Klarinet Archive - Posting 000461.txt from 1999/01

From: Grant Green <gdgreen@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] HIV via saliva
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 16:17:55 -0500

>>Grant wrote:
>>> Also, the HIV virus is relatively fragile, as viruses go, and doesn't
>>> survive long outside the body. When I worked at Chiron, the virologists
>>> were much more concerned when they worked with Hepatitis C than when they
>>> worked with HIV.
>>>
>
>
>Sorry if this is too far off topic, but has anyone actually found the HIV
>virus yet? I read something recently (tho' not in detail) which implied that
>it *didn't* actually exist, & the HIV symptoms were actually caused by
>toxins in the body.

The HIV virus itself has been completely sequenced - there are a number of
patents covering HIV-1, HIV-2, and a number of variants. What is still in
dispute is exactly *how* the virus causes the symptoms. Just because the
genomic sequence is known does not mean that the function and activity of
each of the proteins encoded is also known (or the functions of the
regulatory genes, for that matter). Part of the controversy is probably
due to the fact that researchers tend to work with a single, purified
strain when they're studying effects of a virus on a cell culture, but one
often finds several different strains (all different from the cultured
laboratory virus strain) in patients. It probably shouldn't be surprising
that something this complex (affecting the immune system) is difficult to
study one cell at a time.

Certainly it is true that scientists don't know everything yet, and there
may be additional vectors that cause the disease or some of the symptoms.
However, HIV does seem to be associated with everyone who comes down with
AIDS, and most people who have HIV eventually do develop AIDS (last I
heard, there is a small percentage of people who seem to never develop AIDS
despite having HIV for long terms).

Grant

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green gdgreen@-----.com
http://www.contrabass.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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