The Latest HIV News…

The world of HIV research is often ignored by the mainstream media. And what does come is often confusing, and without knowing the full scope of what’s going on, that might just be for the best anyway. But, even the smallest news story has major implications.

Germen researchers recently found that there is a protein in semen that enhances the ability of HIV to spread.

This little bit of information can help explain a lot of the things we’ve known all along. With a few minor exceptions, HIV is normally spread one of two ways - sexually, or through drug use. The vast majority of which is transmitted sexually, and men who have sex with men are still one of the largest number of people testing HIV Positive.

Before now, each of these factors had their own explanations. For example, more people put themselves at risk through sexual activity than drug use. The first cases of HIV were reported in the gay community, and if you live with the delusion that men who have sex with men never have sex with women… well, let’s just say that all this sounds good in theory, but…

Yes. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but I’m trying to keep it fairly simple. For example, HIV lives primarily in the blood, but that’s not to say that it isn’t found in other areas of the body either (vaginal fluids, breast milk, semen). Most HIV treatments concentrate on what’s in the blood… see, I’m afraid I am losing you already.

So, what does this mean for all of us non-scientists?

First off, I think stories like this should remind us that HIV is a sexually transmitted disease. While we’ve always known HIV can be transmitted via semen, perhaps we ought to be paying more attention to that.

Secondly, this story might help point the way to new treatments. It’s important to remember that in the grand scheme of things, HIV is fairly new to the scene, and new treatment ideas are still big news.

Up until recently, all HIV medications fit into one of only a small handful of categories. But, they all seem to work along the same lines - interrupting the way that HIV attacks the immune system by making more copies of itself in the bloodstream. The process has many steps, and each category of HIV medication we have now interrupts this process in their own way, somewhere in that process.

As I said before, the medications we have now work primarily in the bloodstream, but most (one report I recently read said approximately 80%) new cases of HIV were transmitted through (unprotected) sexual contact. So, what do you think would happen if we interrupted that process?

Yes. I know. There are a lot of “If’s”…

If there is a protein in semen that helps HIV infect new cells (which appears to be true) … if most cases of HIV are transmitted sexually (which, again, appears to be true) … then … would it be possible to think that if science could come up with a way of fighting HIV from blocking the protein found in semen from interacting with HIV, would it be safe to assume the HIV Infection rate would go way down?

Just … something to think about. Keep in mind that it takes an awful lot of time to go from scientific discovery to working everything out and coming up with a new treatment (let alone getting it approved by the FDA.)