Misty Media Sex Blog

November 20th 2005, 15:00 Jeff Sela

A few developments to do with HIV and AIDS recently:

HIV and avian flu

There are concerns that AIDS may help spread bird flu, particularly in Africa. Since HIV screws up the immune system, it could make people more vulnerable to other viruses. That might lead to the feared epidemic springing up in places that have high rates of HIV infection.

The incredible amount of coverage of the bird flu thing has the ring of hysteria about it. There's clearly a danger, given the serious flu epidemics of the past, but should we really be worrying more about a virus that's infected a few hundred people in Asia when there are more immediate problems with certain STDs all over the world?

Drug resistance

It's been known for quite a while that new strains of HIV are evolving which are resistant to some of the retroviral drugs used to treat infected people. The drugs keep the virus in check, so that the immune system has a chance to fight off other nasties. They're what allow people with HIV to stay alive here in the UK, and in other comparatively rich countries.

But new research shows that drug resitant HIV strains are are particularly common in the UK. Not only does this make treatments less successful, it also means people already infected with HIV are increasingly vulnerable to infection from other more dangerous strains.

Miraculous recovery

There has been a lot of fuss recently about a man called Andrew Stimpson, who claims to have naturally fought off an HIV infection using only his body and some vitamin supplements. What with all the conflicting stories going around about this, I don't think it's anything to get excited about. Even if it really happened—and it may well have simply been a false positive test in the first place—it isn't going to lead to any new medication for years, if ever.