Is AIDS still a crisis? Consider these questions before answering...

Did you know:
One U.S. teenager is infected with HIV every hour?
The new promising drug treatments are extremely expensive, difficult and complicated to follow? Currently, a very small percentage of people living with HIV and AIDS in the U.S. are on the new drug therapies. The failure rate of the new drug treatments may run as high as 50 percent.

While the rate of HIV infection has remained relatively steady for gay men and white Americans, HIV infection has increased among women and black Americans?
While there has been a decrease in the death rate from AIDS-related illnesses, more people than ever are infected with HIV?

What that means...
The services Narco Freedom provides for men, women with HIV and AIDS and their families throughout New York City, and Narco Freedom's AIDS prevention education and advocacy efforts are more necessary than ever before. For the first time in more than a decade, there is exciting news in the fight against AIDS. Recent advances in treatment of HIV infection, known as "combination drug therapy," are providing hope of a longer life for some people living with HIV and AIDS. Although this development is very encouraging, it is important to know the facts and challenges.

What are protease inhibitors?
Protease inhibitors are new drugs designed to stop the reproduction of HIV in the body. They work by blocking the enzyme that the virus needs in order to infect blood cells.

What are "drug cocktails" or combination therapies?
Clinical trials have shown that protease inhibitors, taken in combination with other anti-viral drugs like AZT, ddI and d4T, can lower the amount of HIV in the blood. This triple combination slows HIV's ability to reproduce and make more HIV.

Who are the people being helped by the new drugs?
Only a small percentage of the people in the United States living with HIV and AIDS are on the new and expensive drug therapies. Who are the people not being helped by the new drugs? The remaining men, women and children with HIV and AIDS in the United States who don't have the money (combined drug therapies cost $15,000 to $20,000 per year for medication alone), medical insurance, and resources to work through the system to access the drug therapies. Every day, more than 8,500 people worldwide (nearly half of them women) are infected with HIV -- that's one person every 11 seconds. The vast majority of these people will never have access to the new drug therapies before they die.

Will the new drugs help everybody who gets them?
No. Just like other intensive drug treatments - chemotherapy, for example - these combination treatments are highly toxic. Many people cannot withstand the medicines' toxicity, which acts like a poison in the body, and have to stop taking them.

Why is it so difficult to adhere to this treatment?
Because an enormous number of pills (on average 20 per day) must be taken at strict intervals and under specific conditions. For example, some drugs must be taken on an empty stomach in the middle of the day, or on a full stomach at night - some need to be taken with fatty foods, and some with liquids. Imagine not being able to eat when you're hungry or sleep when you're tired because your life depends on it.

Can people develop a resistance to protease inhibitors?
Yes. Especially if the drugs are not taken properly. Skipping doses, taking less then the prescribed dose, not following food guidelines, and not taking the drugs on schedule can cause resistance. The consequences of not meticulously following the regimen are dire. The treatment will not be successful, and it is speculated that a stronger, drug resistant strain of HIV could be created in the person's body.

What are the long-term effects of protease inhibitors?
We do not know. (The drugs only have a relatively short track record.) We also do not know the long-term effectiveness of the treatments.

NOTE: Portions of this Q&A series are from the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York.