So ... What's Up With HIV These Days?

People have suffered from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) since the early 20th century, but it didn't get talked about in the U.S. and other Western countries until 1981, when Stage 3 HIV (more commonly known as AIDS) was branded as a "gay disease," since so many of its sufferers were homosexual men; hence HIV's early name, "Gay-Related Immune Deficiency," or GRID. That allowed religious conservatives like President Ronald Reagan, who took office in that same year, to totally ignore the HIV/AIDS problem until 1985, when he first mentioned the disease in a speech, but sought no funding for its cure, even banning his Surgeon General from speaking on the subject, and Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the so-called "Moral Majority," who said on June 19, 1983, "AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals, it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals." (Hear that, Trump mentor Roy Cohn?) (Oh, wait; he can't; he's dead—from AIDS!) In fact, lots of well-known people died from it, including porn legends John Holmes, Marc Stevens, Casey Donovan and Karen Dior. There's a partial list here. But for nearly 30 years, the only things that could be done to prevent HIV infection were 1) use condoms in all sexual relations; 2) don't have sex; 3) don't use syringes of unknown provenance to inject drugs; and generally, 4) don't exchange any amount of blood with another person. Then, in 2012, the FDA approved the use of the then-common HIV treatment drug combo of Emtricitabine and tenofovir, better known by its brand name Truvada, as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)—and the world of sexual intercourse became a bit safer. Well, safer if you can afford it. In the U.S. in 2016, Truvada retailed at about $1,415 for a month's worth of daily doses (compared to 20 cents/month in Namibia and South Africa—go figure!). It's manufactured by Gilead Pharmaceuticals, whose patent on the drug combo is due to expire in several regions—Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals announced it would be producing a generic version in June 2017—which may have been part of the reason that this past May, Gilead announced that it was donating 200,000 doses of Truvada per year to the federal Department of Health and Human Services. But all (obscene) profit ($18 billion in 2015) is not lost for Gilead! On July 23, the company put out a press release touting a new PrEP drug entry that's supposedly even better than Truvada, called Descovy, a combination of Emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide, which "reached intracellular drug concentration levels above the estimated protective threshold significantly more quickly than Truvada," according to the company's own DISCOVER trial. And rest assured that when Descovy is FDA-approved, it ain't gonna be cheap—a prediction that AIDS Healthcare Foundation took to heart. Actually, the sooner there's a more effective replacement for PrEP than Truvada, the better, because as good as Truvada is at its job, there are side effects including, according to Gilead's Truvada website, kidney problems (including kidney failure), excess lactic acid in the blood, severe liver problems, and bone problems, which may take the form of bone pain, bone softening or thinning, which may lead them to fracture more easily. "You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA," the site warns. And of course, where there are negative drug side effects, there are attorneys—and they're advertising on nationwide cable channels! "This is an important alert for anyone taking the HIV drug Truvada," said a blonde woman in a business suit, representing the "Truvada Legal Help Line." "Truvada was originally approved to treat HIV-1, but it's now being used as a PrEP drug to prevent HIV infections. It's now known to have serious side effects. They include bone deterioration, bone fracture, liver problems, lactic acidosis, and even kidney failure. The makers of Truvada knew about the serious problems and almost immediately crafted a safer drug without the known side effects. The problem is, they didn't release the newer and safer drug to the market until the patent ran out on Truvada, so for over 10 years, Truvada provided millions of dollars in profit while thousands of people became sick and suffered. Truvada's makers placed profits over patient safety. It' time the makers of Truvada are held accountable. If you suffer the side effects of Truvada, call now for your free, no obligation case evaluation. Together, we'll see justice. Together, we'll make a difference." A more recent ad, which ran on cable channel WGN last week, and is apparently from the same law group, added Viread, Complera, Stribild and Atripla to the list of PrEP drugs they'd be willing to sue over. But why take a pill once a day when in the near future, folks may be able to get an anti-HIV infection implant that'll last a year? That's just what Merck & Co. have been testing since early this year on about a dozen subjects, and according to The New York Times, "experts were quite excited at its potential to revolutionize the long battle against H.I.V. (sic)" "If—and I’m emphasizing if—if it pans out in a larger trial that it delivers a level of drug that’s protective for a year, that would be a game-changer," said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease and a leading expert on AIDS. The drug in question is Islatravir, and Merck is being pretty cagey about how long a more extensive trial of the drug would take, or even just how the trial would be designed, but Islatravir has "some remarkable attributes," according to Dr. Roy D. Baynes, Merck’s chief medical officer, who noted that it is 10 times as potent as any previous HIV drug, so tiny amounts are effective, which lowers the risk of side effects. Not only that, but the drug remains in the body for a relatively long time—after five days, half of the dose remains—so it can be given less often that other HIV medications. And finally, since just about everyone in the adult industry has taken a PCR-DNA test at least once, they might be interested to know where the "PCR" part of that test came from? Well, wonder no longer, because the guy that invented it just died. Nobel prize-winning biochemist Kary Mullis, who died on Friday at the age of 74 at his home in Newport Beach, worked for biotech firm Cetus, and in 1983, he invented the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which makes it possible to replicate minuscule amounts of DNA into nearly unlimited quantities—enough to make it easier to test whether any of that DNA is HIV DNA. "I thought to myself, 'This is going to make me a famous guy, if it works,'" Mullis told the news magazine The State in 1993. Sadly, Mullis was a bit of a nut, believing that climate change isn't supported by scientific evidence, and that HIV infection doesn't cause AIDS ... but what the hell: He made acting in adult movies one hell of a lot safer than it once was, so bravo!