• Drug guide correction: Reyataz and Sustiva
• Drug Guide online
• “How it is”
• Ms “Ready for the World”
• Behind the fence
• Long overdue
• Positively Aware Online Poll

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Drug guide correction: Reyataz and Sustiva

A dosage of 400 mg Reyataz/100 mg Norvir should be used in combination with Sustiva, not 300 mg Reyataz/100 mg Norvir as listed on the Sustiva page of the Annual HIV Drug Guide (March/April). Also, HIV treatment-experienced people should not use Reyataz with Sustiva at all. When rifabutin is taken with Reyataz, it is recommended that rifabutin dose and frequency be reduced to 150 mg every other day or three times a week. Sustiva was approved in 1998, not 2002. The manufacturer contact for Bristol-Myers Squibb, makers of Reyataz and Sustiva, is 1-800-321-1335. Positively Aware apologizes for the errors.

Drug Guide online

I found the March/April 2009 issue with the 13th Annual Drug Guide online, but can’t find the 2009 HIV Drug Chart. Has it been posted on the site yet or am I just missing it?

Tom, via the Internet

The link to the HIV drug chart was inadvertently overlooked and therefore not in place on the website. The correct link, which is now on the website, is http://positively​aware.com/2009/09 02/drug_chart.pdf.
We apologize for any confusion this may have caused, and thanks for bringing this to our attention!

“How it is”

I enjoyed reading the January/February issue of Positively Aware. That was my first time ever laying eyes on the magazine or ever knowing anything about it. I liked Jim Pickett’s article. Why? Because I feel a lot like him, in more ways than one. I’m 23 years old and was diagnosed with HIV in September 2007, one week before delivering my second child. Plus, I was in the county jail on my way to prison, where I am presently. My child is not positive. We tested my lover who also had it, but had had it and didn’t tell me. He didn’t give me the opportunity to say I wanted in on it or I didn’t and he didn’t think about my child. Truth be told, it took me awhile to let it all sink in, but when it did I couldn’t hold it inside anymore. In prison, I heard people talking about it and I couldn’t be quiet, I had to let someone know. So when I told people, they were like, “No, man, you don’t look like you got that.” But that’s the point—HIV/AIDS doesn’t have a “look.” When I found out, that’s how I coped with having HIV, by letting people know. It doesn’t bother me at all. I’d rather tell someone than let it eat me up inside. So when I meet people, I tell them and just watch the shock cross their face—the “too much information” look. A lot of people think TMI, but I felt I was making them aware that it’s out there and it doesn’t discriminate against anyone.

Well, I’m happy, no medication in my life, undetectable and healthy as a dog. One day I want to be an advocate, an educator and I am a “scared little girl, an angry queen and a bitch!” So there it is, life goes on and that’s how it is.

Name withheld by request

Ms “Ready for the World”

Dear Mr. Berry,

Hello—I receive your magazine every month. I am a 23-year-old White female in prison in Georgia. I have been HIV-positive for almost five years. In this past year, I started HIV medications for the first time, but they were unable to get a genotype on me, so they just put me on Kaletra and Truvada, hoping it would work. Since I started my meds, I have been sick and I really don’t like it. I am at the point of giving up on the medication. I’m hoping you can put my name and address in your next issue so that I might get some input and help from others.

I also have a few questions I would like to ask. First, is it easier for a female to give HIV to another female or to a male? Second, if my husband and I have never had protected sex and I am HIV-positive and he isn’t, what is the chance of him still contracting it? And, last, will I ever have a normal sex life again? I ask that because I feel like I’ve lost everything.
Well, thank you for your magazine and for taking the time to read this.

Sincerely,

Theresa Yount #1204504
Metro State Prison
1301 Constitution Rd. SE
Atlanta, GA 30316

Dear Theresa,

I’m sorry to hear that you’re having such a hard time with your meds. You didn’t mention if you’ve had any tests to see how well they’re working. I think it’s safe to say that people starting these medicines for the first time are rarely prepared for the side effects they experience. I can easily understand how you would be so frustrated with feeling sick that you would question the validity of continuing to take the meds. But I urge you to think long and hard about the consequences of discontinuing them. Many times the nausea, headaches, fatigue, and other effects you feel when you first begin go away within a short period of time. The virus, however, doesn’t go away, though these medications can keep it from getting out of control. Talk to your doctor or medical provider about all the medications you are taking, and report your side effects. Ask what you can expect regarding them, and try to find out if there may be ways to minimize the side effects (such as taking immodium for diarrhea).

As for your other questions, transmission is always a risk, whether it’s female-to-female or female-to-male, though the risk of female-to-female is considered to be lower, especially when using a female condom or dental dam. If you are still having unprotected sex with your husband, he is at risk for contracting it, no matter how long he has managed to stay negative. He should be tested regularly every three months and a condom should be used from this point on. A “normal” sex life is certainly possible, as long as you and your partner take precautions to protect yourselves.
In closing, I encourage you to realize that while this disease can change your life, it is totally up to you to decide between being controlled by the disease or doing what you can to control it. I wish you the best of luck!

Best regards,
Jeff Berry
Editor, Positively Aware

Behind the fence

I’m currently in Taylor Correctional Institution, so I’m writing to all those who are behind the fence, as well as in the free world. I’m daunted by the way the media labels us as being horrible, stupid, or unchanging. We, like any other human being, are in the process of growing, learning, and healing. The media won’t tell you about the bodies they bag up and wheel out of here due to poor health care behind prison bars.

My advice to readers of PA—live your life. Ask yourself, “Am I living how I would want to live if this was the last month of my life?” We own our blueprint; let’s start using it. I know there are a lot of people dead today who listened and lived out their doctor’s orders in prison. The truth is that as long as we have access to information from sources like Positively Aware and others, we can learn of treatments and options that can keep us alive longer.

I want to extend a special thanks to all who make it possible at Positively Aware. I have very little family and no outlet beyond these prison walls. If you could add my name and address, I’d welcome all responses.

Respectfully yours,

Edward Perez #426775
Taylor Correctional Institution
8515 Hampton Spring Rd.
Perry, FL 32348, H4 106

Long overdue

I am long overdue with this letter to you and to the others who make Positively Aware possible. PA has been such a valuable resource to me over the years and I do want to share that with you and with your readers.

I am director of Samaritan Ministry, an ASO connected with a Baptist church in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 2004 we made our first foray into the HIV activist world with a trip to USCA in Philadelphia. It was during that visit that we became acquainted with TPAN. I believe it was Keith and Carlos that we met at your booth, and there began our long-standing relationship with PA magazine.

I have finally finished a thorough reading of the 13th Drug Guide issue. Thanks again for such a thoughtful and thorough issue on HIV meds.

As I am privileged to work with many who are living with HIV in our community and across the country, it is through the trusted eyes of PA that I try to keep myself educated on HIV issues. Many of your past issues have been important to me and to our clients and we do receive bulk issues to distribute during our two support groups, and occasionally to mail out when an issue really strikes us as important. I especially liked “HIV 101,” “Systems Check,” and “Everything You Always Wanted to Know,” among others.

Reading the Martin Delaney tribute was meaningful to me, also, as I was privileged to hear him speak about Atripla and the new drugs of 2007 at a TAPWA forum in Nashville a couple of years ago. Rarely do I feel greatness in the room, but I felt it that evening. I hope I have been able to “infect” our clients with some of Martin’s hopeful enthusiasm for all of these exciting new treatments.
Thanks, Jeff, for the work all of you do at TPAN. Just wanted you to know how much I personally rely on PA to be sure that I am guiding those we serve with accurate, up-to-date, and reliable information.

Best regards, Wayne

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March / April Poll results

How long have you been living with HIV?

2% Less than a year 9% 1-2 years 16% 3-5 years 11% 6-10 years 32% 11-20 years 16% More than 20 years 14% I am not HIV-positive

Comments

• I seroconverted in March of 1981. I was part of a CDC-funded hep B
  vaccine study in San Francisco. Less than 1 in 10 of the 5,000 gay men who
  participated in the study are still alive.
• 11 years from the time when I know I was infected. Looks like I’m about to go
  on therapy soon.
• I celebrated 20 years being HIV-positive on March 14, as well as my 55th
  birthday!
• Tested positive October 1984; asymptomatic for 25 years for any AIDSdefi
  ning illnesses; started AZT out of fear in 1988, have taken three 18-month
  drug holidays and viral load has never been higher than 115,000; T-cells to
  date 541, viral load undetectable for over 10 years.
  
• Diagnosed with AIDS September 2002; however, the advanced stage of the
  disease indicates to me that the answer is truly more than 20 years.
• It’s been a struggle, but I’m still kicking!

You can also answer the current poll in our new discussion forum

May / June Poll Question

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