My Perspective About HIV+ Hetero men being invisible in HIV prevention.

I am an African American, HIV positive heterosexual man, living with the HIV virus. My perspective about HIV positive heterosexual men being invisible in HIV prevention stems from my experience over the past 16 years as a HIV positive heterosexual man, activist, health educator, and HIV prevention planner.

HIV positive heterosexual men being invisible in HIV prevention, is a question that has been discussed, studied, and debated by HIV planners, governmental offices of AIDS, and HIV positive individuals throughout the United States since this insidious disease reached the pandemic stage of existence. I would really like to speak to this topic from a positive heterosexual male point of view, but that has not been my true experience. Being an African American HIV positive man, HIV has been entwined in my culture, socioeconomic condition, and it is been heavily stigmatized. I have had a very different and traumatic experience with HIV.

The populations of heterosexual positive men in America have unknowingly for the most part and knowingly on the-other-hand, allowed ourselves to become invisible in HIV prevention. This invisibility is perpetuated by discrimination and stigma. For example, most HIV+ men are bread winners and we don’t have time or the support to mobilize. However, many are not spiritually fit enough to stand up and face discrimination, stigma, and ridicule. Therefore, most of us sit on the side lines and wait for the empowered populations of gay and bi-sexual men to fight the HIV battle for us. This approach allows our status to remain confidential and we can remain in the background. Conversely, we reap all the benefits that are afforded the gay male population, as a result of their effort, protest, and activism.

Moreover, Homosexuality is stigmatized in many African American communities and is also denounced by the majority of black churches, who see it as a sin. Most straight HIV positive men will tell you we are extremely uncomfortable in casual conversation with effeminate or homosexual men because they tend to take our acceptance of their sexuality as an opportunity to try to engage us sexually. We are not homophobic, but it is very difficult for us (straight HIV+ men) to relate to gay men who are unlike us, so we do not advocate, attend HIV functions, or strategies that are aimed at HIV positive men.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (2011) knowing your epidemic in a particular community is the first step in identifying, selecting, and funding the most appropriate and effective HIV prevention measures for that community. As a result, most heterosexual HIV+ men absolutely do not want to be categorized with anyone or anything that is homosexual. Consequently, the covert and overt power of discrimination and stigma toward HIV infection causes straight men to recoil and remain silent about their plight. This is the driving force behind the invisibility of HIV+ heterosexuals in HIV prevention.

Stigma towards people living with HIV is more often believed to have its roots in misconceptions about the virus. In regards to knowledge and perception, a higher percentage of African Americans believe myths that the virus can be transmitted via kissing or sharing a drinking glass. Clearly, the HIV prevention educational messages are not reaching the African American populations at the levels of our understanding and existence. The Black AIDS Institute (2006) according to Reverend Jesse Jackson stated that; AIDS has been allowed to stalk and murder Black America like a serial killer because we have been a complacent victim, submitting through inaction. It is now time for us to fight AIDS like the major civil rights issue it is... Therefore, a paradigm shift needs to occur in today’s HIV prevention strategies for African Americans. This shift must address the ineffective prevention efforts of today and to educate our children, adolescent, teen, young adult and adult populations about HIV. Only then, do I believe that our HIV+ heterosexual black men will become empowered, motivated, and supported to raise their voices to fight our HIV prevention inequities and become visible in the HIV battle.

References

Black AIDS Institute (2006, June) AIDS in blackface: 25 years of an Epidemic. Retrieved, May 29, 2012, from http://blackaids.org/showarticle

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2011) 'HIV surveillance report: Diagnoses of HIV infection and AIDS in the United States and Dependent Areas, 2009' Volume 21 Retrieved, May 29, 2012, from http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/surveillance

Study: Ciclopirox drug completely eradicates infectious HIV from cell cultures. #hiv #ciclopirox

The topical anti-fungal drug Ciclopirox causes HIV-infected cells to commit suicide by jamming up the cells' powerhouse, the mitochondria—according to a study by researchers at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. And unlike current anti-HIV drugs, Ciclopirox completely eradicates infectious HIV from cell cultures, with no rebound of virus when the drug is stopped. The study has been published in the journal PLOS ONE.

The treatment of patients with HIV has been revolutionized by the advent of combination anti-retroviral drugs. But although these drugs are highly effective at keeping HIV at bay, they must be taken for the life of the patient and never eliminate the infection completely. This is illustrated by the often rapid resurgence of virus in patients who stop taking these medications. The persistence of HIV is partially due to the ability of the virus to disable the cell's altruistic suicide pathway, which is normally activated when a cell becomes infected or damaged.

A team of researchers from three departments at New Jersey Medical School, led by Michael Mathews and Hartmut Hanauske-Abel, previously showed that Ciclopirox, commonly used by dermatologists and gynecologists to treat fungal infections, inhibits the expression of HIV genes in culture. The group now shows that the drug works against HIV in two ways: It inhibits the expression of HIV genes and also blocks the essential function of the mitochondria, thereby reactivating the cell's suicide pathway. Healthy, uninfected cells examined during this study were spared. And remarkably, the virus did not bounce back when Ciclopirox was removed.

The utility of Ciclopirox in patients with HIV, for instance after topical application to reduce sexual transmission of the virus, awaits verification in future clinical trials. However the fact that Ciclopirox is already approved for treatment of patients by the FDA and by its European counterpart, the EMA, and therefore considered safe for human use, may eliminate much of the time and expense ordinarily involved in the drug development process.

Indeed, the authors note the speed with which a second FDA-approved drug believed to have promise in subduing HIV, Deferiprone, has moved directly from tests in culture to a phase I human trial conducted in South Africa, thanks to previously published results now reinforced by additional research in culture described in the current paper. Studies in animals were safely skipped, creating a model for rapid transition from drug effect in a plastic dish to drug effect in patients. In contrast to Ciclopirox, approved for topical use, Deferiprone is FDA- and EMA-approved for systemic use (in certain thalassemia patients with iron overload). The discovery that two drugs, each well-tolerated by patients when used as indicated, are deadly to HIV-infected cells, may open a new chapter in the fight against HIV/AIDS that moves the world closer to the eradication of HIV-1 infection.

SOURCE Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20130924/Study-Ciclopirox-drug-completely-eradicates-infectious-HIV-from-cell-cultures.aspx?page=2

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