Back in the early 80s, when the Aids epidemic was first coming to the publics attention, people who caught it usually died within a few short years from diagnosis.
Nowadays,with all the Aids “drug cocktails” and other antiviral medicines, is death still a sure thing with a diagnosis of Aids? I mean, I know that people with HIV live longer than they used to, but won’t they still die of the disease eventually?
The reason I ask is because I saw an interview with Magic Johnson the other day, and it’s been at least 10-12 years since he announced he had the disease.
That said, you’ll probably die a lot later than you used to. IF your version of the virus is vulnerable to the drug cocktails, and IF your body is able to tolerate those drugs (which can cause all sorts of bad things - liver damage, kidney damage, diabetes, rampant high cholesteral with cardiovascular complications, and more, which can also cause death) you could live decades. But, eventually, the drugs will no longer be effective, or the side effects will become intolerable, and you will die.
That said - it is possible that a person might have much better than ordinary tolerance for this treatment, in which case they might live a near normal lifespan.
Also - there are a FEW (very few) people who, despite having the HIV virus, do not become ill with AIDS. This is most likely a randomly occuring genetic trait, and very rare. Tens of millions of have died of AIDS, but only a couple hundred seem to have this trait. There is no way to know, in advance, that you have this trait.
So… it may be that Magic Johnson is one of the very lucky ones who can either tolerate the long-term effects of treatment or will not get the disease.
No, AIDS is not considered a death senence anymore, assuming you have the resources to fight it. It is incurable, but not necessarily fatal. It has moved into the category of “chronic”. If you can live decades with it, you may just as likely die from something else.
In fact, AIDS itself does not kill. It destroys your immune system, making you vulnerable to all sorts of diseases or cancers. It is these other agents that kill you.
Still, though… we can’t know just yet whether AIDS is certain death.
Consider all of the headway made since 1985 or so. AIDS victims now live 10, 15, 20 years longer than they did just 20 years ago.
That gives medicine another decade or two to find a new treatment, or at the least, to refine an old one so that it works better.
Which may give the victim a few more years.
Which will, in turn, give more time to find something even better.
I won’t speculate on the liklihood of finding a lifelong treatment or series of treatments-- especially with so many side-effects to existing therapies-- but it is possible that some victims who are in their 20s and 30s now will live to a ripe old age.
I’d heard back in high school biology (late 80’s) that AIDS in fact can kill you on its own. One of the direct effects of ‘full-blown’ AIDS (not simple HIV infection) is a gradual destruction of brain cells, eventually leading to death. In the vast majority of cases, some other disease (usually Kaposi’s sarcoma or some form of pneumonia) will strike first, but this means the ‘boy in the bubble’ treatment won’t work either.
My HIV/AIDS knowledge is a bit out of date, so I don’t know if the above is true. Is ‘full-blown AIDS’ still even an applicable term?
Do some research yourself - what do you think this is, Great Debates?
Seriously, if you hear something new you can look it up yourself. That way you also know where the source came from, rather than just trusting I didn’t post a faked or paranoid-wacko-conspriacy-theorist website.
I heard this at a medical conference a few years ago. The People in question are AIDS immune becuase they lack an antigen on the surface of their t-lymphocyte white cells. The HIV virus can’t invade their white cells because the normal ‘lock and key’ that it uses is missing in these persons. The few examples they gave were active gay men in San Francisco who frequented bath houses and every single one of their friends had died of AIDS. This causes scientist to wonder why these men hadn’t died and they thought this might lead to a cure. It was a dead end, because they were gentically immune. Also, all these men were white persons, so Michael Jordan is probably not one of them.
I agree with the poster who says that one can find a source by himself. In great debates the posters tries to make a point, so it can be expected to back his arguments.
When giving a factual answer, you have no particular reason to want to be believed. If you happen to know of a site with the relevant information, of course, you can give a link. If you don’t but can easily find one with google, you still can, but so could have the poster who doubted your statement. It’s not necessarily up to you to search informations on his behalf (especially since you already know it’s true, and it’s the doubting poster who wants more infos).
But if you got the info from some source outside the web (say in one of the 432 reviews piled up on your bookshelves) you don’t have the references of in mind (or as it happened to me on some instances if the source is unavailable for the average poster because it’s a foreign publication) and it’s not easy to find on the web, honestly I would respond exactly as he did : search by yourself. I’ve no particular reason to make a long search because someone don’t believe me, asssuming I know I’m right, on a factual question.
As you wrote, I don’t have to commit, because I’ve no reason to commit on some issue I don’t particulary care about.
First of all, it’s Magic Johnson in question, not Michael Jordan.
Second - just because a trait is first found in white folks doesn’t mean it’s not in black folks or Asians or some lost tribe in New Guinea. Humans are much more alike than different from each other on a genetic level.
Third, even if the trait is most common in people of European ancestry (i.e. “white”), that doesn’t mean folks commonly described as “African-American” don’t share the trait. Lots of “black” people in the western hemisphere have European ancestry as well as African
And, anyhow - another genetic trait with similar results (HIV virus can’t infect them) has been found in a group of East African prostitutes. Similar situation, too - someone asked why these folks, with their multiple partners, many infected, were still so darn healthy.
There have been other instance where people do acquire an infection of HIV, but simply do not get sick. Somehow, their immune system keeps fighting it off.
Whatever that means, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work that way even in Great Debates, but of course this is not Great Debates. Reference sites are a fine internet tradition.
Oddly enough, where I work we publish some of our results in peer reviewed journals (New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Cancer, and others) Yes, we do have to submit a list of references with every article. But we do not provide verfication, the editorial board double checks. Why? Because people have been known to lie, cheat, and fabricate.
Also, I’d like to point out that this is not a peer-reviewed anything.
And, given where I work, and how many different factoids go through our department, finding the exact place where I heard something could take considerable time and effort. I don’t care to go into the office on the weekend to satisfy someone too lazy to do their own research.
Are you so sure you can do that from my reference? What if I only give you links that support MY view? If you do your own research you might find that my view isn’t as solid as I said it was, or perhaps there are several theories to explain something - or maybe I’m just plain old right after all.
Magic Johnson is a fluke, the average person who has contracted AIDS - however they got it
Is probably not as healthy, or has the physical regime that Magic Johnson has. This is a guy who made his living working out, staying in peak phyiscal shape, for playing highly competitive, body wrenching Pro Basketball.
The average person does not have the money to fight AIDS, getting treatments, medicines like Magic Johnson.
AIDS is still a Death Sentence, you can prolong your life, but if you are or become HIV-positive, you will someday die of AIDS.