Hiding from the “AIDS at 30″ media storm. →

I shuttered myself from most of the hoopla surrounding the “AIDS at 30” milestone (we seem to have agreed on June 5, 1981, when an item in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reported deaths among gay men). The trauma of those early years is tough for me to revisit. Every media piece seemed to be about the past and it all felt emotionally overwrought and indulgent. I skimmed the coverage and secretly wished it would just go away.

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Israeli Study May Point to the Future of the HIV Epidemic in Men Who Have Sex With Men - The Body →

Over the past decade across high-income countries such as Canada and Australia and regions such as Western Europe an unexpected and disturbing trend has emerged – an increase in syphilis and HIV infections among men who have sex with men (MSM). Now researchers in Israel have found similar trends in HIV in that country. Furthermore, researchers there have found another troubling trend: A significant proportion (about 30%) of MSM newly infected with HIV have strains of this virus that are resistant to some anti-HIV therapies.

The Israeli report, published in the June 1, 2011 issue of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases has incited an editorial to accompany it that calls out for concerted action to help communities of MSM become more resilient so that they can re-embrace safer-sex behaviours and help reduce the spread of HIV. The editorial cautions against the incorrect assumption made by some MSM that use of potent anti-HIV therapy, commonly called HAART or ART, will render them or their partners sexually non-infectious.

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To Treat or Not to Treat?

Today I have to try and get myself to the doctor’s office to pick-up a copy of my most recent bloodwork results.  I need to submit them to the COBRA case management agency that helped me find the APT I currently reside. This got me thinking about my last visit to doctor to discuss the lab results.

I have been HIV positive for over nine years now and, thus far, I have never been on antiretroviral therapy.  Well, my last results were not the best and my doctor recommended that I start on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy, or HAART.  My numbers are nowhere near full-blown AIDS but recent studies have shown it to best to start treatment if the patient’s CD4 cell count have gone below 500/µl.  This is now the case with me. 

I told him that I still wanted to wait.  He then told me that it doesn’t appear to be one time thing; for the past nine months my CD4 count has been declining and it is percentage of each that concerns him. I told him I would think about it.

My fears: I know that there have been advances in treatment

Allergies: I grew up with many, and many I grew out of, and I have, in recent years, discovered new ones particularly to prescribed medications.  I asked my doctor, “Are there tests to determine which of these HIV meds I might be allergic to?"  He said, "No.”

Side-effects: Besides allergic reactions.  I know these are not the meds of the 80s and early 90s but a friend of mine died from kidney failure a few years ago.  His partner told me it was the medication.  The very thing that prolonged his life killed him slowly.  Recently, someone else I know, HIV positive and receiving treatment, stated that there may be problems with his kidneys due to the medication he is taken for HIV. 

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OK… I shouldn’t project… if I were to start treatment it doesn’t mean that any of the above will manifest.  Nor does it mean that I will experience any other of the common side-effects that I did not mention. 

I am not looking to scare anyone.  If you are newly diagnosed, listen to you doctor, do research, find other HIVers and ask questions. 

I, myself, will begin to research treatment options available to me.  I will decide in July during my next visit to the doctor.  My lab results then will most likely make the decision for me.

Any comments, questions, or suggestion would be gratefully appreciated.