how the heck is magic johnson not dead with aids yet?

[paulxcook]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes

Originally posted by: Blackjack200
Text

Cliffs:

1. AIDS is incurable right now because when we throw toxic substances at it (medicine) It just mutates and develops resistance

2. To counter this, doctors hit it with 3 or 4 powerful drugs at the same time (drug cocktail). This is devastating to the Virus, but doesn't quite wipe it out. Over a long period of time (up to 10 years) strains of the virus evolve that are immune to all the drugs in the cocktail.

3. When the Virus has recovered, doctors will switch the cocktail, and this usually restarts the cycle.

This can continue as long as the patient can withstand the medicine - the regimen is VERY hard on the body; I imagine like chemotherapy, but maybe not as severe.

I'm sure someone on here knows a lot more about this than I do, and that I've made some glaring mistakes. Please correct me.

Yup, antiviral drugs are very effective against HIV. Main problem is they are costly and therefore out of reach of the majority of HIV patients. I had no idea they were so hard on the body, though. But even taking this into account, it's probably better than the alternative (AIDS).

There has been a lot of friction between the large pharmaceuticals and some third world countries. Some have reverse-engineered the antiviral drugs and are actually illegally manufacturing them at a fraction of the cost and distributing them to citizens.

How dare those countries take profits away from drug companies in order to save their citizens.

 

[sygyzy]

Originally posted by: RESmonkey
Because he sleeps with a bunch of money in his room.

He sleeps with oodles of cash surrounding his bed.

He lays with mounds of moola as far as the eye can see!

Was there some amateur comedy class I missed? How did three people come up with the same line?

 

[herkulease]

Originally posted by: sygyzy

Originally posted by: RESmonkey
Because he sleeps with a bunch of money in his room.

He sleeps with oodles of cash surrounding his bed.

He lays with mounds of moola as far as the eye can see!

Was there some amateur comedy class I missed? How did three people come up with the same line?

no class you probably just don't watch south park.

 

[summit]

wiki haart cocktail

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: BlahBlahYouToo
oh ok, so how come it hasn't become full blown aids yet?
sex ed was like too long ago.

I have HIV and the reason he does not have AIDS is because he is taking a regimen of medications called HAART. The vast majority of HIV patients are taking these medications, which is why HIV is not the death sentence it used to be. Unless you are one of the unlucky few who have a strain that is resistant to the meds, HAART is very effective way to control the virus.

No, his money is not the reason he has not developed AIDS, like South Park asserts. These meds are made available to all HIV patients through both private and public assistance for those who can not afford the $10,000 to $30,000 a year the meds cost. (I receive mine through the VA at no cost to me.)

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: trmiv
Because he doesn't have aids

 

[LostUte]

He takes the same meds that pretty much everyone in the US gets (with or without the ability to pay). If you take them faithfully, they are very effective. HIV is no longer a death sentence in the US.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: Cuda1447
He's been nearly cured. It was EXTREMELY expensive. They don't know for sure if he is cured, but they haven't seen any traces of the virus for many years now. He will not die from aids in his life.

You are a moron.

He is not cured, since there has never been a documented case of a HIV patient ever being cured. He is on the same type of drugs I am on to control the virus. I have an undetectable level of the virus in my blood, yet I am still HIV positive. If either I or MJ stops taking the meds, we will have a relapse due to the virus hiding in cells the meds can not get to.

Here is a web site with more information on HAART and HIV.

The Body

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: DEMO24
I thought I read somewhere he also has some genetic resistance to the virus, but I could be confusing him with someone else. That plus meds = long life with HIV.

could be. there are people that are immune to HIV. They simply don't have the receptor on their immune cells necessary for the HIV virus to attach.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: Blackjack200
Text

Cliffs:

1. AIDS is incurable right now because when we throw toxic substances at it (medicine) It just mutates and develops resistance

2. To counter this, doctors hit it with 3 or 4 powerful drugs at the same time (drug cocktail). This is devastating to the Virus, but doesn't quite wipe it out. Over a long period of time (up to 10 years) strains of the virus evolve that are immune to all the drugs in the cocktail.

3. When the Virus has recovered, doctors will switch the cocktail, and this usually restarts the cycle.

This can continue as long as the patient can withstand the medicine - the regimen is VERY hard on the body; I imagine like chemotherapy, but maybe not as severe.

I'm sure someone on here knows a lot more about this than I do, and that I've made some glaring mistakes. Please correct me.

Good post.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
Yup, antiviral drugs are very effective against HIV. Main problem is they are costly and therefore out of reach of the majority of HIV patients. I had no idea they were so hard on the body, though. But even taking this into account, it's probably better than the alternative (AIDS).

There has been a lot of friction between the large pharmaceuticals and some third world countries. Some have reverse-engineered the antiviral drugs and are actually illegally manufacturing them at a fraction of the cost and distributing them to citizens.

Actually, any patient in the US can receive some kind of financial assistance unless they are rich like MJ. The vast majority of HIV patients receive help from Medicaid, Medicare and the VA.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: BlahBlahYouToo
oh ok, so how come it hasn't become full blown aids yet?
sex ed was like too long ago.

I have HIV and the reason he does not have AIDS is because he is taking a regimen of medications called HAART. The vast majority of HIV patients are taking these medications, which is why HIV is not the death sentence it used to be. Unless you are one of the unlucky few who have a strain that is resistant to the meds, HAART is very effective way to control the virus.

No, his money is not the reason he has not developed AIDS, like South Park asserts. These meds are made available to all HIV patients through both private and public assistance for those who can not afford the $10,000 to $30,000 a year the meds cost. (I receive mine through the VA at no cost to me.)

HAART didn't come out until the mid-90's. Magic was diag'd with HIV in 1991. HAART might be what he's on now, but M O N E Y is what got him through it at first. Maybe he even got the HAART treatment before it was available to everyone.

 

[chuckywang]

Obligatory Text

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
HAART didn't come out until the mid-90's. Magic was diag'd with HIV in 1991. HAART might be what he's on now, but M O N E Y is what got him through it at first. Maybe he even got the HAART treatment before it was available to everyone.

Do you realize how long it takes for the HIV virus to become AIDS without treatment? On average it is 10 years from infection to AIDS. It is perfectly reasonable that MJ never developed AIDS between 91 and 95. (The year the first HAART treatments were available.) He probally took AZT and a few other treatments prior to HAART, which were available to ALL HIV PATIENTS as they are today.

The only difference between most HIV patients and MJ is who was writing the check for the drugs. Please stop posting about stuff you know nothing about when it comes to HIV. There is enough misinformation out there without you making it worse.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes

Originally posted by: Blackjack200
Text

Cliffs:

1. AIDS is incurable right now because when we throw toxic substances at it (medicine) It just mutates and develops resistance

2. To counter this, doctors hit it with 3 or 4 powerful drugs at the same time (drug cocktail). This is devastating to the Virus, but doesn't quite wipe it out. Over a long period of time (up to 10 years) strains of the virus evolve that are immune to all the drugs in the cocktail.

3. When the Virus has recovered, doctors will switch the cocktail, and this usually restarts the cycle.

This can continue as long as the patient can withstand the medicine - the regimen is VERY hard on the body; I imagine like chemotherapy, but maybe not as severe.

I'm sure someone on here knows a lot more about this than I do, and that I've made some glaring mistakes. Please correct me.

Yup, antiviral drugs are very effective against HIV. Main problem is they are costly and therefore out of reach of the majority of HIV patients. I had no idea they were so hard on the body, though. But even taking this into account, it's probably better than the alternative (AIDS).

There has been a lot of friction between the large pharmaceuticals and some third world countries. Some have reverse-engineered the antiviral drugs and are actually illegally manufacturing them at a fraction of the cost and distributing them to citizens.

They work because one of the things they do is block DNA and RNA synthesis by inserting fake nucleotides in place of the proper ones. This prevents them from base pairing. Obviously this is bad, and too much of the drug will kill you, not enough and it won't be effective.

The reason it kills the virus but not us is because during DNS synthesis our cells can usually back up and remove the fake nucleotide and continue with DNA synthesis. The virus doesn't have this ability and once it inserts one of the fake nuclotides, synthesis stops. This is how most antiviral drugs work.

In addition the HIV cocktail includes a few other drugs as well which block other functions of the virus. Even so, because it's a retrovirus you can't really ever get rid of it. It'll always be there embedded in the host cell DNA. Still as long as you take the drug you can probably live with HIV indefinitely.

As you can imagine though, it's extremely expensive. There is no quick and easy process to make synthetic nucleotides that do not occur naturally in nature.

 

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: frostedflakes
Yup, antiviral drugs are very effective against HIV. Main problem is they are costly and therefore out of reach of the majority of HIV patients. I had no idea they were so hard on the body, though. But even taking this into account, it's probably better than the alternative (AIDS).

There has been a lot of friction between the large pharmaceuticals and some third world countries. Some have reverse-engineered the antiviral drugs and are actually illegally manufacturing them at a fraction of the cost and distributing them to citizens.

Actually, any patient in the US can receive some kind of financial assistance unless they are rich like MJ. The vast majority of HIV patients receive help from Medicaid, Medicare and the VA.

Thanks for the correction, I didn't realize there was so much financial help available for HIV patients.

Something I just thought about after reading your post talking about the low level of the virus in your blood, do the antiviral treatments significantly reduce the likelihood of transmitting the virus? Or are extremely low levels of the virus still enough to infect a person?

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: frostedflakes

Thanks for the correction, I didn't realize there was so much financial help for patient's.

Something I just thought about after reading your post talking about the low level of the virus in your blood, do the antiviral treatments significantly reduce the likelihood of transmitting the virus? Or are extremely low levels of the virus still enough to infect a person?

The jury is still out on that one. Technically, if the levels are low enough in the body fluids it is less likely to transmit. The studies they have done are inconclusive, so they recommend all HIV patients to practice safer sex to prevent infection of sex partners or to prevent the patient from contracting a resistant strain.

 

[EKKC]

what is the AIDS or HIV fatality rate and numbers in North America and Europe? I'm interested to know.

Maybe it's only a widespread epidemic and much worse of a problem in undeveloped and undereducated third world countries (read: africa, parts of asia and south america)

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: EKKC
what is the AIDS or HIV fatality rate and numbers in North America and Europe? I'm interested to know.

Maybe it's only a widespread epidemic and much worse of a problem in undeveloped and undereducated third world countries (read: africa, parts of asia and south america)

I think the only people still dying from HIV are those who aren't on the cocktail (ex. 3rd world countries).

 

[I Saw OJ]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: frostedflakes

Originally posted by: Blackjack200
Text

Cliffs:

1. AIDS is incurable right now because when we throw toxic substances at it (medicine) It just mutates and develops resistance

2. To counter this, doctors hit it with 3 or 4 powerful drugs at the same time (drug cocktail). This is devastating to the Virus, but doesn't quite wipe it out. Over a long period of time (up to 10 years) strains of the virus evolve that are immune to all the drugs in the cocktail.

3. When the Virus has recovered, doctors will switch the cocktail, and this usually restarts the cycle.

This can continue as long as the patient can withstand the medicine - the regimen is VERY hard on the body; I imagine like chemotherapy, but maybe not as severe.

I'm sure someone on here knows a lot more about this than I do, and that I've made some glaring mistakes. Please correct me.

Yup, antiviral drugs are very effective against HIV. Main problem is they are costly and therefore out of reach of the majority of HIV patients. I had no idea they were so hard on the body, though. But even taking this into account, it's probably better than the alternative (AIDS).

There has been a lot of friction between the large pharmaceuticals and some third world countries. Some have reverse-engineered the antiviral drugs and are actually illegally manufacturing them at a fraction of the cost and distributing them to citizens.

They work because one of the things they do is block DNA and RNA synthesis by inserting fake nucleotides in place of the proper ones. This prevents them from base pairing. Obviously this is bad, and too much of the drug will kill you, not enough and it won't be effective.

The reason it kills the virus but not us is because during DNS synthesis our cells can usually back up and remove the fake nucleotide and continue with DNA synthesis. The virus doesn't have this ability and once it inserts one of the fake nuclotides, synthesis stops. This is how most antiviral drugs work.

In addition the HIV cocktail includes a few other drugs as well which block other functions of the virus. Even so, because it's a retrovirus you can't really ever get rid of it. It'll always be there embedded in the host cell DNA. Still as long as you take the drug you can probably live with HIV indefinitely.

As you can imagine though, it's extremely expensive. There is no quick and easy process to make synthetic nucleotides that do not occur naturally in nature.

medical science is pretty damn amazing

 

[ed21x]

In Africa, an entire population is surviving off Bush's Presidential Emergency Plan, a $15 billion dollar donation we gave to South Africa to provide the Anti-retro Virus to people who most need it but couldn't afford it. It was amazing to witness firsthand so many lives being saved by the grace of Americans, and yet so unnoticed to Americans or the outside world. Sorry if this post sounds political, but I do believe that this was by far the kindest thing we have done to help another country out. We also have huge refugee camps set up in Darfur, but that is another topic altogether...

 

[Amused]

Magic Johnson got lucky and contracted the virus just a few short years before effective anti-virals were approved and available. He was no where close to developing AIDS when the drugs came out.

He's not special. He's not a superman. He does NOT have a natural resistence to HIV. He is not a hero.

In fact, he and his wife are so woefully stupid they don't even fully understand the disease he suffers from.

http://findarticles.com/p/arti...is_n20_v91/ai_19288988

Her ignorant comments in 1997 did more damage to the effort to slow the spread of HIV than any other single event.

And soonerproud is correct. Antiviral treatment is available to anyone who needs it through state, federal and private programs. Even if you make too much to qualify for the government programs, private foundations like the Ryan White fund can help you with getting antivirals.

The main problem is not obtaining the drugs, it's compliance. For the antivirals to be effective long term, compliance MUST be 100%. This means taking the drugs without fail and on time every day. Failure to do so builds resistence to the drugs much faster and makes them worthless.

I believe last time I looked the average lifespan for someone infected with HIV today is now 25-30 years after contracting the virus. Before effective treatments that number was 5-10 years. I may be wrong, though. If I am someone correct me.

 

[EightySix Four]

Originally posted by: paulxcook

Originally posted by: frostedflakes

Originally posted by: Blackjack200
Text

Cliffs:

1. AIDS is incurable right now because when we throw toxic substances at it (medicine) It just mutates and develops resistance

2. To counter this, doctors hit it with 3 or 4 powerful drugs at the same time (drug cocktail). This is devastating to the Virus, but doesn't quite wipe it out. Over a long period of time (up to 10 years) strains of the virus evolve that are immune to all the drugs in the cocktail.

3. When the Virus has recovered, doctors will switch the cocktail, and this usually restarts the cycle.

This can continue as long as the patient can withstand the medicine - the regimen is VERY hard on the body; I imagine like chemotherapy, but maybe not as severe.

I'm sure someone on here knows a lot more about this than I do, and that I've made some glaring mistakes. Please correct me.

Yup, antiviral drugs are very effective against HIV. Main problem is they are costly and therefore out of reach of the majority of HIV patients. I had no idea they were so hard on the body, though. But even taking this into account, it's probably better than the alternative (AIDS).

There has been a lot of friction between the large pharmaceuticals and some third world countries. Some have reverse-engineered the antiviral drugs and are actually illegally manufacturing them at a fraction of the cost and distributing them to citizens.

How dare those countries take profits away from drug companies in order to save their citizens.

The ONLY concern I have about that is improper usage by people. That is a sure fire way to develop a drug resistant strain.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: Amused
Magic Johnson got lucky and contracted the virus just a few short years before effective anti-virals were approved and available. He was no where close to developing AIDS when the drugs came out.

He's not special. He's not a superman. He does NOT have a natural resistence to HIV. He is not a hero.

In fact, he and his wife are so woefully stupid they don't even fully understand the disease he suffers from.

http://findarticles.com/p/arti...is_n20_v91/ai_19288988

Her ignorant comments in 1997 did more damage to the effort to slow the spread of HIV than any other single event.

And soonerproud is correct. Antiviral treatment is available to anyone who needs it through state, federal and private programs. Even if you make too much to qualify for the government programs, private foundations like the Ryan White fund can help you with getting antivirals.

The main problem is not obtaining the drugs, it's compliance. For the antivirals to be effective long term, compliance MUST be 100%. This means taking the drugs without fail and on time every day. Failure to do so builds resistence to the drugs much faster and makes them worthless.

I believe last time I looked the average lifespan for someone infected with HIV today is now 25-30 years after contracting the virus. Before effective treatments that number was 5-10 years. I may be wrong, though. If I am someone correct me.

Life expectancy should be even longer than that. We just don't have any data because the drugs haven't been out long enough.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: Amused
Magic Johnson got lucky and contracted the virus just a few short years before effective anti-virals were approved and available. He was no where close to developing AIDS when the drugs came out.

He's not special. He's not a superman. He does NOT have a natural resistence to HIV. He is not a hero.

In fact, he and his wife are so woefully stupid they don't even fully understand the disease he suffers from.

http://findarticles.com/p/arti...is_n20_v91/ai_19288988

Her ignorant comments in 1997 did more damage to the effort to slow the spread of HIV than any other single event.

And soonerproud is correct. Antiviral treatment is available to anyone who needs it through state, federal and private programs. Even if you make too much to qualify for the government programs, private foundations like the Ryan White fund can help you with getting antivirals.

The main problem is not obtaining the drugs, it's compliance. For the antivirals to be effective long term, compliance MUST be 100%. This means taking the drugs without fail and on time every day. Failure to do so builds resistence to the drugs much faster and makes them worthless.

I believe last time I looked the average lifespan for someone infected with HIV today is now 25-30 years after contracting the virus. Before effective treatments that number was 5-10 years. I may be wrong, though. If I am someone correct me.

Life expectancy should be even longer than that. We just don't have any data because the drugs haven't been out long enough.

IIRC I believe that number factors in those who do not take the drugs, those who not not respond to the drugs and those who are not compliant as well as those who do and are.

Therefore one who responds and is compliant will live far longer than 30 years and those who do not will live far shorter.

But like I said, I may be wrong.