vaccine - io9

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HIV Is Weaker Than We Think
Get Your Malaria Vaccine Via Mosquito Bite
Get Innoculated at Your Local Tattoo Vaccine Parlor
Harvesting the Saliva Glands of Mosquitoes

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QamarCarmark
09/06/09

In reply to HIV Is Weaker Than We Think
I know this is a serious discussion but was I the only one that laughed when I saw the name Wayne Koff?
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Magicant
09/06/09

@QamarCarmark: haha - totally missed that. Thanks!
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Magicant
09/05/09

In reply to HIV Is Weaker Than We Think
All those Mickey Mouse balloons surrounding that cell? Disney really IS everywhere now.
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Trai_Dep
09/05/09

@Magicant: That's a common mistake laymen make. They're always been there, but it's taken Disney lawyers 20 years to file the correct paperwork protecting their IP.
Thankfully, their hard work is almost complete. Expect copyright infringement suits to be filed against the world's HIV+ people by the end of the month.
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GreyHammer
09/05/09

In reply to HIV Is Weaker Than We Think
why don we just ask what they did with magic johnson? guy has had HIV for over a decade and looks healthier than i am.
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ryno365
09/05/09

@GreyHammer:

Dont you remember? They injected him with finely grained money.
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crashedpc - Haifisch
09/05/09

@GreyHammer: He beat HIV to half to death with a basketball.
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Makidian
09/05/09

@GreyHammer: MJ is loaded beyond what most people know, so dude has access to the most cutting edge medicines, then and now. The way I understand it though is modern techniques for keeping the virus at bay are pretty successful which has helped to mitigate deaths and newer cases.
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spoogy
09/05/09

@GreyHammer: Sorry to go all serious, but that's the difference between having access to health care and not. I have two close friends with HIV, and they're both less likely to get a cold or flu going around than I am. The drugs, if one has access to them, seem to beat it back to very nearly nothing. Unfortunately, they're also very expensive. One has government assistance (which I believe is threatened by the California budget cuts,) and the other's insurance company is constantly trying to kick him off.
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Moff
09/05/09

@spoogy: Yeah, I had a coworker and friend who was HIV+ and had to keep his job (waiting tables) because if he lost it, obviously he couldn't pay for anything, but if he made any more money, New York state would stop subsidizing his medication. A very weird and troublesome situation.
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RandomFrequentFlierDent
09/05/09

@Makidian: The modern techniques for dealing with the virus are in no way close to being a substitute for a vaccine or cure. This isn't really directed at you, but it really bothers me when people act like the current drugs are all we need. HIV has a crazy high mutation rate and will eventually become immune to any drug used to treat it. That's why people who are HIV positive need to take cocktails of drugs and change the regime constantly. Not only are the drugs super expensive, but scientists are in what is pretty much a race against time/mutation rate to keep ahead of the virus.
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Trai_Dep
09/05/09

@RandomFrequentFlierDent: Yup. To say nothing of the side effects of said meds. It grates to no end when friends of mine (str8 & gay) shrug and giggle when admitting they sexed it up sans condom on occasion.
It ain't as simple as gulping an aspirin down to mitigate that hangover, kiddies...
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Asen
07/31/09

In reply to Get Your Malaria Vaccine Via Mosquito Bite
Good God, didn't any of you see the most recent adaptation of I Am Legend? Curing disease in unusual, even ingenious ways is the surest bet to bring about the zombiepocalypse!
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BadUncle
07/31/09

@Asen: Or, alternately, a race of gigantic, carnivorous insects will learn to mimic human behavior to prey upon us.
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EtrnL_Frost
07/31/09

In reply to Get Your Malaria Vaccine Via Mosquito Bite
Oh, great. So instead of a sting and a lollipop, our children get to look forward to a sting and an itchy bump.

Awesome. I'm all for it!
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Dr Emilio Lizardo
07/31/09

In reply to Get Your Malaria Vaccine Via Mosquito Bite
Wait till a parent claims this vaccine, that he never consented to, gave her baby autism. Then where will we be?

I mean, unless you work for a news outlet looking to report complicated issues as half truths in 90 seconds.
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Edited by Dr Emilio Lizardo at 07/31/09 8:48 AM Dr Emilio Lizardo was starred

AldoraGreel
07/31/09

In reply to Get Your Malaria Vaccine Via Mosquito Bite
What are you supposed to tell those populations?

"Oh, well, some of the bugs will kill you. Some will vaccinate you. Let all bugs bite you. Hope the vaccination kind get to you first."

"How will we know?"

"You won't. Just trust us. Science!"
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RandomFrequentFlierDent
07/31/09

@AldoraGreel: I’m cringing over being so nit-picky but the science geek in me can't help it. The actual research really isn’t about using mosquitoes for vaccine delivery, it’s about using the actual parasites to develop a vaccine. Most likely any vaccines arising from this research wouldn’t use a insect vector.

Again, the title is a little misleading.
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Edited by RandomFrequentFlierDent at 07/31/09 9:28 AM

I Think We're Property
07/31/09

@RandomFrequentFlierDent: Thank god someone actually gets it. I was getting worried I'd see nothing but "but is sticking vaccines into mosquito safe?" in the entire comments section.

For pete's sake, people, actually read the damn articles.

And I don't think there is an ethical problem here. The people you'd be distributing these anti-malaria drugs to are already in a position to get infected- that's the whole point. By distributing the drugs, you'd give them an opportunity to develop natural immunity. You can take them off the drugs when bloodtests reveal natural malaria anti-bodies.
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RandomFrequentFlierDent promoted this comment

RandomFrequentFlierDent
07/31/09

In reply to Get Your Malaria Vaccine Via Mosquito Bite
I think the study itself focuses less on the idea of using insects as a vector for vaccine distribution and more on the idea that as with viral and bacterial vaccines, the organism causing the illness can also be used to produce the vaccine.

edit*Re-reading your story, I see that you mention that. It's kind of weird how both articles have fairly misleading titles.
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Edited by RandomFrequentFlierDent at 07/31/09 8:47 AM

RenRen
07/31/09

@RandomFrequentFlierDent: Yeah. I mean, it really proved the concept that people in areas should be prophilactically treated while they are there and exposed.
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