What Wouldn't We Do To Be Sprung Free?

I think this research has become the hot topic amongst our community:

GENEVA (AP) -- Swiss AIDS experts said Thursday that some people with HIV who meet strict conditions and are under treatment can safely have unprotected sex with non-infected partners.

The proposal astonished AIDS researchers in Europe and North America who have long argued that safe sex with a condom is the single most effective way of preventing the spread of the disease -- apart from abstinence.

''Not only is (the Swiss proposal) dangerous, it's misleading and it is not considering the implications of the biological facts involved with HIV transmission,'' said Jay Levy, director of the Laboratory for Tumor and AIDS Virus Research at the University of California in San Francisco.

The Swiss National AIDS Commission said patients who can satisfy strict conditions, including successful antiretroviral treatment to suppress the virus and who do not have any other sexually transmitted diseases, do not pose a danger to others. The proposal was published this week in the Bulletin of Swiss Medicine.

The Swiss scientists took as their starting point a 1999 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which showed that transmission depends strongly on the viral load in the blood.

The other studies had also found that patients on regular AIDS treatment did not pass on the virus, and that HIV could not be detected in their genital fluids.

''Let's be clear, the decision has to remain with the HIV-negative partner,'' said Pietro Vernazza, head of infectious diseases at the cantonal hospital of St. Gallen in Switzerland and an author of the report.

The studies cited by the Swiss commission did not themselves definitively conclude whether people with HIV and on antiretroviral treatment could safely have unprotected sex without passing on the virus.

The World Health Organization said Switzerland would be the first country in the world to try this approach.

''There is still some concern that you can never guarantee that somebody will not be infectious, and the evidence I have to say is not conclusive,'' said Charlie Gilks, director of AIDS treatment and prevention at WHO.

''We are not going to be changing in any way our very clear recommendations that people on treatment continue to practice safer sex, including protected sex with a condom, in any relationship,'' he added.

In any case, of the 2 million people worldwide now receiving HIV treatment, only a very small number receive medical care comparable to that in Switzerland, Gilks said.

The information itself is great, but to publish it in this stage might be quite irresponsible. We do not know those criteria and I'm quite sure there are no self testing kits available to know whether the person still fits those criteria in any given time. CD4 count and viral load can change quite rapidly and patient can build up resistance to drugs periodically so there's no true way to find out if the risk has increased.

I stumbled into a chat room where people are discussing about the news and one openly positive person said sarcastically that he might just "go to a bathhouse to celebrate".

I have also heard somewhere that HIV- people are taking HIV medications before sex as a way of prevention. Does it work? If it does, good. But the medications will eventually wear off and you're basically building a tolerance to a drug that you may one day need. And isn't HIV medications expensive to start with? Pfizer is conducting a study to put their new HIV drug Selzentry to use as a preventive medication for Women. Imagine a birth control pill with Selzentry, it almost sounds like Tide with a dash of Downy, doesn't it? And why just for Women? Do you hear homophobia or even sexism? I guess we are really trying to get read of condoms quick.

The thing is: Yes, barebacking feels a lot better for everybody, but there are other STDs. So until we find a definitely answer or a cure, it's still best to wrap it up. On the other hand, it might be nice to have a preventive medication if it works. If it doesn't, you're looking at a huge settlement from one of the pharmaceuticals.