Progress is being made in leaps and now there is even one more
source of optimism with a drug that flushes out the HIV from cells.
Ramon Sahib Johnson is the founder of Brickfive.com, a website
dedicated to men's culture and wellness. With over ten years experience in
digital journalism and new media field, Ramon has dedicated his career to
advance the equal representation of disadvantaged and underrepresented peoples.
Ramon is currently an integrated PhD student at the University of Essex in
Colchester, England where he studies masculinity, myth and emotions.
In 2008,
Ramon was named 'GLBT Person of the Year' by GayAgenda and in 2009, Gay Life at
About.com was selected as 'Best Gay Lifestyle Blog' by BestGayBlogs.com. Ramon
was regular speaker at youth diversity organization Live Out Loud Reciprocity
Foundation, and a youth mentor at The Ali Forney Center, an LGBT homeless youth
service organization. He was named one of Clik Magazine's 25 Most Influential
Gay African-Americans in media for his contributions to the LGBT community and
has been a guest gay lifestyle expert on Proper Television's "TV Made Me
Do It," Q Television's "On Q Live," "The Derek and Romaine
Show" on Sirius Satellite Radio and New York's Power 105 morning radio
show.
Article that appeared
on
“This
may soon change with new findings from a team of researchers at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that give new hope to the battle for a cure.
Researchers found that the biological mechanism that keep HIV cloaked can be
targeted with the use of the oncology drug, vorinostat.
According to the study, vorinostat attacks the enzymes that keep HIV hiding in certain CD4+ Tcells. These are the cells that HIV uses to replicate. Within hours of being given vorinostat, six clinical trial patients had a significant increase in HIV RNA in these cells. The study's author, professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology, and epidemiology Dr.David Margolis, says this is evidence that the virus was being forced out of its hiding. The results were presented March 8 at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle, Washington.
More study is needed, but if the drug proves viable it could shed light on HIV's resting place. Once there, science can turn from defense to offense and work to eradicate the virus completely.”
According to the study, vorinostat attacks the enzymes that keep HIV hiding in certain CD4+ Tcells. These are the cells that HIV uses to replicate. Within hours of being given vorinostat, six clinical trial patients had a significant increase in HIV RNA in these cells. The study's author, professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology, and epidemiology Dr.David Margolis, says this is evidence that the virus was being forced out of its hiding. The results were presented March 8 at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle, Washington.
More study is needed, but if the drug proves viable it could shed light on HIV's resting place. Once there, science can turn from defense to offense and work to eradicate the virus completely.”
This begs the question: will Pharma force delays, obstruct
and oppose such drug? Will they then turn around and manufacture it only to
charge $500 per pill? The answer to that question is yes, but it is our
government that should instruct the FDA to conduct its own tests and even
establish a research lab that will assist in finding the cure for HIV. Most
people agree that if the drug manufacturers come up with a drug that cures
anything they should hold a patent and reap the benefits of their hard work…but
also, most people agree that you should not charge an obscene amount of money
for some drug that is life-saving. Most of us hold the concept of “thou shall
not make a profit out of people’s misery” or worse, make an obscene profit out
of it.
So there you have it, I know there are a lot of negative
attitudes and of course, far too many people have already succumbed to the
disease, put another way: as long as there is life, there is hope.
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