Am I responsible for my friend’s HIV infection, addiction and death?

Am I responsible for my friend’s HIV infection, addiction and death?

By: Aaron M. Laxton- Writer, Blogger and Activist

Do we have an obligation to intervene when our friends are engaging in behaviors that are dangerous and potentially deadly? Some of my closest friends and peers are shooting, snorting, and sleeping their way to potential HIV infection and eventually death.  Am I responsible through inaction for their ultimate demise? We have all seen the commercials that teach us to stop a person who has been drinking from getting behind the wheel of a vehicle, however why do we not do the same thing for other dangerous actions?  If we expect to turn the tide of new infections as well as the death of our generation by way of addiction to drugs such as crystal meth and heroin, then it is time that we start to have REAL conversations with each other.

 

Recently Glee fans from around the world were saddened to hear of the sudden death of the Cory Monteith, who played the lead character of Finn. Monteith made his own personal struggle with addiction public last year when he entered drug rehab for the first time.  It now appears as if Monteith’s battle with addiction to methamphetamines was still ongoing. Monteith’s death follows on the heels of Spencer Cox, world renowned AIDS Activist, who also lost his battle with addiction and only further serves to highlight the need for action.

Crystal Meth

As I travel across the United States sharing my experiences as a person living with HIV since June 6, 2011 one thing stands out to me, people are still using crystal meth.  As a recovering addict, I can tell you that during the height of my addiction I would have loved for anyone to have told me how much I was hurting myself.  What started out simply as something I would do while partying with friends soon became a major addiction that wrecked every aspect of my life, ending with my being becoming infected with HIV. I could easily have been another Monteith or Cox. My life while using meth consisted of trolling hookup sites looking for my next trick, while looking for my next fix. There were never enough tricks and there was definitely never enough meth.  Psychologically, I had devolved to state of amphetamine-psychosis, a consequence of chronic amphetamine use. Symptoms mimic those of schizophrenia and include hallucinations, hearing voices, paranoia, mental confusion, loss of time, emotional flatness, not eating, inability to sleep just to name a few.  

 Logging on to any hook-up application or websites I’m  continually amazed to see the headlines for “Party N Play”, “PNP” all code for fellow-tweakers  (a term used to describe a person who uses meth).  Bathhouses are filled with guys who are doped up on chemicals purchased from warehouse store; the actions they engage in while under the influence creates a breeding ground, no pun intended, for new HIV infection. You might ask, “How does this guy know about what goes on in my bathhouse?” My response is that I am most likely a card-carrying member of your bathhouse. I have no shame is disclosing the fact that I frequent bathhouses around the world. Regardless of what your social standing we are all equalized when we are wandering the halls of the bathhouse in a towel simply looking for our next trick. It is time for us to have the tough conversations with our friends who are dealing with addiction. 

The reality is that the bathhouses are filled with your friends who slip in after a night of partying.  You may never know about it because they believe that you would judge them. It is time to admit that you likely have at least one friend or acquaintance who is an addict, but they believe they have it under control. All addicts think that they have it under control but the truth is that addiction is in control.

Raw, Bareback Sex

We need to face it that there are two messages being told. The most prevalent and politically-correct message is that condoms need to be used each and every time that you have sex. The reality is thatthat not everyone wants to use condoms and consequently we are not wearing them, more personally… I will not wear them. The reason that no one freely admits that we are not using condoms is because we do not want to be preached at and shamed. While condoms offer protection against exposure to HIV they are just one of many tools that we have currently. If we are truly committed to reducing shame and having a conversation about reducing new HIV infections we must end the stigma surrounding unprotected sex. I will always choose to have no sex at all than to have sex with a condom.

It is time for us to have these tough conversations with each other regarding risk-reduction practices and prevention outside of simply putting a condom on. It is time to wake up and recognize that beating people over the head with the “condom” message isn’t cutting it. A better conversation to have with friends who refuse to use condoms might be whether they have heard of PrEP (Pre-exposure Prophylaxis) or what other risk-reduction practices they use.

People are going to make their own choices regardless of how you feel about it. If we are committed to changing the tide of new HIV-infections & addiction then it is time for us to start having real conversations free of judgment and stigma.  Are you responsible for your friend’s HIV infection? That is only something that you can answer. Ultimately each person is responsible for their own actions. As friends and family don’t we have a higher responsible to intervene when a person is engaging in behavior that presents a high probability of negative results such as HIV-infection and in some cases death? Without these tough conversations, how many more of our friends fall victim to addiction and risky behavior?

Meningitis Outbreak – Should You Protect Yourself Prior to Major Events?

 Meningitis Outbreak – Should You Protect Yourself Prior to Major Events?

By now, most of you have seen the news stories regarding meningitis outbreaks that were initially isolated to New York but have now moved to Los Angeles. If we have learned nothing else from the early days of the AIDS plague, it should be that early response trumps a reactive-scramble to matters of public-health. It is not my intent to sound the alarm over meningitis however, it is something that needs to be watched quite carefully. With several major leather events, CLAW & IML on the horizon, attendees need to be fully informed regarding what it is and how they can protect themselves.

Meningitis is inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord and the most common symptoms are headache, fever, neck stiffness, confusion, vomiting and an inability to tolerate light or loud noises. Meningitis is contracted through “close contact” not simple casual contact, examples of this would be: kissing, coughing, sneezing, sharing eating utensils, glasses, food or towels. Although meningitis is not transmitted exclusively through sexual intercourse, most of the above stated activities occur during sexual contact. It is for this reason that I urge anyone attending major leather events or parties such as CLAW or IML to consider getting vaccinated. There is considerable evidence which supports the idea that the LA patient was exposed during a White Party over Easter Weekend.

The New York City Health Department has suggested that gay men in New York “who regularly have intimate contact with other men through a website, digital application, or at a bar or party” might consider getting vaccinated. This simply means that this group is at higher risk for exposure to meningitis due to the activities that they are engaged in regularly.

Getting vaccinated as a precaution poses no risk to your health. It will take approximately 2 weeks from the initial date of vaccination for the full-benefits of the vaccination to be seen. Additionally individuals who are HIV positive may require a secondary booster to be fully protected. The meningitis vaccine will prevent invasive meningococcal disease from taking root but does not treat the disease if a person is already infected.

No Place to call home: Aging with HIV/AIDS

No Place to call home: Aging with HIV/AIDS

By: Aaron M. Laxton, Blogger, Activist and HIV-Infected Queer

 

 

I remember once in a class that I was in the professor had the class address issues regarding their own mortality. For  people in their youth this can be extremely hard since this can viewed as morbid. After all, we will live forever and nothing will ever hurt us...right? Obviously as we age we begin to understand that this is not the case; life is always moving and changing. Eventually life will move on and change without us.

　

HIV risk doesn’t stop at 50. In fact, men and women over age 50 account for 17 percent of all new HIV and AIDS diagnoses in the 40 states that have long-term confidential name-based reporting.

During the plague years hospices began to form that would address the needs of those dying from AIDS. It was in these hospices where patients were not viewed as an infectious disease but rather a person who needed love and compassion. A patient covered in Karposi Sarcoma or sufferingly was severe wasting was not feared but rather embraced, held and loved. Although the end of their life was marked by the extreme pain and suffering of AIDS related complications and social stigma, the hospice provided a safe-haven in their final days.

With the advent of improved medications and our understanding of our to treat HIV the amount of people dying from AIDS slowed; as a result the hospices that we once formed to provide support for them were not needed. It is estimated that approximately 50,000 annually die from AIDS in the United States. Some of these organizations restructured to provide other services and others simple were no longer there.

In 2009, people aged 50 and older accounted for 23% of AIDS diagnoses in the United States. Yet older adults are often overlooked in the ongoing HIV/AIDS conversation. Developed for the National Aging Network and others interested in educating older adults, the U.S. Administration on Aging HIV: Know the Risks. Get the Facts. Older Adults and HIV/AIDS Toolkit contains helpful resources and materials specifically designed to inform older adults about the risks of HIV/AIDS and to encourage older adults to know their status.

Now however we have an aging population of patients living with HIV/AIDS and we must consider how to provide the best possible care for them. Anyone who works with aging populations will tell you that finding residential care facilities is a daunting task. I work as a case manager and recently had to do this for a client. This particular client did not have HIV however the task was a challenge none-the-less.

As an HIV positive patient population reaches a time where they might need a residential care facility where will they go? You might say that they can go to any residential care facility that they want. In theory you are right however the facility has the right to refuse whomever they want. Typically once an administrator determines that a patient is HIV positive they are less apt to admit that patient into their facility. This is not something that cannot be hidden since all medical records must be given to the prospective facility.

Also there is the issue of stigma within the residential care facilities. For many of these facilities is it a challenge simply being LGBT. The fear and ignorance of HIV among others residents and staff alike would make it almost impossible for a person living with HIV to live with any quality of life.

One strategy might be to develop facilities that specialize for those living with HIV but does this further perpetuate stigma and ignorance. By creating specialized facilities are we simply shuffling those living with HIV/AIDS "Out of Sight, Out of Mind". That is a slippery slope. What would be next, homes for only white people? Homes for only black people?

If we agree that specialized facilities are not the best strategy then another might be to work with policy and regulators to ensure access to services and facilities by those HIV positive patients. Creating a demand for improve transparency regarding decisions for admissions into programs? Also working with residential care facilities to help educate staff and residents about HIV/AIDS.

We have an ethical obligation to provide great care for our elders not to simply shuffle them away somewhere until they die.

Aaron M. Laxton
My HIV Journey
aaronlaxton@gmail.com

What does a child "cured" of HIV mean for you?

What does a child "cured" of HIV mean for you?
By: Aaron M. Laxton, HIV-Infected Queer, Activist & Blogger

Today, 3/3/13, news came that a 2 1/2 year-old child has been considered "cured" of the HIV virus. As soon as the story hit the wire it began to bounce around via social media and other media outlets around the world. So what exactly does this mean for the those of us living with HIV? While this is great news that supports researchers ideas regarding HIV reservoirs it does not mean that the treatment for an adult currently living with HIV will change. 

The announcement regarding the child's clearance of HIV is important since it goes to the direct issue of a child's immune system versus the adult immune system. Additionally the child was treated with abnormally large amounts of ARV drugs and treatment began immediately, within 30 hours of birth; that indicates that she was most likely infected in utero. Most patients will not meet these same conditions however this supports the philosophy that early detection supports improved outcomes. 

The doctor treating the child gave higher-than-usual "therapeutic" doses of three powerful HIV drugs rather than the "prophylactic" doses usually given. In the months following treatment the child showed no signs of the virus. Due to the mother's living situation the child fell out of care and treatment was stopped. Once Mississippi state health authorities tracked the mother/child down they discovered that she had stopped giving the girl antiviral drugs six or seven month earlier. 

Doctors expected to find that the daughters immune system was showing signs of HIV infection however to their surprise they could detect no sign of the virus. Almost immediately the treating physician took steps to rule out specimen contamination and other considerations that could account for a negative test from the daughter. Since August of 2012 labs in San Diego, Baltimore and Bethesdahave ran ultra-sensation tests on the baby's blood. While intermittently pieces of HIV DNA and RNA have been found there is no indication that the virus is actively replicating in the child's cells.

The importance of this discovery is that it goes directly to theories that researchers have regarding HIV reservoirs. Since the child was treated approximately 30 hours after birth this effectively stopped HIV reservoirs from developing. 

While this research is a move in the right direction towards a cure there is a need for guarded optimism as well as context. For those of us living with HIV this news does not mean that we can stop medications or that we will be cured tomorrow. It does however mean that our understanding of HIV is improving. 

Sequestration: Implications for the HIV/AIDS Community

Sequestration: Implications for the HIV/AIDS Community

By: Aaron M. Laxton, HIV-Infected Queer Activist and Blogger
aaronlaxton@gmail.com

Sensationalized terms such as “Fiscal Cliff”, “Sequestration” and “Debt Ceiling” have by now become a daily phrase for most Americans. Most citizens, and economists for that matter, will tell you that they have no clear understanding of precisely what it will mean. There is one clear thing that we know however, sequestration will cause instant reductions to the National HIV/AIDS budget by an estimated $659 million in the form of automatic budget cuts.

The federal government hit the debt ceiling back in August 2011. A number of lawmakers said they would not vote to raise the debt ceiling, and instead argued that the ethical thing to do was to make deep cuts in federal spending. Failing to raise the debt ceiling, however, would have prevented the Treasury from making interest payments on the government’s accumulated debt, and thus would have forced the U.S. Treasury to default on its loans.  Lawmakers ultimately did agree to raise the debt ceiling, and that agreement came in the form of the Budget Control Act of 2011. The Budget Control Act mandated $917 billion in cuts to military and non-military discretionary spending over 10 years, and formed a 12-member committee made up of lawmakers from both parties drawn from both the House and Senate. That group of lawmakers, nicknamed the super committee, was tasked with devising a plan for at least $1.2 trillion in additional deficit reduction over the coming decade.

But the super committee did not come up with a plan for $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction. According to the Budget Control Act, its failure to do so triggers $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts – sequestration. Those cuts were originally scheduled to begin in January 2013, though they’ve been delayed until March. Under the current agreement, sequestration is now delayed until March 1 when the automatic spending cuts will occur if no further agreement is reached. This deadline will also approximately coincide with Treasury Department estimates of when the U.S. will hit the debt ceiling and slightly precede the March 27 expiration of the Continuing Resolution (CR). Below is a snap-shot of what those living with HIV/AIDS can anticipate if no deal is reached to thwart sequestration.

Treatment and Prevention

·        AIDS and HIV treatment and prevention – Cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program could result in 7,400 fewer patients having access to life saving HIV medications. And approximately 424,000 fewer HIV tests could be conducted by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) State grantees, which could result in increased future HIV transmissions, deaths from HIV, and costs in health care.

·        Approximately 800 additional individuals would contract HIV due to reduction in the

availability of HIV tests and prevention. This would cost the United States $250      million,since every HIV infection costs more than $300,000 in health care costs.

 

·        More than 650,000 people would not be tested for HIV and more than 12,000 people would lose access to life-saving AIDS drugs;

 

·        Should sequestration go into effect on January 2, 2013, federally funded sex education programs would face significant challenges in addressing the critical HIV, sexually transmitted disease (STD), and pregnancy prevention needs of our nation’s youth—thus impacting the future health and wellbeing of our country.

 

·        15,708 People will lose access to crucial life-saving drugs.

 

·        $65.2 million in HIV prevention services will be cut.

 

 

Research and Innovation

“Sequestration will undermine everything we’ve done to accomplish the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) goals of reducing HIV incidence and death,” according to Chris Collins, Vice President and Director of Public Policy at amfAR. “Budget cuts through sequestration would bring crucial life-saving research at the National Institute of Health to a halt, squandering enormous scientific opportunities including AIDS vaccine and cure research.

•         NIH research – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) would be forced to delay or halt vital scientific projects and make hundreds of fewer research awards. Since each research award supports up to seven research positions, several thousand personnel could lose their jobs. Many projects would be difficult to pursue at reduced levels and would need to be cancelled, putting prior year investments at risk. These cuts would delay progress on the prevention of debilitating chronic conditions that are costly to society and delay development of more effective treatments for common and rare diseases affecting millions of Americans.

•         460 AIDS Research grants will be eliminated

•         NSF research – The National Science Foundation (NSF) would issue nearly 1,000 fewer research grants and awards, impacting an estimated 12,000 scientists and students and curtailing critical scientific research.

•         New drug approvals – The FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) would face delays in translating new science and technology into regulatory policy and decision-making, resulting in delays in new drug approvals. The FDA would likely also need to reduce operational support for meeting review performance goals, such as the recently negotiated user fee goals on new innovative prescription drugs and medical devices.

Housing

·        5,000 households will lose housing support.

·        Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (August 2012)

·        CHCDF estimates that sequestration would negatively affect more than 440,000 households and an additional 1.1 million people by decreasing affordable housing opportunities and community development services. These households and individuals are low and moderate income renters and homeowners in urban, suburban, rural and tribal communities, including the elderly, people with disabilities and people experiencing homelessness. The need for affordable housing and community development services far exceeds what current funding levels can provide and sequestration would accelerate the growth in the number of households in need.

 

President Obama and the Congress are playing a game of “chicken” and it is going to be those that need services that pay the high-price.

 

I urge each of you in the very strongest way to contact your representative in Congress and place pressure on them to actually do their job and reach a deal to avoid sequestration. As of the morning of 2/18/13 members of Congress had adjourned for vacation and the President traveled to Florida to play golf. It is my opinion that the entire administration and congress should not adjourn until a deal is reached.

 

Use the links below to determine who your member of congress is and how to contact them today.

 

Contacting Congress

Congressional Directory

 

Tips On Telephoning Your Elected Representatives

To find your senators' and representative's phone numbers, you may use our searchable online congressional directory or call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202)224-3121 and ask for your senators' and/or representative's office.

Remember that telephone calls are usually taken by a staff member, not the member of Congress. Ask to speak with the aide who handles the issue about which you wish to comment.
After identifying yourself, tell the aide you would like to leave a brief message, such as: "Please tell Senator/Representative (Name) that I support/oppose (S.___/H.R.___)."
You will also want to state reasons for your support or opposition to the bill. Ask for your senators' or representative's position on the bill. You may also request a written response to your telephone call.

Murdered or Martyred: Spencer Cox's Final Contribution

Murdered or Martyred: Spencer Cox's Final Contribution
By: Aaron M. Laxton, HIV-Infected Queer Activist and Blogger

Weeks ago the status feed on my Facebook and other social media was captivated by one particular name... Spencer Cox. Throughout the days following his death activists from around the world shared stories and articles in reference to Spencer. As I opened up my email there was a plethora of condolence emails which all began something like this: "Loss of a pioneer...", most shared in what capacity the person sending the email had interacted with Spencer. 

As information regarding his drug addiction and personal struggle with post-traumatic stress became public, the world got a glimpse of the bruised and battered warrior who stood valliantly behind the armor. Spencer saturated himself in the science of HIV and is directly credited by Peter Staley, a fellow AIDS activist who was featured on "How to Survive a Plague", for saving the lives of over eight-million patients; a result of his efforts to standardize protocols which were adopted by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) which brought about the protease inhibitor.

In the plague era, Cox found himself in a time before society had a name for what is now called AIDS. It first appeared as a rare cancer seen in eleven gay men, for a time it was called GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency) and finally would become AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). Friends and lovers were falling one by one at first and over time those numbers increased to staggering, alarming rates. Although everyone wanted to believe that they would live, the reality was that while death called upon a vast majority relatively quickly, others would be left forever scarred by pain, suffering and misery. Just as with any masscre or distaster the toll of the event is long-lasting and life-changing.

Political inaction which left those living, or rather dying, with AIDS was tantamount to  goverment-sanctioned death for patients during the plague years. Cox, a genius and pioneer was sentenced to death long ago by such politicians who turned a blind eye to an entire community that was being ravished by AIDS. Although today the political climate has, to a great deal, embraced HIV/AIDS, this certainly was not the reality of the plaque era. Cox and his fellow activists directly challenged not only the New York City Hall but also the White House and almost every major establishment in Washington, D.C. A politician's disinterest and lack of desire to become involved only further motivated activists such as Cox to blaze a trail into unknown territory. 

It was the introduction of the Denver Principes which boldly proclaimed that those infected were "AIDS patients" rather than "AIDS victims" and to this end Cox was no victim at least in the short-term. In the long-term Cox was merely the tip-of-the-iceberg regarding a marginalized and disenfranchised community who was viewed by politicians as "acceptable losses". 

There are followers and then there are leaders and those abilities are as much a gift as they are an art. Spencer Cox without doubt would forever changed the landscape of AIDS in the United States and Globally. His death however also serves as one last action. An action, like any successful action, brings to light an injustice and inequality through public awareness. An action also involves the potential for personal sacrifice through arrest, detention, or in this case... Death.

Much like the images we have seen of Tibetan Monks who set themselves on fire in one final act of protest, Cox so too has made a statement. A person who had been so instrumental is reforming how those living with HIV/AIDS received medications stopped taking his own. This was the equivalent of cutting an artery and allowing it slowly bleed out. The cestation of his medications meant one thing... death would finally come for this wounded warrior. For all of the things Cox stood for, such as empirical data, quantifiable-numbers and research, it was the latent-affects of living through the plague era which proved just as detrimental as the virus.

Our understanding of the psychological and emotional damage caused as a result of surviving the plague are not well understood. How many more Spencer Cox's are out there? How many more are survivors who through their own actions hasten death through self-destructive behaviors or attitudes? An addiction to crystal meth was merely the means by way Spencer self-medicated. The addiction was only a symptom of a greater problem that is not isolated to just Spencer. A greater problem that is running rampant throughout the gay community and within the AIDS community. I myself have battled with an addiction to Crystal meth as well as other self-destructive patterns of behavior. 

Why did he survive when so many others had died? The grief and grieving that seemingly over-shadowed being alive has been hidden away as a dark secret and is not spoken of near as often as it should be within our communities. What is focused on is improved drug therapies, longer life expectancies and "normal" lives however ignoring the catastrophic and debilitating emotional wreckage in plague-era patients is a travesty and it must be stopped.

Spencer Cox's death can be viewed as a murder which was sanctioned long ago but that only recently occurred or it can be viewed as the ultimate action and political statement to decry an injustice and inequality, only you can be the judge.

One HIV-Infected Queer’s Response to the State of the Union

One HIV-Infected Queer’s Response to the State of the Union

By: Aaron Laxton, HIV-Infected Queer Activist and Blogger

Recently the news of a school massacre with twenty children killed galvanized media outlets around the world. In the days and weeks after, politicians from both sides of the aisle dug in for what would without doubt be a long fight regarding gun reform. As a person that is living with HIV I am left to question, where is this same passion and fervor regarding a CURE for HIV/AIDS?

With an aging group of activist and an ever changing-political environment comes a change in priorities and the government’s ability to put issues that we hold as valuable as a lower-priority. It is true that therapies and treatments for HIV/AIDS have vastly improved; the fight is far from over. The rates of new HIV infections within the African-American and Latino populations are staggering and barriers regarding access to care still abound.

During President Obama’s State of the Union address those of us living with HIV waited for a renewed sense of vigor and determination, marking a move towards a CURE for HIV/AIDS. Sadly, in the end, it was a vague phrase that seemed like an ingenuous attempt to court voters rather than an actual plan to get to an AIDS free generation. By the numbers, those living with HIV/AIDS have seen catastrophic cuts to programs and funding under the Obama Administration that only serve to prove that lip service is alive and well in the White House and Washington, DC.

Twenty white-children are killed in a school shooting; subsequently the instantaneous response from the White House is a stark-contrast to the determination and attention given to HIV/AIDS, an epidemic which has killed millions of people including at least 290,000 gay men. I suppose it makes sense since dead votes do not count on Election Day!

Just as it was in the early days of the epidemic, it was not until white children began to become infected did the public develop a bad taste in their mouth. What will it take now for the public, for those living with HIV/AIDS to rise up and demand a CURE to an epidemic that has been raging more than 32 years, with more casualties than all the wars put together?

I am simply on queer living with HIV who is using his voice but if we are to succeed it will demand that once again we get angry over a lack of governmental response, funding cuts to HIV/AIDS Programs, cost containment measures affecting ADAP recipients and the list goes on. Who is this generation’s Larry Kramer to rally the troops and boldly proclaim that without action we are dead?

HIV will not kill you but your passivity and laziness will!

 

HIV will not kill you immediately but your passivity and laziness will!

By: Aaron Laxton, HIV-infected Queer activist and blogger

Last summer I had the amazing opportunity to speak at the ADAP Association Summit in Washington, DC. It was during my remarks that I posed the question, “If we simply provide medications to those living with HIV/AIDS yet we do nothing to improve their quality of life, what have we ultimately achieved?” The reality for those living with HIV is that quality of life is directly being threatened. It is being threatened and it must not be allowed to continue! Any meaningful existence for HIV/AIDS patients is directly being threatened in the form cost-containment measures with ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program), reduction of HIV/AIDS program funding, increased HIV Criminalization efforts and outrageous pricing for new Anti-Retroviral Drugs in the name of research and development, just to name a few. In 2010 Gilead Sciences controlled at least 40 percent of the market share for HIV/AIDS therapies and showed profits of over $6.3 billion.

While some may call me an alarmist and radical, the fact remains that those of us living with HIV/AIDS are simply viewed as a “past-epidemic; a closed chapter- a black mark on our history marked by political-inaction, marginalization and demoralization”; take your medications and do not rock the boat is the current mentality! It is my opinion; big-pharma has bought the silence of a new generation of HIV patients thus quelling outrage over the lack of a CURE after thirty-two years. All of the advancements, therapies and medications we currently have came as a direct result of action from a generation that knew they would never be alive to see it. So please spare me the rhetoric that says, “We have never been closer to a cure as we are right now.” Where is the damn cure?

The Journal of the AIDS Society published new research that projected life-expectancies to approximately 69 years. One key challenge is that an aging population of patients living with HIV present researchers and clinicians with more questions than answers. Our understanding of AIDS-related malignancies has improving unfortunately patients that survived the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic are now staring a new insidious-challenge in directly in the face. Is it related to aging, anti-retroviral drugs, HIV/AIDS or all the above?

While aging populations of HIV/AIDS patients face significant challenges, the HIV/AIDS movement faces profound challenges which could prove fatal if not addressed. We must address philosophical questions regarding where we have been and where we are going if we are to ultimately achieve the Holy Grail, a CURE.

A previous HIV population had quite possibly the purest reason for fighting… a will to live. Today however, there is seemingly a lazy attitude among a younger HIV-community that directly translates into passivity and acceptance of the status-quo. Where is the fight?

Politicians will keep chiseling away at HIV/AIDS funding and programs until there is nothing! Twenty-five years ago, activists and AIDS Service Organizations would raise hell to stop this. Unfortunately many AIDS Service Organizations have lost their sense of direction and consequently no longer serve the populations that they were once determined to help. Those organizations which still have an interest in serving those living HIV are so afraid of advocating for specific issues lest their funding get cut.

We cannot depend on AIDS Service Organizations to place pressure on politicians on issues such as CURE Research, HIV/AIDS program funding cuts or issues such as HIV-criminalization. It is going to patients who are currently passive and lethargic to awaken from their dazed, lackadaisical-slumber and fight for their lives.  It you have ever heard me speak I always say the same thing… politicians do not change things out of the kindness of their hearts. They change because people place pressure on them and they do it out of self-preservation.

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