KRAMER MAY GET LIVER
Longtime AIDS activist, novelist, and playwright Larry Kramer may get a chance for a liver transplant, making it possible for other HIV-positive patients to soon have the same opportunity.
A story out of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says transplant units usually denied patients with HIV due to rare availability of livers and short life expectancy of HIV patients. But because people are living longer thanks to drug regimens, hospitals are changing their ways.
The article says the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has performed eight liver transplants for HIV-positive patients since 1997. Since the transplants, two patients have died and the longest living survivor has made it for more than three years. UPMC's chief transplantation Dr. John Fung says Kramer, 66, would be the oldest HIV-positive patient to recieve a liver transplant. Another concern is whether or not drugs needed for immunosuppression for transplant recipients would accelerate the progression of AIDS.
Last winter doctors told Kramer his liver was so damaged that he had less than two years to live. He did not qualify to receive a transplant at New York's Mount Sinai Medical Center because, according to Kramer, he didn't have undetectable levels of HIV. For the UPMC though, Kramer's viral load wasn't an issue because they had already done transplants for patients with detectable virus levels.
Kramer adds, "It doesn't sound so awful that I can't get through it somehow and I do feel I'm doing it for the movement, so to speak, as well as for myself."
HIV TRANSMISSION STUDY: ORAL SEX RISK LOW
A PlanetOut.com article shows preliminary findings for the HIV Oral Transmission study, referred to as the "HOT study."
According to research, the chance of getting HIV through unprotected oral sex is "very, very low."
Dr. Kim Page-Shafer, the study's chief investigator, presented preliminary results at the National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta. A combined effort by researchers from the San Francisco AIDS Health Project and the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California, San Francisco resulted in looking at 190 primarily gay and bisexual men who engaged in oral sex during the study period.
The results show 98 percent of the participant's had unprotected oral sex with 20 percent saying they performed oral sex on an HIV-positive partner.
Out of all participants only one tested positive for HIV and Dr. Page-Shafer said he acquired the virus prior to the study. Shafer told the HealthScoutNews "We did not detect any new infections, and we have not been able to identify infection attributed to oral sex."
The article says the finding contradicts a similar recent study that found eight percent of people newly infected through oral sex.
But Dr. Page-Shafer said, "You have to be careful not to overinterpret that study. It's not a random sample of people who get tested. Also, four of the eight they identified as being orally infected had had receptive anal sex with condoms. That's dangerous to include, since anal sex with condoms has a greater risk of transmission through condom breakage or slippage."
HealthScoutNews also reported Shafer emphasizing that oral sex is safer sex, not safe sex. Shafer says, "I want to emphasize that, while rare, acquiring HIV infection orally is possible and that many other sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis are transmitted orally."
MASS. GOV. BACKS SOME GAY RIGHTS
Massachussetts Acting Gov. Jane Swift will extend domestic-partner benefits to gay and lesbian state employees.
An Advocate.com story says the benefits had been available to gays in senior management positions in 1992 and will now be offered to all gay employees of the state. This will include paid leave for caring for an ill partner and bereavement leave if a partner dies.
A recent Boston Globe story said her stepson Brian Hunt is openly gay and criticized Swift for not supporting gay marriage. Hunt says, "It's hypocritical to me. To stay with her Republican ( supporters ) , she doesn't want to go too far, because she'll lose votes. Knowing they have a homosexual son, you'd think they'd be more understanding."
In the article, Hunt says his father Chuck Hunt and Swift have been trying to hide him. Hunt says, "They want me out of the spotlight. I'm the blacksheep, I guess."
DOCS CRUISE
The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association will have its Aqua University conference as classes will combine with a cruise in February from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas.
A news release says the GLMA's continuing education vacation is designed to fit into the schedule of today's overworked medical professional. GLMA President Dr. William Gilmer says, "Our goal is for physicians to have a productive vacation. Classes are scheduled in the morning hours when the ship is at sea. It is our way of encouraging career growth ... we think it is appropriate to mix business with pleasure for busy physicians."
Stephen Stafford, organizer of the cruise, says it's rewarding to provide the cruise for physicians to relax and update their knowledge of LGBT medicine: "Over the years I've seen this event recharge so many batteries."
NAKED CIVIL SERVANT ONLINE
If you're a fan of the late Quentin Crisp, you can now visit the Quentin Crisp Archives at crisperanto.org .
A news release says the archives are meant to preserve and maintain articles, artifacts, artworks, and manuscripts relating to his life. As a young adult, Crisp faced public scrutiny in London for being flamboyant and out.
Crisp, who died in November of 1999, became world famous upon publication of his 1960 autobiography and the subsequent 1975 release of the BBC film The Naked Civil Servant.
... News briefs by David Cottrell
