According to NYT, which I hate to use because of their paywall. I also dislike them for a few other reasons. A second patient (the Original is called the “Berlin Patient”) has had the virus eradicated. The entire article can be found here.

The news comes nearly 12 years to the day after the first patient known to be cured, a feat that researchers have long tried, and failed, to duplicate. The surprise success now confirms that a cure for H.I.V. infection is possible, if difficult, researchers said.

Great news, start the ticker tape parades with all the floats…yeah not so much.

Publicly, the scientists are describing the case as a long-term remission. In interviews, most experts are calling it a cure, with the caveat that it is hard to know how to define the word when there are only two known instances.

Both milestones resulted from bone-marrow transplants given to infected patients. But the transplants were intended to treat cancer in the patients, not H.I.V.

Well ok, hide the floats and have some dude sweep up the parade. If you are not aware, a bone marrow transplant is tough and risky, and the recovery is very fragile. So this really eliminates this as a viable solution for H.I.V. So no, no cure today.

As the article indicates, it does give researchers a direction to go in a complicated and deadly disease. 

H.I.V. is a disease that was brutal to the gay populations of the ’80s when the gay community had no political support. Ronnie Reagan himself never mentioned the disease until 1987 as he was in the waning moments of his presidency. Some leadership. This disease has far-reaching consequences that only grew with the C.D.C.’s hands tied in research and detection of the disease because of Ronnie Reagan. But then “who cares it’s just a bunch of queers,” a Republican congressman blurted to the media. To tell you how fucked up and unchanged our country is, the comment was pretty much blown off (and not in a fun way). Anyway, enough of the past. What does this really say?

Well, there are definitely some promising data points, but in the end, we are not on the eve of a cure per se. Something closer to the cure is a drug called Truvada. However, as always, there are ambulance-chasing lawyers out to make a buck with misleading consumer ads on Facebook.

Facebook has disabled some advertisements about the potential side effects of H.I.V. prevention medication Truvada following complaints that they were misleading and a “harm to public health.”

Well, they are lawyers, and as usual, the ambulance-chasing lawyers trying to make a buck, ugh.

Truvada and its newer drug Descovey have all the potential issues with side effects. Yes, any medication has the potential to have a negative as opposed to therapeutic outcome. Lawyers see this as a chance to make money for themselves and their clients. Their clients act like it is publishers clearinghouse and are very enthusiastic about suing.

Look, we need Truvada or Descovey to help with PReP. The misleading advertising is doing nothing except scaring potential PReP users away. These are folks where the benefits of taking the drug outweigh the potential risks from side effects.

Unlike how unfair they were with my measles post;

“After a review, our independent fact-checking partners have determined some of the ads in question mislead people about the effects of Truvada,” Facebook spokeswoman Devon Kearns wrote in an email to N.B.C. News. “As a result, we have rejected these ads, and they can no longer run on Facebook.”

Thank you. Yes, kids PReP has its risks, no drug is free from potential side effects. The importance here is that careful monitoring with a provider will tell you if you are in danger. At least it is not the AIDS Foundation of Los Angeles who lobbied against PReP for claims I have yet to understand. On the surface, they argued against the cost v. adherence to treatment. A collective Ugh.

Look, guys, If we have something as effective as condoms, why aren’t we using it. Compliance is higher than condom use, and so far, it has proved to be a valuable weapon in the fight against H.I.V.

Maybe someday a cure and a vaccine will be found, just not today, Skipper.

Be the kind of person your dog and your mom think you are.