AIDS-Free Generation Within Reach?

[OneTampa]

News reports currently making the rounds.

Links:

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2012/jul/08/moving-toward-an-aids-free-generation/

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/03/156216622/is-an-aids-free-generation-within-reach

[LM]

Same crap from before. They think they can end the epidemic with treatment. Not in a million years.

[leatherman]

unless someone can wave a magic wand and get rid of the stigma and religious-bigotry that's causing the South to have numbers as bad as parts of Africa, there's no way this will be happening in a generation in America. That stigma translates to people not getting tested and not staying in treatment or accepting treatment, while our legislators underfund* or defund treatment and prevention measures. I think that there are just too many societal changes that need to happen before we can actually begin to predict an AIDS-free generation for the US.


*Thank you Gov Nikki Haley for your last minute veto of part of the SC ADAP money from the budget. After years of the Legislature trying to defund ADAP totally, advocates had finally gotten them to almost properly fund ADAP this budget - before the Governor took her axe to healthcare monies.

[dpb]

I agree with LM and leatherman.

I also believe the criminalization of HIV greatly perpetuates the stigma in addition to violating our human rights.  The counter effect is that infected individuals are actually less inclined to disclose their status to sexual partners for fear of not only discrimination, but prosecution and arrest.  These HIV laws are oppressive, ineffective, and attempt to disregard the sexual responsibilities of the uninfected.  That can lead to a false sense of security and complacency.  I could go on and on, but these outdated, unjust laws must go. 

"Decriminalization, not more criminalization, is what is needed." -Justice Michael Kirby

[mecch]

I thought those headlines were wildly silly, considering the same old content in the articles.
I get that the HIV/AIDS research community, and policy/political types, want to and need to and should transmit messages of hope.  But this is pretty sloppy epidemiological logic represented here.

[OneTampa]

I was taken by the Reporter link post quoting Dr. Fauci given that he has been out there talking about HIV/AIDS for several decades and appeared to me quite sensible from the outset.

[leatherman]

The PBS Frontline special "Endgame: AIDS in Black America" (http://tinyurl.com/6wa7ra5) had some interesting segments in which doctors and leaders spoke about how an end to HIV could be envisioned; however they also voiced their concerns that issues like stigma and poverty would have to be overcome before any sort of endgame/AIDS-free generation would be possible in America.

The segment with Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick near the end was very enlightening as she walked through the neighborhood talking to citizens about what they knew/thought about HIV, and about the issues she saw that complicated the goal of stopping the spread of HIV.

[madbrain]

AIDS-free generation ?

Even if they found both a vaccine and the cure tomorrow, it wouldn't happen in our lifetimes.

We can't even eradicate Tuberculosis.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/07/09/deadly-tuberculosis-outbreak-in-florida-covered-up-by-gop-governor-rick-scott/

Ojh, and the bubonic plague made a come back, last year, too .
http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/10/first-case-of-bubonic-plague-in-2011-appears-in-new-mexico/

[Ann]

We can't even eradicate Tuberculosis.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/07/09/deadly-tuberculosis-outbreak-in-florida-covered-up-by-gop-governor-rick-scott/

Ojh, and the bubonic plague made a come back, last year, too .
http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/10/first-case-of-bubonic-plague-in-2011-appears-in-new-mexico/

Don't forget polio. We have a very effective vaccine, but infants are not being vaccinated in resource-poor settings and so it continues. If every child born everywhere in the world were given the polio vaccine starting today, it would be eradicated very quickly.

The polio vaccine has been around for decades (since the late 50s/early 60s) so it's bound to be available in generic form by now but it's still not reaching everyone, mainly due to poverty.

And of course there's those parents in resource-rich countries who refuse to vaccinate their children against anything because they think it's a conspiracy or for religious reasons. The last outbreak of polio in the US occurred amongst the Amish in 1979. source

Same thing for hiv meds and any vaccine (when it becomes available) - they are not going to reach everyone due to poverty. Even if we eliminate the stigma surrounding hiv, I can't see poverty ever being eradicated.

Poverty is the main enemy when it comes to eradicating any disease and hiv will be no different.

[misterprice]

AIDS-free generation ?

Even if they found both a vaccine and the cure tomorrow, it wouldn't happen in our lifetimes.

We can't even eradicate Tuberculosis.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/07/09/deadly-tuberculosis-outbreak-in-florida-covered-up-by-gop-governor-rick-scott/

Ojh, and the bubonic plague made a come back, last year, too .
http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/10/first-case-of-bubonic-plague-in-2011-appears-in-new-mexico/

The problem of the HIV research is that there are plenty of possible solutions that are not investigated. For example, I never saw specific studies on the protective role of the HTLV-2 infection:

"In contrast, evidence points to a confirmed protective role of HTLV-2 that is manifested as improved survival and delayed progression to AIDS. The protective effect may be the result of maintaining normal-range levels of CD4 and CD8 counts, lowering HIV replication, and immune activation."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17982939

And I could make many other examples.