Thirst for knowledge

A short reading by Kellie Matheson

This audio reading only takes 15mins of your time and is well worth the effort!

Here you will find posts on the current events occurring within science as well as other information of interest. I am not a science student, I just have a love for knowledge. Also I won't be posting anything on climate change, carbon emissions, carbon offsetting, carbon footprints, global warming, or anything to do with the earth heating or cooling. This is not because I am evil, but because I think whilst everyone is focusing their attention on those issues, we are missing out on many other new and exciting things happening elsewhere. Enjoy and please feel free to comment!

Gardasil protects against human papillomavirus (HPV) types 6 and 11, which cause cervical warts, and HPV 16 and 18, which cause two-thirds of cases of cervical cancer.

Gardasil was approved in September 2006 by the The European Commission after its approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June. Compulsory vaccinations at a prepubescent age could be our future. My first reaction is that it is a good thing. I was given injections at birth, late primary school and at the end of high school. Why can't protection against HPV be added to the mix. Parents have argued that early protect against this STD interferes with the way they raise their children. I cannot understand that, you don't necessarily have to tell the child what every injection is for in graphic detail, if a 12 year old knows its to protect her from disease, that's all she wants or needs to know.

However it is quite a dent in the health budget if a government decides to enforce a mass vaccination.

Nationwide, the cost of vaccinating American girls with Gardasil will amount to some $800 million a year. What is the potential anti-cancer benefit? Each year on average in the US, 11,150 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 3670 women die from it. If HPV 16 and HPV 18 cause two-thirds of the cases, we can calculate that Gardasil will prevent almost 7500 of them, saving around 1200 lives.

New Scientist magazine. Issue 2592, 24 February 2007, page 20

In order to lower the number of deaths from cervical cancer, perhaps the more cost effective solution is to put that money into education on the importance of regular pap smear tests, which are reliable at catching the precancerous cells at an early stage. Also the pap smear would have to become more available to a person of a lower socioeconomic status, who as studies show, have less pap smear tests than their more well off counterparts. 

I still have to believe that prevention is better than a cure, if we had the cure for HIV+ we wouldn't wait around for people to become infected with AIDS before we treated them.

Recent research in Africa has found that circumcised men are around 60 per cent less likely than uncircumcised men to pick up the AIDS virus. However this could be seen by some as a cure, which could have dangerous consequences as people think they are 100% protected from the deadly disease.

New Scientist magazine

Issue 2597, 31 March 2007, Page 7

The first recorded cases of individuals falling victim to AIDS dates back only 27 years. In that short space of time the AIDS virus has infected and killed millions of people, and presented kills around 3 million people annually. The most important symptom is the collapse of the immune system allowing other bacteria and viruses such as the common cold to take over the body causing death from massive infection.

So you may be asking why with the advances in modern medicine and discoveries of vaccinations for other deadly diseases can we not find the cure for AIDS?

For starters, AIDS is a virus. Viruses are purely just tiny, lifeless particles. They are harmless until they attach themselves to cell membranes and enter, where they take of the workings of the cell and force it to churn out replicas of the virus. Viruses cannot enter any type of cell, it must be an exact fit for the virus, which is why the Hepatitis B virus target liver cells and the AIDS virus attacks white blood cells.

The way the virus tells the cell to replicate depends on whether the virus is a made form DNA or RNA. DNA is genetic material found in every living cell. RNA is a messenger molecule.

Process of a DNA virus - DNA produces RNA. RNA produces viral protein.

Process of a RNA virus - RNA produces viral protein

Never does RNA produce DNA... except in the case of a retrovirus. The reason we have vaccinations for Hepatitis B and not for AIDS is because AIDS is not just a virus, it is a retrovirus. This is an RNA virus which stuns microbiologists by doing the unthinkable, it works backward. First the RNA creates DNA which then created RNA before churned out the viral proteins. This process allows the virus to incorporate itself into the host DNA, protecting it from detection by the immune system.

With the virus constantly mutating, any effort to combat the disease fails when the virus mutates and becomes resistant against the attack. Exposing a weaker strain of HIV to people is being trailed to create an immunity. However if the virus changes the vaccine will not recogise it. There is also efforts to create a vaccine to protect the areas in the cells where the virus first enters the body by making it unable to attach to the cell surface.

For now we concede to giving patients with HIV positive a regular cocktail of drugs known as HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy). This consists of regular pill popping on a strict schedule to control infections, with many needing up to 24 pills a day.

"George Washington, suffering from a sore throat and respiratory infection, was the recipient of 'state-of-the-art' medical treatment in 1799. He was given a poisonous compound of mercury, by both mouth and injection. He was forced to ingest a poisonous white salt that made him perspire and vomit. Caustic poultices were applied to his body that made his skin blister. He was forced to inhale vinegar vapours that burned his lungs and raised blisters in his throat, to counteract the blisters of infection. As a final affront, more than 5 pints (2.4 liters) of blood were drained from his body. All to no avail. He died shortly afterward - perhaps as much from the cure as from the illness." Page 8.

Killer Germs: Microbes & Diseases that threaten humanity

Barry E & David J Zimmerman

2003, McGraw Hill