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Asked by danrumford to Cat, Daz, Holly, Johnson, Pamela on 15 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by erin95, 19claire95, ajs98.
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Cat O'Connor answered on 15 Jun 2011:
Hi Dan,
I think that if we get a bit more money behind it, I think that we’ll be able to get rid of Rabies in humans and animals. Right now, if a person gets infected they WILL die. And it’s an awful death 🙁 I think we’re a long way away from finding a cure but the next best thing we can do is eradicate it!! It’s pretty easy to do so too because we have a vaccine we can use on both domestic (like dogs) and wild animals (like lions). The only think is, we need to vaccinate nearly all the animals in an area where the disease exists if we want to get rid of it. And that costs a lot of money, not just for all the vaccines but also all the man power and equipment needed to round up all those animals!
Cures are really hard to come by. Think about antibiotics. They have been the saviour of many a person but now, a lot of bugs have figured out how to not be affected by them. This would be fine if we had loads of new antibiotics waiting in the wings but finding a new drug that works is a very rare occurrence. So, I think that a good way to try and help people and animals right now is in vaccine research!
What disease would you like to see cured or eradicated?
Cat
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Darren Braddick answered on 15 Jun 2011:
Hi Dan,
A good question, just so many answers could come here. I suppose it could be possible to treat most cancers and infections if the drugs and research got far enough. In terms of other diseases like heart attacks or strokes, prevention is important, but maintaining health and quality of life after the disease attacks is very important. I would hope that we find a way to defeat neurodegenerative disease (like Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s disease), as they are particularly awful.
Do you think there are diseases that can never be cured? I honestly hope that medical science can answer all questions posed by disease, but its apparent that disease and human health, especially for cancers and neurodegenerative diseases is so so complex.
Does that answer your question?
Daz
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Holly Shelton answered on 15 Jun 2011:
Hi Dan
I think we are making some really good progress in curing some forms of cancer that at the momment are fairly terminal.
Also HIV the virus that causes AIDs we might be a position to cure that one day. Really at the momment alot of focus is on prevention of incurable diseases, vaccines, screening techniques and surgical methods.
Holly
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Pamela Lithgow answered on 15 Jun 2011:
Hi Dan,
Well I will go straight in with the virus I work on African swine fever (ASF)! It is really horrible and kills pigs in a really horrible way so a cure would be great. I think we are more likely to make a vaccine than a cure, but a vaccine would prevent the pigs from getting ASF so that is just as good really. I say this one first because I can definitely see it happening because of all the great work people at my work do.
I agree with Cat, Daz and Holy and I hope that cures will be found for the terrible diseases like rabies, HIV and neurodegenerative diseases. And I think there will be cures for these things one day but unfortunately I think there will be different diseases in future that we will need to fight. When you think of the diseases of the past like plague which are no longer a big issue in the future maybe rabies will be like that but there will be other diseases that need combating. We will always be fighting the battle!
Hope that adds to the answers above!
Pam 🙂 -
Johnson Soronnadi answered on 15 Jun 2011:
Hello,
I will surely wish to get the cure for HIV and cancer. Many on-going research works are on to find cure to these diseases, but are faced with huge obstacles of re-emergence. Millions of people die every year from the epidemic of AIDS. Scientist may be far away from getting a cure for HIV but the ability of the virus to use human cell as a template to replicate within the human body remains an obstacle. Such treatment will save many. Any treatment will have to target the human cell to get rid of the HIV, thereby killing the human.
As scientists are busy discovering cure for incurable diseases more and more diseases will continue to adapt and re- emerge. The abilities of these organisms to adapt to new treatments (survival of the fittest) will make them incurable or re-emerge differently.
Recent emergence of an unknown strain of E.coli which is highly resistant to most used antibiotic is clear evidence that organisms will continue to emerge.
I think there will always be incurable diseases that will continue to live with man for a long time.“Prevention is better than cure”.
Hope this helps.
Johnson.
Comments
danrumford commented on :
I think although it’s not as serious as something like cancer i would quite like to see a cure for Diabetes, although I think its important to try to find a cure for every disease. You say in your profile that you would like to cure an infectious disease, which disease would you like to cure?
danrumford commented on :
I hope that all diseases can be cured, and that the cures will be found someday but I guess that there wil always be some diseases that we can’t find cures for.
Cat commented on :
You’re very right Dan, I think that as soon as we get rid of one, another is very likely to step into its place. Great call on diabetes! Though i’d much prefer to cure type 1 before type 2. Do you know the differences?
If I could cure one in animals it’d be something simple like pneumonia and you know what i’d like to cure the same in humans too! It’s such a nasty disease that kills people who aren’t strong enough to fight it off. So yeah, lets get rid of all pneumonia!
danrumford commented on :
Does the pneumonia pathogen mutate, so it would become resistant to any cure?
Cat commented on :
Great question Dan! Pneumonia can be caused by lots of different bugs so my answer was kinda cheeky that way. But yes, you can have an infection in your lungs with antibiotoc resistant bacteria. This becomes really important if you are suffering from such diseases as cystic fibrosis where you constantly get pneumonial infections.
Cat commented on :
We could try and make a cure (say a drug) that targets an area on the bacteria that doesn’t mutate very often but you are totally right, it’s very possible that the bug could ‘adapt’ to survive that drug too!