Subjects in this issue:

2007 Drug Guide

HIV Morning After Pill

Atripla

Nutrition

Rap

PA Online Poll

2007 Drug Guide

Positively Aware inadvertently left out Associate Editor Enid Vázquez’s name from the credit for updating this year’s drug guide. Our sincere apologies to her for the oversight.

First off, I want to thank you so much for the Positively Aware Eleventh Annual HIV Drug Guide [January/February issue]. It helps our staff explain the different HIV treatment options to our patients. We usually order extra copies to hand out to the patients throughout the year. Our staff and patients eagerly await each issue of your fine magazine.

I was also intrigued by the artwork on the cover of the Jan/Feb issue and was wondering if you could tell me anything about the artist and the artwork on and throughout the magazine.

Thanks
Gary Dyak, UCSD AVRC, San Diego

Editor’s note: Our wonderfully talented graphic designer, Russell McGonagle, has been with us now for the last ten and a half years. To order additional copies of the Drug Guide, e-mail us at distribution@tpan.com.

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HIV Morning After Pill

I was surprised to read about a new trend among partygoers to use tenofovir (Viread) as a preventive treatment before engaging in risky sexual behaviors. From OUT (January 2007), “And AIDS experts say there’s a growing number of HIV-negative men who take a single dose of tenofovir before a night of partying, hookups, and possibly unprotected sex in the hopes that it will keep them from contracting HIV.”

Using the principles of harm reduction, it makes sense for doctors to prescribe tenofovir for patients who admit they engage in unsafe sex and don’t plan to stop doing this. Again from the OUT article, “It’s not something I routinely offer to all my HIV-negative patients,” Mills explains. “But what I’m seeing lately is that many of my patients are having more risky sex, whether it’s due to condom fatigue or the use of crystal meth, or that they have a partner who’s positive, or for a lot of other reasons.”

What scares me most about this strategy is that there’s not much proof that Viread works or to what extent it is effective. Assuming that it is mostly effective, I suppose it would decrease the spread of HIV among gay men, but also encourages reckless behavior and gives little incentive for prevention education programs to be developed and funded. I guess if the physician/patient relationship is good and honest, then an ethical physician would only recommend this strategy to patients who refuse to take other precautions.

On a positive note, this option places the responsibility for health and safety into the hands of the individual rather than some trends where HIV-negative men assume anyone who is HIV-positive would care about their health and assume the responsibility for minimal risk to the HIV-negative partner. Unfortunately, that rarely happens, for many HIV-positive men experience emotional trauma ranging from denial to anger to revenge to apathy, and often can be reckless when it comes to substance abuse and sexual practices.

In my opinion, the answer is an instant HIV test that would be marketed and sold to HIV-negative men for use. Making a pre-sexual encounter HIV test a normal event may ruin the moment for men who have something to worry about, but could not be much worse than stopping to talk about and/or use condoms. Condoms still have their place and purpose in prevention of many other STDs, but the instant HIV test would give the HIV-negative man the option of screening their sexual partners, something that in time could become a wise and responsible thing to do. At the very least, it would provoke a conversation about sexual history, etc… and may even prompt the two individuals to choose other ways to enjoy each others’ company.

I’m sure this debate will be heated and my opinion is just that, an opinion.

Joe Doedtman, Chicago, via the Internet

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Atripla

Could you please send me the 2007 HIV drug guide? I am HIV-positive since March 1983 and in my final year of a seven year prison sentence. I continue to be grateful for all the educational materials I have gotten from Positively Aware since being a prisoner. I am currently on Atripla and I’ve got to tell you, this one pill a day combo sure beats the handful of combos I’ve taken … ddI, ddC, AZT, … d4T, 3TC … I’ve been on so many. But since 2000 I have had 500 plus T-cells and less than 400 viral load. Florida now uses a different test and I’m undetectable, less than 50 copies.

Name withheld, Indiantown, FL.

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Nutrition

What a great article! [“Can It Get Even Better Than This?” by registered dietician Charlie Smigelski, Fall 2006 Special Issue]. Thanks for the clear, and, dare I say, digestible information.

John David Forsgren, via the Internet

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Rap

Keeping up to date is a personal goal of mine, and information like that provided in Positively Aware will help me to continue to be informed. I contracted HIV/AIDS in 2000 at the age of 54 and am doing quite well, but want to work with others in my neighborhood to get prevention messages out to them. One program that I hope will be successful is a series of Public Service Announcements written and performed by a young rap artist. We are in the process of developing the content and will go into production soon. A local organization, Tremendous Inc., has agreed to assist us in this venture. They have a full production studio and the necessary supporting services. Tremendous Inc. was formed by a local TV anchor person, Colleen Needles.

Jerry Clark, Founder & Chief Executive, WE CARE Minnesota, Saint Paul

Editor’s note: The Chicago Black Gay Men’s Caucus has produced a music video “I Know. Do You Know?” with lead vocals provided by Positively Aware Associate Editor Keith R. Green. Visit www.lovethybrotha.com

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