Fidel

Hi Jungle Soup. Great News! I'll be in Bangkok some time in early to mid September. Let me know if you'll be there around then.

Same here. They gave me a form stating that I was free of elephantisis, leprosy, alcoholism (dunno how they determined that one) and psychosis. Nice to have.

Nope, not from the US. The tests were done in Bangkok. Is it common for health insurance policies in the US to cover HIV&AIDS?

You're right JS. I shit myself for a while. Had my first HIV test a little over a year ago, along with a bunch of other tests. The doctor went through all the tests one by one, telling me that all the results were fine. She never mentioned the AIDS test until I asked. I was beginning to get paranoid, so I asked her... "Oh, she said, of course, that's negative". I actually let out an audible sigh of relief.

And on the bright side, a report released a few weeks ago. [color:green] German Scientists Develop New Approach to Treating AIDS: German scientists have succeeded in snipping the virus that causes AIDS out of human cells, leaving them healthy again. The procedure is a breakthrough in bio-technology and fuels hope of a cure for AIDS. The laboratory procedure removing the AIDS virus used an enzyme, said Joachim Hauber of the Heinrich Pette Institute for Experimental Virology and Immunology in Hamburg. "We have rid the cells of the virus," Hauber said on Thursday. "No one else has done this before." He called it "a breakthrough in bio-technology." Hauber said it was his "cautious" hope that a cure for AIDS could be found within 10 years. Current therapies can only limit the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and not remove it from the body. HIV is a retrovirus that nests in the DNA or key genetic material of infected cells. The Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden was the partner in the research, which will be reported in Friday's issue of the scientific journal Science. Three years of experiments on mice were planned next, to be followed by tests on humans in Hamburg. The scientists' method used the ability of so-called recombinase enzymes to cut strands of DNA at certain places like a pair of scissors and recombine the strands. The new enzyme, Tre, always recognized the right spot to snip the DNA where the HIV started. The scientists said it recognized a characteristic HIV sequence that scarcely ever mutated. Tre was adapted from an existing natural enzyme, Cre, which recognized similar genetic sequences. The laboratories artificially evolved Cre into Tre through more than 120 recombinase generations. Hauber said the cell then flushed out the snipped-away DNA as waste. "After that, it is healthy," Hauber said. Any therapy, though, would require stem cells to be obtained from a patient's blood. They would then be treated in the laboratory and re-injected to regenerate a healthy immune system, Hauber said. "It's high-tech medicine," Hauber said. "You couldn't just take a pill."[/color] Source Fingers crossed, Jungle Soup! Hope you're holding up OK, oh and a belated happy birthday!

Hey Chris! Nothing much to add really, I think other posters have said it all. You're approaching this with a great attitude that will make all the difference. In any case, as you said earlier, you feel ok, I'm assuming you look fine, as long as you take the meds and look after yourself you'll probably live as long (if not longer) than many on this board. Thanks for sharing this with us, and for giving us a kick up the arse, you certainly have my respect. Chin up bro!