What if HIV mutates and can now be transmitted by sneezing and coughing - just like common cold??

What would this graph look like?

Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is potentially fatal disease caused by HIV virus. AIDS renders our body defenseless against any and every infection in the world by killing the immune system.

The currently available treatment - highly active anti-retroviral treatment (HAART) is very effective in giving people a few more decades to live. However, HAART has 2 major problems:

1. It is not a cure and the medications have to be taken lifelong
2. The side effects of treatment at times may be as bad as cancer chemotherapy

Therefore, it is of imperative importance that we find a cure for this deadly disease which is safer (ideally without side effects) and does not need to be taken over a protracted period of time.

Mortality data of HIV/AIDS in the world and US:

Video: BLOODLINE: AIDS and Family is a short documentary movie by Kristen Ashburn and takes an intimate look at the harsh reality of the AIDS pandemic in Africa (available for online viewing on Mediastorm Project website).

Video: HIV 101 - This is a 10 minute video explaining HIV and AIDS (YouTube Link)

How far can we go before the health system breaks down? What is the government doing to prevent it?

This chart shows the national expenditure on health care (in billions) since 1960. In 2004, the $1.87 trillion spent on health care represented 16 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In other words, health care took 16 cents of each dollar spent in 2006. By 2015 some forecast that 1 out of every 5 dollars in America will go to health care.

Reference: Kaiser Family Foundation

Smart move this time to keep the blood of athletes for 8 years and test them for “upcoming drugs” with abuse potential later on.

With the Summer Olympics taking place in Beijing, its interesting to review the history of drug testing at the Olympics. As the testing laboratories have introduced newer test methods, the athletes doping find more exotic dopands or new ways to avoid being caught with existing drugs.

This “arms race” is perhaps best demonstrated by the Moscow Olympics of 1980: During the Moscow games none of the 1,645 tests performed (in urine) came back positive for doping at the time. However after testosterone analysis was introduced — the so called T/E ratio — many samples from the Moscow games were reanalyzed and appeared suspicious. Several left over samples from the game had T/E ratios exceeding the IOC limit, 7.14% of womens’ 2.12% of mens’. By the next olympiad, Los Angeles 1984, T/E ratios were being measured as well as a few other metabolites.

In the early 1990s the protein hormone EPO entered the scene as a dopand. However practical detection of EPO was not implemented until the Sydney olympics in 2000.

Reference: Journal of Mass Spectrometry

Some interesting data from the National osteoporosis foundation.

Osteoporosis, or porous bone, causes bones to become fragile and weak. A sufferer’s bones can break from a minor fall, or even a sneeze!

The disease is a major health threat for an estimated 44 million Americans, or about half of people ages 50 and older. This graph shows the prevalence of osteoporosis and low bone density among Americans over the age of 50 by gender and ethnicity.