WEAKER HIV?

The new research makes a lot of epidemiological sense. Viruses that kill their hosts very quickly have much less chance to pass on to other hosts. Successful viruses keep their hosts alive and well in order to propagate more successfully. And the HIV strains resistant to medications are also less potent than the wild virus a couple of decades ago. HIV is adapting – and, in many ways, that’s good news. This doesn’t mean, of course, that it isn’t still life-threatening, if untreated. It does mean that many people can be off drugs for longer, that those on drugs can take breaks, and that the entire idea of “Super-AIDS” defies epidemiological experience. (The usual cavet here: everyone is different and I’m talking about averages here.) Still I expect the usual health authorities to keep the hysteria up, because they haven’t been able to develop more reality-based prevention models. I wonder if the NYT will cover this story.