Cured: How the Berlin Patients Defeated HIV and Forever Changed Medical Science by Nathalia Holt


Cured: How the Berlin Patients Defeated HIV and Forever Changed Medical Science
pdf Cured: How the Berlin Patients Defeated HIV and Forever Changed Medical Science
By Nathalia Holt
ISBN 0525953922
ISBN-13 9780525953920
Publication 19 July 2025
Number of Pages 336
Format Type Hardcover

Kindle nederlands

Immensely informative and yet has a heart warming tone Hardcover In excess of 35 million people suffer from HIV AIDS on this planet More than 10% of these are children Over 1000 babies are born with HIV every single day It wasn t always this way. Kindle credits on my account When AIDS first came to the public eye in the 1980s there were only a few thousand people diagnosed as infected It was perceived as a medical mystery but wasn t seen as a very big problem It was a disease that carried quite a social stigma It was mainly prevalent in homosexual men at a time when the gay community was not as accepted as it is today Back then no one would imagine that gay people would be able to get married or gain mainstream acceptance As a result people were hesitant to talk about AIDS and funding research or finding a cure was very low down the list of priorities for any government or pharmaceutical company That explains why when a cure for HIV AIDS was found that it came from elsewhere in the medical community Nathalia Holt s fascinating book Cured tells the story of the Berlin Patients the first two people to have been functionally cured of HIV AIDS She offers fascinating medical insights into how the HIV AIDS virus works and how it can be tackled It is clearly presented in terms and analogies relatively easily understood by the motivated layperson Sometimes it reads like a thriller with backstabbing scientists and vials of blood being couriered around the world We meet humanized mice that have been genetically modified to have human immune systems so that they can be used in experiments Then there is also the predominant human interest of this book It is the story of a few men and women and how their relationships changed the way HIV AIDS is treated today The most amazing and mystifying part of the story is that even though the Berlin Patients were cured of HIV AIDS.

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Particularly what seems to be the proven effectiveness of early and aggressive treatment The understated but important element of this book is the discussion of the relationship between big pharmaceutical companies Big Pharma and medical care Though it only makes up a fraction of the book s content it is important in understanding the present status quo The main impetus of her explanation can be summarized in one quote If no one can make money even the best drug will fail As things stand there are treatments available that allow people suffering from HIV AIDS to extend their lifespans significantly.

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And what is and is not working in the relationship between Big Pharma and medical care Cured How the Berlin Patients Defeated HIV and Forever Changed Medical ScienceI thoroughly enjoyed this book I thought the author did a wonderful job highlighting the human aspect of HIV AIDS research as she discussed its progression from the 1990 s until now Dr Holt emphasizes the cultural stigmas that affect the ability to fund this research most specifically the indifference of Big Pharma and explains the compelling story of HIV and AIDS through the lens of the medical staff that were on the front lines for this new disease I thought she also did a great job explaining the research in a way that is digestible for people outside of the medical community At times it can feel a bit repetitive.

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But I think she places the repetition throughout the book to make it easier to reference before a new research concept The book is incredibly informative and I will recommend it as much as possible to raise awareness Hardcover A good book overall and worth reading but it does have its shortcomings The biggest plus is that the author is an HIV researcher and clearly knows the subject matter The scientific underpinnings are presented throughout the book and satisfied my layman s interest in the immune system and its battle with HIV There s enough science to remind the reader that there s a community of researchers exploring numerous fronts to attack the disease but not so much science that it feels like a lab report The sections about the use of cancer fighting tools to fight HIV were very interesting and another strength of the book. Cured cheese The book falls a bit short in the telling of the stories of the people patients.

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Doctors and researchers and with it s jumbled timeline Character development isn t nonexistent but it s too superficial to draw the reader in An extra 100 pages would have been very beneficial to the storytelling The timeline at the end of the hardcover edition p 297 should have been in the front of the book Christian s functional cure happened in 1998 and Timothy s was in 2009 but with all of the jumping back and forth it got confusing. Cured catering I won t discourage anyone from reading Cured but I will put in a strong endorsement for And the Band Played On Randy Shilts and His Brother s Keeper Jonathan Weiner AtBPO is a brilliant telling of the HIV AIDS crisis during the 1980s on both a micro and macro level It s one of the most gripping books I ve ever read HBK strongly blends science the pursuit of gene therapy to find a cure for ALS with the human story of a family rallying to support a member with ALS while the author deals with his mother s own degenerative genetic disease lewy body dementia Hardcover I read this book in 36 hours I quite literally could not put it down It s absolutely riveting I m amazed it was already a few years old by the time I read it.

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An important update on the science behind the search for the cure for HIV Special emphasis on the politics finances and egos involved Well written and an easy read Hardcover A fantastic account of the ways in which human will curiosity initiative and persistence opened possibilities that were otherwise written off At the same time the ubiquitous matters of business worthiness need for endorsement by leaders to be taken seriously and the lack empathy in health systems is presented up to the effect Simple to read and meticulous records were kept of their treatment there has never been an attempt to repeat their treatments on a larger scale Both men were cured by different means and while elements of their cure have been replicated there are many aspects that seem to be wilfully ignored however these treatments are extremely costly often reaching sums in excess of 75000 USD per year. Cured meat meaning Wouldn t it be better to use what was learned from the Berlin Patients to develop a cure Better for whom The stark reality is that Big Pharma doesn t exist for the benefit of mankind Its principle raison d etre is to produce profits for its shareholders something that it succeeds at quite gloriously If the needs of the general public and Big Pharma intersect then well and good but if they don t well business is business The bottom line is the bottom line If it is profitable to keep people on expensive medication for the rest of their lives than offering them a cure then there is little incentive for Big Pharma to invest in finding a cure Follow the money Further some drugs that have been found to be useful in the treatment of HIV AIDS and were used with one of the Berlin Patients are largely ignored because the 30 year patent during which the drug company can make a profit has expired Big Pharma would rather develop something new that can potentially bring value to their shareholders than invest in the applications of pre existing drugs that will bring profit to any other company with the wherewithal to replicate manufacture and distribute the same molecule Not only do Big Pharma have little financial incentive to find a cure they effectively have a financial disincentive The end result of this is that tens of millions of people suffering from HIV AIDS who already don t have access to expensive drugs won t get access to a cure either There is however hope on the horizon Thankfully not everyone investing in HIV AIDS research is purely motivated by financial gain There are benevolent donors like Bill and Melissa Gates among others who have donated significant sums that through the tireless work of dedicated researchers are translating into hopeful prospective treatments and moving ever closer to effective functional cures for HIV AIDS Thanks to these people there are many new clinical trials on going in the fields of stem cell transplants and gene therapy Both of these seem to be promising areas of research that are working to modify and create immune systems that HIV can t attack Cured is a must read for any medical practitioner or medical student or anyone diagnosed with HIV AIDS or anyone who knows someone who is or any interested person who lives on a planet where tens of millions of its inhabitants are presently living and suffering with HIV AIDS Hardcover a little confusing and dense at times but great for anyone interested in HIV medicine infectious disease or gene therapy Hardcover While the concepts and treatments discussed in the book were interesting I found the book as a whole tedious and poorly written Hardcover Is the end of HIV upon us Award winning research scientist and HIV fellow at the Ragon Institute Nathalia Holt reveals the science behind the discovery of a functional cure and what it means for the millions affected by HIV and the history of the AIDS pandemic Two men known in medical journals as the Berlin Patients revealed answers to a functional cure for HIV Their cures came twelve years apart the first in 1996 and the second in 2008 Each received his own very different treatment in Berlin Germany and each result spurred a new field of investigation fueling innovative lines of research and sparking hope for the thirty four million people currently infected with HIV For the first time Nathalia Holt who has participated in some of the most fruitful research in the field tells the story of how we came to arrive at this astounding and controversial turning point Holt explores the two men s stories on a personal level looking at how their experiences have influenced HIV researchers worldwide including one very special young family doctor who took the time to look closely at his patients and how they responded to their medications Based on extensive interviews with the patients and their doctors as well as her own in depth research this book is an unprecedented look at how scientists pursue their inquiries the human impact their research has especially since it made me feel like I should have known about it the contents should have been front page news I am trained in science but only a BSc I am very analytical and even though this book is for the public and has greatly broken down explanations of extremely complex notions processes etc. Cured salmon it is still quite technical and even I at times had to grab an old schoolbook or a dictionary But to be less technical would be trying to find pleasure in a Dr Seuss book written with the rhymes replaced with Franz Kafka This book was fantastically written going from a very human point seamlessly to how procedures were done it was so well researched and respectfully keeps the privacy of those who request it but the author is also a first hand observer It also ties in aspects of how and why such things played out as they did where the disease came from how it finally supplanted itself how world events taking place at certain times had profound effects and small aspects of other events that were in play that the reader may not have ever thought to consider As someone in the medical field the author lays out several scenarios about researchers volunteers doctors bonds with patients and how politics and money can be so maddening for some of us and why I especially appreciated all the credit given throughout to so many people not just doctors but the small folks in the shadows I highly recommend this book to anyone although the technical side can be tricky the story that she lays out is well worth the read My serious congratulations to what was achieved by all in this incredible feat of science and to the author for laying it all out smoothly for those of us that never even knew Hardcover I come from a lay perspective meaning I don t have much knowledge of DNARNA genetics etc Some aspects of this book were over my head but I enjoyed reading about the 2 Berlin patients and the quest to cure HIV and AIDS I am thankful to know there are researchers and scientists continuing to work on and build upon the knowledge gained I am saddened that big Pharma looks at profit before the common good Mostly I am thankful this book give us something about HIV Hope Hardcover The science is explained very well The structure is somewhat erratic a lot of jumps in time between patient 1 and 2 with the result that sometimes facts or processes are explained than once Also the author only ever talks about Robert Gallo in the context of discovering the HI virus and says almost nothing about the importance of the scientists at Pasteur Institute who actually won a Nobel Prize for it Still the subject is highly interesting Hardcover

Cured: How the Berlin Patients Defeated HIV and Forever Changed Medical Science By Nathalia Holt
0525953922
9780525953920
English
336
Hardcover
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Cured: How the Berlin Patients Defeated HIV and Forever Changed Medical ScienceNathalia Holt Ph. Cured nonfiction� D is the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls The Queens of Animation and Cured She had written for numerous publications including The New York Times The Los Angeles Times The Atlantic Slate Popular Science PBS and Time She lives with her husband and their two daughters in Pacific Grove CA..