified and (broadly) explained only as recently as 1922.

It's amazing to see people's misperceptions on how far advanced we are.

[cultkicker]

kellygrrl - Our own FDA in conjunction with the big Pharma cartel suppress cures for aids, cancer, and a host of other diseases every year. They do not want to cure anything... there isn't any money in curing disease... only in treating it. I'm hoping Obama will change this picture with new appointees at the FDA, but so far all they do is protect Pharmacutical comapnies from lawsuits while approving their dangerous and ineffective drugs.

[AdamAnt12]

Come on, PLEASE...stop this!!! NO ONE , not even the people with big pharmacudiacal companies, would put MONEY over HUMAN LIFE in the way you explained it!!!

Grow up, not everyone thinks the way YOU do!!! And for good reason. Most Americans are much more intelligent than you, obviously....

[progressivelady]

I hope so that would be a Miracle, I hope Cancer is next

[AdamAnt12]

Cancer should be the TOP priority. People who get insidious cancer like Lyo-Myo sarcoma never did ANYTHING to help them get it. No lifestyle choices are the casue of this terrible disease. Unlike aids, where people"s lifestyle Is the reason for AQUIRING aids, (even the name says it), Lyo-Myo attacks anyone. My sister who is 47 has been living with this d e a d l y disease for a year now. The prognosis? Maybe she has another 2-3 years, but during that time she must undergo round after round of chemo.....luckily for all of us she has the BEST doctor on the world for Lyo-Myo at the BEST cancer hospital in the world: M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Hospital in Houston, TX

[Eric8869]

No one deserves a potentially fatal disease. People got AIDS because it was a virus not because of a Lifestyle. Which I assume is code for attacking gay people.

People who are sexually active do not deserve a disease. No one does.

If you truly think that cancer is more important that AIDS then you are really just inhumane. We need to treat and fight for the end of all diseases.

Your humanity only extends to your sister. How sad.

[RightWingRadical]

I don't see how it is possible to cure a disease like AIDS. Acquired Immune Deficiency syndrome. The name itself insinuates that its un-curable.

Aids was probably a weapon of war, if a cure does exist, don't expect anyone in the general public to know about it.

Personally I have no sympathy for people who allowed themselves to get AIDS. Only in cases when children are born with the disease and other extenuating circumstances I feel sorry for the victim.

[LeftLeanWing]

It's curable because it's acquired though exposure to a Virus.

And your lack of sympathy is callous and very telling. It's one of the main reasons the RightWing is losing favor in this country. You probably would have had a personal Jubilee during the Black Death because those undeserving folk forgot to wear their flea collars. huh ?

However, there is no possible cure for Stupidity. Sorry

You HAVE my Sympathy !

[BannedInBoston]

Not so st.upid, maybe. Considering the evidence, it seems not unlikely that the H.I.V. vi.rus WAS originally developed as an early biowea.pon (by someone -- most likely the U.S.) and somehow escaped the lab. Was/is anyone ever going to admit this? Not likely, I'm afraid. ("Gee, we're really sorry but, like, um, you see, this v.irus we were developing to defend America kind of got loose and um....")

[carolsstudio]

O Learned One,
who are these people who allow themselves to get AIDS?

[BillCarson]

>I don't see how it is possible to cure a disease like AIDS.

I suspect you're not a Nobel prize winner.

[kellygrrrl]

sure would be nice if they could find a vaccine for the myriad of herpetic viruses -- or would that put the pharmas out of biz?

[cultkicker]

Vaccines are NOT the way... they are dangerous, ineffective most of the time, and contain a host of toxins as well as viral particles not found in the body. Mercury, aluminum, and formaldehyde are three but there are many more. Vaccines CAUSE autoimmune disease. Aids and any viral or bacterial disease is 100% curable now.... using blood electrification (Bob Beck protocol) and MMS (chlorine dioxide). Go to MMSdr.com for more info.

[Amennyc]

why would God allow a vaccine isn't this his doing?

[Liberalicious]

Well, after Jesus finally came out, God finally realized that love is the answer and accepted Jesus for who he is.

[BannedInBoston]

Quite possibly not.

[carolsstudio]

Are you serious?

[Amennyc]

the drug companies are going to be pissed!

[LeftLeanWing]

They'll just invent another pill to make your wee wee into Whoa Whoa and help your wife to lose 300 lbs. while continuing her Velvetta Cheese Diet.

[BannedInBoston]

I wish my wife would lose 300 lbs. Then she'd weigh a negative 175 lbs. and just float away on the wings of antigravity....

[moreofthesame]

I think we all know, 5-10 years? That is not possible.

[GingerB]

So you know more than Luc Montagnier, co-winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine? No offense, but I'll go with the Nobel Prize winner.

[raker]

More stop-the-presses news about AIDS that says nothing of substance. Count the weasel words. "It is not impossible" that "the transmission" of AIDS could soon be eliminated - not the epidemic, mind you, but the infection. Who knew you could have an epidemic without infection. Of course, millions would still have AIDS, and millions more would still get infected with HIV, but blah blah blah eliminated blah blah blah transmission.

[raker]

More stop-the-presses news about AIDS

[SonofLiberty1]

Good, that means we are going to target you for ...

PRAYER

Because honey, you really need some help.

[BannedInBoston]

Luc Montagnier, co-winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine needs help? If you think that, you're the one who needs help....

[vstill]

This must be the umpteenth time I've heard that a cure is just a few years away. So far success has been about as good as it has been for curing the common cold. It'll soon be 25 years since a cure was first predicted to be 5 to 10 years away. Don't hold your breath this time around.

[BannedInBoston]

It's kind of like controlled nuclear fusion for power production. We're almost there. Oh, wait....

[bushyboogers]

Hopefully it won't be because we are all de-ad already.