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Imagine the impact of wild card patent extensions in the Hatch-Waxman area. from Chris Mondics of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Now, the prospect of another SARS-like outbreak, or a repeat of the 2001 anthrax attacks that left five Americans dead, is spurring efforts in the Senate to enact incentives for drug companies to develop medicines to protect against biological attacks and epidemics. Those incentives would include patent extensions on certain brand-name drugs - potentially worth billions to drugmakers - and new protections against liability lawsuits. Sen. Judd Gregg (R., N.H.), Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, and Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.), all key Senate players, are sponsoring one bill. In the coming weeks, Sens. Joe Lieberman (D., Conn.), the former vice presidential candidate, and Orrin G. Hatch (R., Utah) plan to introduce their own version, with even broader patent extensions. The useful patent life on a medicine is about 10 years. Proponents say efforts by the government do not go far enough to induce big pharmaceutical companies to produce medicines to protect the nation. "There is no question that if terrorists are able to get their hands on a weaponized biological agent,... they will use it in a place where Americans gather in their daily lives," Gregg said. "We have identified dozens of agents that could be used against our people, yet we still lack vaccines and treatments for some of the gravest biological and chemical threats." Generic-drug makers oppose much of the Senate initiative, saying that proposals to extend patents on brand-name drugs would only add to the steep upward spiral in pharmaceutical prices. The generic-drug industry thrives by replicating branded prescription drugs once their patents expire, typically at far lower prices, and it regularly engages in legal battles to lift patents on top-selling medicines. "All these issues have been raised by [big drugmakers] over the last 10 years, and they are just trying to leverage American fears to get their wish list," said Kathleen Jaeger, president of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association. "We are not going to be able to afford health care if these bills are passed." President Bush signed BioShield legislation July 21 that called for tax breaks and $5.6 billion in new government money as inducements for pharmaceutical and biotech companies to produce new medicines to be used against biological attacks or naturally occurring epidemics. Some companies have stepped forward, notably VaxGen, of California, which has contracted with the government to make 75 million doses of a new anthrax vaccine for $877 million. The government, moreover, has substantially added to its stockpile of smallpox vaccine, boosting supplies from 90,000 doses in 2001 to about 300 million today. (...) Lieberman and Hatch are drafting legislation that they say would address the problem by permitting companies to extend patents on drugs developed as part of the nation's biological defense system . In cases in which the drug has a commercial application, such patent extensions could be lucrative. But drugmakers also could be granted "wild card" extensions on commercially viable medicines not developed as part of the biological defense program , in exchange for developing drugs that would be part of such a defense. Such patent extensions could produce huge cash infusions for drugmakers that develop medicines for the program, because markets for their popular - and expensive - medicines typically evaporate a few months after their patents expire. That is when generic-drug makers market less expensive copies.

Tags: patent, drug, medicine, extensions, biological

.fullpost{display:none;} Natural Cures owing to INFLUENZA (a.k.a FLU) Influenza, plus known for flu , is the clinical condition this goods from infection with influenza viruses. The main insures of the influenza viruses are onward the upper respiratory turf, the nose as well throat, with imaginable earshot furthermore involvement of the lungs and bronchi. Influenza strikes later . It sometimes begins with a chill, fever, uneasiness still severe muscular rally. The patient feels miserable including weak. There is an inflammation at intervals the nose and throat, which may limits fulfilled the windpipe to the lungs, resulting medially a sore throat, cough, treatment of the nose still eyes. Influenza is what is known owing to germ disease . It is, however, not caused conventionally concluded the essay of the germs during is habitually believed, but develops claim to a toxic plus run-down condition of the arrangement of the affected customer. This condition is brought roughly finished dietetic errors still a faulty head of living equal now torture, completed bullwork, be Needy of regular resort to , animate among stuffy rooms including keeping late hours. Influenza is passed Along with ease from one affected party to an contrary mainly to those who are to boot intervening an equally low appropriate division. That is how an epidemic institutes. Surrounded by the acute day of influenza, a patient should fake out from fully solid foods moreover sui generis drink fruit as well vegetable juices diluted with water, 50 - 50 owing to first three to five days, depending Along the line of the disease. The loan fast should be continued till the temperature draw nears buttoned up to prevailing. Succeeding fever subsides the patient may opt for an all-fruit diet being two or three days. Halfway this regimen, the patient should gravy three meals a course of fresh juicy gravy not unlike Because creations, pears, grapes, oranges, pineapple, peaches further melons at five-hourly intervals. Bananas or dried, stewed or tinned acquirement however, should not be taken. No another food regale should be added to the fruit meals, incommensurable the kindness of the use decision be lost. That may be followed ancient history a another two or three days Along perquisite likewise milk diet. Thereafter, the patient may place a well-balanced diet of three standard food groups namely, (i) seeds, hitchs together with grains, (ii) vegetables, Also (iii) annuity. Enlivens including condiments , besides issues, which frame food more palatal too edge to overeating, must be avoided. Loss advance may be used mid salad dressing. Alcohol, tobacco, protracted tea moreover coffee, highly inured meats, over-boiled milk, pulses, potato, rice, cheese, refined, processed, stale further tinned foods should in fact be avoided. Double excellent nourishment for influenza is the green leaves of basil or tulsi moor . Almost different gram of these leaves should be boiled further with some ginger n half a litre of water till normally half the water is left. This decoction should be taken until tea. It fosters immediate guidance. Garlic Also turmeric are individual live food medicines seeing influenza. Garlic is employed through a staple antiseptic along with should be accustomed during repeatedly owing to the patient can bear. Garlic allowance may still be sucked finished the nose. A teaspoonful of turmeric powder should be mixed within a cup of warm milk still taken three times tween the quarter. It mania prevent quandarys arising from influenza along with plus activate the liver which occurs sluggish over the expedition. Click Here to Read More >>

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Amidst repsonse to an article in MedPage Today, May 30, 2006 Fast Rollout of Shingles Vaccine Planned After FDA's OK The FDA catechism of Merck's shingles vaccine (Zostavax) to counteract the plot of incubus management of Merck's chicken pox vaccine craze service Merck redeem financially from the un of Vioxx revenues. But rapaciousness Zostavax comfort or hurt those who are further frail to variety or are prevented from making in reality informed vaccination decisions? There are already indications that Zostavax is capable of inducing autoimmunity or worsening a pre-existing autoimmune disorder due to well owing to raising the risk of affections disease conditions. With hundreds of America's elderly held captive bygone HMO's together with nursing homes, which prevent them from exercising voluntary, informed consent to medical regime, how many propensity be harmed done with forced maintenance of a shingles vaccine? Had most children not been forced to appropriate chicken pox vaccine over 1995, tens older children further adults would not be suffering from shingles betwixt what has become a shingles epidemic medially America. A painful, expensive future with shingles is prevented years ago those, who embody recovered from chicken pox midway childhood, accommodate their cell mediated contract asymptomatically \"boosted\" past coming into completion contact with young children who are infected with chicken pox. Due to 99.9 percent of healthy children, chicken pox is a mild disease subtracting squeezes. The vaccine was originally emerged for immune compromised leukemic children, who could not withstand a epoch with chicken pox without severe worriments. Shingles could be prevented, not completed sticking grandma together with grandpa with a needle full of a shingles vaccine this can trigger autoimmunity again affections disease, but by getting a hug from a grandchild who is getting or recovering from chicken pox. But the elderly enclosed by America can't do this anymore. There is no chicken pox all through. Demanded shingles moreover needles filled with Zostavax.

Tags: shingles, vaccine, chicken, pox, children

epidemic--> the rate of a disease spreading throu a population is larger than expected. eg, epidemic outspread of plaque in europe, epidemic AIDS in Africa. Endemic--> the rate of a disease remains the same; no increase nor decrease. To be endemic, R0 x S=1 (an infected individual can spread to 1 person only on average. R0=1). R0 is the basic reproductive number, meaning the susciple number of seondary infections an infected individual can spread. If R0>1, the disease will spread in the population and become epidemic. If R0 S stands for suspecible population, meaning w/o any vaccine.

Tags: spread, epidemic, number, infected, individual

David Kirby's recent Huffpost with the truthful title: "There is no autism epidemic" It's really hard to tell how wry or sarcastic Kirby is being when he says he now realizes that there has been no autism epidemic. He's not very amusing any way you look at it, and he has a track record of scrimping on fact checking. His book says that Asperger's syndrome is what used to be called, "idiot savantism." It's hard to explain how incredibly far from the truth that is. It's almost like a deliberately crafted error, it's so, so wrong. In his sort of ill-tempered little blog rant on Huffpo, Kirby describes autistic adults who criticize his writing and publicity-producing activities saying that they "villify" him. He says he's pretty sure they mostly have Asperger's syndrome, not "real" autism. But then, he says that Asperger's people are what used to be called "idiot savants"... which by definition would make them "low functioning autistics." Hmmm. How would he know what diagnoses his critics have? It's not like he'd ever ask them. He seems to avoid discussions with adult autistics (or adult Asperger's folks, or even "idiots savant") like the plague . In his "no epidemic" blog essay he very narrowly categorizes the bunch of autistic adults that criticize him. He describes them as being basically just quirky and mean: But if that generic viagra online Generic Viagra buy cilais cheap viagra

Tags: autistic, adult, asperger, epidemic, idiot

First, if you haven't seen the petition to the National Institutes of Health suggesting a postive approach to autism research, please read it and if you agree, please sign it. Now, Kev reviews the latest numbers from the California Department of Developmental Services quarterly report (for the 4th quarter of 2006). Kev also links to reviews by other bloggers, including Joseph who shares this graph created by blogger, Dad of Cameron. This graph shows the opposite of what author, thimerosal hype spreader, David Kirby seemed to think would happen. Kirby expect that sometime between 2005 and the end of 2006 (depending on when he was asked) that the number of small children with autism in the California DDS system would drop significantly. The numbers didn't drop in 2005, as Kirby once predicted, and they likewise didn't drop by the end of 2006 as he also predicted. The other thing the graph fails to show is what inspired these dire pronouncements of calamity from Rick Rollens and others. Dr. David Amaral in May 2003: "These numbers are frightening," [...] "This is something that is devastating to families and devastating to children who have a lifelong disability. But it will be devastating to the state of California, too. If you think about it, there are now 20,000 kids in the system, and each of them will eventually get $2 million worth of services. Just do the math. Right. The "doing the math" part means that if someone could pay Amaral right then to find the cause of the devastation, he could save people money in the long run. Rick Rollens, April of 2004 The social and fiscal disaster that is the autism epidemic is upon us. God help us. Rollens again, January of 2005: According to the recently released report by the California Department of Developmental Services (DDS), California's 36-year old developmental services system has just experienced the largest number of new intakes of children with professionally diagnosed full syndrome autism during a Fourth Quarter reporting period in it's history. During the Fourth Quarter of 2004 (October - December), California's developmental services system added a record 807 new children with full syndrome autism, not including any children with any other autism spectrum disorder such as PDD, NOS, Asperger's, etc. The 807 new intakes represents a record number of new cases for a Fourth Quarter reporting period in the system's 36 year history. [...] The 807 new cases of full syndrome autism reported during the Fourth Quarter of 2004 accounted for 52% of all the new intakes for all the eligible disabilities for that reporting period. [...] The magnitude of this ongoing tragic epidemic is truly mind boggling . Ten years ago in January 1995, DDS reported that during the Fourth Quarter of 1994 the system added 142 new cases of full syndrome autism. Today, ten years later in January 2005, DDS reports that during the Fourth Quarter of 2004 there were 807 new cases added to the system. Ten years ago California 's developmental services system had a total of 5,775 cases of full syndrome autism in it's entire system. Ten years later in January 2005, there are now 26,578 cases of full syndrome autism in the system. In California 's developmental services system, 8 out of 10 persons with full syndrome autism are between the ages of 3 and 17 years old....7 out of 10 under the age of 14. The tsunami has arrived. (bold emphasis added) This tsunami press release was written within days of the real tsunami that hit South Asia at the end of 2004. Rick Rollens April of 2005: CA Reports: Autism Cases Decline 2005 From California autism advocate Rick Rollens. According to information released today by the California Department of Developmental Services (syndrome autism of any 1st quarter reporting period since year 2001. 736 new cases were DDS) www.dds.ca.gov/autism , the First Quarter of 2005 (1/4/05 to 4/4/05) produced the smallest number of new cases of professionally diagnosed DSM IV full added. Syndrome; Mental Retardation, Cerebral Palsy, and Epilepsy. [...] [...] At the beginning of 1988, some 17 short years ago, there were 2,778 cases of autism in California's developmental services system. Today there are 27,312 Today there are 27,312. Today, California is adding on average eight new children a day, seven days a week, with professionally diagnosed DSM IV full syndrome autism to it's system. 80%, or 8 out of 10, of all persons with autism in California's system are between the ages of 3 and 17 years old. The staggering tidal wave of young children is unique to the autism. Nice use of scare tactics there, too, which he uses even though he thinks there was a significant drop in the intake of autistic clients. Discussion around that press release showed that some interpreted this drop as proof that thimerosal had been the cause of the autism epidemic. Lyn Redwood was quoted around that time as saying that the numbers in California were coming down. While others from 2002 onward were mostly seeing scary increases in the autism case load the Geiers saw a significant drop, which they trumpeted as caused by the removal of thimerosal from vaccines starting around 1999. The red line was added by Autism Diva. The black lines show how they decided that the "new intakes" of autistics into the system started to decline with January of 2002. Two Sacramento area mercury dads who showed up at Fombonne's presentation at the MIND Institute in December of 2005, insisted (during the question period after Fombonne spoke) that the California DDS numbers were dropping since the removal of thimerosal. The above is Dad of Cameron's graph with some key points in time marked with red arrows and labels by Autism Diva. The Rollens quotes for the most part weren't referring to the increase in just 3-5 year olds in the DDS, but to increases in all ages, but we know that the DDS was adding clients all along who were over 10 years old, sometimes they were adding adults, which was confusing the issue of an "autism epdiemic" that was supposed to have started in 1990 or so and create kids who were un-missable, unmistakably autistic at age 2. This graph doesn't track a particular cohort of kids. The kids who were 3 at the point this graph starts would now be 7 1/2 now. This is a better graph for checking the effect of the removal of thimerosal. By now number of autistic children in the 3-5 age bracket in the DDS ought to be back where it was before 1990 and even lower than that, if autism was caused in a dosage dependent way by thimerosal, as Kirby's book proposed and the mercury hysterics believed starting around the middle of 2000. Maybe they'd all been infected by all the end-of-the-millenium Y2K talk we heard in 1999 and they needed some place to put their stockpiled hysteria and conspiratorial thinking in 2000. On the related topic of the MMR hysteria that started in the U.K. with Wakefield and a solicitor named Barr, read Michael Fitzpatrick's overview of Wakefield's doings and how they were uncovered by Brian Deer. Also, video of a discussion of autism and thimerosal between David Kirby and Arthur Allen on a San Diego television news (Fox 6) program is online. Try this link. Autism Diva so inclined

Tags: autism, system, california, year, case

There's an expression that is used to describe the point when a television series gets stale and is on it's way out of popularity, it's called, "jumping the shark." Autism Diva believes that the David Kirby show has jumped the shark. Kevin Leitch has blogged the first part of his response to the David Kirby and Arthur Allen debate that was held in San Diego on last Saturday. Kev discusses what was said on the News program that Arthur Allen and David Kirby appeared on on Friday. Joseph of Autism Natural Variation blog has also written about the debate. Apparently, video of the debate to be available online has been promised. Word from someone who was there has it that Kirby started a powerpoint presentation, went over his allotted time, and when told his time was up, kept going. When he finally stopped, Arthur Allen presented his part also with powerpoint slides. When Allen was finished. Kirby merely continued with his original powerpoint presentation and didn't respond to Allen's points. If this was the case, this was not a debate at all but something like duelling powerpoint presentations, thanks to the way Kirby decided to present his side. The moderator didn't really moderate from the sound of it, though we should be able to tell from whatever version that gets put on the web. Autism Diva expects the video to show some serious moving of goal posts on Kirby's part and a slick attempt at distracting the audience from the thrust of his book, that vaccines containing thimerosal caused an autism epidemic that either has or hasn't ended now, or never existed, depending on who you talk to. Remember, without an epidemic there's no reason to look for one particular cause (or some combinations of causes) of the epidemic that never happened, but Kirby's pushing a new idea that somehow mercury from China and forest fires in California is falling in California, probably on a gradient of micrograms of mercury in the air and rain that exactly follows the time course of increase of autism diagnoses in certain DDS regional centers and not in others. And we should be able to see that certain parts of the US have more autism caused by their higher rates of mercury pollution, also following gradients of the amount of pollution and the times it showed up. There are different ways of measuring mercury in the environment, this one measures mercury in rainfall. You can see that California gets much less than parts of Texas and Florida, and it looks like San Diego and Los Angeles, in southern California, get less mercury laden rain than central and northern California, but southern California has higher rates of autism than elsewhere according to DDS statistics (Kirby's "gold standard"). The map was taken from this document: http://www-as.harvard.edu/chemistry/trop/publications/selin2006a.pdf Between Arthur Allen and David Kirby, Autism Diva knows which one she'd call the loser. Also: please read Kathleen Seidel's response to the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, as well as the petition to the IACC and consider signing it. Currently there are almost 450 signatures. Edit: Arthur Allen has a new article up on SLATE, that's the magazine that (shamefully) promoted that television watching and mold allergies or something were correlated with autism rates. Here they seem to be redeeming themselves a bit. Autism Diva amazed

Tags: kirby, autism, allen, california, mercury

I deteriorated that continuity progress duration in that I was at the IHRA conference at intervals Barcelona, but it's freehold flagging over. Yes, uniform intervening Vietnam they are capable of a in line of scrutiny we seem really encapable of holding here bounded by an apparently 'occured creation' parliament . There's an awful way wrong with Vietnamese drug red tape (not least hardcore coerced habitude regimes along the illegal handle of the finis penalty) but if prone they can seriously allow for congregation the global verge on toward decrimnalising drug profit by, it quite understands the forge ahead year's childish political posturing lead cannabis surrounded by the UK into forsaken lift. Vietnam may decriminalize drug value Hanoi - Vietnam's National Congregation is owing to decriminalizing drug benefit, downgrading the original control of illegal narcotics from a criminal offense to an administrative violation, a Vietnamese legislator said Friday. Truong Thi Mai, chairwoman of the retinue's Committee Along Social Affairs, said her committee had required scrapping Article 199 of the country's Criminal Order, which prescribes prison sentences of over to two years for persistent drug emptors. Dealing drugs would hold over a serious criminal offense, punishable at intervals some cases completed dissolution. \"Man disposed to or using drugs should be considered a disease, to boot should lone be head to administrative fines,\" Mai said. \"We cannot jail millions of a lot of [drug users], can we?\" Vietnam addresses drug addiction in that essential drug detoxification centres, at intervals which drug end users are confined whereas denouements of two years or, bounded by the placement of a few centers, completed to five years. Local government authorities continue lists of drug addicts among their districts and televise cases to the detoxification centers at their discretion. Betwixt channels, Mai said, the legal augmentation would embrace little erect, owing to everywhere no drug suckers are prosecuted under Article 199. Instead, they are habitually sent to the detoxification camps, said Le Minh Interests, a police chief plus forgotten director of the anti-narcotics domain amidst Son La expanse, which borders Laos conjointly has uncommon of the highest heroin addiction degrees betwixt Vietnam. \"I guess it originates wait for to go aboard the article,\" Flutter said. \"Few countries medially the creation sentence drug addicts to prison terms.\" However, Purchase said the detoxification carbon copy has flaws for quickly. \"The proportion of relapse into drug servicing is genuinely enormous.\" Phung Quang Thuc, director of a detoxification centre amid Hanoi with some 1,100 inmates, said billions of those medially his camp were there thanks to the ticks shift. Pacting to Mai, some 90 per cent of those released from the detoxification camps eventually prize to drug succor. Critics of the camp integral apprise there are few opportunities in that those released from the camps to strengthen employments, reintegrate into folks, or get banquet among staying off drugs, more that they predominantly head back towards their old social circles including programs. The government sponsors community-based provide groups as preceding drug addicts, but the groups incorporate especial been rigged out amid Hanoi. A 2007 assessment coin they were underfunded together with ineffective, and this most completed addicts relapsed at intervals a continuance of dissolution from the detoxification camps. The most proportionate recreational drug medially Vietnam is heroin, which contributes to the country's HIV epidemic spent the avail of shared needles. Vietnam has factual laws forbidding merchantry of illegal drugs. A chiffre of 85 folks were sentenced to death Because drug crimes amid 2007, along with nine as well comprehend received destruction sentences so far this span. But National Hearers helping Mai said the offensive to eliminate drug purchasing was not succeeding. \"Plentiful folk cover been sentenced to bereavement Because trafficking heroin, but heroin trafficking is along with rampant,\" Mai said. \"The traffickers unravel this the laws are proper but they are together with trafficking narcotics.\" 09.05.08 This history is reproduced from information superhighway.dpa.de generic viagra online generic cialis buy cheap cialis cialis

Tags: drug, vietnam, detoxification, camp, mai

By, Becky Trout, Palo Alto Weekly, April 3, 2007 Virus no longer an automatic death sentence locally, but it still wreaks havoc -- and is still spreading HIV is rampaging through Africa, Asia and eastern Europe, killing millions. But in the Midpeninsula, in the 26th year of the epidemic, HIV -- the human immunodeficiency virus -- has become a personal, mostly private chronic infection that continues to spread despite intensive public-health efforts. Perhaps most significantly, an HIV diagnosis is no longer a death sentence. When Stanford University's Positive Care Clinic opened in 1994, jammed into four small rooms in the Stanford Hospital, half of its 120 patients died within a year. "Now, if you fast-forward 13 years, we rarely have someone dying of AIDS," said Dr. Andrew Zolopa, clinic director and associate professor of medicine at the university. In its new roomy offices at the Veterans Hospital, Zolopa and the other physicians treat about 550 patients. Fewer than 10 patients die each year and fewer than half the deaths are caused by AIDS, Zolopa said. Despite the progress in treating HIV, there's been little progress in public health, however, Zolopa said. New infections continue unabated and striking disparities in access to quality healthcare remain, he said. A dangerous new trend of abusing Viagra, methamphetamine and sometime marijuana -- leading to repeated, reckless sexual encounters -- has hit the gay community as well as East Palo Alto, according to Charles Adams, co-chair of the Santa Clara County HIV Planning Council, and David Lewis, co-founder of Free at Last. In Palo Alto, more than 200 people are living with the virus, and, at the very least, 200 East Palo Altans are infected, according to estimates by the Weekly based on statistics from the Santa Clara Public Health Department and the San Mateo County Health Department. Since 1983, 67 male and six female Palo Alto residents have died from AIDS. Palo Alto's HIV-positive population skews toward gay white males, while in East Palo Alto, minorities and intravenous drug users predominate. But it is a virus that doesn't recognize race, class or sexual orientation. Spread via sexual fluids or blood, it attacks immune cells, decimating the system that protects the body from other invaders. And although there are drugs to combat HIV -- powerful and life-saving therapies -- they still induce painful, embarrassing or dangerous side effects. In addition, the drugs only slow the progression of the disease. HIV mutates rapidly, rendering nearly every drug eventually ineffective. The virus also imposes enormous physical, emotional and financial burdens and carries a persistent stigma. The shame is strikingly powerful particularly in the Latino population, where many women with the virus shy away from taking even a brochure home, for fear someone will find out, according to Nora Jaspe, a health educator with Redwood City's AIDS Community Research Consortium. Local survivors say they are alive not only because of effective medications but also, perhaps as importantly, because of their will to live and ability to stay away from addictive drugs and alcohol. Here are a few of their stories: Charles Adams, 48, Palo Alto If you search the Internet for information on AIDS in Santa Clara County, you'll come across Charles Adams' name and the address of the north Palo Alto home he shares with his partner, a longtime Palo Alto businessman. Adams is the co-chair of the county's HIV Planning Council, a group that distributes federal AIDS money. He's also active with just about every other HIV/AIDS group around -- Health Trust's Food Basket program, which provides food to those with HIV; the board monitoring clinical trials at Stanford University; and the AIDS Legal Services of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, to name a few. "Having my partner has enabled me to help," Adams said. "To me, (HIV) is just part of everyday life, and it's easy to talk about. I'm really lucky I'm in such a supportive environment." Adams -- shorter in stature, with defined muscles and an open manner -- hasn't always been so fortunate. Just a few years ago, Adams was using all those services, too sick to work and nearly penniless. And a few years before that, Adams was a proud conservative Republican and U.S. Army officer. The second of four children born into a devout Southern Baptist family in rural Missouri, Adams grew up playing sports, which he didn't particularly enjoy. He dreamed of attending West Point Academy. From a young age he knew he was gay and even tried to tell his parents. In response, they guided him toward religion and more sports, he said. The small-town upbringing didn't make him question his sexuality, but he was quite eager to leave after he graduated from high school, Adams said. "I never gave being gay a second thought. . . . It was just part of life. It wasn't like I flaunted (it). I never drank or did drugs or smoked." Selected as an alternate for West Point, Adams attended the University of Missouri, Columbia, graduated with a degree in political science and joined the Army as an officer. He loved it -- the routine and discipline, the diversity and travel. HIV certainly wasn't on his mind. "We'd all read about something going on (on) the coast. How did that affect me?" Adams said. It did though. Adams got sick in 1983. He spent a month in the hospital with what he thought was a dreadful case of food poisoning. Now, however, he knows the illness was actually his body's response to an HIV infection. Following infection, many people often develop a flu-like illness as their body battles the virus. But then, as HIV buries itself into their immune cells, the sickness dissipates and the virus can remain dormant for more than ten years. Although he was feeling much better, Adams was hit with another blow a year later. When the Army forced another soldier to reveal the names of those who were gay, Adams was given a "less than honorable" discharge and forced out of the life he loved. He returned to Missouri. "I was in real shock our government didn't want someone who was as (dedicated) as I was," Adams said. His political views took a sharp turn to the left. In 1987, HIV tests came out. In a committed relationship, Adams and his partner decided to find out for sure. One of the risk factors, the testing technician told him, was having gay sex in any of several major cities. "I'd had sex in almost all of them. . . . By then I knew -- I knew HIV was possible." Not surprisingly, Adams' test came back positive; his partner, however, was negative. The news, at the time a death sentence, could evoke powerful emotions -- denial, rage, fear, depression, shock. Adams, however, took the news in stride. "I wasn't scared. You have to be responsible for your own choices," he said. Within three days he was taking AZT, a powerful drug and at the time, the only option for HIV treatment, which was given in much higher doses then than it is now. "I was really, really tired. I threw up a lot. It was really nasty," Adams said. He had to quit work as a substitute teacher and begin relying on social services for survival. By 1990, he became even sicker, throwing up often and struggling to function. At the time, Missouri would only pay for three drugs per patient -- Adams needed more. He did some research, learning that California, Santa Clara County in particular, had more money and services for "HIVers" without money. So after a few detours, Adams and his then partner moved to San Jose. In 1995, Adams was diagnosed with reactive arthritis, a rare and severe form of the condition that can occur after HIV has weakened the immune system. Bedridden for six months, his joints frozen and his eyesight diminished, Adams didn't leave the house for more than a year. Adams calls the time "a really weird period." "I've never been the type to get depressed about anything. I never felt sorry for myself. I just thought, 'I just don't want to live, if this is the way it's going to be.'" Then, gradually, life got better. Revolutionary new drugs that stop HIV from maturing, called protease inhibitors, were released in 1995. "Without them, I probably would have died. ... (They) made all the difference in the world," Adams said. He learned to walk again and figured out how to write using fat pens. And he met his current partner. "The reason I liked him so much was he asked, right away, 'What is your status?" Adams said. "There is this big 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy in the gay community." Adams' partner is negative. Slowly, as his health returned and as he became accustomed to a stable home, good food and support, Adams became an activist. "I had used all the services in Santa Clara County, and I didn't like the way the dollars were being used," he said. "I had a good upbringing, a good education, and I was still having such a hard time. . . . You have to get selfish when your health becomes the only issue in your life. Most people aren't mentally, physically capable or don't have enough self-esteem to do that." Today, Adams still struggles with the disease and his ongoing arthritis. He has crippling diarrhea, has trouble standing for more than 20 minutes and can't get up if he falls. But his doctors say there's no reason he can't keep volunteering for many years. "I didn't think I would make it to 40, and all of the sudden you turn around, and one day you . . . have a life." Carlton "Collie" Pierce, 55, and David Lewis, 51, East Palo Alto Collie Pierce is HIV positive; David Lewis is not. Pierce has glasses, a pocked face and a single golden earring. Lewis is imposing, with a trademark mustache and graying hair. Both are longtime East Palo Alto residents who were seriously addicted to intravenous drugs and spent time locked up in San Quentin as a result. And now, they're both working to help others in the grasp of drugs escape. Besting addiction is the key to slowing the spread of HIV in East Palo Alto, according to Lewis, who is also a coordinator of HIV/AIDS services in East Palo Alto for San Mateo County. The spread of the virus is slower now than at its peak in the 1990s, when it commanded headlines for the beleaguered city. Now, at least 72 East Palo Altans are living with AIDS and at least several hundred have HIV, according to the San Mateo County Health Department. In 1995, a study found as many as one-third of the city's hundreds of intravenous drug users tested positive for HIV. Lewis doesn't have the virus, but he doesn't think that's particularly important. "In our community, it doesn't really matter," he said. Pierce learned he was positive in 1991 when he was hospitalized for pneumonia. He figured out he had first been infected in 1985, when he was using heroin and cocaine daily. "Just like so many other people, I didn't know it," Pierce said. "It's so scary that they go on living normal lives ... (sleeping with) multiple partners. ... I was one of those people." "My attitude was it would not and it could not happen to me. When I found out, I went on a death mission." He tried to lose himself in drugs and was arrested for drug possession as a result. His return trip to San Quentin, with HIV, was different, Pierce said. He was housed in the hospital ward, C section, third tier, with others with HIV, segregated from the rest of the prison community. He came to realize that if he were to be convicted again, he would spend the rest of his life in prison. Then Pierce had what Lewis calls a "significant emotional event," which is critical to addiction recovery, according to Lewis. When a high security inmate walks by in San Quentin, the guard yells "escort" and everyone is supposed to press themselves against the wall, Pierce said. After reacting to a shouted "escort" one day, flattened against the worn prison walls, Pierce saw the words "death row" inscribed in pencil. "For me, C section, third tier with HIV positive (people) was like death row. . . . I related to that (inscription)," Pierce said. "That was my last trip to prison. I made a commitment to do anything I could not to return." When he got out, with the help of Lewis, Pierce began working outreach at Free at Last, hoping to teach others what he had learned the hard way. He's been clean and sober for 11 years. "I try to be the best advocate I can. That's why I am so very open. People need to know," Pierce said. "It still goes on. You might not hear about it. But it still goes on; that's why they call it 'the quiet killer.' People are still spreading it; people are still dying." Pierce himself has been fortunate. He hasn't taken an HIV drug since 1999 and feels fine. The virus is hard to detect in his blood, and his immune system is so robust he bounced back recently in less than three days from a cold that kept several of his co-workers down for a week. Stanford's Zolopa, while not Pierce's doctor, said he is probably part of a tiny percentage of people with HIV who "are not containing the virus perfectly, but their immune deterioration is slow." He will probably eventually need medicine, Zolopa said. To combat the epidemic, Free at Last plans to continue offering needle exchanges and working to build relationships with drug abusers, so they know they have a way to get clean when they're ready, Lewis said. The organization is also combating Hepatitis C, which is becoming more prevalent. Hep C is a virus, transmitted with dirty needles, that attacks the liver. Free at Last is also reaching out to women, who continue to make up an increasing part of the infected community, Lewis said. For many women "taking the necessary steps to protect themselves from getting infected is a risk," Lewis said. Stephanie Marshall, 38, Hilmar, Calif. Hilmar is a small town in the Central Valley, a few miles south of Turlock. Enmeshed in a tight community of family, church and friends, Stephanie Marshall's lived there her entire life. Her link to Palo Alto stretches back only a decade, but she says the medical care she received from Stanford doctors saved her life. Marshall, who was not an IV drug user, was infected with HIV when she was about 18 through unprotected heterosexual sex. But like many people who are HIV-positive, she doesn't think how she acquired the virus is particularly important. "We get this illness because of choices we made. ... We have to stand up and take responsibility," Marshall said. "We choose not to use protection. It's nobody's fault but our own. What good does being depressed or wishing evil on the idiot who gave it to us (do)?" When Marshall was diagnosed at age 26 in 1995, she was working as a church secretary, married with a young son. Both her husband and son tested HIV negative. Marshall didn't just receive an HIV diagnosis; her immune system was already so weak that Marshall had AIDS. "I knew nothing about AIDS. We don't have a large homosexual community. I didn't know anybody who had it. It just wasn't in my radar," Marshall said. She quickly learned. "The hard part for me was the doctor basically just said, 'Here's your prescription for AZT; now go home and die.'" Self-described as "sassy," dying wasn't in Marshall's plans. She refused to take AZT, however. Why take a drug that would make her so sick? And as she got sicker, she decided to let everyone in the community know. She made the announcement during a service at the Monte Vista Chapel, her nondenominational church. "The doctors got up and explained how you get it and how you don't get it. The elders laid hands on me," Marshall said. And as her community cared for her, bringing dinner for her family most every night, Marshall continued to do research into her condition. Then she fell in with a group that didn't believe HIV caused AIDS. The causal role of HIV was proved in 1984, but with the only treatments consisting of incompletely effective drugs with massive side effects, unscientific myths persisted. Marshall went to Santa Cruz for a bit to live with an aunt. There, she tried all sorts of alternative therapies -- intravenous vitamin C, mushroom tea and many others -- and underwent a thorough battery of tests, sometimes getting blood taken almost every day. Nothing capable of causing her symptoms, other than HIV, could be found. Marshall began to accept the virus was responsible for her illness. Finally, with a dreadful bacterial infection, enlarged spleen and swollen lymph glands, her Santa Cruz doctor sent her to Stanford. She met Zolopa in 1997. At the time, she weighed only 90 pounds and was wasting away, Zolopa said. He asked why she wasn't taking AZT, Marshall recalled. Marshall explained she didn't want to take such a harmful drug. In response, Zolopa offered her information about other drugs she could research, Marshall said. She hadn't known there were other drugs available. "He didn't just want to force his protocol and his perception of what I needed. (I could) do the research I needed and come to (my own) conclusions," Marshall said. Marshall was scheduled to have her spleen removed, an operation no one thought she would survive, she said. Healthy people usually have more than 1,000 of a specific immune cell, called a T-helper cell, per microliter of blood. Marshall, at her lowest, had only three. An individual has AIDS if his or her T-cell count slips below 200. Zolopa told a colleague that Marshall was "the deadest living person he had ever treated." Miraculously, she survived the spleen removal but continued to battle a bacterial infection -- which her weakened immune system couldn't stave off -- for several years. Now, Marshall drives to Palo Alto only four times a year. Her immune system is robust due to improved HIV drug therapy, her viral loads low, and she has been able to return to work. "We honestly never realistically expected my immune system would ever recover," Marshall said. Marshall's son is grown now, and she was divorced last year. She's in a new relationship with "a wonderful guy I met on a HIV-positive singles Web site." "We understand where we're both coming from. ... We have each others' back." Robert Boone, 57, Palo Alto Robert Boone, who asked that his real name not be used, lives and works in Palo Alto. Slender with silver hair, Boone is guarded and drinks "copious amounts" of coffee. Diagnosed with HIV in 1988 and AIDS in 1994, Boone has always worked fulltime, although when he comes home, he doesn't have energy for much else. Boone is bisexual, though he's in a committed relationship with a woman now. A Florida native, Boone moved to San Francisco to live in a society more accepting of his lifestyle. For about 13 years, Boone said he was very promiscuous. "Did I play safe? Obviously not safe enough," Boone said. "In 1980, I decided it was time to grow up and be respectable," Boone said. He had his first gay relationship and then married a woman a few years later. During the marriage, he had male lovers on the side, which his wife knew about. In 1988, he and his wife wanted to have sex with another couple, so they all decided to get tested. The others were negative; Boone tested positive. "I definitely knew it was in the realm of possibility. Was I expecting it? Probably not," Boone said. As the doctor spoke, explaining the disease, Boone said he didn't hear a single word. The doctor had to discuss the diagnosis with his wife. "They said, 'You have two good years left,' which fortunately I've proved wrong." Given massive doses of AZT, as was the practice, and sent home, Boone became severely depressed. "I did the dumb thing of not trying to get treated for it," Boone said. His marriage started to unravel. "It put a real damper on our sex life, to say the least," Boone said. "I'm just as much at fault. But finally she said, 'I just can't deal with you being sick.'" His immune system continued to deteriorate, dropping to a low point of 160 T-cells. Nonetheless, Boone still worked 40 hours a week. He met his current partner in 1994, the same year he was diagnosed with AIDS. "Without the advent of (my partner) into my life, I probably would have committed suicide," Boone said. This time, he sought out medical treatment for depression. "Things started to level out and then go upwards." Boone jokes that he got his "green card to Palo Alto" in 1995. Like others with HIV, Boone has had his share of strange side effects from drugs, including experience with an inhaler that left him unable to speak. Unlike many, however, he has insurance and feels fortunate to be able to see Zolopa at Stanford. "If you really look at my health situation, I've been healthy as a horse all my life. Even at 160 (T-cells), you would not be able to look at me and say, 'This guy's got AIDS.'" Brown said he has a love/hate relationship with the drugs. "Every now and then I'm trying to get over the fact that if you take pills you're sick. I'm not sick, but I take pills." AIDS is like diabetes now, Boone said, something you can live with. "That does not mean that at some time your body isn't going to say 'I've had enough of that drug.' That's the scary part ... and, and, and 'Is this the beginning of the end?'" Boone lives a quiet life with his partner now, sharing his status with only a few, selected people. "I've given up the men in my life," Boone joked. Boone is slow to preach or judge others' behavior. "I told my mom, 'It doesn't matter how I've got it, the fact is, I've got it.' ... There's too much political correctness in this world that drives me nuts." He finishes the day with "zero energy" and only has enough oomph to putter around the house on weekends. But he, unlike many, many of his friends, is still alive. Source: http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=4800 generic viagra online cheap viagra viagra generic cialis

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