I know this was shared in class but this article is something I've been thinking about quite a lot this past week. In my mind the possibilities from this are seriously endless. Being able to alert a cell that it has a previously undetectable foreign object in it so that it can destroy it is a very exciting advancement. Being able to do this could lead to an eventual cure for AIDS and Cancer. The only hinderance to being able to cure these disease's is finding the anti-body that will attach itself to the AID's virus or the specific Cancer cells. With great leaps forward in medicine like this happening it is a very exciting time for us.
Imagining a future where we do not have to worry about the common cold fills me with a lot of hope. Not having a 'flu season' every year sounds like a truly magical thing. The possibility of a cure for AID's is another very promising thing that could change the lives of literally millions of people. These sort of medical advancements seemed to be the thing of science fiction only years ago but now it seems that a future where we keep a specimen of the common cold in a vial like the small pox virus is a very real thing.
The health benefits to this are enormous. According to the CDC estimates on the number of people that died from 1976 to 2006 ranged from 3,000 to 49,000 a year. That is an enormous number of people that could be saved by this simple drug. There are about 1 million people in the USA living with AIDS and if this vaccine could be adapted to eradicate the AIDS virus then this break through will be much more profound.
Regardless of what happens this is a huge leap forward in the world of medicine that will definitely be beneficial to a lot of people. I know I'm excited to see this drug move through animal trials and then onto first in man trials. The future is an exciting place!
I find these new advancements in medicine to be amazing. I feel as if one day there will be a cure for almost every ailment around. The cure for the common cold is like medicine's first foot in the door. Yes, the common cold might not be as dangerous as AIDS, but its still an incredible achievement. I couldn't imagine a winter without a stuffed up nose, sore throat, or cough. The cure would make the months of October through January much more easier.
ReplyDeleteThis is really exciting news. There are just a few things that I'm hoping for with this. 1.) As we talked about in class, I'm hoping that there will not be a huge tide of resistance against doing this for economic reasons. This is something absolutely epic and if it is really going to be held back by these blockbuster drug companies, that would be an extreme disappointment to the science community and the worldwide population. 2.) That the variety of viruses won't become a huge problem. You have thousands upon millions of different kinds of cold viruses out there, half of which we probably don't know about. That's JUST the cold. Then there's influenza, measles, AIDS, etc. It seems like a lot of different kinds of drugs will have to be made, but hopefully I'm just misunderstanding the article and that the antibody is common amongst all cold viruses. 3.) That the viruses do not catch up with these new drugs and form resistance. This is a constant problem with many bacteria we have and the antibiotics made for them.
ReplyDeleteLet's cross our fingers it all works out!
The advancements in medicine are amazing. We have come a long way but we still have long way to go. It would be great to see a vaccine for AIDs be discovered. I know that there are people who are immune to AIDS and alot of research is being conducted in that area.
ReplyDeleteso im pretty sure an AIDS vaccine isn't far a way.