Tom’s Experience – Fighting HIV by helping the community
I came out in 1978 at the age of 27, after 5 years of marriage. We divorced and I moved to the gay community of Oak Lawn in Dallas. I was not very “street wise” though, and quickly gravitated toward some guys that were involved with drugs and sex work. After jumping in with the wrong crowd, I began partying and living in the fast lane. Not long afterwards, I began using meth and quickly moved from oral intake to intravenous drug use. Chaos followed and my life spiraled out of control. My family saw that I was in trouble, and …
Turning the tide together on HIV – a human rights imperative
The world’s collective response to HIV three decades ago can be summed up in one word: shameful. At worst, people living with HIV were, inexplicably, chained to their beds, detained, turned away from medical facilities, criminalised and deported. At best, they lost their jobs, were kicked out of schools and denied access to basic services. We responded to a virus by humiliating, stigmatising and punishing those infected. Our response to the virus was as painful, and sometimes as deadly as the virus itself. Fortunately, impressive strides have since been made in the fight against HIV. In the last few years, …
AIDS Cure Quest Advances as Cancer Drug Finds Hidden HIV
A Merck & Co. (MRK) drug for a rare type of cancer flushed out hidden deposits of HIV in a study, according to researchers who say the results provide a hint that curing AIDS may someday be possible. The finding on Merck’s Zolinza, reported today in the journal Nature, comes as researchers at the International AIDS Conference in Washington this week express optimism a cure is on the horizon. While current treatments hold the disease at bay, stopping the drugs can be a death sentence since it allows infected cells that remain hidden within the immune system to re-emerge, spreading the …
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