About AIDS

New research finally confirms what we have seen for several years: the anti-HIV drugs cause bone deterioration, among other side-effects. And it's not HIV disease, it's the drugs. The study, by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, observed that men taking protease inhibitors, the key part of the drug "cocktail," experience dramatically increased likelihood of osteopenia and osteoporosis (weak, porous bones from mineral loss), basically resulting in fragile bones that may crumble. It's most noticeable in hips and legs.

Among ASA's own clients and my personal friends recently, I have observed four men in their 30s and 40s experience deteriorating neck vertebrae, require hip and knee replacements, and generally suffer the kind of structural problems associated with advanced old age, particularly among women. While such problems are not unknown with men, seeing such a cluster among a small pool of younger guys, all of whom are taking the HIV drug cocktail, was dramatic evidence that something was wrong. Now comes the clinical answer: It's the drugs.

We are witnessing increasing complacency about making safe choices, i.e., people have decided that having HIV infection is no longer such a big deal - "I'll just take a pill." This is especially true of young people and most especially true of young gay men. HIV infection may not seem like the end of the world, as it once did, but people who think they can let down their guard about safer sex decisions should spend some time with one of my young friends on a cane.