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HEALTH HIV Report with Filippo von Schloesser So that you’re in the know, here are the latest updates Words by Marla E. Schwartz In March 2010, the Center for Disease Control provided a new look at the disproportinate impact of HIV and syphilis among gay and bisexual men in the United States. Jonathan Mermin, the Director of HIV and AIDS Prevention, signed a disconcerting document stating that primary and secondary syphilis among men who have sex with men (MSM) is on the rise. “According to this study, the rate of primary and secondary syphilis among MSM is more than 46 times that of other men and more than 71 times that of women,” Filippo von Schloesser, Miami Living’s resident HIV/AIDS specialist pointed out. The CDC is implementing an updated National Syphilis Elimination Plan in cities where MSM have been hardest hit by the disease, and will release an updated HIV prevention strategic plan within the next year. In addition to the letter provided by the CDC, another important milestone early in the year for the HIV/AIDS community was CROI (Conference on Retrovirus and Opportunistic Infections), which took place in February 2010 in San Francisco. The CDC letter, of course, was a major topic of concern and discussion. This year CROI brought together 4,000 HIV/AIDS leaders from interrelated areas of AIDS research in order to interact and educate each other in the latest results, treatment methods and state-of-the-art technological advances to increase quality of life for patients with this disease. “It was made clear at this conference that new epidemiology data matched that with the CDC document,” Filippo said. The conference also touched upon other issues viral load, and therefore becoming less contagious.” “The two theories I’ve always strongly supported: 1) Get tested for HIV and start therapy early to prevent the spreading of HIV 2) If you know you are HIV positive and your virus is undetectable, you have less chances to infect other people,” Filippo said. “Therefore the question shouldn’t be: are you positive or negative, but: detectable or undetectable?” New guidelines for HIV therapy were also presented. “And fifty- percent of the panelists agreed on starting HIV treatment at 500 CD4 no matter what the viral load is,” Filippo said. “The rest of the panelists were keener to start between 350 and 500.” “The attention of research on antiretrovirals is “...the rate of primary and secondary syphilis among MSM is more than 46 times that of other men and more than 71 times that of women,” Filippo von Schloesser important to the community. “One interesting paper presented discussed the decrease of HIV transmission from HIV positive people taking effective therapy, with undetectable now addressed more toward patient management in terms of the way a person grows old, of why and how the cells get older more quickly in HIV positive people,” Filippo said. “The target of new clinical research will focus on where the virus hides - in our kidneys and brain, and particularly the genital tract (the reservoirs).” For more information, go to: www.charterresource.ucsd.edu. The most significant aspects articulated by the revelation of these topics are that research is focused on providing the best care and longest quality of life for people with HIV, but still the greatest amount of infected individuals are living in very large and populated communities spread throughout Africa, Asia, and India, where limited resources make it impossible for them to take full advantage of the armamentarium to fight HIV.ML MIAMI LIVING 95