Comments on: Minnesota HIV Rates http://blog.johnschrom.com/2010/02/minnesota-hiv-rates/ Epidemiologist and political junkie Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:29:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: john http://blog.johnschrom.com/2010/02/minnesota-hiv-rates/comment-page-1/#comment-12 john Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:29:36 +0000 http://blog.johnschrom.com/?p=101#comment-12 I'm not sure that a vaccine for HIV would be a magic bullet. We have vaccines for the flu, and people continue to die from it. I'm sure it would drastically decrease the mortality and morbidity of HIV, but I don't think it would solve our problems. Figuring out a way to promote responsible sexual practices would ultimately benefit everyone, and not just from an HIV standpoint. Unfortunately, that's not very simple either ... and would require our society to move past our "moral" hangups. I’m not sure that a vaccine for HIV would be a magic bullet. We have vaccines for the flu, and people continue to die from it. I’m sure it would drastically decrease the mortality and morbidity of HIV, but I don’t think it would solve our problems.

Figuring out a way to promote responsible sexual practices would ultimately benefit everyone, and not just from an HIV standpoint. Unfortunately, that’s not very simple either … and would require our society to move past our “moral” hangups.

]]> By: Anonymous http://blog.johnschrom.com/2010/02/minnesota-hiv-rates/comment-page-1/#comment-10 Anonymous Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:25:46 +0000 http://blog.johnschrom.com/?p=101#comment-10 The only magic bullet would be a vaccine or cure for common strains of HIV; retroviruses in general are much harder to deal with in that respect since we don't have good methods or templates for producing vaccines for them. Even so, all of that is guaranteed to be decades away, well beyond the average post-infection lifetime of most HIV patients. HIV positive teens are pretty much screwed. The only magic bullet would be a vaccine or cure for common strains of HIV; retroviruses in general are much harder to deal with in that respect since we don’t have good methods or templates for producing vaccines for them. Even so, all of that is guaranteed to be decades away, well beyond the average post-infection lifetime of most HIV patients. HIV positive teens are pretty much screwed.

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