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Today Is World AIDS Day


Lucky
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Today we take time to remember those who we have lost to AIDS. The epidemic seems far gone, but people are still getting the disease. I lived in San Francisco during the epidemic. My memories are still strong of that awful time. The resilience of the gay community then is remembered with the theme of today's commemoration:

WAD-2020-Logo-540.png

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Last year I also posted this. The result was similar. 21 views. World AIDS Day is not of interest here, and that's sad, or so I think. Is it only older guys who want to honor the suffering and compassion our community showed way back when we were being attacked by this virus?

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There is interest, but few people will post anything about it giving the impression that it's of no interest. I must confess that in past years I have changed my profile picture to a red ribbon but this year I didn't. Part of the reason is that I have been less active here. Rightly or wrongly, this year we have been distracted from HIV/AIDS by CoviD-19.

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There are middle-aged gay men now who grew up in a world in which AIDS was a given, so aside from activists, it really is only those of us who were actively gay adults in the 1980s, and lived through the period when it was something new and frightening, who think about it very often. Like other diseases that people take for granted, it is mostly those who are personally affected who are still paying much attention to the subject. In the 1980s and 90s I was constantly reminded because people I knew were dying regularly all around me, but it has been a long time since anyone I know has died of AIDS rather than of something else that may only be aggravated by longtime HIV status. Young gay men seem to think of HIV as as simply a nuisance, the same way my generation felt about other STDs.

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You are right in thinking gays see the AIDS epidemic differently today than back then when we were living through it. My first visit to San Francisco was in 1979 and I went back in 1980 and 81. I can’t remember clearly now but it was either after the second or the third trip that I heard of the new strange cancer affecting gays there. Of course soon the stories were coming out of New York as well and then other places.

 

In the next decade I lost quite a few of my close friends and former lovers. One ex told me he was infected just a year after we broke up and that was in 1987. The rest of us who survived just carried on and adapted to the new realities. We were fortunate to have been spared. The new drugs developed to treat HIV were a game changer for those infected and then PreP has changed things again for those who are not infected. And so life goes on.

 

I read a lot of history and recently I have been reading accounts of the Second World War and Korea. The soldiers who survived and came home for the most part moved on with their lives and didn’t want to talk about their experiences of losing buddies who fought along side them. I think for ourselves, it is also too painful to bring back these memories of those who will not grow old with us and be able to reminisce of the good old days.

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The success of ARVs and PrEP in lowering the number of new infections and deaths every year might be shifting our attention.

The global statistics clearly point out that except for a few Southern African countries, the world doesn't see many AIDS deaths anymore.

It was the 7th cause of death globally in 2000, and in 2017 ranked 14th. It never got to kill more than Cancer, Heart, or Respiratory disease.

HIV/AIDS went from place 7th to 14th in 17 years, meanwhile, Dementia went from place 10th to 5th, and others kept their rank more or less.

Interesting switch there, huh? A Dr. friend said, "There is always a trade-off". It turns out Dementia has one of its causes in HIV. WHO knew !

Edited by orville
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The success of ARVs and PrEP in lowering the number of new infections and deaths every year might be shifting our attention.

The global statistics clearly point out that except for a few Southern African countries, the world doesn't see many AIDS deaths anymore.

It was the 7th cause of death globally in 2000, and in 2017 ranked 14th. It never got to kill more than Cancer, Heart, or Respiratory disease.

HIV/AIDS went from place 7th to 14th in 17 years, meanwhile, Dementia went from place 10th to 5th, and others kept their rank more or less.

Interesting switch there, huh? A Dr. friend said, "There is always a trade-off". It turns out Dementia has one of its causes in HIV. WHO knew !

Well, actually some of us knew about AIDS dementia years ago. But dementia has also increased because people are living longer, and therefore not dying of the causes that used to kill them before they could develop diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's dementia.

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Well, actually some of us knew about AIDS dementia years ago. But dementia has also increased because people are living longer, and therefore not dying of the causes that used to kill them before they could develop diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's dementia.

Exactly. I just didn't want to point the obvious: People are living longer.

My point was more in the sense that there are multiple causes to Dementia, one is HIV.

It would be tricky to say: "Oh, HIV doesn't kill people directly anymore but is causing the steep increase in Dementia".

There are other multiple causes but one can't avoid noticing the switch between Dementia and HIV, from 2000 to 2017.

It would be interesting to know if HIV causes brain damage, and that increased the number of cases of Dementia during those years.

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The only case I knew of personally of AIDS causing dementia was with a friend back in the 90’s. He was diagnosed with AID’s along with his lover in 1990 before there was an effective treatment with the drug cocktail that came along a few years later. His older lover succumbed in 1992 but he survived longer and started the cocktail around 1995 which brought him back from near death. He lived another 5 years but his brain had suffered so much damage that he developed dementia and stopped taking his drugs regularly. He was only 46 when he died.

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The only case I knew of personally of AIDS causing dementia was with a friend back in the 90’s. He was diagnosed with AID’s along with his lover in 1990 before there was an effective treatment with the drug cocktail that came along a few years later. His older lover succumbed in 1992 but he survived longer and started the cocktail around 1995 which brought him back from near death. He lived another 5 years but his brain had suffered so much damage that he developed dementia and stopped taking his drugs regularly. He was only 46 when he died.

Yes, these are the kind of dramatic stories that we could hear often in the 80s as well.

HIV infection affecting the brain and other organs doesn't show immediate signs.

I was wondering if even with ARVs, HIV initial damage is able to trigger the onset of Dementia some years later.

There are now new therapies said to be able to treat or even vaccinate against Alzheimer which is the 1st direct cause of Dementia.

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Yes, these are the kind of dramatic stories that we could hear often in the 80s as well.

HIV infection affecting the brain and other organs doesn't show immediate signs.

I was wondering if even with ARVs, HIV initial damage is able to trigger the onset of Dementia some years later.

There are now new therapies said to be able to treat or even vaccinate against Alzheimer which is the 1st direct cause of Dementia.

My spouse has used all of the four drugs; he didn't react well to the first three, but he has been on memantine for three years. In the early years it did seem to have a positive effect, but like all of the ALZ meds, it eventually ceases to be as effective after longterm use, and his decline in the last six months is noticeable.

 

The vaccine has not been used in humans, only mice, so don't get excited yet.

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