U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky Plusplus

May / June 2006 One-on-One With UU.S..S. RRepresentativeepresentative JJanan SchakowskySchakowsky On Politics and HIV s Retrovirus Conference Update u Is it Smart to Interrupt Treatment? l P Plus Gay Games Come to the Windy City! Table of Contents May / June 2006 Volume 17 Number 3 Departments Articles 7 Editor’s Note 13th Conference on Retrovirus and Growing Pains Opportunistic Infections 17 Update on Experimental HIV Drugs 12 Readers Forum Th e Neweﬆ , Lateﬆ Pipeline Drugs from CROI 13 News Briefs by Matt Sharp by Enid Vázquez 20 What’s New, Pussycat? 44 Th e Buzz HIV and the battle for the vagina The Dawn of a New Treatment by Enid Vázquez A look at experimental HIV integrase inhibitors 22 Metabolics and HIV th by Daniel S. Berger, MD Update from the 13 CROI by Jeff Berry 23 Don’t Rush to HIV Treatment Looking at the nuances of that possibly alarming report by Stephen J. Fallon, Ph.D. 28 One on One: U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky, (D-IL) Th e Politics of HIV Interview by Jeff Berry 30 Hepatitis B: Th e Other Hepatitis Virus Part Two—Treatment for HBV by James Learned 33 Gay Games Profi les Athletes with HIV show their winning attitudes by Keith R. Green A model, photograph, or author’s HIV status 37 HIV Treatment Series should not be assumed based on their appearance in Positively Aware. Treatment Interruptions You can view these (and other stories from previous issues) Reviewing what we’ve learned so far online at http://www.tpan.com by Kaleo Staszkow, MD Distribution of Positively Aware 41 AIDS at 25 Berry is supported in part through grants from Personal refl ect ions on the epidemic GlaxoSmithKline and Abbott Laboratories. Photo © Jeff tpan.com Proof 4 040706Positively Aware May/June 2006 Proof 4 040706 5 Programs and Meetings Test Positive Aware Network 5537 North Broadway Chicago, IL 60640 phone: (773) 989–9400 fax: (773) 989–9494 PROGRAMS AND MEETINGS AT TPAN e-mail: [email protected] http://www.tpan.com • Support Groups Editor • Rapid Testing Jeff Berry Associate Editors • Yoga, Reiki and Massage Keith R. Green • Needle Exchange Program Enid Vázquez • Individual Counseling Executive Director • Peer Support Network/Buddy Program Rick Bejlovec Director of Treatment Education • Speakers Bureau Matt Sharp • Access Medical Clinic at TPAN Director of Advertising • PULSE, an HIV-positive Weekly Social Danny Kopelson • TEAM (Treatment Education Advocacy Management) Contributing Writers Laura Jones, James Learned, • FASN (Family AIDS Support Network) Jim Pickett, Sue Saltmarsh Medical Advisory Board For detailed descriptions of programs, including days, times Thomas Barrett, M.D., Daniel S. Berger, M.D., Patrick G. Clay, Pharm. D. and locations go to http://www.tpan.com/client_services/cli- Glen Pietrandoni, R. Ph., entservices.shtml or visit www.tpan.com and click on Client Art Direction Services; or call (773) 989-9400 Russell McGonagle © 2006, Test Positive Aware Network, Inc. For reprint permission, contact Jeff Berry. Six issues mailed bulkrate for $30 donation; mailed free to TPAN members or those unable to contribute. TPAN is an Illinois not-for-profit corporation, providing information and support to anyone con- cerned with HIV and AIDS issues. A person’s HIV status should not be assumed based on his or her article or photograph in Positively Aware, member- TPAN Events Calendar ship in TPAN, or contributions to this journal. We encourage contribution of articles cover- ing medical or personal aspects of HIV/AIDS. We reserve the right to edit or decline submitted articles. When published, the articles become the property of TPAN and its assigns. You may use your actual name or a pseudonym for publication, but please include your name and phone number. Opinions expressed in Positively Aware are not necessarily those of staff or membership or TPAN, TPAN EVENTS CALENDAR its supporters and sponsors, or distributing agen- cies. Information, resources, and advertising in Positively Aware do not constitute endorsement • Educational Forums and Trainings or recommendation of any medical treatment or product. • Positively Wired-A Free Basic Computer Skills Workshop TPAN recommends that all medical treatments • Special Events or products be discussed thoroughly and frankly with a licensed and fully HIV-informed medical practitioner, preferably a personal physician. Although Positively Aware takes great care to For detailed descriptions of upcoming TPAN events go to ensure the accuracy of all the information that it presents, Positively Aware staff and volunteers, http://www.tpan.com/events/events.shtml or visit www.tpan. TPAN, or the institutions and personnel who pro- com and click on Events; or call (773) 989-9400 vide us with information cannot be held respon- sible for any damages, direct or consequential, that arise from use of this material or due to errors con- tained herein. 6 Proof 4 040706Positively Aware May/June 2006 Proof 4 040706 tpan.com Editor’s Note Growing Pains une 5th marks 25 years since the fi rst hometown,” one resident stated emphati- published report of Pneumocyﬆ is carinii cally to the press. Ironically opposition Jpneumonia (PCP) among fi ve previously to the event, which typically only draws tively Aware, stated that he and others in healthy young men in Los Angeles. Much around 50–100 people, created such a his generation have never lived in a world has changed since then, some good, and media stir that it is now sure to draw more without HIV. His comment gave me pause, some not so good. attention and attendees than it ever would and made me realize that in many ways, I Ten years ago the advent of HAART have before (kudos to the city’s park district guess, I’ve been lucky. Lucky to have lived (highly active antiretroviral therapy) was board, which voted 3–2 in favor of keeping and loved in a time that seemed much more followed by a steep and dramatic decline the planned rowing event). innocent. Lucky to have made it to (almost) in AIDS deaths here in the U.S. Upcoming Meanwhile, our friends at the Illinois middle age, now approaching 20 years of new advances in research and treatment, Family Institute (IFI), whose motto is “Fos- living with HIV and being on treatment. including integrase inhibitors (see The tering an environment where families can But unlucky in the sense that I’ve seen, like Buzz, page 44) hold hope and promise in fl ourish,” have called on President Bush to many of you, so many of my friends suff er the near future for those with limited treat- reinstate the federal ban on HIV-positive and die needlessly. ment options. travelers to the U.S. during the Gay Games, But while a generation of youth has Ideally we should be focusing all of our which Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and grown up with AIDS lurking in the shadows, eff orts fi ghting this virus, but instead we U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (see the epidemic itself is still relatively young, oft en fi nd ourselves expending our dwin- interview on page 28) worked to get tempo- as we were reminded in February at the dling energy and limited resources bat- rarily lift ed. Th e Institute’s reasoning that 13th Retrovirus Conference in Denver (see tling intolerance, ignorance, and politics visiting “homosexuals” will fl ock to area page 17 for conference coverage). And even as usual. bathhouses and spread their diseases just though the discontinuation of the SMART Case in point—a 15-page article by doesn’t hold bathwater. Apparently the folks study doesn’t bode well for the future of Celia Farber in the March issue of Harper’s at IFI are not aware of the commitment, dis- treatment interruptions as we know it (see magazine entitled, “Out of Control: AIDS cipline and training that is required of those the Treatment Series on page 37), immune- and the Corruption of Medical Science.” who compete in the Games (see Gay Games based therapies, vaccine research, and new Th e story, which is laced with inaccuracies, profi les on page 33). I guess they must think drugs in the pipeline off er a glimmer of half-truths, twisted logic and glaring omis- that it’s standard practice for athletes to hope to the 40 million people living world- sions, is biased and self-contradictory, while take the edge off and unwind with a little wide with HIV. promoting the misguided theories of AIDS unprotected sex at the bathhouse before or We’ve come a long way, baby. But “denialist” Peter Duesberg, not the least of aft er a competition. Note to the IFI: Gays we’ve got a long way to go. As I wrote this, which is that HIV is not the cause of AIDS. have families, too—HELLO—and have juﬆ I received an e-mail from another AIDS For a comprehensive and clearly spelled as much right to fl ourish as anyone. “denialist.” Th ey seem to mutate and multi- out 37-page point-by-point rebuttal of the So where do we go from here? Begin- ply faster than the disease which they claim article, written by leading AIDS research- ning with this issue, Positively Aware doesn’t exist. ers, visit the Treatment Action Campaign’s asks that question of people working on website at www.tac.org/za. the front lines, like author/activist Mary Take care of yourself, and each other. Here in Chicago, the upcoming Gay Fisher, a mom living with HIV, and How- Games, July 15–22 (of which Positively ard Grossman, MD, a clinician who’s been Aware and TPAN are proud sponsors) has involved with a number of activist groups been dealing with ignorance on a local including ACT UP, TAG, the Coalition for level.

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