Why after all these efforts HIV virus could't satisfy Koach's postulate?
397845
As chihuahua rightly said, there are exceptions. Other organisms (not mentioned in that wikipedia link) include Mycobacteria Leprae (causes leprosy) as well as Treponema Pallidum (causes syphilis).\n\nAlso, there are modifications done to the original Koch's postulates, now known as the 'Molecular Koch's Postulates'. These involve isolating & modifying specific virulence gene for studies with models of infection.\n\nWhy is it important for the HIV virus to satisfy Koch's postulates, anyway? The postulates are used to establish that a specific micro-organism is the cause of a particular disease. That's all. The guy is obviously not 100% correct with all micro-organisms.
361445
There is no reliable vaccine against HIV\nAll vaccines against HIV are experimental\nSee some results at\nhttp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002576494_hivvaccine22m.html
95431
nothing can cure the HIV virus. it may aid in slowing down the symptoms. but cure it, no.
267055
Why is everyone so uneducated...\npick up a book and read..\nHIV is not as contractible as everyone makes it out to be,\nyes it is contracted through blood, blood products, semen and vaginal fluids\nbut\nit is a virus that is highly unstable outside of it's environment\nThere are considerable low amounts of virus found in saliva but not enough to contract HIV through. Even needle stick injuries to health care providers have a 0.3% chance of contracting HIV and still it would depend on several factors such as,\nwhat stage was the person with HIV, if they were on a drug regime, how much virus was in the blood, how much blood you came in contact with, and if the blood was transmitted through an artery or vein.\n\nIt is silly to be worried about contracting HIV through a french kiss what you should be really worried about is contracting Hep C
1111813
Absolutely not.  If nobody got antiviral treatments, the time from infection to emergence of AIDs symptoms, which averages 10 years, is plenty of time for infected people to spread the virus to many other partners unknowingly.  That is why the virus is so successful - that long incubation period.  Modern antivral treatments suppress the virus to a degree where the hiv infected person is not nearly as contagious, i.e., the viral load in their body fluids is many orders of magnitude (a factor of 1000 to 100,000) lower than it would be if they had not treatments.  HIV infected people on antiviral treatments are far less contagious.  That doesn;t mean it is safe for them to have unprotected sex with others, but the chances of transmission per unprotected sex act are dramatically lower, so even if they are irresponsible in this regard, they are mcuh less of a threat.
72766
It is entirely feasible. In fact, the HIV epidemic started with vaccine experiments on men in New York City, NY.
1125740
No! No one is immune to HIV or Aids...\n\nWhy? Because the viruses change often (there is a high level of mutation). It's the same reason why they can't find a cure...It doesn't stay the same long enough for them to specifically target it....
622366
(m)\n\nThe origin of AIDS and HIV has puzzled scientists ever since the illness first came to light in the early 1980s. For over twenty years it has been the subject of fierce debate and the cause of countless arguments, with everything from a promiscuous flight attendant to a suspect vaccine programme being blamed. So what it the truth? Just where did AIDS come from?\n\nThe first recognised cases of AIDS occurred in the USA in the early 1980s (more about this period can be found on our history page). A number of gay men in New York and San Francisco suddenly began to develop rare opportunistic infections and cancers that seemed stubbornly resistant to any treatment. At this time, AIDS did not yet have a name, but it quickly became obvious that all the men were suffering from a common syndrome. The discovery of HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus that causes AIDS was made soon after. While some were initially resistant to the connection (and indeed remain so today), there is now clear evidence to prove that HIV does cause AIDS. So, in order to find the source of AIDS, it is necessary to look for the origin of HIV, and find out How, When and Where HIV first began to cause disease in humans.
118371
There are several alternative treatments that have been yielding encouraging evidence in controlling the virus.\n\nYou may visit the source website below for further description of these.
141178
Don't know how urine therapy is going to help the trasnmission of HIV/AIDS. Boosting the immune system is great but aids is a highly specific virus that attacks T-cells and macrophages. Often times the fetus is taken as a forgeign entity and attacked by the mother's own body. By these very same leukocytes. I don't know how likely it is but I would assume the chance is very high for transmission to occur. We can't even cure AIds at this stage in time. How could we isolate the disease in one area of our body and keep it from others. It's not entirely feasible.
439596
No! Where have you been for the past 25 years? HIV is a virus; you cannot cure a virus. There are treatments that can prolong your life if you are infected, but they don't always work for everyone. If you become infected, it is very unlikely that you will live out your normal lifespan, even if you have the drugs. And the drugs are too expensive for most people in the poorest countries where they have the highest rates of infection. There is no "cure" for AIDS!!!
1001713
They have their own STD. \n\nBut thinking more about your question, I would say I do not know. Because too little humans are sick zoophilics, who could try this way, no material for big generalisations. Besides they had to be bi- in certain sense, for could catch a disease afroma human nd transmit it to animal... \n\nSome theories say that HIV passed from apes, so why some viruses and microbes could not do be passed (including mutations) to animals? Really probable thing.
263573
Myth & Reality of HIV AIDS (Myth is nothing but perception)\n\nMYTH: HIV or AIDS can be cured.\n\nREALITY: To date, there is no cure for HIV or AIDS and there are no vaccines to prevent HIV infection.\n\nMYTH: HIV/AIDS is a gay disease.\n\nREALITY: Anyone is susceptible to HIV/AIDS, regardless of their sexual orientation. Everyone is potentially at risk of getting HIV if they share needles or practice unsafe sex. Worldwide, HIV is spread most often through heterosexual contact.\n\nMYTH: You can get HIV from breathing the air around an HIV-infected person or from hugging or holding hands with an HIV-infected person.\n\nREALITY: HIV cannot be transmitted through:\n• toilet seats or door-knob handles\n• touching, hugging, holding hands, or cheek kissing with an HIV-infected person.\n• sharing eating utensils with an HIV-infected person.\n• mosquito bites.\nHIV is transmitted through contact with an HIV-positive person’s infected body fluids, such as semen, pre-ejaculate fluid, vaginal fluids, blood, or breast milk. HIV can also be transmitted through needles used for injecting drugs, tattooing or body piercing.\n\nMYTH: I can get HIV by sharing exercise equipment or playing sports with an HIV-positive person.\n\nREALITY: Contact with sweat or tears has never been shown to result in transmission of HIV.\n\nMYTH: You can get HIV by kissing an HIV-infected person.\n\nREALITY: Casual contact through closed-mouth or “social” kissing is not a risk for transmission of HIV. There is a theoretical potential for contact with blood during “French” kissing or open-mouthed kissing, but no cases have been attributed to any kind of kissing.\n\nMYTH: You cannot get HIV if you are using birth control methods like diaphragms, cervical caps, sponges, spermicides, DepoProvera, Norplant, or the Pill.\n\nREALITY: These birth control methods do not prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) such as HIV. They only aim to prevent pregnancy. The surest way to prevent both pregnancy and an STD infections is through abstinence. One way people who are sexually active may prevent pregnancy and STD infection is to use a condom in combination with another form of birth control, such as a diaphragm, cervical cap, sponge, spermicide, DepoProvera, Norplant, or the Pill. Birth control products containing the spermicide nonoxynol-9 (found in most contraceptive creams, gels, suppositories, foams, films and sponges) help to prevent pregnancy but may increase the risk of HIV.\n\nMYTH: I can’t have more than one sexually transmitted disease (STD) at a time.\n\nREALITY: A person can be infected with more than one STD. A person with an untreated STD may also be 6-10 times more likely to pass on or acquire HIV during sex. Risk for infection increases 10 to 300-fold in the presence of a genital ulcer, such as occurs in syphilis or genital herpes.\n\nMYTH: There is so such thing as safer sex.\n\nREALITY: Safer sex is sexual activity without penetration, or sex with a latex condom or a latex barrier (in the case of oral sex). Although safer sex can substantially reduce the sexual transmission of an STD like HIV, sexual abstinence is the surest way to prevent the sexual transmission of an STD, including HIV.\n\nMYTH: Since I only have oral sex, I’m not at risk for HIV/AIDS.\n\nREALITY: While oral sex is of lower risk than other forms of sex, you can get HIV by having oral sex with a man or a woman. It is important to use a latex barrier during oral, vaginal, or anal sex.\n\nMYTH: I would know if a loved one or I had HIV.\n\nREALITY: A person with HIV may not show any symptoms for many years. Since HIV affects each person differently, many people with HIV can look and feel healthy for years. The only sure way to know is to get tested.\n\nMYTH: Getting tested for HIV is pointless.\n\nREALITY: Knowing if you are HIV-positive will allow you to seek early treatment that can help you stay healthy longer and enable you not to pass on the vir
342813
Because the virus is very fragile and cannot survive outside of certain environments for very long.  This includes the proper amount of moisture and temperature.  This is also why the idea of getting the HIV virus from a toilet seat is such a myth.  If the blood, semen, or vaginal secretioins of someone with HIV were to be on a toilet seat, the virus would die in a very short time.\n\nPS. (in response to above) The current population with the fastest increase in infection is straight intravenous drug users.  So in addition to not having indiscriminate sex, straight mosquitoes must not be intravenous drug users....
278881
Not likely. First of all, HIV is not as easy to catch as everyone says, secondly, it's extremely fragile outside of its environment (the body) and dies very quickly.\n\n"HIV is a fragile virus requiring an environment of fluid and cells in order to remain alive and infectious. Outside of this environment, HIV will not survive."
1065804
The problem lies with the culture of the areas.  They don't realize that sex spreads HIV.  In fact its thought that the only way to get rid of the disease is to have sex with a virgin.  Its a sad world we live in indeed.  Also note that they are used to poor hygiene.  This is a leading problem.  I'm not saying everyone over there is like that, but some people is all it takes.    On a side note, the fact that we aren't exposed to the viral epidemics (affects our tolerance and our immune systems ability to cope with the disease) has a small part to play as well.
399114
There are many reasons why an AIDS vaccine is difficult to develop.  Here is an admittedly incomplete list:\n\n1. HIV is highly mutable - it can change its genomic RNA sequence (altering its protein sequence) and the ability of our body to recognize the infection.  As such, knowing which sequence to choose for a vaccine is very difficult.  \n\n2. The virus has evolved to adapt to localized populations, resulting in numerous "clades" found world-wide.  Therefore, it may be impossible to generate one vaccine that will target all clades and multiple clade-specific vaccines will be required.\n\n3. Scientists do not understand how most vaccines work, particularly those against viral infections.  The vaccines in use today were mainly identified based on trial and error and mainly generate antibody responses - not T cell responses.  While this single arm of the immune response seems to be protective against most bacterial infections (and some viral diseases), it does not appear to be protective against HIV.  The common approaches used against other pathogens have failed.  Therefore, generation of an HIV vaccine requires us to learn a lot more about vaccine design in general.\n\n4. While there are rare people who appear to be resistant to HIV infection or can survive for many years without developing symptoms of AIDS, scientists do not yet understand what type of immune response is protective against HIV.  Therefore, there is no "gold standard" for a vaccine to try to mimic.\n\n5. There is no small animal model of HIV infection.  The closest model system for testing potential HIV vaccines is to use monkeys.  This is difficult (scientifically and ethically), time-consuming, and very expensive - and there is still debate as to how well this system recapitulates human disease.  Therefore, the process is very slow from conception to testing of a new vaccine candidate.\n\n6. Along this line, current medical ethics (as well as cost, etc.) prevent doctors from testing unproven vaccine candidates directly on humans, as might have occured 100 years ago, for fear of unanticipated side effects ("do no harm").  Before any vaccine is tested in people, it must pass numerous preliminary stages using animals and small-scale (Phase I) trials in humans before any test of vaccine efficacy (requiring a large population) is begun.\n\nDon't loose hope - there are several good HIV vaccine candidates in the pipeline and pharmaceutical companies (i.e. Aventis Pasteur, Merck) are begining to team up to combine their approaches with some recent success.