FRONTLINE HIV/AIDS REPORTS

AIDS experts ended the 12th Annual Retrovirus Conference in Boston the last weekend of February. Two reports are troubling to me as the former E.D. of the Black And Latino AIDS Coalition (BLAC) and a poor black man living with HIV in New York City. First, most of the experts said they believe the so-called virulent, potentially new HIV strain found in New York City is most likely an anomaly. They said New York health officials might have overreacted by issuing a public health alert Feb. 11^th. I thought so right from the beginning. It was irresponsible that the New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden and CEOs of the old line multimillion dollar AIDS organizations would put out this frightening information without being absolutely sure it was a health emergency. The so-called health alert caused fear and panic among many poor people of color when the New York Post sensationalized the unproven facts. ‘AIDS SUPER BUG’ last Saturday’s New York Post headline screamed. "Nightmare strain shows up in city," it continued. Pa-leeze. The story was a variation on the old AIDS game of scaring the public by exaggerating AIDS death numbers to get more funding. This time instead of juggling the AIDS data to show more AIDS related deaths, the usual suspects actually presented old data in frightening new ways. They knew HIV could mutate into another strain each time a person starts and stops their powerful AIDS drug regiment and then starts it again. They also knew that anal sex with multiple partners and heavy drug use can produce new HIV strains. In this case, the so-called new HIV strain was discovered in one gay male who admits to heavy drug use and sex with hundreds of partners. Under the circumstances, it is proper to inform at risk drug using gay men to be careful and practice safe sex techniques. That is standard policy. But, much more investigation and research is needed before public officials scare the daylight out of everyone by implying we might have a ‘new’ AIDS crisis. Trust me. This is not the resurgent of a new AIDS crisis.