Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!ucla-cs!bevans@gauss.unm.edu
From: bevans@gauss.unm.edu (Mathemagician)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: AIDS
Message-ID: <31572@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 6 Feb 90 03:02:51 GMT
References: <31500@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU
Organization: Society for the Preservation of E. coli
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Approved: aids@cs.ucla.edu
Archive-number: 1670

In article <31500@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> Drew.Hamilton@p5.f180.n221.z1.fidonet.org (Drew Hamilton) writes:
>   I know nothing about AIDS, so I hope someone will have the patience to  
>answer my stupid questions that I am sure have easy answers tha everyone
>should know about:

Don't worry.  That's why this group exists.

>   If AIDS is just a problem with the immune system, why can't we take T-Cells
>(is that what they are called?) from a healthy person and give them to an AIDS
>person to make them better?

The problem is the way the AIDS virus works.  HIV attacks what are known as
T_4 helper cells [T subscript 4] which are used to activate an immune
response in a person.  This causes a relative increase in the number of
T_S cells which shut down an immune response (that is, stops antibodies
from forming etc.)  This means that a person infected with HIV cannot
mount an immune response to infections and is the reason why many people
die from opportunistic infections (infections that come on because the
immune system is so suppressed) rather than from the virus itself.

To put more T-cells in the system is just giving the HIV "food," per se.
What is needed is to reduce the amount of HIV present.

--
--
Brian Evans		|"Momma told me to never kiss a girl on the first
bevans at gauss.unm.edu | date...But that's OK...I don't kiss girls."