Closing a chapter on HIV and AIDS
I end this first month of The Daily Monthly feeling tremendously fortunate. Not just because I’m healthy when so many others are not, but also because I’ve connected with some amazing individuals. I’m glad to know that there are dedicated people trying to find a cure for HIV and AIDS, and others committed to helping [...]
How close are we to a cure for HIV / AIDS?
When I began work on this month’s project, I contacted a clinician, a case manager, and a scientist to get their perspectives on how we’re making progress fighting HIV and AIDS. I’ve introduced you to the clinician and the case manager, but not the scientist. Dave Wessner doesn’t actually study AIDS, but he’s written a [...]
A quick poll: Do you want to know how an individual got HIV?
I’m extremely busy today with judging the Research Blogging Awards so I won’t be able to offer a substantive post, but over the course of this month I’ve become quite curious about one thing. When you learn about someone with HIV or AIDS, do you want to know how they got it? Let’s make this [...]
A visit to an HIV clinic: Part II
“I like your watch,” pharmacist Jin Jun tells me as I’m sitting down to interview him. I have a plastic runner’s watch, nothing special, but I see Jun is wearing something similar. “Do you run?” I ask him. Jun is a tall, personable man who runs marathons, it turns out, and he enthusiastically invites me [...]
How HIV works
In order to understand how to fight HIV, you need to know how it works. As a reminder, here’s a schematic of an HIV virus from my post two weeks ago: Remember I told you the HIV virus hijacks the host cells to reproduce? Here’s how that happens. First, the GP 120 protein on the [...]
A visit to an HIV clinic: Part 1
Wednesday, February 10. I arrive at the Carolinas Medical Center Myers Park office at 7:55 a.m. A security guard informs me that the clinic doesn’t open until 8 a.m. and tells me to wait in the pharmacy. There are dozens of others in the room with me, and initially I wonder why so many folks [...]
Some thumbnail calculations about HIV/AIDS
Total number of Americans with HIV/AIDS: 1 million Annual cost of treatment: $30 billion Number of new cases per year: 50,000 Lifetime treatment costs for new cases added each year: $25 billion Annual dollars lost in productivity due to HIV/AIDS: $21 billion Annual government expenditures on HIV/AIDS prevention in US: $600 million
What will it take to change the public’s view of HIV and AIDS?
Last November, the National Football League devoted the entire month to breast cancer awareness. Players like Reggie Bush wore pink gloves, armbands, even shoes, to promote efforts to fight the disease. There were some heartwarming moments. Players brought their mothers, grandmothers, and other women who’d battled breast cancer to the games, all of them wearing [...]
The shape of AIDS in North Carolina
What does AIDS look like where I live, in North Carolina? People often think of HIV and AIDS as an urban problem, and indeed, the disease does disproportionately affect major urban areas like New York and San Francisco. But that doesn’t mean that AIDS doesn’t exist in places like North Carolina. The national HIV diagnosis [...]
Study reveals importance of adhering to the drug regimen for AIDS patients
Yesterday I mentioned that a key aspect of fighting AIDS is staying on the drug regimen. Charles pointed out that this is more difficult than it might seem: the drugs are constant reminder of your condition, and taking them can revive horrible memories. But how important is it to maintain adherence to the regimen? A [...]
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The Daily Monthly is Dave Munger's multi-layered exploration of ideas and issues affecting all of us today.
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