For people living with HIV, effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) not only suppresses the virus and protects immune system health but has the added benefit of reducing the risk of transmitting HIV to sex partners. This side benefit, known as “treatment as prevention,” has been established by recent studies with mixed-HIV-status couples.
Prior to the act being amended, there were no laws in place to deal with new narcotics created by modifying a substance’s chemical structure, or finding chemicals with entirely different chemical structures that produced similar effects.
Stats released by the Human Sciences Research Council today show we are still deep in the trenches of HIV in South Africa. There are positive stories and the Minister’s promise to improve government-issued condoms is welcome. At DTHF we are advancing methods of HIV prevention and finding ways to initiate behaviour change especially among youth. This is no time for complacency or ‘HIV fatigue’, this is a campaign we have to win.
To have a meaningful conversation about HIV status, people should corner intentions and sexual partners in the realm of actuality, by keeping it to-the-point and asking the following questions: “When did you last test for HIV? What was the test result?” Equally important is to open minds to reality by remembering that the time of binary HIV statuses is pretty much over.
I can count five HIV statuses, plus a new one. They entail different responsibilities, possibilities and risks.
When we talk about stigma and PrEP, the question we should be asking is, “Just what is it we are ashamed of?” Is it the sex? The gay sex? Or is it the realization that gay men find pleasure and fulfillment in anal sex and fluid exchange?
[kat-fish] verb:
Posting incorrect information online in order to create a falsely positive perception of yourself. *Wikipedia
A recent study of people with HIV who use recreational drugs isn’t good news for tweakers: those who used crystal meth showed troubling blood test results as compared to those who used other drugs.
A Seattle study has found that about 40 percent of HIV-negative gay men restrict their sexual partners to those they perceive to share their serostatus in an attempt to prevent acquiring the virus, aidsmap reports.
Taking tenofovir/emtricitabine (Truvada) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has little effect on kidney function, according to a study recently published in AIDS. The study, known as IPrEx (Iniciativa Profilaxis Pre-Exposicion), showed a very mild decrease in creatinine clearance (CrCl)—a measure of kidney function—among participants taking Truvada, but the change was reversible, as CrCl returned to baseline levels after the drug was discontinued at the end of the study.
The new technique uses genetic modification of cells — not drugs — to treat HIV.