NEW YORK, NY, October 1, 2005—The October issue of POZ, America's leading AIDS magazine, boldly asserts that the best hope for future HIV treatment no longer lies in fighting the virus itself-with antiretroviral meds-but in boosting the body's wondrous immune system. Senior editor David Evans, having interviewed scores of scientists, government funders, activists, and people with HIV, dares to ask: Why have researchers focused almost exclusively on the virus, displaying a tragic lack of imagination about the immune system's potential in spawning our next and most promising generation of HIV drugs? In a devastating treatment and cultural analysis, he traces how scientific politics, disastrous governmental funding allocations, research myopia, and pharma greed have conspired to point the microscope away from the immune system and immune-based therapies (IBTs)-even though the U.S. Public Health Service has warned of HAART's dangerous limitations for HIVers with fewer than 200 CD4 cells. At this pivotal moment in our treatment history, the decisions of a few key decision makers could well determine the course of future HIV treatment. How will they respond? Evans charts various scenarios. Says Martin Delaney, one of the nation's most respected treatment activists and founding director of Project Inform, "We're not gonna cure the disease till we get to correcting the problem of the immune response. We always need some shit-kickers, somebody questioning the conventional wisdom."
PLUS…
Go drop by www.poz.com and to seek or swap advice with over 1,000 HIVers. In our October issue, one positive mother guides another in disclosing to her kids
HIVer comic-book creator Darren Davis dishes on his monster-mashing HIV positive superhero lawyer.
Watched your housing costs soar as subsidies subside? POZ hammers the country's affordable housing crisis and how we can fix it.
With about 45% of HIVers now joining their fellow Americans in the overweight category, POZ presents the skinny on diets for poundage and health.
What does the feds' anorexic increase in AIDS Drug Assistance Program funding for 2006 mean for HIVers? For many on waiting lists or with capped med access, it's simple: Wait and get sicker.
POZ can provide hard copies and PDFs of the issue and interviews with writers and editors upon request. For a full update on AIDS headlines and relevant links, check out POZ.com's new weekly News & Views at www.poz.com.
Launched in 1994, POZ is an award-winning national magazine with a monthly readership of 100,000. POZ offers clear, innovative and often surprising reflections of the complexities of life with HIV. POZ is published by Smart + Strong.
