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Talkin’ ’Bout a Revolution

The mid 1990s -- specifically the two-year period beginning in December 1995 during which five revolutionary, lifesaving protease inhibitor medications were approved --mark the single biggest turning point in the global battle against HIV and AIDS. Times are a changing again, and now, there are a slew of new HIV drugs that will change the world and lengthen lives.
An Advocate.com exclusive posted September 29, 2008
Talkin’ ’Bout a Revolution

The mid 1990s -- specifically the two-year period beginning in December 1995 during which five revolutionary, lifesaving protease inhibitor medications were approved --mark the single biggest turning point in the global battle against HIV and AIDS. For millions of HIV-positive men, women, and children around the world, the arrival of these medications and the triple-drug combination therapy era they ushered in changed AIDS from a virtual death sentence to the possibility of living to fight another day, month, year, or more.

The Advocate welcomed the medications with a cover story simply -- and appropriately -- titled “Hope.”

What many LGBT people may not know is that a second significant treatment revolution has been under way during the past year, with some leading HIV experts calling it second in importance only to the introduction of protease inhibitors. And for HIVers with difficult-to-treat drug-resistant virus, the three medications approved since August 2007 (Selzentry, Isentress, and Intelence) are no less miraculous those unveiled in the 1990s. 

“There’s a lot of excitement out there,” says Rowena Johnston, Ph.D., vice president of research at the American Foundation for AIDS Research. “People sometimes lose sight of why we need more. The reason is that HIV can so rapidly develop resistance to the drugs we already have and we lose people who run out of options to treat their infection. So we’re always in a race against time to find new and better ways to attack HIV.”

Here is more information about these three newly approved medications and the novel -- and powerful -- ways in which they attack the virus.

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Adams is managing editor of HIV Plus magazine.

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

  • Name: Diane D'Angelo
    Date posted: 2008-10-02 8:44 PM
    Hometown: Phoenix

    Comment:

    HIV DOES cause AIDS -- and promiscuous unprotected sex isn't a good idea either. 25 years into the plague and we're still bitching over this stuff. Geez, Louise -- give it a rest.


  • Name: Sarah
    Date posted: 2008-10-01 7:21 AM
    Hometown: England

    Comment:

    Promiscuity does NOT cause HIV or AIDS. You need have unsafe sex with only one infected person to contract the HIV virus. Promiscuity - who can define this, anyway? - merely increases a person's chances of contracting a virus (not only HIV) if, and only if, those sexual contacts are unsafe. Sexual freedom - whether that means one partner or ten - need not have dangerous consequences if people are responsible and informed.


  • Name: adam
    Date posted: 2008-09-30 11:59 PM
    Hometown: new york city

    Comment:

    HIV does not cause AIDS. AIDS results from the combined effects of various venereal diseases, drug use and overall poor lifestyle choices. Promiscuity is a poor lifestyle choice which some - and I stress some - within the gay community make. I've seen it with my own eyes: extremely promiscuous men visiting bath houses with the express intent on having sex with as many men as possible. This isn't healthy. If a heterosexual man were having nightly sex with ten or more women whose health status he wasn't sure of, it wouldn't be healthy either.


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