Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Groups of people surviving long-term with HIV

Many years ago, at the outset of the HIV epidemic as now know it (i.e., back in the early 1980s) we knew so very little about what was happening: Researchers, physicians, HIV-positive individuals - we were all in the dark. Slowly - as studies and work progressed and we first identified the virus, found some initial but toxic treatments and then continued to fight for greater information and better regimens that actually worked and produced fewer, liveable side-effects - we ended up with groups of people for whom we couldn't work fast enough to help save; then groups of people whom we were saving but with so many difficult-to-live-with issues; and that was with (oftentimes) large numbers of pills to take and many side effects, some of them irreversible.

Now, as we live in an era whereby some folks are eligible for and actually only take one pill once-per-day, have we yet a third group of folks who are living with HIV? Is this yet another clear distinction as we progress toward cures and vaccines? Is this another major group in the long fight that we're all so embattled with? What is the next step, after progressing from losing so many folks through keeping so many around but with such difficulty, to such relatively simple and easy pill burdens and quality-of-life issues, nowadays (at least compared with before)?

Does this make is ever-more hopeful that there are few steps left because the next group (or cohort, if you will) must be something even better than just such a simple regimen as we now have?

What are your thoughts?