Mystery Sickness Leaving People in Asia and U.S. With AIDS-Like Disease That’s Not Contagious or Genetic
- Posted on August 23, 2012 at 8:56am by
Liz Klimas
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Dr. Sarah K. Browne,right, talks with patient Kim Nguyen who is a patient with this mysterious disease. (Photo: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
(TheBlaze/AP) Researchers have identified a mysterious new disease that has left scores of people in Asia and some in the United States with AIDS-like symptoms even though they are not infected with HIV.
The patients’ immune systems become damaged, leaving them unable to fend off germs as healthy people do. What triggers this isn’t known, but the disease does not seem to be contagious.
This is another kind of acquired immune deficiency that is not inherited and occurs in adults, but doesn’t spread the way AIDS does through a virus, said Dr. Sarah Browne, a scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
She helped lead the study with researchers in Thailand and Taiwan where most of the cases have been found since 2004. Their report is in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.
“This is absolutely fascinating. I’ve seen probably at least three patients in the last 10 years or so” who might have had this, said Dr. Dennis Maki, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
It’s still possible that an infection of some sort could trigger the disease, even though the disease itself doesn’t seem to spread person-to-person, he said.
The disease develops around age 50 on average but does not run in families, which makes it unlikely that a single gene is responsible, Browne said. Some patients have died of overwhelming infections, including some Asians now living in the U.S., although Browne could not estimate how many.
Kim Nguyen, 62, a seamstress from Vietnam who has lived in Tennessee since 1975, was gravely ill when she sought help for a persistent fever, infections throughout her bones and other bizarre symptoms in 2009. She had been sick off and on for several years and had visited Vietnam in 1995 and again in early 2009.
Patient Kim Nguyen, left, and her husband Quang Nguyen are seen at National Institute of Health. (Photo: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
“She was wasting away from this systemic infection” that at first seemed like tuberculosis but wasn’t, said Dr. Carlton Hays Jr., a family physician at the Jackson Clinic in Jackson, Tenn. “She’s a small woman to begin with, but when I first saw her, her weight was 91 pounds, and she lost down to 69 pounds.”
Nguyen (pronounced “when”) was referred to specialists at the National Institutes of Health who had been tracking similar cases. She spent nearly a year at an NIH hospital in Bethesda, Md., and is there now for monitoring and further treatment.
“I feel great now,” she said Wednesday. But when she was sick, “I felt dizzy, headaches, almost fell down,” she said. “I could not eat anything.”
AIDS is a specific disease, and it stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. That means the immune system becomes impaired during someone’s lifetime, rather than from inherited gene defects like the “bubble babies” who are born unable to fight off germs.
The virus that causes AIDS – HIV – destroys T-cells, key soldiers of the immune system that fight germs. The new disease doesn’t affect those cells, but causes a different kind of damage. Browne’s study of more than 200 people in Taiwan and Thailand found that most of those with the disease make substances called autoantibodies that block interferon-gamma, a chemical signal that helps the body clear infections.
Transmission electron micrograph of a mycobacterium. (Image: Wikimedia)
Blocking that signal leaves people like those with AIDS – vulnerable to viruses, fungal infections and parasites, but especially mycobacteria, a group of germs similar to tuberculosis that can cause severe lung damage. Researchers are calling this new disease an “adult-onset” immunodeficiency syndrome because it develops later in life and they don’t know why or how.
“Fundamentally, we do not know what’s causing them to make these antibodies,” Browne said.
Antibiotics aren’t always effective, so doctors have tried a variety of other approaches, including a cancer drug that helps suppress production of antibodies. The disease quiets in some patients once the infections are tamed, but the faulty immune system is likely a chronic condition, researchers believe.
The fact that nearly all the patients so far have been Asian or Asian-born people living elsewhere suggests that genetic factors and something in the environment such as an infection may trigger the disease, researchers conclude. A press release on the study also stated that because the onset of the disease occurs later in life, the doctors think the antibodies could develop as a result of “combined genetic and environmental factors.” Having identified the likely cause of this syndrome, the study authors say it may be possible to treat the underlying problem by targeting the cells that make the IFN-gamma autoantibodies.
The first cases turned up in 2004 and Browne’s study enrolled about 100 people in six months.
“We know there are many others out there,” including many cases mistaken as tuberculosis in some countries, she said.
The study authors hope to treat the disease by targeting the cells that make the IFN-gamma autoantibodies.
Featured image via Shutterstock.com
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stemcellpatient
Posted on August 26, 2012 at 3:04pmThey could go to New Zealand for an Adult stem cell transplant which is 100 % safe as they use your own stem cells, as did my 70 year old mother who has now written a blog explaining in plain English the different types of stem cells, how the procedure is done, and a weekly update on her progress, along with the best of the latest stem cell news from around the world and such.. she will also answer any questions personally and for free, please visit her http://www.stemcellpatient.net
Report Post »floradaze
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 7:54pmMaybe this is why the CDC wants all baby boomers to get a blood test. One way or the other.
Report Post »sillyfreshness
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 1:36pmBiological warfare engineering in Asia.
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 4:24pmIf they US wasn’t so “DIVERSE” and “MULTICULTURAL”…many of these exotic diseases would never get here or would rarely get here. However…when you have traitors running your country, destroying your borders…and giving you lies like ‘diversity is our strength’, you become the 3rd world too. Isn’t diversity and open borders wonderful?????No…it is all lies and treachery.
Report Post »FireRose
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 6:41amTGC — America was founded by immigrants. Illegal immigration is the problem. Didn’t see a mention of this poor woman being illegal. Diversity in race is also not the problem. Breaking laws is, hence the problem being with illegal immigration, not legal.
Report Post »LeadNotFollow
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 4:11pm…
Report Post »I know several people with LUPUS, but doctors try to act as if this autoimmune disorder doesn’t even exist. Millions of people are affected by this horrible affliction, but hardly no one is even trying to find the cause or a cure.
Calm Voice of Reason
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 3:30pmOne small correction, AIDS is not a “specific disease”. As its acronym states, it is a syndrome, a condition of the body specifically affecting the immune system. HIV, however, IS a specific disease, a virus.
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 9:52amHIV is also avoidable (they didn’t mention that, PC maybe?). Just don’t have homosexual sex with infected people, share needles, or receive tainted blood. I know the part about getting tainted blood most times is not avoidable, but at least you have recourse against the hospital that did it to you.
Report Post »mac410
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 3:10pmIf it is not contagious then how the heck did more than one person get it?
Report Post »Al Gator
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 3:39pmI have sarcoids, another type of immune deficiency disease. They tell me its not contagious, but can’t tell me how I got it.
Go figure.
Report Post »Walkabout
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 5:06pmHow does any one get any type of allergy? This is sort of the same thing but as serious as the worst cases of allergies.
Report Post »LLPH1776WP1789
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 1:09pmSounds like government manufactured population control.
Report Post »Oneirishman
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 2:26pmChinese BladeRunner.
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 7:15pmThere was a book called Logan’s Run that I read in High School. Everyone had a crystal implanted in their hand at birth. It changed colors every 7 years, and when it turned black at 35 you were supposed to report to the extermination center to be put to death. Logan, as you can guess from the title, didn’t want to die at 35 and went on the run.
Report Post »kparsels
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 1:01pmHave they checked if there were chemtrails in the are over a period of time.
Report Post »BlazerWookiee
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 1:00pmDoesn’t anybody proofread this stuff?
“Some patients have died of overwhelming infections, including some Asians now living in the U.S.”
Report Post »YourVoiceMatters
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 12:45pmmaybe it has to do with the humidity levels that may help incubate it
Report Post »when i visited in tennessee i thought it had oppressive humidity in the summer months…
molds love this enviornment and i would bet fungal issues would thrive in that too…
it is amazing how these evolve and mutate…… i wonder if there would be natural protocols that would work on this rather than manmade chemicals…once they can nail down the aspects of the disease/condition!
confederacyofdunces
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 2:10amCould Chinese grown food have done it? They have had issues before.
Report Post »hi
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 12:38pmThe doctor said it is faciinating! How insensitive.
Report Post »Daveed
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 10:52amWow, this lady made great progress considering how ill she got and the weight loss. God Bless her.
Report Post »face.chewer
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 10:01am3 patients in 10 years? You have to be kidding me. Pure quackery.
Report Post »Thors Hammer
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 10:31amI’m sure this is poised to come to a head and became a world-wide pandemic somewhere around 12-21-12.
Report Post »SimpleTruths
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 9:52amKICKAGRANDMA
Report Post »We all live on the same planet, why not one world government? That’s how it is on my home planet.
hi
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 12:40pmAre you kidding me? Would you want Shariah Law or a dictator? You want the government to tell you what to do? We have freedom in the US. Other countries do not.
Report Post »OLDPAINT
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 12:54pmWhat, with cookie-cutter people (?), all the same with those at the top and their descendants there for good, and every one else their slaves to one extent or another? No offense, but if it’s like that there, I can see why you came down here to post. When you go back, take the UN with you.
Report Post »DrKev
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 2:55pmif ur planet is so good whatcha doin here. ..tranalation #^;*% *××<￥▶△☆★ㄹ ㅊㅍㅎㅅㅅ8@#?
Report Post »DrKev
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 2:57pmoldpaint FUNNY and I second that motion
Report Post »DrKev
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 3:01pmif that one world govt so good on ur planet whatcha doin here? translatkon 느ㅏㅑㅗㅜㅜ ㅗㅓㄷㄷㄷ갸ㅑ 농라ㅓㅕㄷㄱ고?
Report Post »Walkabout
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 5:13pmSimpleTruths
One world government is a good ideal. The only problem is what laws we implement. The devil is in the details.
One world government should come about slowly & not by decree form the elites. The eff’n elites could not even create a sustainable Eurozone. the Euro is a zombie currency. Oil suppliers are refusing to deliver oil to the Greeks if they pay in Euros.
F______ elites kept bring up entry into Eurozone up for a vote in several countries even though it had been defeated more than once. Then a few years after they had achieved empire, it all started coming down.
One world government should come about thru many, many bilateral unifications over time by peoples that have similar laws. it should not be done by fiat, by decree. It should be done by people voting in plebiscites. Tax rates, income levels & law courts should be similar before unifcation.
That is a simple Truth.
Report Post »SCREW-WINDOWS
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 9:41amHad it not been for global warming this disease may have stayed dormant.
Report Post »Oneirishman
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 2:25pmHad it not been for Global Warming Hoax, You may have remained Dormant.
Report Post »TIME_THE_AVENGER
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 9:33amAnybody remember those resistant – to – treatment strains of VD that developed in ‘Nam? …uh oh…
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on August 23, 2012 at 9:22amThank you, one world government.
Report Post »