For the first time in the history of the disease, we are finally getting ahead of the curve

[sheshe2]

Big news: We have reached the tipping point on AIDS!



Huge news. For the first time in the history of AIDS, we have reached a tipping point in the fight against the disease.

According to new data from UNAIDS, in 2013, 2.3 million people were added to HIV/AIDS treatment, surpassing the number of new HIV infections in that year. If we keep increasing the number of people on treatment and decreasing the number of new infections, we can end the disease in just 15 years.

snip/

Although we have always been careful to note that achieving the tipping point does not mean that the fight against AIDS is over, or even close to over, it is a major victory worth celebrating. For the first time in the history of the disease, we are finally getting ahead of the curve.

Big thanks to all the activists who have supported global AIDS programs with ONE over the last decade!

http://www.one.org/us/shareworthy/big-news-we-have-reached-the-tipping-point-on-aids/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. That is wonderful news, my dear she!

It wasn't so long ago that it was a death sentence.

[pinto]

2. +1

[LoisB]

3. That is one cute baby!

[DocwillCuNow]

4. Although this is not yet ready for prime time..... it is very very important and

totally amazing imho. This absolutely blows me away.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140721151905.htm|

Researchers eliminate HIV from cultured human cells for first time
Date:
July 21, 2014
Source:
Temple University Health System
Summary:
HIV-1, the most common type of the virus that causes AIDS, has proved to be tenacious, inserting its genome permanently into its victims' DNA, forcing patients to take a lifelong drug regimen to control the virus and prevent a fresh attack. Now, a team of researchers has designed a way to snip out the integrated HIV-1 genes for good.

"This is one important step on the path toward a permanent cure for AIDS," says Kamel Khalili, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at Temple. Khalili and his colleague, Wenhui Hu, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Temple, led the work which marks the first successful attempt to eliminate latent HIV-1 virus from human cells. "It's an exciting discovery, but it's not yet ready to go into the clinic. It's a proof of concept that we're moving in the right direction," added Dr. Khalili, who is also Director of the Center for Neurovirology and Director of the Comprehensive NeuroAIDS Center at Temple.

In a study published July 21 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Khalili and colleagues detail how they created molecular tools to delete the HIV-1 proviral DNA. When deployed, a combination of a DNA-snipping enzyme called a nuclease and a targeting strand of RNA called a guide RNA (gRNA) hunt down the viral genome and excise the HIV-1 DNA. From there, the cell's gene repair machinery takes over, soldering the loose ends of the genome back together -- resulting in virus-free cells.

"Since HIV-1 is never cleared by the immune system, removal of the virus is required in order to cure the disease," says Khalili, whose research focuses on the neuropathogenesis of viral infections. The same technique could theoretically be used against a variety of viruses, he says.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. Great News, she! Thanks for OP. K&R

[littlemissmartypants]

6. Thanks for the good news. nt

[aikoaiko]

7. 30 years to this milestone.

[DesertDiamond]

8. I have a friend who around 20 years ago was the first HIV patient to be declared HIV free at USC

Medical Center. She did it by holistically improving her immune system. She is still alive and totally well today. She was supposed to go on Oprah to tell her story but at the last minute they decided that instead of telling the story of someone who had overcome HIV they would make the show about how many people have this horrible, "incurable" disease and how sad, sad, sad it is. In other words, they decided they were not going to let people know that they could get well. This is the same thing as is being done with cancer. Cancer has already been cured. But there are big, big bucks in promoting the idea that we need to "find" a cure, so they don't want the people who have been cured by natural, unpatentable treatments to be in the public eye, making liars of them and cutting off their billion dollar donation drives and their government funding.

Just saying.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

9. Can you let us know what she did to "holistically improve her immune system?" nt

[Hekate]

10. Hmmmm. I used to have a friend who decided she could cure her breast cancer holistically

None of those nasty poisonous chemicals for her.

A year late she was dead of what is today an eminently curable disease, if caught early.

Cancer is a horrible disease to die from. It's not a modern disease, and in past generations there was little way to catch it early, and no way to treat it at all if surgery did not work. And surgery, before anesthesia, was itself a terror. It was terribly feared as an agonizing death sentence, so much so that people would not speak its name to the patient, or often even to the family.

"Cancer has already been cured." How, exactly, do you mean that?

I'd also be interested to know what your friend with HIV did -- and I wonder what Oprah's background-checking staff uncovered that made them hesitate to have her on.

[Warpy]

11. That is wonderful news

Once the major risk factor lies in butchering bush meat, the number of new cases needing treatment will be minimal. Getting it mostly out of the human population is a triumph.

Now it looks like the bigger threat is Ebola, now that it's in Lagos. I hope they were able to track down and quarantine everybody on the plane and in the terminal who came into contact with the man who died of it shortly after landing. It's the only way this won't turn into a nightmare, quickly.