"Five Reasons His HIV Status Doesn’t Matter Anymore" or "DOES IT?"

In one of the bright spots of the new year, 2015, the HIV status of the guy you’re dying to get into bed matters less than ever. And if you play your sexual cards right, his status doesn’t really matter much at all.

Sure, you might prefer to segregate your men by HIV status. But if you’re engaged in casual sex or even active in the dating pool, making assumptions can be a fool’s errand. We’ll save you the lecture about the perils of labeling people and simply say this: the best laid plans often go astray, particularly when true love shows up.

Can you guess what HIV status really does matter? Yours. To stay negative, or keep your HIV virus to yourself, the power is in your hands.

Here are five reasons why his HIV status just isn’t the point anymore:

1. What you do in bed is up to you.

Until you know the guy, and we mean more than his sexual statistics and where he works out, you’re going to have to demonstrate to him what a creative lover you are without high risk sex. Use a condom for fucking or drive him over the edge with oral sex. As long as you stay in the safety lane, his HIV status is irrelevant. Once you know and trust each other more you can negotiate the best of the rest.

2. Someone may be taking PrEP.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (taking a pill to prevent HIV infection) is fast becoming a game changerfor gay men on the scene. There’s a growing pile of research to show that PrEP has an efficacy rate that rivals condoms, and can give you some peace of mind when his status is a question mark. Of course, there’s no rule keeping you from continuing to use condoms regardless.

3. He is positive and undetectable.

Another major development of the last year has been the growing research showing that someone living with HIV that maintains an undetectable viral load is not capable of transmitting the virus to their partners. Of course, you have to know him well enough to feel comfortable that he is taking his meds as prescribed. Until then, see Reason #1.

4. HIV isn’t the only game in town.

We take our eyes off the other balling bugs when we forget that HIV isn’t the only sexually transmitted disease. In fact, among the various ways you can get infections from boinking, HIV is relatively hard to transmit because it requires blood fluids (blood, semen, or a mother’s breast milk) to enter your blood stream through an open wound or through mucus membrane (the booty canal).

That’s not the case for more common infections like gonorrhea, chlamydia and herpes, which you can catch through oral sex or simple contact with skin during an outbreak. With the staggeringly high rate of sexually transmitted diseases among gay men these days, don’t over-estimate your HIV risk and under-estimate the others.

5. When does his HIV status absolutely matter? When he isn’t dealing with it.

When you have the HIV chat with Mr. Very Soon and he admits his last HIV test was before the final season of True Blood, you may want to think twice. Our sexual health depends on our getting tested regularly and addressing the results.

Likewise, if he is HIV-positive but hasn’t sought treatment because he says he feels great or doesn’t believe in taking pills, we have a problem. There are amazing new treatments for HIV. If you do not take advantage of them you might as well be living in 1987. Ask anyone who made it out of that decade alive and they will tell you it was not pretty. Even someone who truly believes they are undetectable may not be at the moment, given normal fluctuations in viral load, drug regimen, and strength of his immune system.

Our strength as a community comes from celebrating our similarities, not the definitions that keep us apart. When it comes to HIV, those labels are beginning to fade. And that is something to be grateful for.

Link to this article: http://www.queerty.com/five-reasons-his-hiv-status-doesnt-matter-anymore-20150118

bY: Mark King Jan. 18th, 2015

 Now for my 2 cents:

It is 2015 people and there has been a lot of advancement in controlling HIV!! Yes, while this may be the case, ONE MUST still use COMMON SENSE, HIV is REAL and the continued RISE IN HIV INFECTION, proves that YOU NEED TO ALWAYS PROTECT YOURSELF!!! 

With all the "HYPE" on PrEP, you would think it would not be something to worry about anymore and you can just "ASK" the HIV question - get the answer you want to hear - then jump into bed to get busy!! In a PERFECT world where everyone does everything in their power to keep themselves healthy and take the "NEW" medications, this would be the case. WAKE UP!! We live in a REAL WORLD where people DO NOT take care of their health, and given the opportunity they DO NOT take medication like they should to help prevent the spread of this disease.

There are SO MANY STD's a person can contract from UNPROTECTED SEX - "WHY WOULD YOU TAKE THAT RISK?" 

I say if you truly RESPECT YOURSELF - PROTECT YOURSELF!!! YOU JUST NEVER REALLY KNOW THAT PERSON YOU ARE HAVING SEX WITH UNLESS YOU ARE WITH THEM EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY!!!

I for one know that getting this horrible disease - VIRUS - is NOT a CAKE WALK!! Your life will FOREVER change if you contract this "VIRUS"!!!

Anyone who believes that they can beat it - YOU are living in a FANTASY WORLD!!!

I always thought you were "SAFE" if you only had oral sex with someone you did not "KNOW" all that well. WELL that was my downfall!! I found out the "HARD" way - no pun intended - that you can contract this "HIV" VIRUS from oral sex!!!

So let me just say, while this is a very good article about educating about the ways to contract HIV - it lacks the most important way to NOT contract HIV - "ALWAYS PROTECT YOURSELF" - PEOPLE "LIE"!!!!!!!!!!!

It is my HOPE and PRAYER that as we continue to SPEAK the TRUTH about HIV - MORE people will start RESPECTING themselves and ALWAYS PROTECT themselves.

David Moorman

Test for HIV, Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B Approved by FDA

Test for HIV, Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B Approved by FDA

By Warren Tong

From TheBodyPRO.com

January 17, 2015

On Jan. 9, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a three-in-one test, which detects HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B.

The test, manufactured by Roche, is the second version of the "cobas TaqScreen MPX Test." This updated version provides increased sensitivity and is the only test approved by the FDA to detect the three aforementioned viruses together.

The real-time, multi-dye PCR assay will be used to test "donations of human whole blood and blood components including source plasma," according Roche's press release.

"The combination of viral target detection and identification steps on a fully automated system offers workflow advantages to blood and plasma testing centers by eliminating the need for consecutive rounds of testing, and facilitating earlier donor counseling in the event of a positive result," the manufacturer stated.

Warren Tong is the senior science editor for TheBody.com and TheBodyPRO.com.

Follow Warren on Twitter: @WarrenAtTheBody.

Copyright © 2015 Remedy Health Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Link to the website: http://www.thebodypro.com/content/75408/test-for-hiv-hepatitis-c-and-hepatitis-b-approved-.html?ap=2009

Do HIV-Negative Gay Men Need Condoms if They're on PrEP? Here's What I Tell My Patients

By Howard Grossman, M.D.From TheBody.com

November 15, 2014

Those of you who have read my blog know that I am on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to reduce my risk for HIV infection. And more and more of my patients are also beginning to take Truvada (a pill combining the antiretroviral drugs tenofovir and emtricitabine) as PrEP to prevent HIV infection. And all of my patients are asking me what my recommendations are for condom use in light of the data on PrEP.
If you ask most clinicians, researchers and public health officials, the usual answer is: "Well, you should continue to use condoms because, of course, Truvada does not protect against STIs (sexually transmitted infections)."
The problem is THAT IS NOT THE QUESTION PATIENTS ARE ASKING!
Let's face the fact that everyone hates condoms! We hear a lot about gay men not using condoms these days, but how many heterosexual men are using them if their female partners are on birth control? Are doctors counseling that all of their straight patients need to use a condom every time in every situation, now and forever? You know they're not. But that's the only message we've had for gay men for a long time. It's a message that was vital in the days when we had no other tools, had unreliable testing and did not understand transmission well. It's a message that saved countless lives. But now it's a message that pathologizes gay sex and fails to recognize that people are making reasonable and rational choices about risk. Now we have PrEP and treatment as prevention (TasP).
People want to know if using PrEP could actually allow them to go without condoms. They are looking to their doctors for guidance. If we sidestep the question by talking about STIs, then we leave people fumbling around to find their own way. PrEP opens the door to talking about situations where the risk of HIV infection will be so low that perhaps going without condoms is a reasonable choice. I will share with you the guidance I give my patients.

Seat Belts Plus Airbags

If some people want to take PrEP and still use condoms, I salute their choice. They will be the safest among us. Some have likened this to using a belt and suspenders to hold up one's pants. I don't like this image because it implies that those who choose it are a bunch of nerds (see Urkel). I prefer the analogy of the use of seat belts and airbags in cars. Both are there to protect us, but they work in different ways to do so -- and outcomes are best when we use both modalities.
At this point, I think most people would agree that those in a long-term, stable monogamous relationship where both partners are the same serostatus do not need to use condoms.

Let's Look at the Numbers

If we look at several different scenarios for sexual encounters outside of a long-term, stable monogamous relationship with partners of like serostatus, we can see some areas where PrEP and TasP can reduce risk so much that choosing not to use condoms can be a rational choice.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has calculated the risk of HIV transmission for multiple sexual and other exposures. The risk for receptive anal intercourse (bottoming) is 134 for 10,000 exposures. Just to be clear, from a public health standpoint, this is a high risk.

Undetectable Partner

If one partner is HIV positive and is undetectable on medication (viral load <40 copies/mL on some tests and <20 copies/mL on others), then the chance of passing HIV is reduced by 97% or so (conservatively).
This is according to a number of studies -- including the PARTNER study, which showed no transmission among over 700 serodiscordant couples who were not using condoms and where the HIV-positive partner was on suppressive antiretroviral therapy and the negative partner was not on PrEP. If the negative partner is on PrEP, and taking the medications reliably, then that person's risk of acquiring HIV is reduced by, let's say, 92% to 100% according to various studies. With these reductions in risk (97% and then 95%), the risk becomes something like 1 out of 50,000 encounters. If we use a 99% figure for PrEP, we're looking at 1 per 250,000 episodes. I think we can reasonably ask: What more HIV risk reduction we can get from using condoms in this situation?

Both Partners Negative, Both on PrEP

If both partners are negative and on PrEP, then both are being seen by medical providers. And if those providers are following protocol, then the patients are getting tested every three months for HIV and STIs and taking their meds and should reliably be negative. What does a condom add to HIV risk reduction in this scenario?

Both Partners Say They're Negative, One on PrEP

If one partner who claims to be negative is on PrEP and the other is not, then it becomes a bit more complicated. If you are the person on PrEP, you need to ask yourself how well you know the other person. Do you trust that the person is really negative? Do you know when the individual last got tested? Do you know the individual's sexual history? And finally, are you comfortable enough with what you know and with Truvada's ability to prevent HIV infection to not use a condom with this person? A more difficult choice to be sure, but one where knowledge of your partner can help to reduce risk.

The Unknown Partner Scenario

That leaves the unknown partner, someone whose serostatus you cannot know for sure. I ask my patients to consider this scenario: You're on PrEP and a really hot guy comes up to you and says, "I really want to have sex with you, but you should know I recently became positive for HIV and I'm not on any medications yet and my viral load is pretty high." Would you have unprotected sex with this man?

• Most of my patients immediately answer no (unfortunately too many would not even have sex with him, despite the fact that condoms would protect them, but we'll leave stigma to another discussion).
• Some people say they aren't sure. A few have said they would only top that person without a condom (the risk from a single episode of insertive anal intercourse is 11 in 10,000 encounters -- you do the math).
• A small number who are strong believers in the power of PrEP to protect them say they would still have unprotected sex, including receptive anal intercourse.

So we talk about these choices.
To those who say they would use a condom, I say that is the way they then need to handle every unknown hookup.
For those who say they would still have unprotected sex, I first say that I hope that PrEP will be as effective in this scenario as it was in studies overall. I then caution them that the data we have from studies have not proven that is true. The studies of PrEP have not looked at the HIV status and viral load levels of every partner of the study participants. We cannot say for sure that PrEP will work as well overall if one is constantly encountering partners with very high HIV viral loads. That is not to say for sure that it won't work, but we just don't know. People who are on PrEP and not using condoms with strangers are, in fact, experimenting with their own bodies. I am not saying that they are wrong or stupid or ill-informed, but they need to be aware that we do not know for sure that this will be safe.

The STI Issue

Of course, there is always the STI issue as well. If someone has an infection in the urethra with a discharge and burning, most would assume that person would not be having sex with others. Unfortunately, most anal infections (and oral ones too) are asymptomatic. So people are unaware that they are infected and will continue to have sexual encounters. Using a condom for intercourse when you're hooking up with people will definitely reduce your risk of acquiring an STI.

Moving the Message

PrEP is a game-changer in so many ways. I think one of the biggest changes is that we can reasonably start looking at risk in various types of sexual encounters. With real data, we can help people to begin to think about their risk in very clear ways. Perhaps, if our message moves from "you have to use a condom in every situation now and forever" to "there are definitely times when using a condom will work to reduce your risk in significant ways, but there are situations where not using a condom is a reasonable choice," we may be able to improve outcomes, improve sexual decision-making and lower new infection rates.
Howard Grossman, M.D., is the director of AlphaBetterCare, an LGBT-friendly primary care provider serving New York City and New Jersey. An HIV physician and researcher for more than 20 years, Grossman is also a senior attending physician at Mount Sinai Roosevelt Hospital.

Likn to article: http://www.thebody.com/content/75205/do-hiv-negative-gay-men-need-condoms-if-theyre-on-.html

HIV's adaptation to immune system may slow its AIDS-causing ability

Like many viruses, HIV has evolved to become resistant to genes that provide natural immunity in the human body. But a new study finds that this evolution may be the virus' downfall; it is also curbing its ability to cause AIDS.

As HIV evolves to adapt to the human immune system, its virulence may be slowing.

The research team - led by Prof. Phillip Goulder of the University of Oxford in the UK - also found that an increase in access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) has meant that progression to AIDS among people with HIV is slowing.

The researchers say their findings - recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) - bring us one step closer to tackling the HIV pandemic that is responsible for around 39 million deaths worldwide.

Prof. Goulder and his team enrolled more than 2,000 women with chronic HIV to the study. The women were from two countries worst hit by the HIV epidemic - South Africa and Botswana.

First, the researchers set out to see how the body's natural immune response impacts the virulence of HIV, or its ability to progress to AIDS.

In particular, the team investigated blood proteins called human leukocyte antigens (HLA). These proteins allow the immune system to distinguish between friendly and harmful proteins. The researchers explain that some people have a gene that expresses a protein called HLA-B*57, which is known to have a "protective effect" against HIV.

The researchers found, however, that in some cases HIV has evolved to become resistant to the protective effects of HLA-B*57 - particularly among women in Botswana. But they also found that this evolution has impaired the ability of HIV to replicate, meaning its progression to AIDS is being slowed.

According to the researchers, the way HIV is evolving to resist protective gene variants is hampering the virulence of transmitted HIV. This means that HIV is playing a part in its own eradication.

Commenting on this finding, Prof. Goulder says:

"This research highlights the fact that HIV adaptation to the most effective immune responses we can make against it comes at a significant cost to its ability to replicate. Anything we can do to increase the pressure on HIV in this way may allow scientists to reduce the destructive power of HIV over time."

ART causing HIV to evolve, impairing its virulence

The team then developed a mathematical model to assess how ART affects the virulence of HIV.

ART usually involves a combination of three antiretroviral drugs to slow progression of HIV. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2.3 million new people received antiretroviral treatment last year, compared with 1.6 million in 2012. This represents the largest ever annual increase in uptake of ART.

The researchers found that administering ART to people with HIV who have low levels of CD4 cells (types of white blood cells that fight infection) is causing HIV to evolve, which is impairing the virus' ability to replicate.

This finding highlights the importance of ART in the fight against HIV. Mike Turner, head of infection and immunobiology at the Wellcome Trust in the UK - who funded the study - adds:

"The widespread use of ART is an important step toward the control of HIV. This research is a good example of how further research into HIV and drug resistance can help scientists to eliminate HIV."

In line with World AIDS Day yesterday, Medical News Today reported on a study claiming that the world has reached a "tipping point" in the worldwide AIDS pandemic, in that more people are signing up for ART than are becoming infected with HIV.

Written by Honor Whiteman

Link to article: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/286321.php

URMC tests HIV vaccine pill

 Patti Singer, Staff writer3:52 p.m. EST January 13, 2015

If you enjoy time alone and like being part of scientific research, this could be the study for you: staying isolated for 12 days in order to test an oral vaccine to prevent HIV.

"I think it would be great for students who need to write or study hard," said Dr. Michael C. Keefer, director of the University of Rochester Medical Center's HIV Vaccine Trials Unit.

URMC is the only center testing a pill that is a common class of virus called adenovirus with a protein that prompts the body to make an immune response to HIV. The vaccine is not made from actual HIV. The idea is to trick the immune system into thinking it is reacting to the real thing, Keefer said.

"That's a common principle in all our testing," said Keefer, whose unit is supported by the National Institutes of Health. "The vaccines are made to look like HIV but they're not HIV."

In this case, funding is through a collaboration with the Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center in Boston and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. The project is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. John Treanor, chief of infectious diseases at UR Medicine's Strong Memorial Hospital, also is involved in the study.

Most HIV vaccines have been injections. This pill vaccine is made of a type of adenovirus with genes from the outer portion of HIV. It's not enough to activate the virus, said Keefer, who explained by saying the mechanism of HIV is analogous to that of a car.

"It needs everything," Keefer said. "Steering wheel, gas, spark plugs, engine. Our vaccines are the shell of the car. No gas, no engine. Nothing to make it go."

He called the vaccine "a fender," and said the key is to convince the immune system it's seeing the whole car.

URMC has conducted other studies of HIV vaccines, and it runs isolation studies for illness such as the flu. In this case, participants will be isolated so researchers can document any side effects of the adenovirus as a means to deliver the vaccine. Once their stay is over, the participants will be followed for several months.

PSINGER@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/PattiSingerRoc

For more information

Participants in a URMC study of an HIV vaccine pill must be between 18 and 40 years old, in good health and not infected with HIV. For details, call (585) 756-2329.

Link to this article: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2015/01/13/urmc-tests-hiv-vaccine-pill/21704635/