If you're feeling a sense of whiplash over the recent barrage of HIV/AIDS vaccine news, you're not alone: Public reaction to the results of the RV144 Thai HIV vaccine trial has felt like a roller coaster.

First came the over-the-top headlines hailing the results as a veritable miracle of science. Then came the over-the-top headlines calling the results into serious doubt.

Now, vaccine experts and advocates are scrambling to prevent the world from dismissing the study entirely: Seth Berkley, the head of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, wrote an empassioned op-ed piece in the New York Times on Oct. 18, and Raphael Dolin, M.D., a prominent infectious disease doc at Harvard Medical School and an authority on HIV, urged a rational approach to the story in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine. (A recent Associated Press article, incidentally, at last provides a pretty balanced take on what the study results mean.)

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HIV vaccine in Thailand = sexy. HIV treatment access in U.S. = yawn.

That's the lesson we can apparently take away from the news of the past two weeks. On the one hand, you have The Big News of the Year: Heralds throughout the U.S. trumpeted the story about an almost-sort-of-successful HIV vaccine, despite the fact that even if it does pave the way toward a fully effective anti-AIDS shot, that won't happen for many years.

Meanwhile, largely ignored has been the rapidly deteriorating situation regarding HIV treatment access in the world's richest country, where we seem not to be able to afford to give HIV meds to some of our neediest HIV-positive citizens.

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Twenty-five years in prison and a lifetime of parole. That's the sentence that was initially handed down to Nick Rhoades, a 34-year-old, HIV-positive man living in Ohio. His crime: Failing to disclose his HIV status to another man before having sex with him.

The man Rhoades slept with did not become infected with HIV. Nonetheless, when District Court Judge Bradley Harris sentenced Rhoades in May 2009, he gave Rhoades the toughest sentence possible under the law, likening Rhoades' actions to "carrying a concealed weapon." And Rhoades himself basically agreed: He pleaded guilty, after all, and from the beginning expressed remorse for his actions.

Then, on Sept. 11 -- just four months into Rhoades' 25-year sentence -- Judge Harris wiped the whole thing out and gave Rhoades five years of parole. Rhoades was released from prison that very day.

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"How long will I live?"

It's one of the most pressing, frightening questions facing people with HIV, whether they've been newly diagnosed or have been infected for some time. And like so many other questions in HIV, the answer is frustratingly complex, confusing and ever-changing.

How long will you live with HIV? It depends on who you are. Studies suggest that HIVers die sooner if, for instance, they use injection drugs; are coinfected with hepatitis; are depressed; or are pretty much any race and sex other than a white male.

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Here's a heads-up for those of you with HIV and high cholesterol/triglycerides: Depending on which HIV meds you're taking, lipid-busting drugs may not work exactly the way they're supposed to.

The latest item to add to your "Oh Great, Another Thing I Need to Keep an Eye On" list comes from the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, and it specifically concerns a drug known as gemfibrozil (brand name: Lopid), part of a family of triglyceride-fighting drugs called fibrates. The study involved eight men and seven women, all of whom were HIV-negative. Here's what happened:

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Anne Darrow: the Fay Wray edition

OK, OK, let's all calm down. Yes, scientists have apparently found that HIV can make the leap from gorillas into humans. But what does it mean for someone living with HIV -- or even for the human race in general? For now, at least, it means pretty much nothing -- unless, of course, you're fascinated by cool (by which I mean nerdy) developments in science.

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