Do you think scientists will ever "cure" anything ever again?

[Freak Show]

Think about it. We have millions of dollars invested in drug companies that do nothing but treat symptoms. Case in point, cholesterol and BP meds. Without these drugs, people's chol. and bp would not be normal. Then of course there's the obvious, AIDS. Again, drugs to "keep you alive" or better yet "a liveable disease." Fuck all that. Why is it we can clone a whole living thing, reattach severed limbs, create an artifical heart, map human genes, but we can't cure things that have direct impact in our daily lives. We can't cure the common cold. Hardly any STD's are curable (which scares the shit outta me thesedays). There's so many strains of influenza, staph, etc. now becoming resistant to treatment and what do they do? Up the dose or create stronger versions of the same drug. This will not/has not solved anything. I just don't understand the mystery of unlocking these "viruses." How much further do we have to dig before the answer is right in front of us?????? I don't have the answers, I'm not that smart, just a little concerned. What do you think?

 

[danielson]

hope this answers some questions:

the reason why we cant do HIV very well is its more sophisticated than a stealth fighter (biochemically). viruses have antigens. our immune system locks onto foreign antigens "(i.e. types were not supposed to have in our body, if were say all A's and an O showed up, we'd kill it). HIV has antigens similar to our own immune systems. it also covers all antigens in a sugar cloud (i.e. covers them up) so we cant attack them these antigens also mutate so we cant treat this like a normal disease, everything we used to do when making vaccines just went out the window. when HIV first hit the streets, they gave 10-15 yrs as an estimate. they didnt know anything about it but they still gave that estimate. thats why i never believe estimates.

cancer is your own cells. how can u distinguish between cancer cells and your normal cells when the only difference is a tiny mutated part of DNA locked deep within the cells

resistance is the result of greedy farmers and irrisponsible doctors and other factors like HIV patients. farmer feed chickens antyibiotics to make em grow quicker, but then this kills only nonresistant bacteria. some might be resistant, they then thrive, consequence u have lots of resistant strains. if a patient comes on with flu, he wants treatment. doctor gives him antibiotics, just to make him psychologically feel better, consequence, the bugs hes got become resistant (over here they WILL not give u them if u dont medically need em, elsewhere they will ) . HIV patients need antibiotivcs to live but sadly they ill harbour many resistant strains.

drug companies do not want cures, its not that profitable. chronic conditions mean big bucks. for instance do u know hayfever can be immunised against. yep, its funny they push tons of corticosteroids, antihistamines that eat away at yer kidneys (well there not that bad but there are side effects with say triludan+ grapefruit) when there is a fairly effective immunisation (not availible here )

tons of bacterial STDS are curable by antibiotics. but the viral ones are the problem as we have no viral drugs. HIV drugs are designed to stop the virus replicating by stooping priotein synthesis of viral protein (so no more virus can be made) and stopping it working by blocking its RNA (how it infects cells) but these only help the patiebnt, not cure him.

dont forget antibiotics were discovered 'by accident'. they are constantly searching for new ones and new cures. they will come as medical science advances. but what pisses me off is when something like human genome can be copyrighted. if they copyrighted my own DNA, shit id pump the CEO of that company full of lead, that is the most criminal thing i can think of.

oh they have flu immunisations. with so many mutations the doctor gyuesses whats gonna be in seasdon, they inject u with that immunisation. if hes wrong, ur ill. sucks. oh well. unless they can make an antiviral drug that doesnt harm u like crazy, flu will always be a problem

 

[danielson]

that post was far too long. but look at it like this. they could clone a human-pig, and u could use it to harvest organs from. ur heart a bit cloggy. whip out a new one. u gopt hepatitus, forget about it. cancer, chop out tha organ, stick in a new one. it quite a way of but who knows. genetics is the future, lots of hope there!

must sleep. now. gym next morning, finally. mmmm.....gymmmm

 

[The Dude]

Yes.

If it's viral, don't expect anything soon. No disease caused by a virus has ever been cured. We've developed vaccines for them, but we can't cure them. Not one.

Cancer is coming. The research being done today is phenomenal. It's not going to happen tomorrow, but piece by piece it will be conquered.

 

[Freak Show]

STELLAR REPLY, DANIELSON! Thanks for making a worthwhile contribution. Unfortunately, it still doesn't leave me feeling optimistic.

 

[Snooker991]

I think...

Actually,


I believe great strides will be made once we as a society figure out what to do with sensitive issues such as stem cell research and genetic engineering. Right now, modern western medicine has only three ways to fix a problem, remove it physically (i.e. surgery), treat it chemically, or bombard it with radiation. Unfortunately, surgery is necessarily invasive and as a consequence expensive, and drugs and radiation sometimes have side effects that are as bad or worse than the illness itself, not to mention it is imprecise and not garaunteed. However once we understand the genetic code, and how to alter that code we can make a targeted strike using the body's own naturally accepted defense mechanisms to cure illnesses. It has the advantage of not being invasive like drugs, and the advantage of being precise like surgery, not to mention the lack of side effects (assuming it is done right of course). However, the scientific complexity along with the moral and ethical issues associated with the research necessary to facilitate this sort of solution is so confusing and difficult, that it will take a while before we see headway in this regard. But I am optimistic...

Snooker

 

[plifter]

Look at history, smallpox used to wipe out people by the thousands. It was a big problem in many countries even in the late 70's and early 80's but now its gone. The US however still keeps a supply of it at the CDC in Atlanta in case a vaccine needs to be made.

 

[Natymike]

I read an aritcle in Scientific American (for a class). It talked about how 75% of antibiotics are now completely innefective because the bacteria they fight against constantly mutate to stay alive. This is a problem because antibiotics are ridiculously over prescribed.

Most antibiotics come from nature so things look pretty grim for the future.


On another note, mad cow disease takes 10 years to show up after the person eats the infected meat. This basically means that millions of people may be infected and not know.

Diseases are scary stuff, I also learned that there will probably never be a cure for AIDS because it is a retro-virus, basically it mutates no matter what you throw at it.

 

[Latimer]

The world is already getting overpopulated. Let nature take it's course.

 

[BackDoc]

On an optimistic note, once the first viral disease is able to be modified or killed without host death, then the rest of viruses will be short timing it...in other words, one retrovirus down and then the rest will go like dominos...provided the RNA protein can be overcome.