Placing AIDS & HIV in Remission: A Guide to Aggressive Medical Therapy for People With HIV Infection - Hardcover

Senechek, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0965746607 ISBN 13: 9780965746601

Publisher: Senyczak Pubns, 1997

Synopsis

This is the most up-to-date and clearly written book on HIV therapy in existence. Written for the layperson and medical provider, this is a guide to aggressive medical therapy for HIV infection. It covers the HIV world epidemic, HIV viral structure, the course of the disease without treatment, all of the 11 approved medicines and approximately 20 additional in research. The core of the book describes the reasoning behind triple therapy including protease inhibitors and how to initiate this therapy in a simple manner. Other chapters cover treating resistant HIV, preventing infections, reversing weight loss, the national economics of HIV therapy, and the search for a cure. Placing AIDS & HIV in Remission is a milestone in the field of HIV therapy that no one with any interest in HIV should be without.

About this title

About the Author

The author, Dr. David Senechek, is a 1988 honors graduate of Harvard Medical School and MIT, where he was distinguished with the Lamport Biomedical Research Prize for best original research. He completed his residency at the University of California, San Francisco, is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, and also holds a degree in Astronautical Engineering with honors from the US Air Force Academy. Dr. Senechek is a pioneer in the HIV field. He has been in private practice for six years and manages the care of more than 600 patients with HIV infection.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Clock is Ticking

HIV has been spreading silently and rapidly through the world community now for more than 20 years. No country has been left unaffected by this disease and cases continue to increase. Unless effective treatment is provided and a vaccine and cure are found soon, this growing epidemic will devastate the economies of the developing world, and place ever increasing financial burdens on the economies of the West. Unstopped, the HIV epidemic could be a major factor in disrupting the population dynamics, economies, and social status of the world society within the next 10 years.

Other major society health concerns such as heart disease, cancer, or arthritis have predictable and stable rates in a given population. HIV/AIDS poses a more serious problem because it is an epidemic, a lethal infection that spreads rapidly and exponentially. Epidemics are part of human history and will occur again in the future. However, no epidemic in mankind's known history has so rapidly spread to every major country and city of the human race in so short a period of time. HIV kills more than 95% of those who do not receive treatment. For most of the world, except the industrial West, treatment of any kind is unaffordable and not available.

There is no more urgent medical need in the world today than stopping the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We must provide effective treatment and a cure for those infected, and an effective vaccine to prevent further spread of the disease. It seems clear, therefore, that the world's resources should be allocated on an unlimited scale to producing the science and medical discoveries necessary to halt the HIV/AIDS epidemic. What we do now will determine the health and event the social strata of future generations worldwide.

HIV Destroys the Structure of the Immune System

We have described the cellular damage of HIV on the T4 cell population, on macrophages, and on dendritic cells. There have also been numerous studies on the effects of HIV infection on the structure of the immune system. When HIV infects the lymph nodes of the immune system, the nodes expand, both internally and externally, in an attempt to trap and fight the HIV infection. These enlarged or "hyperplastic" lymph nodes are found on exam in most people within four weeks of HIV infection. Thus affected, lymph node tissue will show loss of T4 cells, increases in supportive immune cells, known as T8 cells, and a disorganized pattern of dendritic and macrophage cell lines.

With time, HIV causes severe scarring of the lymph node structure which results in lymph node shrinkage, called atrophy. Ultimately, the lymph system will demonstrate an absence of T4 cells, and an almost complete loss of other cell lines of the lymph nodes, including T8, dendritic cells, and the macrophage cell lines. In the final atrophied state, the immune system is in a state of collapse, unable to make T4 cells at all and unable to control HIV infection.

Concepts of Treatment: "Hit It Early & Hit It Hard"

The goal is to provide treatment that allows the immune system to become as strong as possible. The best measure of the strength of one's immune system is the T4 count and the individual's ability to avoid or fight infections. When HIV has weakened the immune system, therapy is focused on completely and continuously suppressing HIV replication. We can see how we're doing by measuring HIV viral levels. When HIV infection is completely suppressed, the immune system regains strength and the health of the person with HIV infection dramatically improves.

We've never seen anything quite like HIV. No disease in recent history has caused doctors to formulate so many theories, or people to try such bizarre therapies such as heating their blood, filling their colons with ozone, or painting their skin with caustic chemicals in an attempt to slow the disease. One must wonder why this disease has caused such chaos in the scientific as well as public community, and why confusion still exists today.

The Facts are Simple Enough

HIV is an infection that continuously and thoroughly destroys the body's immune system, resulting in sickness and death. The solution to HIV is also not complicated: successful treatment requires completely and continuously shutting off HIV replication, for it is only when HIV replicates that it causes sickness and damage. What gets complex is HIV's ability to mutate. HIV is not only a moving target, it is an ever changing moving target.

Edition details

• Publisher: Senyczak Pubns
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0965746607
• ISBN 13: 9780965746601
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Koelling Jeanne
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 202