MMeM, Vol. 9 Issue 30 – HIV+/-?

Two weeks ago I stumbled upon a story about a baby in MS that had been HIV+. The child had been undergoing the requisite anti-viral drug treatment as soon as the infection in the baby had been determined. This infection was most likely the result of the mother having been HIV positive.

Anyway, as the story goes apparently because the baby was treated so soon after birth with the antiretroviral medicines of the day, the infection and all traces of HIV have been completely removed. Doctors are, in addition to being cautiously optimistic, very surprised and left scratching their heads. This was HUGE! Many doctors actually say that this is the first documented and reported example of an HIV+ human being effectively cured.

When I read this story I thought, “Hallelujah!” All of the work, research, fundraising, and hand-ringing for more than 20 years is paying off. At the time I thought that this would be the biggest story in the world, for days or weeks at least. I immediately monitored several search engines for trends and topics referring to this miracle. But, as you can guess by my tone in this post, that evidence never came.

Instead, search engines were over-run with searches and trends containing the following:

• The Bachelor
• Carnival Cruise
• Paul Bearer – from the WWE and wrestler Gravedigger
• Daylight Savings Time – what time is it?
• Jennifer Love Hewitt – boobs
• The Hangover 3
• Casey Anthony
• Dennis Rodman

Well, you get the idea. There was much more important stuff to worry about these past 2 weeks.