AIDS Treatment News
Table of Contents, December 1, 2000

• Structured Treatment Interruption: Important Controlled Trial in Monkeys
  The first randomized controlled test of structured treatment interruption found that certain immune responses helped maintain an undetectable viral load during the interruptions -- at least in this study with monkeys. Later, when treatment was permanently discontinued, the animals with intermittent drug treatment did better than those that had been on continuous antiretrovirals.

• Superinfection (Reinfection): New Study in San Francisco Offers Free Resistance and Viral Load Testing
  No one knows if a person who already has HIV can be infected with a different strain. It is important to find out, for many reasons, and a new research project is looking for couples (of any sexual orientation) where both partners are HIV-positive.

• New Report on World AIDS Epidemic
  The United Nations released its annual AIDS report shortly before World AIDS Day (December 1). It is the best information anywhere on what is happening with the epidemic around the world.
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• Global Treatment Access: Call for 95% Price Reduction; New GTAC Organization Web Site
  Doctors Without Borders and other health activists are calling for large reductions in the prices for essential drugs in poor countries.

• California: MediCal Income Eligibility Level Raised for the Disabled and Aged
  New rules starting January 1 will allow more disabled Californians to qualify for MediCal (Medicaid).

• Answering the AIDS Denialists: Is AIDS Real?
  This article looks at theories that say AIDS does not exist, or is not a new disease but only a collection of old ones -- and explains some of the history behind earlier changes in the official definition of AIDS in the U.S., changes which caused some public confusion.

ISSN # 1052-4207

Copyright 2000 by John S. James. Permission granted for noncommercial reproduction, provided that our address and phone number are included if more than short quotations are used.