Norm Woodward wrote:
> NW: I tried to pick up on the basis of his claim of non-viral causes of
> AIDS, but none sprung up on my search engine. I did see his "conspiracy
> theorizing," with which I tended to agree. I also have another pet theory,
> which is only backed by certain anecdotal evidence, that many deaths due to
> AIDS could have been prevented if those who were tested "HIV positive" for
> the related antibody were not told that they would inevitably develop
> full-blown AIDS. The fact that so many HIV positive individuals have
> survived much longer than expected, without developing any AIDS related
> symptoms, would indicate to me that their personal immune system had
> successfully defended against their initial exposure. However, if the
> individual was told that further "risky behavior" would have no effect on
> their prognosis, their subsequent exposure to other, perhaps more resistant,
> strains could lead to a fatal infection.
>
In regard to your comments on AIDS, the reason people some
people are resistant to AIDS is due to polymorphism in the
human genome (natural variation in the coding sequences between
different individuals). Some African pygmies who depend on
monkeys as part of their diet and are occasionally exposed to
blood from monkeys infected with the SIV virus (a very close
relative to the HIV virus), are virtually immune to
the AIDS virus. Hence, polymorphism in the CD4 receptor
that the AIDS virus uses to infect the T cells has produced
what is called a "selective advantage" in human populations
regularly exposed to the perils of dietary constraints.
Indeed, here you have an example of where the _host_ evolves
a defense strategy against an infectious agent. It's maybe
not "_applied_", but it sure is predictable. In fact, one of
the places where you see the most adaptation is in the area
of disease, because for most of the history of the human race,
disease was the major threat to our survival. Consequently,
you can find a kind of "regionalism" appearing on the human
genome.
Also, you still insist that most mutations are harmful. Maybe
so, but every single day, a person infected with HIV produces
1 billion variants of the HIV virus. The viral genome is about
ten thousand nucleotides long, so there are a lot of places where
a single nucleotide change leads to a negligible effect and there
is a good chance that at least one of them every few days has
a selective advantage. People who think this is only a disease
for gays are only fooling themselves. On a much longer time
scale, we are all at risk.
by Grace indeed we proceed,
Wayne
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 07 2001 - 19:59:57 EST