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New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

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Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#211
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could say the same about teen pregnancy being a practically solved problem, except there is still the problem of teen pregnancy. Or even something more mundane as driving consistently safely all the time to solve the problem of accidents. If everyone was disciplined all the time in regard to everything, many problems in the world would simply not exist. But we live in reality where for whatever reason, people don…

> You could say the same about teen pregnancy being a practically solved problem, except there is still the problem of teen pregnancy. Or even something more mundane as driving consistently safely all the time to solve the problem of accidents. At the risk of derailing this conversation from the original topic, those two things are not remotely equivalent. There's no organized political movement trying to tell people…

derailing further, it's no organized political movement, and they don't call it immoral but in Caucasus region some men avoid using seat belts as "unmanly", and that's a very social thing. Small plugs into a seatbelt socket to shut up the car audible warning are very common, including taxis.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#212
post #3

While HIV vaccine research is an exciting field, it's worth pointing out that halting HIV transmission is, practically speaking, a solved problem with oral and injectable reverse transcriptase inhibitors. The ongoing loss of life and health due to HIV could be stopped if we cared enough to invest resources in wide-scale PrEP availability and public health education. Waiting for an HIV vaccine is the domain equivalent…

A few people I know on PrEP have annoying uncomfortable side-effects. Vaccines are largely more tolerable, especially on a discomfort/time metric.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#213

I am sure in some countries this vaccine will be made mandatory for all teenagers because the assumption is they will have unprotected sex, even if you're a loner.

Why did people downvote this? Virginia, Rhode Island, DC and Puerto Rico public schools all mandate the HPV vaccine for kids, regardless of sexual activity. Many people think it's a good idea and this may be a good idea also.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the only reason HIV transmission is high in poor countries is because, well, they're poor." This is factually untrue. Being poor does not equal a HIV transmission rate. There is no 1:1 correlation. A single protected (condom) sexual act between a male and female averages somewhere around 0.1-0.5% chance of pregnancy, and during the fertile window it could still be around 1% or more even with a condom. Chance of HIV…

Dry sex in SSA may be one of the contributing factors, but it’s never been truly proven out as a key contributor in any study I have read; they always address it but say more needs to be done to be certain. Your comment makes it seem like a key factor when it’s not.

In the Global Burden of Disease analyses, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) had the highest age-standardized STI incidence rate of any world region — around 19,973 per 100,000 person-years, which is roughly double the global average of about 9,536 cases per 100,000.

Forecasts to 2030 expect sub-Saharan Africa to continue having the highest incidence rates of both HIV and other STIs of any region.

How come a specific region of the globe has this issue? "Poverty"?

Many regions in India are poor. Afghanistan. Pakistan.

Love the science based debate here, btw, thank you all for the downvotes. Facts, not feelings.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the difference between those statements, but confess that I'm not clear on the important distinction. Are there situations where untreated HIV doesn't progress to AIDS? Is the virus more transmissible in someone with AIDS than someone who's still at the HIV-positive stage? Asking here because I don't know, and I think an answer might help others know, too. (And to clarify, I genuinely don't know, and I'm…

We are unaware of any situations where HIV+ doesn’t turn into AIDS without treatment. But being HIV+ is simply having a virus, not actively dying. HIV+ status also never clears - later tests that are “negative” mean your viral load is undetectable, at which point you can no longer transmit HIV to others. Undetectable = Untransmissable.

FTA, it seems that a (very) small number of people develop effective antibodies againt HIV.

"These antibodies are very, very rare, but they can be found in blood samples from a small number of people living with HIV.

The vaccine causes the immune system to produce more of these "broadly neutralizing" antibodies.

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the way a lot of modern cancer vaccines are being developed. The idea is to create custom vaccines in the future targeting the patients specific cancer. So they are therapeutic vaccines. Obviously some cancers cannot be reach by a vaccine or are so aggressive that they overwhelm the patient before they can help.

I'm not aware of cancer vaccines that use this sort of b-cell priming, though I've heard lots about mRNA vaccines, as well as neo-epitope based cancer therapeutic vaccines. Are you analogizing the neoepitope approaches to the B cell progression here? That is somewhat similar, but the chain of new vaccines does seem quite different and novel to me.

I cannot answer those questions as much as I wish I could. My dads papers around the stuff they are working on is here if it’s of any use https://www.sciencedirect.com/author/7005329466/gunnar-kvalh...

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the original assertion is "punching down" on poor people. While you're correct that poverty isn't the "only reason" for high HIV transmission, poverty certainly contributes to it, via lack of access to health care and lack of access to education. How is it less "punching down" to attribute it to social behavior and culture? Isn't needle sharing associated with poverty, or would you also call that "cultu…

I was poor, grew up in social housing. I did not use drugs. "I share needles because I can't afford my own" is an INSANE take. Don't shoot drugs in the first place! Poor people are normal humans, they have willpower, agency. It is a rich people myth that poor people are cattle, devoid of any chance of doing the right thing. It is culture, behavior, social norms. Being poor does not force you to abandon the nuclear fa…

> Don't shoot drugs in the first place

like insulin? should a diabetic skip the insulin? In poor countries I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of HIV infections are not as preventable as you're imagining.

You can moralize, but even if only 10% of HIV infections are unavoidable, you're not contributing to solving the actual problem. (And by unavoidable I mean, unavoidable without investing in more needles, better sanitation, or prophylactics that the people "responsible" cannot afford.)

Re: New HIV vaccine shows unprecedented success in preclinical study

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Abstinence has been shown to be an extremely, hilariously, stupidly ineffective strategy in all questions of human sexual health. The HIV/AIDS epidemic would not have been nearly as serious as it was if people like you and the Catholic Church hadn’t advocated for it over all other measures. It doesn’t work. Change your mind.

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