HIV Resurfaces In Potentially Cured Patients

[+ Gar1eth]

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1113022668/hiv-aids-virus-cure-bone-marrow-transplant-120813/?print=true

 

 

Gman

[+ Chris Eisenhower]

Ugh. I just read this too. The good news is that the little girl is still considered "functionally cured."

[gallahadesquire]

Just as good a place as any to opine:

 

The first strains of HIV were very, very virulent. Kaposi's Sarcoma was rampant. AIDS was pretty rampant. Lots of people died.

And the virus mutated. I am not an infectious disease physician, but part of the reason people can live long, productive

lives while being medicated is that they have a bug with lower virulence.

 

That's why it's important to play safe if a combination of HIV+ / HIV+ coupling occurs. It can cause the HIV to move into something

more virulent.

 

Whilst I'm on my rant: I hate the concept of being "a cancer survivor". "My medicines brought my [enter appropriate laboratory text]

to [below detectable; thought to be insufficient with respect to recurrance]

 

I'm not an oncologist. My understanding is that one is RARELY cured from cancer. One might be in remission, but the spectre of recurrance is always there.

 

That's all for now.

[Guest Starbuck]

HIV Resurfaces in Potentially Cured Patients

 

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1113022668/hiv-aids-virus-cure-bone-marrow-transplant-120813/?print=true

 

Gman

 

Gman, thank you for this important post. In the 17 hours since you put it up, I notice it's been read by only 150 people. It deserves more attention. Here's a quote from the link you posted:

 

“Through this research we have discovered the HIV reservoir is deeper and more persistent than previously known,” [Dr. Timothy] Henrich [of Brigham and Women's Hospital] told AFP reporter Kerry Sheridan, adding that both patients (who do not want to be identified) “are currently doing well” and that it is important to share the findings with other medical researchers because they suggest “that there may be an important long-lived HIV reservoir outside the blood compartment.”

 

There have been many, many posts on the forum that express dismay about an increase in barebacking in film and about a growing demand for barebacking from men who hire male escorts. Concerns are regularly expressed about men who advertise that they only "sometimes" play safe. Perhaps most tragic of all are the so-called "bug chasers," fellows who believe that it is their destiny as gay men to contract HIV/AIDS and so ... why not now? (There are internet sites that CELEBRATE this misguided perspective.)

 

If there is indeed a trend toward complacency or recklessness about HIV/AIDS, let it be a wake-up call to thinking men who care about their own health and about one another. Read everything. Ask questions. Talk with one another. Speak up!

 

Again, Gman, thanks for this post. I hope it gets much more attention.

[Phil_musc]

Just a thought: is it possible that both these patients engaged in unprotected sex with the unfortunate result that they became reinfected?

[Lohengrin1979]

Just a thought: is it possible that both these patients engaged in unprotected sex with the unfortunate result that they became reinfected?

 

I was wondering the same thing, sadly. I hate to be so cynical about it but there it is.