Gay All The Time

It has been making the rounds, and has hit the news that some Swiss AIDS Experts are touting a new drug regime, that would make it safe for infected HIV+ persons to engage in condomless sex, without the risk of transmitting the virus.

The Swiss National AIDS Commission said patients who can satisfy strict conditions, including successful antiretroviral treatment to suppress the virus and who do not have any other sexually transmitted diseases, do not pose a danger to others. The proposal was published this week in the Bulletin of Swiss Medicine. (source)

It is a ‘good news’ / ‘bad news’ type of announcement.

To begin with, it is great news that a good regime of drugs and other medical advances have arrested the disease so it is no longer transmitted. That is a great step forward to bringing the disease into total control, but again, it is dependent on a particular drug regime, treatment.

The ‘bad news’ is that we are dealing with people here.  In the ‘real world’ we don’t all realize that what we do, what we have, is what others are getting. Health Care in Switzerland is one of the world’s best, but it isn’t that way for millions of others who live outside of Switzerland.

The cost of drug treatment and care, as many in Switzerland receive, just isn’t practical elsewhere. People make choices, not always the best, and while this is good news, it also is going to get a lot of people jumping ship, no longer believing they still need to be careful. Some will abuse this, or figure its no longer important to inform their partner of their condition, and so the disease will remain unchecked.

It won’t spur people for testing, and it won’t prevent many from believing in the false mantra of being invincible. It also will make the selling of ’safer sex’ harder, because the headlines will shriek about the treatment, the results, but will not carry the associated warnings. Great for those in the Swiss Health Care system, but not great for those outside of it.