The truth about Truvada: PrEP won’t stop AIDS

 Posted by on December 1, 2014 at 4:56 am
Dec 012014
 
The truth about Truvada: PrEP won’t stop AIDS

I’m willing to grant that gay men are entitled to use PrEP… provided they have access to all the information they need to make an informed decision. Informed consent has been a hallmark of the HIV and AIDS research and prevention efforts for three decades, and that shouldn’t be waived for the campaign favoring PrEP.

Gay men deserve to know that all the claims for Truvada reducing the risk of acquiring HIV-positivity  are based on trials—funded by Gilead—that emphasized the importance of using condoms…

Planting memes

 Posted by on March 13, 2013 at 11:14 am
Mar 132013
 
Planting memes

Rarely a day goes by that I do not scan the headlines collected from various blogs and sources by Google Reader. Smashing a recent lull in AIDS news, some pretty outrageous headlines have been breaking through lately. Last week, it was Baby AZeTa, the little girl in Mississippi who researchers claimed was cured of AIDS […more]

The end of AZT?

 Posted by on March 9, 2013 at 9:39 am
Mar 092013
 
The end of AZT?

As I spend time this week with one of my dearest friends, a man who has been HIV-positive since at least 1987, and who has been on ARVs almost continuously since 1990, I am reminded that Affecteds have always had the option to consider alternatives to conventional pharmaceutical treatment. Last night we recalled some of […more]

AIDS Drug Treatment Guidelines: Deify or Defy?

 Posted by on February 4, 2013 at 12:06 am
Feb 042013
 
AIDS Drug Treatment Guidelines: Deify or Defy?

During our last office visit a couple of months ago, the infectious disease specialist I am now seeing repeatedly referred to “The Guidelines”, as if they were some kind of Holy Grail for treating her patients. The guidelines she was referring to are actually several documents, published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human […more]

Sunshine in the veins

 Posted by on May 2, 2012 at 9:54 am
May 022012
 
Sunshine in the veins

I first learned of ultraviolet blood irradiation (UBI) a few months ago from a mutual friend. UBI is also known as extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) in the medical literature, and most recently BioPhotonic Therapy and Photoluminescent Therapy. Photopheresis been around for more than a century, and started gaining attention in medical circles as early as 1902. Like many alternative protocols, the spectacular success of antibiotics to fight battle field infections in WWII captured the hearts and minds of physicians and started the West’s love affair with pharmaceutical solutions to disease.

Today, as best as I can tell, UBI is approved by the FDA for only two purposes: cutaneous t-cell lymphoma and graft-vs-host disease. It’s use is far more widespread in Europe, Russia, China and South America for a variety of conditions, though it is currently being studied in the U.S. as an alternative treatment or adjunctive treatment for malignancies, auto-immune disorders, and yes, AIDS.

Talking to my inner self – Part 1

 Posted by on December 16, 2011 at 11:17 am
Dec 162011
 
Talking to my inner self - Part 1

As I have reported previously, high dose intravenous vitamin C seems to improve my energy, my mood and my sense of well-being, if not the laboratory markers often associated with HIV and AIDS. Because the infusions are so expensive, I was intrigued by the possibility of preparing my own IV sodium ascorbate ala Dr. Robert […more]

Denying the AIDStream

 Posted by on January 20, 2011 at 5:48 am
Jan 202011
 
Denying the AIDStream

Some of my AIDS dissident friends reject outright the tests used by mainstream AIDS (AIDStream) doctors to evaluate ‘HIV-positive’ patients and to determine if and when to start treating them with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), more commonly known as the “AIDS cocktail” of drugs.  While I agree with them that we can’t know for […more]

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