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Comment by grannyg00se | Hacker News Reader

"if this genetic cocktail passes Phase II and Phase III future clinic trials, and makes it into production, in the future HIV could be compared to herpes virus nowadays".

As far as I know there is no herpes vaccine and herpes stays with you for life resulting in recurring problems. Doesn't quite sound like a very flattering comparison to an effective vaccine solution.

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Chickenpox is a form of herpes and we all have it. What matters is that it's harmless.

While it won't probably kill you, it isn't exactly harmless. It can reemerge as shingles.

There are cases of herpes causing death. For example, in an infant infected by his mohel, and a laboratory researcher killed after exposure to monkey feces. (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00056008.htm)

Yes, but those cases are much, much less worrisome than AIDs in its current state.

Shingles can be very nasty - my mother had it after I had chickenpox. It was across her face and eyes - she was hospitalised and was on morphine for the pain.

I had it when I was younger, and I heard it only gets worse if you get it when you're older. It was pain unlike anything I've experienced since, I can't imagine what it felt like for her.

I had it under my ear when I was young. I don't remember how painful it was and it healed perfectly (ie no scars or anything). I guess I probably only had a mild case.

Sorry to hear that about your mother. I hope everything turned out okay.

Yeah she made a remarkable recovery - she was left with a very slight scar on her forehead. However, she was still bothered by pain from the afflicted area for years after.

My aunt had nearly the same thing happen to her--it left her with no visible scars (at least none that she told me about), but blind in one eye.

The reason medical professionals recommend parents let their children catch chickenpox is because it the symptoms get worse the older you are. In your later years it can even be life-threatening. Never underestimate the chickenpox!

I got it while working as a kindergarten teacher - it was terrible. Inside of mouth, throat.. Turns out that fever I had in 3rd grade wasn't mild chickenpox after all! So it goes.

It's not harmless and there is a varicella vaccine now. (There wasn't when I was a kid.)

Varicella pneumonia? Encephalitis? The virus that causes chicken pox is not harmless.

Pretty sure they're talking about the still annoying but no death part.

I'm pretty sure the author meant hepatitis, which is much more similar to HIV in many regards, and now effectively “solved”, although the global vaccination program is still underway.

Ask anyone who has HIV whether they'd trade it for herpes.

That's not the comparison being made. It's not HIV vs herpes - it's HIV with a highly successful vaccine available vs herpes, which has no vaccine.

Around 1 in 4 or 5 women in the UK have herpes. I think the stats are similar for the US. It's still a problem, but most people suffer little from having it. It still has a stigma attached to it, hence why people don't admit to it, which makes me think the comparison with HIV is a fairly good comparison.

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