Some hopeful news on the HIV front...

Seen via brotherflounder on TrekBBS:

Doctors may have found a way to destroy HIV

Dr. Paul and Dr. Miguel Escobar aren’t talking about just suppressing HIV – they’re talking about destroying it permanently by arming the immune system with a new weapon lab tests have shown to be effective.

...

But Dr. Paul thinks he’s cracked a code.

“We’ve discovered the weak spot of HIV,” he said.

Paul and his team have zeroed in on a section of a key protein in HIV’s structure that does not mutate.

“The virus needs at least one constant region, and that is the essence of calling it the Achilles heel,” Paul said.

That Achilles heel is the doctors’ way in. They take advantage of it with something called an abzyme.

It’s naturally produced by people, like lupus patients. When they applied that abzyme to the HIV virus, it permanently disarmed it.

...

Basically, their idea could be used to control the disease for people who already have it and prevent infection for those at risk.

The theory has held up in lab and animal testing. The next step is human trials.

The article goes on to say that it may be another five years before the research will be able to help people with HIV (is that how long human trials last?), but here's hoping that they're successful.

Or, as Neil Tennant sang:

"Is it enough to live in hope
That one day we'll be free
Without this fear?
I'm going out
And carrying on as normal.
Hay una discoteca por aqui?"

A slightly more technical article at Sciencedaily.com.