{"id":342,"date":"2009-01-22T14:46:06","date_gmt":"2009-01-22T01:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv_your_immune_system\/"},"modified":"2009-01-22T14:46:06","modified_gmt":"2009-01-22T01:46:06","slug":"hiv-your-immune-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/","title":{"rendered":"hiv & your immune system"},"content":{"rendered":"

HIV = Human Immunodeficiency Virus. And there’s an extremely large volume of evidence supporting the hypothesis that infection with HIV generally leads to the development of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). I say ‘generally’ because there is a very small subset of people (called ‘elite suppressors’) in whom this progression doesn’t seem to happen<\/a>. But in everyone else, the HIV virus targets & ultimately leads to the destruction of the immune system’s CD4 cells, leaving patients vulnerable to opportunistic infections.<\/p>\n

The only medical treatments available to AIDS patients involve a combination of anti-retroviral drugs that inhibit the virus’s ability to reproduce & infect CD4 cells. Unfortunately these treatments are not as widely available as they could be in countries such as Africa, which have a high prevalence of HIV infections and patients with AIDS. Now it seems that a homeopathy practitioner is offering homeopathy as a treatment for African AIDS patients, claiming that it will achieve a cure (something that modern medicine can’t offer) by stimulating the patients’ immune systems.<\/p>\n

Now (quite apart from the effectiveness of water or sugar pills on the immune system), how likely is this? And doesn’t it sound like a good idea – stimulating the immune system in people with a minimal ability to mount an immune response to infections?<\/p>\n

Well, no. And ERV does a good job of explaining why not<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HIV = Human Immunodeficiency Virus. And there’s an extremely large volume of evidence supporting the hypothesis that infection with HIV generally leads to the development of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). I say ‘generally’ because there is a very small subset of people (called ‘elite suppressors’) in whom this progression doesn’t seem to happen. But in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3,17],"yoast_head":"\nhiv & your immune system : BioBlog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"hiv & your immune system : BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"HIV = Human Immunodeficiency Virus. And there’s an extremely large volume of evidence supporting the hypothesis that infection with HIV generally leads to the development of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). I say ‘generally’ because there is a very small subset of people (called ‘elite suppressors’) in whom this progression doesn’t seem to happen. But in […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-01-22T01:46:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AcampbelTeacher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alison\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/\",\"name\":\"hiv & your immune system : BioBlog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-01-22T01:46:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-01-22T01:46:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"hiv & your immune system\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/\",\"name\":\"BioBlog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea\",\"name\":\"Alison\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/AcampbelTeacher\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/author\/acampbel\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"hiv & your immune system : BioBlog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"hiv & your immune system : BioBlog","og_description":"HIV = Human Immunodeficiency Virus. And there’s an extremely large volume of evidence supporting the hypothesis that infection with HIV generally leads to the development of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). I say ‘generally’ because there is a very small subset of people (called ‘elite suppressors’) in whom this progression doesn’t seem to happen. But in […]","og_url":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/","og_site_name":"BioBlog","article_published_time":"2009-01-22T01:46:06+00:00","author":"Alison","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AcampbelTeacher","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alison","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/","name":"hiv & your immune system : BioBlog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-01-22T01:46:06+00:00","dateModified":"2009-01-22T01:46:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-NZ","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/01\/hiv-your-immune-system\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"hiv & your immune system"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/","name":"BioBlog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-NZ"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea","name":"Alison","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AcampbelTeacher"],"url":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/author\/acampbel\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}