AIDS Action Committee’s Blog

Comment by Dirk Haynes

January 16, 2008 @ 5:18 pm

As a physician and researcher I have reviewed the study in the actual medical journal. It was a retrospective study FRAUGHT WITH methodological problems. I think the public press reports are overhyped and inaccurate.

D

PS Here is a review from a medical blog:

“Interesting that you mentioned the MRSA article from Annals of Internal Medicine, but I’m surprised that you didn’t note the limitations of this study. The Annals editors wrote in their summary
“The data were passively reported or retrospectively collected and are therefore subject to bias.”

They went on:
“Our study has limitations…
Our incidence estimates for San Francisco come from a passive surveillance system and may underestimate the incidence of true infection. We relied on retrospective chart review for identification of risk factors for multidrug-resistant USA300 infection in the 2 clinic populations; because data were not collected or documented systematically, our estimates of risk may be influenced by selection, referral, documentation, or other biases. Specific sexual behaviors were not assessed or documented in clinic charts; we therefore cannot comment on the association between multidrug-resistant USA300 infection and specific male-male sexual practices.”
MRSA has been around a long time, and as a practicing Navy physician I have seen outbreaks in millitary populations for years. A 2005 study by the Navy Environmental Health Center that did not make any headlines showed that community acquired MRSA was present in 3-5 % of Navy recruits. There have been significant outbreaks in the SEAL training school in San Diego, as well as the Marine Recruit Training Depot, but this has not made the news. MRSA has also been a problem for years in hospitals and nursing homes. Now that someone has found a community outbreak in a gay population, it’s “big” news … bullshit.”

Comment by Springintoaction

January 16, 2008 @ 5:43 pm

As a gay man, I am quite saddened/upset about the spike in HIV that refer you make reference to, especially if you see a pattern of things being worse in this country than in others that you’ve visited. It must says something about us at the macro-level.

As a freelance professional writer, another related issue that is disturbing to me is how mainstream media issues these dire “warnings,” the latest being The New York Times’ article on MRSA findings in San Francisco and Boston. There is no independent analysis or insight so I don’t know how to assimilate the “warning” in a healthy way, other than as another “gay physicality = bad” cautionary tale. This is just my stream of cosciousness intepretation, which also makes me worry not only how non-gay readers will react to this “warning,” and whether smaller mainstream news sources will pump up the volume to feed/make money from existing homophobia.

Since you are offering to host the first chat, let’s address some broad issues in a relevant fashion. I’d love to find out more about what AIDS Action Committee is doing and what you think your experience abroad can tell us. While I appreciate your first-hand account of your experiences abroad, we need to see whether patterns of HIV are spiking abroad and if so whether there are trends are lessons that we can learn from others involved in the fight. Let’s do something!

Comment by dr george pradhan, mbbs/1950

February 4, 2008 @ 10:35 am

= somebody said a lot to damn statistics.
=studies are biased/pre-judiced/ hasty/ too small/ to be taken seriously.
=statistics are needed to convince the funding purse with some figures.
=as a simple GP, [ vietnam 1969-74; Zambia 1979-88;]india village/city/jungles/ i go by the rising figures, and the growing queues at the ART centers.
=press reports are by nonmedicals, supposedly under consult w a medical dr or researcher. BUT always i find gross little sense, and more hype.
= now i am into HIV drop-in care center , and see the number rising, and even the official figures predict doubling by 2010.
======== so please give us sensible guidance and reports about HIV/MRSA/STI’s/ etc.

Comment by Jacqui from Vegas

February 10, 2008 @ 2:37 pm

This is not the first time I’ve heard the HIV was on the rise in the US. I think a huge problem is that people think it won’t happen (catching it) to them. Denial has been a strong point for us in the last several years.