The Next Pandemic Might Not Be So Bad

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) has had researchers stumped for years. They can not figure out how to vaccinate against it. Typically a vaccine ramps up the bodies immunological response to a virus allowing your body to destroy the virus before it can get set up to do some damage. HIV is special because it attacks our immune systems therefore creating a bigger response wont help. That is why this relatively slow spreading virus can not be stopped. HIV is already an epidemic in Africa and has a strong foothold in the rest of world.

But wait, this sounds awful. Everyone in the world getting AIDS, (acquired immune deficiency syndrome i.e. what HIV leads to) isn't the title "The Next Pandemic Might Not be so Bad". How is this not so bad?

Researchers have started put away the old way of thinking about vaccines and have come up with a clever new idea. Forget about exterminating the virus from our body or stopping its replication. What if we just change our immune system so the virus no longer affects us? Researchers now are trying to develop a vaccine that will change our immune system's helper T-cells, the specific cells HIV attacks, so that HIV cannot recognize them but the rest of your body can. So the entire world could be infected with HIV but no one would feel any adverse effects.

A few words of warning this is a vaccine not a cure. This will not work on those already infected with HIV, so  if you have HIV continue to be careful not to spread it, if you don't be careful not to get it. H/T to www.widescreenwallpaper.eu for the pic and ScientistLive for the info.