Biology case study help: Can we cure HIV?

so this is my case study question.

so this is all i have, in theory we could but it would cost alot money supplies and time and instead we could just educate people on the importance of condoms etc and the catholic church would be totally oppposed to it because thy disagree with condoms,

^^ i know it's rubbish but it's a rough paragraph made from my notes. any ideas what i could do? if we were to cure HIV how could we do it? like is there any ideas already?

you'll probaly be like oh why dont you do it yourself, well my answer is because i need YOUR ideas, any catholic's out there that would like to comment on your views on condoms etc...?

Okay well firstly, there is already medicine that can combat HIV, including a effective vaccine, although not at the same potency:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8272113.stm

Secondly, medicine combating HIV infection is already so effective that life spans are near to average domestic levels helped b the the development of HAART as effective therapy for HIV infection has substantially reduced the death rate

(From the paper: Palella, F. J., Delaney, K. M., Moorman, A. C., Loveless, M. O., Fuhrer, J., Satten, G. A., Aschman, D. J. and Holmberg, S. D. (1998). "Declining morbidity and mortality among patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus infection". N. Engl. J. Med. 338 (13): 853–860.)

Thirdly yes, I agree condoms and better education is the best way forward in the long term, especially as people live with HIV for longer (and hence can still be effective at transmitting disease.

The catholic church is in a difficult position but recently the Pope seems to have soften his tone, so there is hope yet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11804398

Hope this helps, and bless those who have it.

It's not a case of curing it, it's a case of letting natural selection develop a tolerance for it.

It's already happening, but we still keep the researchers in jobs just because.

yeah i;ve heard about that, it's to do with your dna or the ATCG thing. like people who are lactose intollorant, now i think they must be immune to somthing that people who can have dairy are not immune to. i think it's protiens or something but one protien changed and they are immune to HIV...

probaly made no sence whatso ever, correct me if im wrong on the protien thingy

no i was just saying

tell me if im wrong here... but even if they are immune, surely they could still be cariers of the HIV virus; therefore as prostitutes they would still be susceptible to passing the virus on... lots

no, if they are immune it meens they have the anti bodies to kill it off as soon as it enters the body, so no they wont be carriers. thats how you become immune to things. virus or whatever entres your body, white blod cells recognise them as invaders and they produce the anti bodies and there after you are immune to that, so you cant catch it nor can you pass it on

noooooooooooooo

well yes but not always in the HIV case (not sure about the specific prostitute one) but a mutation in the DNA means that HIV can no longer enter the white blood cells it infects, due to the protein channel no longer being the same shape I already did a post earlier in the thread explaining this though

ps just covered this in A2 biology

no, if they are immune it meens they have the anti bodies to kill it off as soon as it enters the body, so no they wont be carriers. thats how you become immune to things. virus or whatever entres your body, white blod cells recognise them as invaders and they produce the anti bodies and there after you are immune to that, so you cant catch it nor can you pass it on

That's not always true. There are literally dozens (maybe hundreds?) of pathogens which can replicate in and be passed on by 'asymptomatic carriers'.

See 'Typhoid Mary' as an illustrative example.

I don't think this is the case for HIV though, is it? With the CCR5 mutation it won't infect macrophages and die out. (although these HIV 'immune' people are not resistant due to antibodies OP, to be clear).