- ‹ previous
- 832 of 1542
- next ›
African-Americans Genetically Prone to HIV, AIDS
New research shows that Africans and African-Americans bear a gene variant that helps protect them from malaria, but also makes them more vulnerable to HIV infection. The variant increases susceptability to HIV by 40 percent, says the San Francisco Chronicle.
The genetic trait is found in 90 percent of Africans and 60 percent of African-Americans. Thus far, it has protected against malaria by disabling a protein that some strains of malaria use to enter red blood cells. However, that same protein that's disabled in Africans to prevent malaria can actually protect against HIV by soaking up virus cells before they can invade white blood cells. With this sponge-like protein disabled, Africans lose a key pre-infection barrier.
This finding helps explain, in part, the high HIV infection rates among Sub-Saharan Africans and Americans of African descent. On the flipside, there is a genetic variant among people of Northern European heritage that actually makes them immune to HIV infection. Scientists think the mutation was passed down by ancestors who survived the Black Plague. In one test, a man's blood was exposed to 3,000 times the amount of HIV needed to infect a cell, but infection still didn't occur. The HIV virus simply had no gateway of entry.
Both the European and African genetic traits are currently being studied to see if they can shed light on a cure to HIV.
This is right. The CIA especially engineered AIDS to only attack(with rare exceptions) Africans, according to Pastor Wright who, as you know, is usually right on. The CFR said that there were too many Africans.
"On the flipside, there is a genetic variant among people of Northern European heritage that actually makes them immune to HIV infection" I should make it clear that not all "Northern European" types have this gene. In fact, a minority do. So don't go out and needlessly expose yourself. Always practice self sex so you don't get herpes.
Where is the substantiation for this article? Are there any citations (articles, studies, names, etc.) of any sort? Written as it is seems highly irresponsible. I'd like to hear back from the original poster or anyone who knows anything beyond urban rumors or conspiracy theories.
Check out the article referred to in the first paragraph. That article in the SF Chronicle, references the study from which this information comes. From there, you can look up the actual study if you want.
if you click on any of the links in the article you will see the citation, its a website remember?
I don't know whether this is completelly true. HIV infection among African-Americans seems to be associated with IV drug use more than sex, but in Africa the disease appears to be spread in many cases by heterosexual transmission, and the increased herrosexual transmission may be due to the widespread practice of female genital mutillation which makes women bleed when they have sex and the blood to semen contact is an ideal pathway for HIV transmission.
W.
Well, if I had heard of anything more ridiculous before, this one tops the cake. I'd like this to be told to the thousands of non-black families who unfortunately lost their loved one from the AIDS virus. Lets get their reaction.
I've been "HIV-positive" since 1998 and continue to be symptom-free without taking toxic anti-retroviral drugs. There's not enough space here to address all of the questions raised by this article, as well as the SF Chronicle story it is based on. There is probably a genetic connection that causes more Africans to test positive, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have, or will get AIDS. There is no test that identifies a virus or any other infectious entity. Check out http://hivskeptic.wordpress.com/.
I do have one question though: who is conducting studies about the alleged European genetic trait for immunity? I hear about this, and have even been told by a doctor that I am "immune", but no one seems interested in directing me to any studies.
Given the failure of vaccine trials so far, one would think I'd be a hot item!
This just goes to show the superiority of Nordic people, in this regard.
This is new. One large epidemiological study, which I recollect was related in an article in the Scientific American about 10 years ago, traced puzzling variations in African HIV rates to one factor, cutting across all other variations of nation, religion, sexual practises and debut age and social class: male circumcision. Groups and areas where this practise was common had lower HIV rates.
If you're HIV+ but haven't got AIDS - look down in that newspaper article, from which I cite:
"The researchers also made another remarkable finding - once a person with the African gene becomes infected, the same genetic trait appears to prolong survival. One of the Duffy protein's natural roles appears to be to ramp up the immune system. It attracts a number of chemical signals that promote inflammation - a defensive mechanism that normally protects the body, but lays out a banquet of white blood cells for HIV to infect and destroy.
"So the same genetic mutation that raises the risk of HIV infection provides some protection to those who become infected. Similarly, those who carry the normal Duffy protein may be somewhat shielded from HIV infection, but once infected may sicken and die sooner without treatment. "There is a high order of complexity here," Ahuja conceded."
Hope this will lead to a way to prevent infections but in the meantime, more is needed to prevent this disease among people in Africa and of African decent.
I have heard that the rate of infection in some African countries is 20-30 percent of the population. Little is being done to make condoms available or to explain to people in these communities that this is a preventable disease.
Don, circumcision is a barbaric practice, Might as well go all the way and cut off the offending part. There is no truth to this rumor. But what is true in Mother Africa, if you have sex with a virgin, you will not get AIDS. Virgins are very popular in Mother Africa.
Studies can be funny things. Seems that scientists can "prove" whatever they set out to prove, which may be influenced, if not determined by the funder of the study.
There isn't a significant enough difference in the rates of transmission for uncircumcised vs. "cut" men to explain such a disproportionately large number of positive tests (positive for what?) among blacks.
One theory that does more closely track with the rate of seropositivity is the availability (or deficiency) of the essential micronutrient selenium in certain regions of the world, but you won't be hearing that from the CDC.
Pastor Wright has settled the issue. He says the CIA is behind AIDs to kill off Africans. This is the man that Obama was mentored by, so he has a lot of credibility.
Why stop there? How about a good, old-fashioned "Seig Heil!"?
That response was to the Viking chap.
I think the idea is worth looking into. It does not sound far fetched to me.
M Young, you are a confused bigot. The Germans occupied my native land of Norway. We are superior to you Americans. We have produced over twenty billion barrels of oil that has been pumped up from the Norwegian continental shelf since production started in June 1971. This offshore production was produced without any oil spills, unlike you clumsy Americans. You have much to learn from our superiority. We are also the world's best skiers.
To Lars: I don't think M young is confused. I think that he was pointing out that your initial statement claiming racial superiority reeks of Hitler. And I agree. Perhaps you are challenged by the language. If you look up "bigot", it seems to be what you are. A bigot.
Oh, and good work on the oil thing. The really ties into the argument.
P, racial differences(really propensities) in catching various disease and various types of intelligence is a Darwin thing(he wrote extensively on this issue). Of course, when bell shape curves are overlaid, there is always some overlaps) Lars is generally correct. Seeing that you are a Creationist and think that God created everybody equal, I respect your disagreement. From a scientific standpoint, the sames rules that apply to all the other animals, applies to humans(unless you are a Creationist). If this somehow insults you, I am sorry. But I suggest that you stop believing superstition, believe in Science like me. It is settled. But in all fairness, Lars' lifestyle results in an evolutionary dead end in the natural world. Keep on pumping(crude oil and natural gas) Lars.
Dr. Watson. All I was pointing out is that Lars was playing the bigot, and the fact that he was calling the other chap a bigot was slightly hypocritical. In fact, I fail to see any evidence that M Yong is a "Bigot" based on his post. Do you? Perhaps "confused", but definitely not a bigot. Whether it(racial superiority) is true or not, is not the issue. He called someone a bigot when in turn, it was he(Lars) that was claiming racial superiority. Furthermore, I don't see how being immune to one disease and not the other disease makes one's race superior. So the Nord may not die of HIV/AIDS, but could drop dead of malaria. Keep in mind that the temperature is rising every where, and with all that water up there in Norway, there could be an epidemic before you know it.
Also, I must point out that there is no evidence in anything that I have written to back your assertion that I am a "Creationist" and that I believe in "superstitions". I never stated that all people are "created" equal nor did I mention any thing about God. As far as you know, I am a bigot too. Apparently the difference between me, you and Lars is that I know what the word"bigot" means. And I must add that claiming superiority of one's race and the inferiority of another's(bigotry), and pointing out racial "propensities" are two different things. Of course races are different. But there is nothing in any of our posts that proves the one race is "superior" than the other.
You seem to like to attack people with unfounded assertions. What's up with that?
P, let me clarify. If you are gay, the Nordic type is definitely superior to the African, according to the article, only if you value your continued existence on this planet. But, of course, if you believe in the afterlife, then, does it really matter? I knew that we Vikings were always superior, in the same way some of my Jewish friends believe their mother when she said that they are special and superior. Odin, is like a father, with many children, some smarter than others, and some are more special than others. Thank you Dr. Watson, we will keep pumping. I have no intention of going to Africa where I might be exposed to malaria. I play to my strengths.
Lars, please you are hurting my feelings...we know you guys are better skiers, don't rub it in our face, you are so mean...LMAO.
I thought African are not really protected frommalaria, that in fact it is a killer? Hence all the antimalarial drugs, mosquito nets and that have flooded the continent and the potential vaccine?
UNICEF says:Malaria kills over one million people each year worldwide. More than 80 per cent of these deaths take place in Sub-Saharan Africa and most are among children under five years of age. An African child dies of malaria every 30 seconds.
Malaria is one of the biggest killers of children in Africa, accounting for nearly one in five of the continent's child deaths.
Yet this disease is both preventable and treatable. The solutions are available. For just US$10, a child can be protected against malaria by a long-lasting, insecticide-treated bed net (ITN). And an infected child can be treated with Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs).
The CDC estimates roughly 1 million Americans are infected with the virus. Dr. Kevin Fenton, who heads CDC's AIDS branch, said 15,000 to 18,000 Americans die every year of AIDS.
"The data really confirm that there is a severe impact of this epidemic among gay and bisexual men in the United States ... as well as black men and women," Fenton said in a telephone interview.
Obama's Pastor Wright is right when he says the CIA invented AIDs to get rid of Africans and gay people.
This is plain BS, you can only go as far as fooling your likes. HIV,AIDS are all a money making enterprise for the pharmaceutical firms and it beneficaries.Who can forget what you guy's did with syphilis.Tell me more(AIDS WAS SENT TO AFRICANS BY YOUR GOD).What happened to drugs like AZT which was fed to the poor ignorant people of the world.
Researchers found that people who live in lands conquered by the Roman army have less protection against HIV than those in countries they never reached
They say a gene which helps make people less susceptible to HIV occurs in greater frequency in areas of Europe that the Roman Empire did not stretch to.
The gene lacks certain DNA elements, which means HIV cannot bind to it as easily and is less able to infect cells.
People with the mutation have some resistance to HIV infection and also take longer to develop AIDS, reports New Scientist.
A study of almost 19,000 DNA samples from across Europe showed the gene variant seemed to dwindle in regions conquered by the Romans.
Generally only people in Europe and western Asia carry the gene and it becomes much less frequent as you move south.
More than 15 per cent of people in some areas of northern Europe carry it compared with fewer than four per cent of Greeks.
Great topic for writing term
Great topic for writing term papers and essay on AIDS.