A.I.D.S. news
Came across a really exciting article today, basically saying that scientists have discovered the protein in monkeys that allows them to contract HIV, but they don't develop AIDS. This is huge. We know some people get HIV, and just never develop AIDS, but we don't know why. If it turns out that its a similar mechanism to the monkeys, we may be able to boost/inject this protein into someone infected with HIV, but they won't develop AIDS.
When I was younger I had an opportunity to spend a summer in Montreal volunteering at an AIDS hospice, and went. This was the early 90s, so the stigma/hysteria and AIDS wasn't really at its peak anymore, but it was still pretty heavy and a lot of things were very weird. Things weren't allowed to be shared between the different houses, lots of people wouldn't go into the hospice, all sorts of stuff.
It seemed even worse in some ways in Montreal than when I came back to the states. Kinda blew my mind for awhile, really, but there are few things I would have traded the experience for.
Besides learning that the french are really only assholes when they haven't gone out of their way to get to encounter you, I learned more about life, death, kindness, fear, empathy, etc than I could every really put into words. A lot of people I grew close to died of AIDS, so anything they can do to put an end to it (or just keep it to HIV infection would be an amazing start) would be great news. It's just such a slow and terrible way to die.
Posted by drunkenbatmanFebruary 26, 2004, at 02:44 AM
