WEBVTT - How HIV/AIDS Works, Part II 0:00:00.880 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to Stuff you should know from house Stuff Works 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.240 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:17.040 There's Charles W Chuck Bryant. Uh, nobody's in here with us, 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:19.680 so it's just two of us and you, dear listener. 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.760 We're just free Leal and Bob Dylan whoever that is 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:29.080 Bob Dylan? Who come on? And um this is part 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:33.520 two of two of a special two part series that's 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:36.960 right on HIV aids. Yeah, if you didn't listen to 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:39.320 first one, I would suggest you do that. Yeah, you're 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:41.120 you're gonna be lost. There's probably gonna be a lot 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.880 of in jokes and referential jokes back to the first one. 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:46.640 We explained it in the first one. Yeah, that's very 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:48.920 important and like the actual nuts and Bolts disease, some 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:52.560 skip ahead, don't be lazy. UM So Chuck we left 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.600 off you were talking. We talked originally about UM, you know, 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.640 the different varying levels of risk depending on the type 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:02.560 of intercourse, depending on the tie of UM uh group 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:06.160 you remember of UM. We talked about how it works, 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.640 where it came from, what what could possibly be left 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:12.520 to talk about as far as HIV can is concerned. 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:14.959 There's a lot. Oh yeah, yeah, because we did not 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.440 touch on and I know you're being coy because I 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:19.280 see all your notes in front of you. Oh yeah, 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.199 look at all. But one thing we didn't talk about 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.800 that we're going to start with is uh treatment. Yeah, 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.920 that's a big one. That's a big one. Uh you 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:32.040 want to go and talk about the AIDS cocktail? Yeah. So. Um. 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:37.600 Back in a very very very famous basketball player named 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:41.440 Irvin Magic Johnson played for the l A Lakers, announced 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.119 that he was retiring from the NBA because he had 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:47.080 been diagnosed with HIV. I remember the day. That was 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:49.560 a huge deal. I was at Georgia Southern for some 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.440 weird reason that weekend. That is weird. It was a 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:55.720 big deal. Um. I mean you talked I think last 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:59.120 episode about Easy catching it and you know that was 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:01.919 that was a big deal. This was probably even bigger. 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:04.880 I think Magic Johnson was a bigger name than Easy. 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:08.360 Were more widely recognized him among more people. He was 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:11.000 a sports figure, he was straight what the heck is 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.600 going on? And I remember thinking, like many people at 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.919 the time, oh my gosh, Magic Johnson is dying. Yes, 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:19.600 I think a lot of people, most people who are 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.080 familiar with this thought, well, he's a goner in a 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.000 couple of years. But he kept living, and he kept living, 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:27.440 and he kept living. He came back and played more basketball. 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.400 Even I didn't know that, and you gotta be pretty 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:34.960 fit for that, sure, And he kept living. And everybody thought, 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.440 what the heck happened with Magic Johnson? And it turned 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.799 out that he had access to what's now known as 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:46.920 the highly active anti retroviral therapy a k A HEART, 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:51.000 which is now the standard of treatment for HIV um 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.000 and he had access to it a couple of years 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.920 before it became widespread in the I think, and it 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.760 has helped keep him alive. He recently he was thirty 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:02.320 two when he announced that he was diagnosed with HIV, 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:07.600 and he turned fifty six and two. It's a very 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.880 very long lifespan, especially for somebody who was diagnosed in 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:13.400 the early nineties when people were still like, what is 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:18.480 going on here? So correct? Uh, Magic Johnson got a 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:22.600 head start. Not because he's super famous. Well, that had 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.320 something to do with it. I think I'm very rich, well, 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.880 but he was he was willing to It was still 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.239 in the in the experimental phase at that point. Yeah, 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:32.600 but I'm sure there were plenty of HIV patients who 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:35.560 are like, do whatever you need to do to cure me, 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.040 but didn't have the money, so he got a jump 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:40.480 on it. But he has not. I think a lot 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.200 of people think that he is getting some other special 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:45.880 treatments that no one else is getting, or he's paying 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:49.000 his way into something. It supposedly there's a Kenyan witch 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:52.240 doctor rumor. Yeah, he's getting the same treatment that other 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:54.920 people are getting. And there are plenty of people that 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:57.920 have lived much longer than him. Oh yeah, and uh, 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.000 he's just the most famous. Uh, and that's a good 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:05.240 thing because he's HIV activists and activists. Yeah yea, not 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:09.120 to disparage anything about magic Jacks, and he definitely took 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.960 that that label at a time when it was that 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:17.839 was a gay disease, and uh, he became an HIV activist. 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:22.400 We should say specifically, he does not, never has had aids. 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:26.279 His um T helper cell count never got to the 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.719 UM two hundred thousand or less mark. So he's HIV 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.120 positive and he is still UM Like we said in 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.680 the last episode, it's a chronic disease because reservoirs developed 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.200 UM and I believe it was a couple of years 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:44.520 between diagnosis and treatment for him, So those reservoirs had 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.440 a chance to get a foothold, but he got it 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:51.000 early enough that he his lifespan is it's it's basically 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:54.040 that what was it twenty four years that he's been 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:57.920 alive since diagnosis. That's pretty normal for people who were 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.320 treated with the hard cocktail in a reasonable time after 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:06.400 being uh diagnosed, which they're finding that window of time 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.160 is intensely important. Oh yeah, we're gonna get to that man. 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:14.040 That was a great article ascent. So we're talking heart. Yeah, 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:18.560 heart or cart or just art whichever you want to 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:20.919 call it. I call it art with or heart with 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:23.920 the double A. I call it the AIDS cocktail. Oh yeah, 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.599 that's another word for uh. So, each one of these 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:28.560 drugs and we talked about in part one is very 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:34.840 specific to its task um to basically disrupt as many 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:39.880 stages of the process as possible. Uh, should we go 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:44.560 through these um in r t I S nucleo side 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:51.800 reverse transcript as inhibitors, they basically blocked the ability to replicate. Yeah, 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:55.839 remember the reverse transcript as takes the r n A 0:05:56.200 --> 0:06:01.240 instructions for the viral UM creation and turns it into 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:03.760 d NA, which is then inserted into the c D 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.520 four plus T cell nucleus. Right, so you block that. 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:10.760 It's a big problem for the HIV virus. It's a 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:14.880 big problem. It is UH in n R T I 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:20.160 S non nucleoside reverse transcription inhibitors, they disable a protein 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:25.480 another protein requiring it to replicate another disruption p I 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:31.200 S prote s inhibitors, So proteas was UM that was 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:36.040 the one that actually cut the polypeptides into their individual components. So, yeah, 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.600 you had a long chain of enzymes that made up 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:40.920 these viruses. That's the party didn't get right, and then 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:42.840 you cut them up. So the thing that cuts them 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:46.000 up isn't there. You just have all these long chains 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:49.960 and they build up and it's basically like um lucy's 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:55.400 running the chocolate factory assembly line or something there. Uh. 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:58.880 Then you have entry fusion inhibitors. They blocked the ability 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:00.760 to enter those c D for our cells to begin 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:05.040 with UH, and then finally integrays inhibitors UM once they 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.919 get in that c D four cell. UH. We talked 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:10.560 about the insert of that genetic material, and it basically 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:16.320 blocks the ability to do that. So the current cocktail 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:20.640 recommended cocktail are two in r T I s in 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.120 the shaker, one in a r T I and the 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:30.040 p I and then either a integrays inhibitor or a 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.040 right tone neighbor, which I don't know what that is, 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:35.840 do you know, let's just say it's the key. Let's 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:40.000 say it's the the bidders in the cocktail and makes 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:41.920 it right. You put it all in there, you shake 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.400 it up. You've got your AIDS cocktail. Once you put 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:47.880 that into place, if you catch it early enough, you 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:52.760 can bring your mortality rate just about to normal. Yeah. 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:55.760 Like it's just it's a chronic disease. Yeah. Yeah, And 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.360 and your immune system will probably not become so compromise 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.160 that you're gonna from something. You need to be on 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.800 it for life. Uh. And everyone is supposed to be 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:10.200 on this cocktail. Uh. Although if you have b um, 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.360 have a recent CD four count below five, or if 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:17.240 you are pregnant, then you are given a priority. And 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.600 it's all gonna cost you about ten to twelve thousand 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:23.920 dollars a year, although that is supposed to increase. And 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:26.160 the reason why you have to stay on it indefinitely 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:30.160 because we said in the last episode that um HIV 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:34.640 produces reservoirs of inactive varyans that just spread throughout the 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:39.520 body and accumulate. And even when you're treating what amounts 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.199 to one outbreak, another one can come very soon afterward. 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:46.080 And that's what makes it chronic. Right with heart it 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.720 will eventually get all these reservoirs, but it takes I 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.280 think we said sixty to eighty years. It's a very 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.800 long time, right. So there's been some suggestions as to 0:08:55.880 --> 0:09:02.040 how to eradicate UM this disease a little faster, yet 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:06.200 different ideas, which is great. I mean, they're really smart. 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:08.920 People are coming up with different strategies. One of them 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:11.800 is kind of nuts. But also which one the one 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:15.000 that uses pro Stratton I believe is what it's called. 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.560 It basically goes in and says, um, oh, you're an 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:23.200 inactive HIV, so well, I'm going to activate you. It's 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:28.880 basically making an HIV outbreak take place, but you're doing 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.120 it while you're under heart care, right. Yeah. The way 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:34.600 I thought of it was, it's like flushing out those 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:38.720 invisible reservoirs, but the only way to flush them out 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:40.880 is to activate them to get them going. So the 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:44.080 T cells actually know it's there. So that scary sounding 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:48.160 it is that the heart treatment also disrupts their function, 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:50.560 so it starts them up, and apparently they don't stop 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.000 and go back to sleep or go dormant again once 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.440 they start up, so it starts them up. The heart 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:58.440 treatment um keeps them from doing what they want to 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:02.720 do normally. And then also the cell that they're infecting 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.280 will die sooner than later and just get it over with. 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.360 So it's basically a way they're trying to figure out 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:13.120 to accelerate an HIV infection while in the presence of 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:17.400 highly active anti retroviral therapy. So it keeps you from 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:22.400 actually dying from this accelerated HIV infection. It's pretty cool. Yeah, 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:24.960 So that's one strategy. Does even that they call it anything, 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:28.720 that should call it something cool? Uh the gun Slinger, Yeah, 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:32.960 the gun Slinger hid. All right, I think we should 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:36.080 get to this next. This is uh. You sent an 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:40.280 awesome article from the Pacific Standard called getting to zero 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:42.800 very close to a cure for AIDS, and the city 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:47.120 of San Francisco is doing something. Uh there, they're pretty 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.600 radical out there in San Francisco. Sure you know all 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:53.360 those hippies out there. So what they're trying to do 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.520 is they're trying to make their city the first city 0:10:56.600 --> 0:11:00.400 with no new infections, no deaths, and no stigma. And 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:04.120 they called the program getting to zero, and they're doing 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:06.640 this in a in a lot of ways. Um, some 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:11.000 of the background here is there. Historically over the past 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.760 few decades hasn't been a ton of money allocated toward 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:16.800 finding a cure for AIDS. Yeah, and not because for 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.480 various reasons. I think a lot of people, especially initially 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.240 are like, well, because it was gay disease, yeah, I 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:25.360 think is its spread out and started infecting more non 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.120 gay people and more non gay white people. It started 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.640 to get a lot more funding, but it also didn't 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:34.200 get a lot of funny because a lot of people 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.360 were like, we can't cure this, it's an incurable disease. Yeah, 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.760 and I think, um, I think cynics might also say, like, 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.120 it's you make a lot more money to keep people 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:46.120 on drugs for life than you do caring something. But 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:51.079 from what I could tell, the main reason was because uh, 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:53.800 it was such a new scary thing. They put all 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:58.840 of their efforts into trying to save people who got HIV. 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:04.360 And coming up with these these this drug cocktail. However, 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:08.480 things are changing, which is good. Um. In two thousand 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.760 and eight and two thousand nine, that was a very 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:16.320 cool case. Timothy ray Brown. He was, Yeah, the second 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.880 Berlin patient. There was another one in the mid nineties. Yeah, 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.560 there was, I know everything. That was an anonymous Berlin 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:29.440 patient in the mid nineties who I think, uh got 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:35.480 HIV and then no longer had HIV. But what's up 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:39.520 with Berlin? I know, seriously, it's cool city. But Timothy 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.000 ray Brown was a special case. He's an American that 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.720 was living there as a translator. HIV positive and started 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:50.280 taking medications. Uh, and then about a decade later find 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:55.080 out he had leukemia. So his doctor, very clever person, 0:12:56.640 --> 0:13:01.640 Gero Hooter or Hero, call him Hero. I think Hero. 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:06.439 He said. He had a very weird unique I D idea. 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.440 He said, why don't we see if we can take 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.400 there are these people out there one percent of Caucasians, Yeah, 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.080 one percent of people who have a protein Caucasian people 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:20.839 uh CCR five, which basically makes them immune to HIV. 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.680 They lack that protein. Yeah, that's a protein on the 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:26.960 surface of your t helper sell that the HIV virus 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:31.280 docks with can doc can infect and very few people 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:33.520 have this one percent. He said, why don't we try 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.640 and find someone like that who can donate their bone 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.360 marrow which is where stuff like that is produced, and 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:43.600 to this guy and basically basically replace his immune system 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:46.800 with with this one percenter and not that kind of 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:51.400 one percenter. He's like, I'm gonna be rich. I got 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.360 rich bow. So he did that. They found someone UH 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.360 that had that that was a good match, and it worked. 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.200 It worked like he was funk only cured of HIV 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:03.880 I think like fully cured. Is was like, they keep 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:05.920 testing him and testing him. This is I think two 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.400 thousand eight or two thousand nine UM, and they testing 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:13.760 no signs UM. I don't know that enough people have 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:17.320 been cured of HIV AIDS so that they It's like 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:19.720 with UM with cancer. I think if you're five years 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.240 without UM any kind of growth, it's considered remission. I 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:26.000 don't think they have a standard like that yet. UM. 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:28.920 But so they keep testing this guy and he's it's 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:32.440 not coming back. These reservoirs are not becoming active again. 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:35.840 It doesn't appear that he has HIV or AIDS any longer. 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.400 And The doctor was excited, obviously, but he also knew like, well, 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:43.600 we obviously can't go around replacing you know, people's immune 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.160 systems with these one per cent. But what it did 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:49.400 was it kick started new hope and now all of 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:51.320 a sudden, all of a sudden, there was new funding 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:53.400 for trying to find a cure. And it was what 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:55.640 they call a proof of concept. I think we mentioned 0:14:55.760 --> 0:15:00.600 last episode it showed that AIDS can be cured. Yeah, 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.360 before this, only about three percent of AIDS and HIV 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.600 funding went to cure research. Um. Now there are new 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.840 grants totally fourteen point six million a year in Obama 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.280 in two thousand and thirteen said you know what, how 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:16.560 about another hundred million towards a cure over three years? 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:22.040 What is that funny? It's just what a hundred million 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:24.000 used to be and what it is today. You know. Yeah, 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:27.440 it just sounds like sure, just throwing money around. Um, 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:33.520 go get yourself some nice funding. Uh. So we talked 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:37.160 to Believe in the first episode about catching it early. Um, 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:41.040 there's another story here. Basically, how it works now is 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.960 you can get diagnosed with HIV and until you're t 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:49.960 cell count falls below a certain number, you're just like 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.320 not on any drugs, like you have to get sick 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:57.080 before you get treated in most cases. Is well, yeah, 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:58.680 that was the old I mean that's what it says 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.680 in this thing. Oh that was the old, the old. Yeah, 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:04.200 that was the old guard I got you. Yeah, the 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:09.760 the new the the bleeding edge right now, leading edge O, 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:14.400 the leading edge um is quite the opposite of that. Yeah, 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:16.560 Because they found if you get to it super early, 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:19.880 like those first few days and weeks after you get 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:23.280 HIV in the bloodstream is when it's most dangerous, very critical, 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:27.040 most easily spread. And they found that if people who 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:32.400 take these drugs right then are less likely less likely 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.960 to pass it on to a sexual partner. Here's why. Again, 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:40.560 one of the insidious, pernicious characteristics of HIV infection is 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:44.120 that inactive reservoirs build, which makes it a chronic disease. 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:48.000 And again, when you first stre exposed to HIV, your 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:50.880 immune system can mount a pretty decent defense on its own. Yeah, 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.160 you don't have those reservoirs just yet, right, And it's 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:56.360 those reservoirs that eventually overwhelm your immune system and can 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.160 lead to your death if you're treated with heart very 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:02.320 early on after or infection, those reservoirs never have a 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.680 chance to build and that infection that you do have 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:09.439 is helped with this extra therapy and your immune system 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.200 can defend against it. And it's these these people feel 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:15.960 like the time is such a critical essence that award 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.720 eighty six, which is a legendary the um United States 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:24.960 at least first UH dedicated AIDS ward AIDS Clinic in 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:29.560 San Francisco General the very cutting edge. They've led a 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.399 lot of treatment programs for UM HIV and AIDS over 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.920 the years, but they have this program now where they 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.920 will pay for a cab for you to be brought 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.960 from your doctor's office where you were just diagnosed to 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.080 Ward eighty six to be treated right then with heart 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:50.000 to begin treatment. Yeah. It's a doctor researcher called Hero 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:54.399 You hatano another hero another hero, You're right, And the 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:59.080 program is rapid UH, which the first letter also stands 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.359 for a rapid Yeah, I know, I don't think that's okay, 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:04.800 Well we'll give it to him. Rapid is the Rapid 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:10.400 Anti Retroviral Program Initiative for new diagnoses And like you said, 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:14.000 basically it's a treat and test and treat program where 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:15.360 as soon as you know you've got it. They want 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:18.479 to knock down any obstacle in your way, including that 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.000 first cab ride to get there and just go get 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.360 going on that stuff so you're not spreading the disease. 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:27.000 So we've got more on treatment and stuff like that. Uh, 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:53.960 and we'll get to it right after this message. All right, Chuck. 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.560 There's another UM. There's a group out there running around 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:58.679 too who are saying that they are working on an 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:03.199 AIDS or it's saying HIV vaccine. Yeah, you sent me 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:07.720 this one. UM. They are studying what are called controllers. 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:12.840 And these these controllers, they'll they get infected with HIV, 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:18.280 it's in their body and they never get sick from it. Yeah. 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:22.520 They're called long term non progressors or elite controllers, elite 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:25.400 of it. They prefer to be called elite controllers. Uh. 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.879 And they've estimated anywhere from one and two hundred to 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:32.680 one in five people. Uh. They don't think Magic Johnson 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:34.919 is one of these people, which we talked about. No, 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.480 he just responded, well the part, but there was the 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:40.040 thought that he might be. UM. And there's a project 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:43.080 called the Immunity Project. It's a nonprofit that seeks a 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:46.960 cure by stutting the blood of these elite controllers UM, 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:48.919 which I don't know why it's controversial, but I have 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:51.959 seen that other researchers are saying, like, don't do that, 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:55.440 it's not gonna work, or yeah, maybe that's it. Maybe 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.360 they think it's not resourced. Well, but they figured I mean, 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.880 they feel like they figured out what makes elite controllers, 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:05.840 what gives them that trait um. Apparently there's some proteins 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:11.760 that UM show these people signal proteins in their body 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.600 that that show the immune system where the best place 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:18.959 to attack in HIV viruses. Yeah, so that's genetic it is. 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:21.800 But it's also like it's not like there's something weird 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:26.280 with their own cells. It's like they're antibodies are UM 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:32.240 specialized to search and destroy HIV viruses, which is weird, 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:34.919 But that's definitely who you want to study. Why not 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:40.439 throw an extra hundred millionaire? Uh. This other part of 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.359 this article article from Pacific Standards, So it was interesting. 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:46.240 There was a case of the French girl she's now eighteen. 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:49.240 She was infected with HIV from her mother during pregnancy 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:53.640 or delivery. Immediately started started on the anti viral drugs. 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:57.399 Uh stayed on them for six years, and then she 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:01.120 stopped taking the medications for almost a year. Usually when 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:04.200 that happens is HIV just like really gets going again 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:07.120 and it's back on the move because of the reservoirs. Yeah, 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:09.840 it didn't happen in her case. Um, and so she 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:13.439 stayed off them for and she's been undetectable for twelve years. 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:16.640 So now they're thinking maybe one thing we can do 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:20.240 is get people on the drugs super soon, and then 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:23.040 wean them off of the drugs at a certain point 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:28.760 and see if that works. Basically like keeping good close 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:30.640 eye on them obviously not just being like, all right, 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:32.800 we'll see in a decade, let me know how it goes. 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.800 I mean, why not? So that's pretty promising too. Uh. 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:42.160 There's another uh potential strategy which is called shock and kill, 0:21:42.920 --> 0:21:48.800 and that is flushing out the particles into the circulatory system. 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:50.920 So is that part of the one we talked about earlier? 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:53.639 I think so the pro stratton where is that the 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:57.000 same thing it activates dormant HIV cells to get them 0:21:57.040 --> 0:21:59.960 to attack. I would say if it's not the same 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:03.280 drug or the same research group, it's the same principle, 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:07.359 you know, trying to awaken the sleeping beast and may 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:12.640 give us some big problems. Uh, Patient zero. We tease 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.240 that in the first episode. Yeah, I thought this was 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:18.240 super interesting. You referenced the book and movie and the 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:22.000 band played on by the book was Randy Schiltz about 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:25.560 the early days of AIDS and HIV, and um it 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:30.560 is there's now a book out called Plane Queer. Uh 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:35.840 and that is plane as an Airplane airplane terrible. Yeah, 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:39.399 I know colon labor, sexuality and AIDS. In the history 0:22:39.960 --> 0:22:44.840 of male flight attendants and um, there was a man 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:51.840 named Guton Dougas Gayton m. I was in an a Yeah, 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:55.800 g A E T A N Gayton Dougas. He's Canadian 0:22:55.800 --> 0:23:01.919 flight attendant. He's kebec Qua. It's Canadian people in compactus 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:07.080 maybe a national hero. Uh. They in this book. Basically 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:09.080 there was a big fear that this book wasn't going 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:12.080 to sell and get any attention. So the book publishing 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:15.240 because it's like six pages of methodical reporting on the 0:23:16.280 --> 0:23:21.040 area of HIV eight Yeah, and um, the the the 0:23:21.160 --> 0:23:23.720 editor now or the publisher has come out and said, 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:27.280 you know what, we kind of um resorted to yellow 0:23:27.359 --> 0:23:32.560 journalism by allowing and leaking this supposed patient zero, this 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:37.680 gay flight attendant, good looking guy who was very sexually active. 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:41.800 He claimed to have more than partners over a ten 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:45.159 year span from the early seventies of the early eighties, 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:49.600 flying all over the world. Yeah, obviously it's a flight attendant. Um. 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:52.800 And they let the story leak to the New York Times. 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:54.720 Was at New York Times and New York Post. But 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:58.680 not only did they leak the story, they really they 0:23:58.720 --> 0:24:03.800 really built up or overstated the guy's role as depicted 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:06.960 in the book too. Yeah. Basically, like this guy brought 0:24:07.000 --> 0:24:11.800 AIDS to the United States. This guy is patients zero. 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:14.320 They they I think in the book he does compare 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:19.200 him to Quebec quaw typhoid Mary right away, because he did. 0:24:19.320 --> 0:24:21.560