I have a question for those who are doctors, future doctors, or at least make a living in the healthcare sector. I always thought that Magic Johnson's continued excellent health while living with the HIV virus was an example of an exception and not the rule. But then when I watched the ESPN documentary ("The Announcement"), it discussed how the drugs have just gotten much much better, and lots of people are living with HIV for 20-30 years without every getting full blown AIDS. My question: what is the general prognosis for someone diagnosed with HIV? If I'm a patient who just got my HIV test back and it's positive and I go to see my doctor, what does my doctor tell me? And if it really is that living for 30+ years with HIV is now the rule and not the exception, then how in the world are Trojan and Lifestyles still turning a profit?
I was hoping somebody could 'splain it to me in a nice, straightforward manner so that I didn't have to look it up.
Lots of crappy side effects, the knowledge that your blood and semen will infect others with a deadly virus meaning that If you have any kind of morals you are done with sex forever, and the cost of daily medication to ensure you don't develop AIDS and the bazillion maladies that come with it.
There's also some concern about resistance to the drugs, but I'm not really well informed about that.
There are multiple strains of HIV, and one can have more than one which further complicates things. Some strains are more resistant than others, have different speeds of progression, etc. HIV is prone to mutation. It ain't good. But ya, it is no longer a death sentence* *provided you have a higher than average income in a Western nation and were diagnosed before getting full-blown AIDS.
Well yeah, but I was referring (not very clearly) to folks actually on the cocktail developing resistance, which means, once again, you're potentially in big trouble.
That too. Worth mentioning that there are a few STD's that have been "no big deal" the last 40 years that are beginning to be very resistant to most antibiotics as well.
I mean shit, kpt is a doctor I think. Would it give you the heeby-jeebies to work on a patient with an incurable communicable disease? I don't know if I could handle that on a daily basis.
Don't have to do it very often anymore, but yeah, it does. Also, not surprisingly have dealt with some in a perpetual state of illness. Even though you know their cough isn't contagious, you still keep your distance.
There are several anti-retrovirals that are somewhat effective in reducing the viral load and thereby increasing longevity. It isn't the virus that kills, but usually an opertunistic infection brought on by the decreased immune system. A combination of drugs is used so that if the virus develops resistence to one drug, the other drugs in the cocktail knock out the remainder, hopefully. When that fails, so too does the patient. There is also a genetic component, which can offer some resistence to certain subtypes of the virus. Condom companies stay in business because of other STDs.
In case people didn't understand the thread title... [video=youtube;6szE_qmzavQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6szE_qmzavQ[/video]
