AIDS DENIAL FOLLOWS ON QUICKENED HOPES

In spite of good news from a major AIDS Conference held last month in the nation's capital, experts say it would be foolish--because of myths and rumors circulating--to believe AIDS must no longer claim our constant attention. And yet, with each hype-fest about the new protease inhibitors, many who assume a cure is around the corner have already begun to behave as though there's nothing more to worry about. Safer sex still remains the primary responsibility we have to ourselves, say the experts. Where once utter hopelessness resulted in AIDS denials, now, conversely, the renewal of hope is causing another kind of denial, a denial just as deadly.

Young people in their twenties haven't yet faced AIDS as a reality. Along with a false sense of immortality usually common to that age group, the hopes that recent press stories have inflamed makes straight twenty-somethings all the more likely to fool themselves, saying "Its nearly curable now, so I can do what I want without worrying," or "I'm young, I can't get the virus," or "I'm not in the AIDS loop. This doesn't affect me since its only a gay disease."

Youthful gay men and some lesbians may follow many of these same thought-paths. "There are cures now," they say without knowing, "and even if they aren't here yet, it won't be long. I don't have to wear a condom. That's something for the old folks, those from yesterday's generation. Besides, I have a friend who has been doing just great since he started taking the protease inhibitors."

What those who look only on the sunny side of AIDS ignore, is that protease inhibitors, while no doubt highly beneficial to many, are not so to all. In fact, the side effects of these inhibitors can be more devastating than AIDS itself. Users must stay with a demanding schedule--hour by hour--and it is preached that if they miss a few doses, the virus may once again revive and become uncontrollable in their systems. Also, and not least, the cost of protease inhibitors is frightening, well beyond the reach of the uninsured.

Some patients tell of the onset of side-effects after dramatic increases in their T-cell counts, One such side-effect is what drug companies call "kidney sludge," a condition which is akin, according to one patient, to "carrying a bowling ball within."

If a person's HIV status is somewhat advanced the wonder drug, Crixivan, can trigger herpes zoster, creating ugly sores over the entire body. In other cases of side effects, patients feel extremely unpleasant reactions in their digestive tracks. Skins can become so sensitive that the new drug users imagine they're suffering from extreme sunburns. It can hurt, they say, even to comb one's hair. Others find themselves, of necessity, mapping out the public bathrooms in their neighborhoods, enduring embarrassments that have bypassed any other condition--like facial lesions-- for the humiliation experienced.