POZ December 2003
POZ December 2003
In every issue, you’ll find the hottest topics of interest to our readers along with cutting-edge health information.
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Feature
Born Again
Tony Kushner’s Broadway megahit, Angels in America, has been reincarnated as a megastar-studded HBO movie.
Inside the Issue
Knowing When to Stop
Addiction can exert a deadly pull on HIVers. Here’s how five Los Angelenos began their climb toward recovery.
The Divine Miss Em
Two years ago, Emma Thompson ditched stardom for motherhood and a sojourn in Africa.
Recovery Rooms
However you want to deal, here’s where to keep up with your jones
Touchdown
A Midwestern pee-wee football coach loses his job to HIV stigma-but the team’s parents get him back in the game
A for Africa
Flouting the theory that African poverty would lead to poor HAART adherence, studies in Uganda, South Africa, Botswana and Senegal show...
Earthwatch
Life expectancy in Zimbabwe has plummeted to 33 years from 67.5 years since the epidemic’s onset, the UN reports.
WHO’s on First
The WHO has raised med hopes for millions. Will the WTO squash them?
Dying for ADAP
Since spring 2002, seven people have died of AIDS while on waiting lists for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP).
Milestones
Jason Robertson, an HIVer with hemophilia whose Illinois school sequestered him as a child, died of AIDS September 5 at 23.
Bombing Gilead
A July FDA letter cited Gilead reps for pitching the nucleotide analog Viread as “safer” and “more potent” than similar nucleoside ana...
Pos & Neg
Newly proposed Kenyan legislation bans employers, colleges and insurance companies from discriminating against HIVers.
Wishful Thinking
Six HIVers tell POZ what’s missing in their lives...and we pick out the perfect gift for each
Unwrapper’s Delight
The Gift, Louise Hogarth’s gritty documentary on barebacking and bug-chasing, is earnest and serious.
Study Hell
How to read (and understand) HIV research
Briefs
Women who got HIV via sex lost T cells more slowly than all other HIVers in a 5,800-person European/Australian study.
Diarrhea Diary
The type of runs you’ve got-and their cause-dictate the treatment:
HAART to Heart
Cardio concern tops docs’ risk list
Eradication II?
UCLA docs have “lured” HIV out of lymph glands and other reservoirs where it lurks.
2/3
2/3 of new syphilis cases in gay men in San Francisco are among HIVers, suggesting that a lot of guys aren’t unwrapping those condoms.
Breaks: What’s Up?
The latest studies send mixed messages on the pros and cons of drug breaks (strategic treatment interruptions, or STIs).
Safe Spliffs
Many HIVers roll out the weed to whack nausea and pain—and kick-start their appetites.
Slumber Party
Since my diagnosis in August 2002 anxiety has kept me up at night.
Bone Loss
An Argentinian study of 111 HIVers (including 33 who’d never been on HAART) found only one factor linked to loss of bone density.
Gimme Shelter
Refugee camps hold HIVers for years without treatment
Adherence
We now know that African HIVers do better at taking HAART than their U.S. counterparts (see “A for Africa”).
Editor’s Letter
“It should piss you off,” Bill Krutch SAID when I phoned to tell him what I thought of his new Seattle Manifesto.
Mailbox
I’m grateful for Dr. David Gelman’s article on changing meds [“Hitting the Switch,” September 2003].
Sale of a Lifetime
To get meds for his man, an HIVer goes from full house to no house.
