Imagine having lived with HIV for over a decade and then finding out that you have been cured of the disease? That is what happened to one American after having a bone marrow transplant to help treat his leukemia. Some critics are worried that the virus might be lying dormant and hidden in his body and may rear its ugly head again in the future, while others are hailing this new development as a huge leap in the fight against AIDS.

Since its rise as a worldwide epidemic, HIV has been transmitted to roughly 33 million people. Every year, 2 million people succumb to the disease, thus, it is no wonder that many researchers would feel great hope that this new case could hold the key literally in its genes to a possible cure. The patient’s doctor, Dr. Gero Huetter, confirmed that for over a year and a half after the bone marrow transplant, which was selected for its genetic qualities, the 42 year-old patient has not produced any positive HIV test. He admitted, “We waited every day for a bad reading.” Other doctors, including Dr. Andrew Badley who works in the HIV department at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, feel that the HIV tests need to be more thorough before a final announcement of a cure can be officially made. Badley states, “A lot more scrutiny from a lot of different biological samples would be required to say it’s not present.”

Bone marrow transplants have had limited success for the treatment of AIDS in the past. In fact, in the early 1980s through the mid 1990s, doctors made over 30 attempts to treat HIV with these types of transplants. Only 2 of those attempts proved successful. In the case of the American patient treated under Huetter’s care, the patient was actually getting treatment for his leukemia. Huetter’s specialty is hematology, but as he planned the bone marrow transplant for his patient, his mind raced back to something he had read a decade ago. He remembered that some people actually harbor a type of genetic mutation that prohibits HIV from invading their body. Should a patient inherit this mutation from both mother and father, HIV has no way of attaching to cells. Huetter states, “I read it in 1996, coincidentally. I remembered it and thought it might work.”

Only one of every 1,000 people of American and European descent has this mutation inherited from both mother and father. This did not stop Huetter in his quest to find a bone marrow donor that had this mutation. He ended up finding one donor that did. It was these cells from the donor that helped successfully (so far) fight off the AIDS virus. The U.S. director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, feels that a bone marrow transplant is both expensive and dangerous and should not be looked at as an all-the-time cure. However, he definitely feels that a closer focus on gene therapy and gene mutations should be made as a possible way to eliminate HIV from the body. He states, “It helps prove the concept that if somehow you can block the expression of CCR5, maybe by gene therapy, you might be able to inhibit the ability of the virus to replicate.”

As the holiday season quickly approaches, many of us will be going the easy route and purchasing gift cards for our loved ones, friends, colleagues and neighbors. After all, who doesn’t love receiving a gift card? They are given out in lieu of Christmas bonuses at corporations, they are given out as a reward for buying a high ticket item at an electronics store and they are given out as a way to stop the spread of AIDS. Wait, what was that last one? In a desperate bid to help stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic, health officials at the Centers for Disease Control are investing in a new modern strategy: they are offering $100 in gift cards to influential gay men to promote the use of condoms, HIV testing and safe sex to the rest of the gay community.

A similar project was launched in North Carolina and proved to be a success. The CDC is hoping this type of project can be just as successful in the over 200 communities they are launching it in within the next two years. With HIV rates still steadily increasing amongst bisexual and gay men, the CDC is willing to try anything to bring those rates back down. Richard Wolitski, the director of the HIV/AIDS Prevention program in the CDC states, “The CDC is committed to ensuring that its resources are going to the populations hardest hit by the epidemic.” In addition to the $1.5 million dedicated to the gift card project, the CDC is also fronting $5 million for a campaign aimed at black bisexual and gay men that will encourage HIV testing.

Despite the millions being funneled into these HIV projects, some critics, including Julie Scofield of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, feel that the money being spent for HIV awareness and prevention is nowhere near what it should be. Scofield says, “It’s a drop in the bucket.” Since 2001, the CDC’s budget for HIV awareness and prevention has been approximately $700 million. Despite continually rising costs, this budget has not increased from that amount. What is alarming about this is the new data that the CDC has released which shows that in 2006, there were an estimated 56,300 new HIV infections; this is a tremendous leap from the 40,000 new infections a year in previous years. New data reports from the CDC have shown that while infections are decreasing for those who inject drugs and who are heterosexuals, infections are actually increasing for gay and bisexual men, especially those who are African-American.

Due to this increasing trend, AIDS advocates are encouraging that more money be targeted towards the gay community. They feel that politicians do not focus on the HIV threat towards gay men as they once did in the 1980s and instead have focused more on HIV as a threat to the general population. Leroy Blea, a health official out of California feels that the gay community is “not a very easy population to fund. It’s often more politically viable to fund programs for women and children and youth.” Currently, the CDC allocates approximately 40% of its funding to target bisexual and gay men; however, with over 50% of HIV infections happening in the gay community, this funding is simply not enough. David Holtgrave from John Hopkins University states, “At a minimum, we need to be matching percentages to where the epidemic is.”

As for the gift card outreach, the CDC will be giving four $25 gift cards and HIV awareness and prevention materials to gay men they feel are influential in gay communities across the nation. These gay men will be asked to promote safe sex with condoms. Previous efforts on this type of project showed an increase of gay men having safe sex, according to research published in the American Journal of Public Health. In 2005, the research showed an over 30% reduction in unprotected homosexual sex and an approximately 40% reduction in the number of sexual partners.

Implanted electronic computer chips have faced great success in their various uses. Lost dogs have been found and reunited with their anxious owners, sometimes within days or even hours. They have been used in the cattle industry to identify individual cows and to ensure stray cattle do not get stolen by thieves. These electronic chips can also be inserted into humans to aid the medical industry by storing all of a patient’s medical history. However, when does human electronic monitoring cross the line into becoming a true invasion of privacy? In Indonesia, lawmakers and activists are in a heated debate concerning a bill that would allow certain HIV/AIDS patients to be monitored with implanted microchips.

There is no denying that AIDS is a global epidemic. There are countries, however, like Indonesia where HIV rates are skyrocketing at an alarming rate. With close to 235 million people, there are upwards of 300,000 that have been infected with HIV. Two extremely strong reasons for the growing rates are the problems with prostitution and drug use. One of the country’s poorest regions, Papua, has been devastated with AIDS/HIV cases. Of the two million people living in this province, nearly 61 people out of every 100,000 have been afflicted with HIV/AIDS. To put this in perspective, that is almost 15 times the already high national average. AIDS activists and researchers have chalked up the alarming rates of HIV to the fact that many people are not educated about sexually transmitted diseases.

In an attempt to efficiently monitor and track the virus, legislators like John Manangsang wish to implant mini electronic chips underneath the skin of those patients that could be deemed “sexually aggressive.” These lawmakers feel that by doing so, the government and police could identify and track those patients who infect others knowingly by punishing them with large fines and or jail time. AIDS activists feel that this new law would be “abhorrent.” One local activist, Tahi Ganyang Butarbutar, states, “People with AIDS aren’t animals; we have to respect their rights.” On the other hand, those who support the bill, like legislator Weynand Watari state, “The health situation is extraordinary, so we have to take extraordinary action.”

Many feel that this monitoring bill will easily pass through legislation once the technicalities and practicalities have been addressed. Legislators are wasting no time in this motion as many have stated that they plan to move forward with committee action by next month. While the lawmakers are still not clear on who will head or reside on this committee and how monitoring would actually take place, those who do decide to join this newly formed committee will be in charge of choosing which patients will get implanted with the electronic chips and monitoring their behavior. No official word yet on how many patients will get implanted or which patients fit into the category of “sexually aggressive.”

There are many who strongly oppose the legislation, including Nancy Fee, the country’s coordinator for UNAIDS. She states, “No one should be subject to unlawful or unnecessary interference of privacy.” She goes on to add that many countries have attempted similar oppressive policies and they have always ended in failure. AIDS activist, Tahi Ganyang, feels that instead of wasting money and energy to monitor patients, the government should spend more of their resources on educating the population about sexually transmitted diseases and the use of condoms.