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Corrections
In the September/October
issue of Positively Aware, a listing for the Bay Area
Perinatal AIDS Center (BAPAC) was inadvertently left out of
resources for couples wishing to have a baby. BAPAC is part
of the University of California, San Francisco’s Positive
Health Program at San Francisco General Hospital. The center
offers preconception counseling and infertility work-up to
seroconcordant and serodiscordant couples (both partners are
positive or only one is positive). It also conducts prenatal
care to HIV positive women. Call (415) 206-8919. Visit http://php.ucsf.edu/bapac.
The description for SMART
was also inadvertently omitted. SMART (Sisterhood Mobilized
for AIDS/HIV Research & Treatment), in New York City,
provides treatment and prevention education and support for
women impacted by HIV/AIDS. Contact SMARTUNIV@aol.com
or visit www.smartuniversity.org.
Left out among the few fertility
centers that help HIV positive men conceive a child was the
Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk, Va.,
a division of Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS). The
Jones Institute was the birthplace of the nation’s first
“test tube baby.” Call (800) 51-JONES (800-515-6637)
or (757) 446-7100. Visit www.jonesinstitute.org.
Also, sperm washing cannot
cleanse “genes for disease.” Positively Aware
regrets the oversights.
Same
boat
The article was grrreat (“I
get blessings, I get lessons,” Positive Empowerment,
July/August)! The man outlined in the article even greater…
hats off to the success! I wonder what reversed the wasting?
Was it the exercise? (I’ve always felt and done better
when I’ve exercised a few times a week.) He spoke of
the difficulty exercising after a close call in the hospital.
That’s where I find myself at present. Our life stories
are remarkably similar and I now find myself with a low count,
low weight, low muscle tone and of course low energy (and
I’ll spare you the details of the side effects, especially
those which rear their face in public).
Secondly: I don’t believe
I heard or read anything on T-20, so I’ve got some research
to do. Thanks.
Name withheld, via the Internet
Editor’s Note: Greg
Braxton, author of the article, tells us that, “My doctor
took me off T-20. No use to keep injecting. We’re waiting
for a new drug that comes out in the fall. But I’ve been
feeling good, exercising and juicing carrots and stuff like
that. That keeps my energy up.” In his article Greg had
reported good early success with Fuzeon (T-20), but his viral
load later came back up.
Global
aid
Thank you very much for your
magazine, which I have been receiving regularly every two
months. The publication is a source of enlightening and educative
information on the devastating pandemic of HIV/AIDS. I am
a retired medical/health worker in a resource-poor country,
where the pandemic is claiming 700 lives daily and has reduced
life expectancy to 45 years. Your journal is the only informative
publication which I could readily lay hands on and share with
my fellow community social workers among people with HIV and
orphans. Please continue providing us with the journal, which
is readable and beneficial, although we are unable to pay
for it!
J.W. Makayoto, Kenya
New-Fill
I just had my first New-Fill
treatment last week in NYC. Wow, I got my “old”
face back. What a huge boost to my morale. However it is starting
to disappear just as the doctor said it would. I was kinda
mad about that because even though I asked him endless questions
about the product and what to expect, I guess the one question
I did not ask was answered after he was through injecting
the New-Fill and I had paid my $800 (meaning he did not tell
me it would disappear in a week until he was finished!). So
I had my old face for about a week and now my “lipo face”
is returning, which is very depressing. I am scheduled for
several more treatments. Hopefully the effect will be “cumulative,”
as he assures me it will be—“It’s like building
a wall with bricks—you have to put up layers to see a
good effect”—thus the need for multiple appointments.
“We are building the foundation.” My questions for
Jeff Berry (“New-Fill
for an Old Face,” May/June 2002) are this—have
the treatments you received improved your face? Has the effect
(facial filling) lasted more than one week? Are sunken areas
filling in? Has the effect been cumulative and lasting? I
hate to waste money that I really don’t have. Did you
have lidocaine injected first? Or ice? I had neither and it
was very painful. Thanks in advance for reading this and I
hope you are able to respond to all my questions.
Name withheld, via the Internet
Jeff Berry responds: Thanks
for your e-mail. First and foremost I would like to comment
on your last questions: Absolutely I had lidocaine and ice,
and I would think that it is standard procedure before injecting
New-Fill (it was painful enough with those things, so I can’t
imagine what it was like without). Lidocaine obviously to
minimize pain, and ice to reduce swelling. Be sure to bring
it up with your doctor before he does another procedure. The
four treatments that I received really did help, but after
3-4 months it reduced considerably. I did see improvement,
although not as much as I had hoped (the effect was cumulative,
it is normal for the first treatment to be absorbed in one
week). I was supposed to go in for a booster shot around 12
months after my last treatment, but could not afford it. I
am still paying for the treatments that I began receiving
almost two years ago! I hope this helps, if you have any other
questions, please let me know. Good luck!
I have been researching the
availability of New-Fill or other alternatives for facial
wasting and have come across many of your articles [by Dr.
Daniel Berger]. I have been taking HIV medications for 13
years now with no opportunistic infections, with a T-cell
count that has ranged between 170–450 and a viral load
anywhere from 100,000–500,000. I have taken most medications
available and currently have completed another phenotype test
to determine yet another change. I live a very full, healthy
life; am professionally employed and have a wonderful soul
mate who I’ve known for 20 years and have lived with
for the past four. Within the past year I have begun to notice
my face changing and it bothers me for all of the self-esteem
and associated reasons. I have just begun researching my options
and came across your name. Would you be able to tell me the
current status of New-Fill or any other facial wasting corrective
alternative and the availability of treatment in the Hartford,
Connecticut area. I am financially able and willing to travel
anywhere in the U.S. Also, as I am in the process of switching
my medications, could you clarify if there are any ones which
are less related to facial or muscle wasting than others?
I have read many statements which indicate Zerit as being
the worst. Thank you for your time.
Name withheld, via the Internet
Dr. Berger responds: I
believe that Zerit has contributed greatly to patients’
facial wasting. Some patients are switching to tenofovir (Viread)
or abacavir (Ziagen). They both are potent antivirals with
better safety profiles than Zerit. There are other medications,
and depending on your medical history, can be substituted
for Zerit in your regimen. This alone may help your facial
problems substantially, and at least retard the propensity
for the lipoatrophy to worsen. There are various facial filling
procedures, starting from fat transfer to various products
that are being used to fill the face. If you have subcutaneous
abdominal fat or a buffalo hump then those could be obvious
places to remove fat and inject into one’s face. Since
it is your own tissue it has a low likelihood of causing problems.
Various products include silicone, New-Fill, Radiance, etc.,
to name a few. I can’t recommend one over another without
discussing each in detail. Also some anabolic therapies can
also be of some help. Thanks for writing.
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