[HN Gopher] With seventh person seemingly cured of HIV, signs of...
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       With seventh person seemingly cured of HIV, signs of hope for a
       broader cure
        
       Author : _tk_
       Score  : 9 points
       Date   : 2024-07-18 20:29 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.fiercebiotech.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.fiercebiotech.com)
        
       | creativeSlumber wrote:
       | What does "cured" mean here ? IIRC, HIV permanently modifies the
       | host cells DNA. Is the DNA somehow reverted back to original in
       | the cured patients?
        
         | _tk_ wrote:
         | From the article:
         | 
         | > For almost six years they've tested his blood and other
         | tissues and found no signs of the virus.
         | 
         | Afaict, the researchers themselves don't know for sure why this
         | has happened.
        
         | jvanderbot wrote:
         | From what I know (which is very little though I follow the news
         | with excitement) HIV is "suppressed" by making it untestably
         | low, which means (apparently) that you are also not contagious.
         | IIRC, therefore _maybe_ you are a carrier, _but_ you experience
         | no symptoms, will not develop AIDS, cannot be proven to be a
         | carrier via testing, and are not contagious. Good enough.
         | 
         | However, in this particular treatment, it was via bone marrow
         | donation, so it literally _did_ change the DNA  / body.
        
         | pshirshov wrote:
         | Bone marrow transplant. All the infected cells die, and the
         | transplant produces new one, free from HIV an. carrying a
         | mutation preventing them from being infected. This approach
         | does not scale.
        
       | 486sx33 wrote:
       | Yeah "seemingly" and "effectively" aren't enough They are
       | changing laws so if you're undetectable you don't have to
       | disclose your HIV status to your partner(s) .. but you could
       | transmit it if you stop taking anti virals or the HIV mutates and
       | then you've infected your partners... and just because it's not
       | detectable how do we know for sure you haven't transmitted it ?
       | 
       | Seems very wrong.
        
         | 486sx33 wrote:
         | https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/supreme-court-clarifies-...
         | 
         | And then one night your partner slips off the condom ... then
         | what
        
           | ebiester wrote:
           | If your partner is on medication.. uncertainty, fear, and
           | mistrust.
           | 
           | But for as many medical trials as we've tried, you will not
           | end up with HIV.
           | 
           | If your partner is HIV+, you also are likely on prep. If not,
           | you're probably looking at a course of HIV medication within
           | 48 hours.
           | 
           | So you are looking at a fair number of ways to mitigate, but
           | the actual medical safety is a lower than expected risk.
           | 
           | (The dangerous chance is if you're having sex with someone
           | who doesn't know their positive status, and you don't take
           | other protective measures.)
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _just because it's not detectable how do we know for sure you
         | haven't transmitted it_
         | 
         | We know this unambiguously. If it's not in your body fluids you
         | can't transmit it.
         | 
         | We don't require folks produce a transcript of every VD they
         | ever had to every prospective partner. If the science says not
         | transmissible, that properly takes the matter out of the sphere
         | of public safety and into that of personal trust. (I agree with
         | you that it would seem polite for someone to disclose that.)
        
       | tedunangst wrote:
       | What are the signs of hope for a broader cure? That maybe
       | heterozygous mutations work too? It's still a complete bone
       | marrow transplant.
        
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       (page generated 2024-07-18 23:12 UTC)