Will life extension therapies be able to reverse the effects of HIV and AIDS?
Infectious diseases are a whole different challenge from the challenges of aging. Though there is actually some overlap, certainly some infectious diseases accelerate some aspects of aging. But, the treatment of infectious diseases is something that will continue to be an active research area long after aging has been completely brought under control. Simply because new infectious diseases are constantly evolving out in the world, and becoming important. I think that one of the greatest tragedies of contemporary medicine is that not enough work is done to develop good vaccines for diseases that especially afflict the developing world. And the reason that not enough work is done is straightforward with economics, vaccines aren't very profitable. But when aging has become a thing of the past, it's going to be a very different situation. Infectious diseases will be one of the major risks for death, and therefore, will be much more prioritized in terms of more of a biomedical research effort. So if we take HIV as a straightforward example, the big problem with HIV is that, when you get it, the body doesn't know how to get rid of it. We haven't got good vaccines, good things to actually cure HIV. But, there are new ideas, and new approaches being developed all the time, that will actually remove HIV from the body. And eventually, that will be developed, and the affect that HIV and other similar infectious diseases have on the aging process will of course, thereby, also be removed.
