OccamsRazor04
reply to post by halfoldman
It is more difficult, (removed), for a circumcised male to get HIV from a woman during consentual sex unless there are tears on
his penis. Circumcission GREATLY reduces this risk. (by a factor of 6 to 10 times less).
Women are not so lucky.
Very misleading. I corrected your statement with three words changed, four words removed, and a statement added. Now it reflects a different
reality.
Circumcision removes special immune cells (langerhans cells), exposed on the foreskin surface, that include both receptors needed for the virus to
attach and infect. This is why circumcision dramatically reduces the rate of infection.
Statistics of populations infected (majority gay male or IV drug users)in the U.S are skewed simply because of the large percentage of circumcision at
birth. Statistics in Africa tell a dramatically different story.
Needed to throw that out there for the uninformed that believe they are invincible. Met too many heteros that thought the same, and learned the hard
way they were NOT.
Back to the OP, I would NOT have expected success with the bone marrow transplants using 'normal' (not mutated with removal of CCR5 receptor)
donors. It only showed success for a short time simply because the patient had a new infusion of uninfected T-cells. It was only a matter of time
until failure.
So these results are neither shocking or surprising, if anything they should have been expected. It has been well-known for years that the virus
remains after the blood is cleared.
No news here, either bad or good (well except for the two patients that were given false expectations based on a temporary unexpected result).
The fact that the patient that got the transplants with the mutated gene is still doing well shows that it works - of course there is still that 75%
chance of dying from the procedure that makes it not a viable option.
This still keeps other methods of instilling this result (gene therapy to remove the receptor) continued hope for a 'functional' cure (ability to
keep the virus at bay, much like most of us do with the chickenpox infections we still carry today).
FYI, the antiretrovirals work, even with the new virilent strains. Life expectancy is close to normal. Still no picnic, being chained to a strict
schedule and a medication with side effects for the rest of your life.