About AIDS

Could co-infection with another germ be a useful tool in managing someone's HIV infection? Offbeat though it sounds, an accidental discovery in Thailand has led to a study on the possibly beneficial effect of scrub typhus infection on HIV+ people.

Scrub typhus is an easily treated (although possibly fatal if not treated) bacterial disease common in Asia. In the study, two of 10 co-infected patients had their HIV viral loads (VL) fall to undetectable and two others saw significant drops, even though none were taking anti-HIV medications.

Other patients had VL increases, suggesting that perhaps only some scrub typhus bacteria produce the right factors that inhibit HIV.

Usually, co-infection with something else permits HIV viral loads to rise, so what's going on here? Perhaps the scrub typhus causes the production of not-yet-identified HIV suppressive factors, possibly certain antibodies, that can reduce HIV reproduction. In one test, the blood serum from a typhus-infected but HIV-negative patient inhibited HIV in the test tube.

All this is very preliminary, but if research yields positive results, antibodies to scrub typhus potentially could lead to inexpensive HIV

treatments for less-developed countries. Such outside-the-box exploration illustrates the inspiring ingenuity which the AIDS epidemic calls forth, whether among medical researchers or those struggling to survive.

(For details, see the British medical journal The Lancet, August 5, 2000.)

Struggling with grief following the HIV death of a loved one? A new support group is forming this fall. Please call Lois Van Laningham at 469-2119 or Beth Pomeroy at 232-3405 for starting date, time, and other information. The group is free and confidential.