Monday, June 05, 2006

Happy 25th Birthday AIDS

The powers that be have decided that this year is the 25th anniversary of AIDS since, as I understand it, it's the first anniversary of the first case recognized by the CDC. There are articles on the NY Times (which talks about the AIDS Ride in San Francisco), the LA Times (which discusses how AIDS medication progress has slowed to a crawl after years of sprinting -- and how the long hoped-for AIDS vaccine is not even remotely within reach), the Washington Post has links to a full series.

I think it's important to note that the major pharms never really were very interested in getting into the AIDS vaccine business. As was noted at a class on medical ethics I attended at Stanford University, it doesn't make good business sense to wipe out a disease when you can make a lot more money by treating it like an ongoing condition where you need no less than THREE expensive drugs to keep at bay.

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