ENDGAME FOR HIV BATTLE

From Reuters via Yahoo courtesy of AlterNet:

AIDS virus weakness detected

They pinpointed a place on the outside of the human immunodeficiency virus that could be vulnerable to antibodies that could block it from infecting human cells.

U.S. National Institutes of Health researcher Peter Kwong said the study, published in the journal Nature, may reveal HIV's long-sought "site of vulnerability" that can be targeted with a vaccine aimed at preventing initial infection.

"Having that site and knowing that you can make antibodies against it means that a vaccine is possible," Kwong said in a telephone interview.

And

Experts agree that a vaccine is the only hope of stopping the pandemic of AIDS, which has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981. About 40 million people now live with HIV, with sub-Saharan Africa hardest hit.

But while dozens of potential vaccines are in development, only two AIDS vaccine candidates are in advanced human trials -- one made by Merck and Co. and another by Sanofi-Aventis SA.

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Back in 1987, a literature professor who taught me sophomore English at Kingwood Community College insisted that AIDS would ultimately be no big deal: science will find a cure, she strongly insisted. It was difficult for me to swallow at the time because gay men were dropping dead all over the place at that point, and I knew it was only a matter of time before heterosexuals would be at approximately the same risk. In 1991, a gay friend of mine insisted that the day that scientists cured AIDS, there would be "fucking in the streets." He was very loud in his assertion, clearly excited by the possibility.

It remains to be seen whether there will be public sex on Cure Day, but it is increasingly likely that my professor friend was right. I know that they've got some vaccines in trials right now, but we don't really know yet how effective they will be. But put those vaccines in a big blender with this new info about HIV vulnerability and it really seems that this horrible chess match has reached its endgame, and the advantage is clearly on the side of humanity.

More than anything else, AIDS has defined my generation, even while it has killed countless numbers of productive and loved human beings. I'll be glad when we're able to move on from this awful chapter of history.

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