Times Of Swaziland: SURFING HIV/AIDS SCIENCE

SURFING HIV/AIDS SCIENCE
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The Editor on 12/07/2019 03:50:00


Sir,
The 9th Bi-annual SA AIDS Conference drew over 3 000 doctors, scientists, health
department officials, non-governmental organisation and pharmaceutical company
representatives; along with a few politicians, the media and numerous AIDS
activists.
When given marching orders, the activists from Treatment Action Campaign
(TAC)paraded up and down chanting slogans and carrying signs, mostly denouncing
pharmaceutical companies for sky-high prices of their latest drugs. AIDS
conferences would be dull affairs without them. Reaching beyond South Africa,
there were researchers from Eswatini (Swaziland), Botswana, Zambia, Malawi,
Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Congo, Canada, and a gaggle of Americans whose PEPFAR
funding has done so much to support HIV research and the provision of AIDS drugs
and care across the continent.
I can say God Bless America for PEPFAR and the work they have done and the
funding they have provided African governments helping in the fight to control
this epidemic. Indeed, former President George Bush did do one big thing to help
all African nations. He and the United States deserve thanks for that.
Experience
On the opening morning of the conference e-TV interviewed your correspondent for
five minutes,  live on its morning programme. Living with HIV for 36 years,
being an AIDS researcher for 30 years and being the leading expert in Africa on
how selenium affects HIV disease is too big a draw not to ask questions. This
was the 54th AIDS conference I have attended, so I draw on a load of experience
when reporting if anything really new or spectacular came out of this indaba. A
surfer thinks of nothing but the size of the wave, so I will judge the splash
this conference made.
Then, just before the new health minster approached the podium, dozens of
members of the Treatment Action Campaign filled the stage to protest stock
outages of HIV drugs across South Africa.
Demanded
They demanded to ‘rebuild the collapsed health system’, ‘end
corruption’, and “fix the Free State health system”. All of these are
incredibly important goals. But it would also be important for TAC to learn to
read simple science so they can understand how important it is to use selenium
in addition to standard ARVs if they want their members to be healthy. Maybe if
they realized that selenium is a natural ARV – another ARV that can be added
to the combinations they are already taking – then they might be just a little
bit less angry. Currently they are causing their own stock outage – of
selenium – because they do not even know what it is – a natural ARV even
more effective against HIV disease than some of the ARVs they are protesting
about being out of stock. Adding selenium to current therapy is just like adding
icing to a cake. It improves therapeutic results.
ARVs suppress the virus allowing the body to gradually regenerate CD4 cells. But
that does not happen nearly strongly or quickly enough when there is not enough
selenium in the diet. The immune system, especially the thymus, needs selenium
in order to regenerate itself. Virology and ARVs are not a complete solution to
this disease, even though in high selenium countries like the US they may appear
to be.
Predicted
Co-infections and co-morbidities were other important topics, especially HIV
coinfection with hepatitis and tuberculosis. It is not surprising that since the
hepatitis virus and tuberculosis and pneumonia mycobacteria all deplete selenium
from the body; when you have multiple causes of selenium depletion, viral
replication increases and health degenerates at a more rapid pace. Who could
have predicted that? Since they are both part of the immune system, both the
liver and kidneys require selenium in higher proportion compared to the rest of
the body. Thus the progressive loss of selenium in HIV disease damages both the
kidneys and liver – and the heart.
There is just too much to report from a jam-packed AIDS conference. I could cite
many more facts and figuresad infinitum. Overall we agree that while progress is
being made, it is not good enough – especially in prevention. For South Africa
it is the best of times in that they have the biggest ARV program in the world
(4.4 million), yet it is the worst of times since they have the most people who
are not yet on ARVs (3.1 million). It will be decades before we are able to
bring this worldwide epidemic to a close.
As every surfer knows, when the sun begins to set, it is time to go home. There
will be more waves tomorrow and another AIDS conference just over the horizon
somewhere in the world. Although no ‘unprecedented innovations’ were
revealed at this conference, it might help if health authorities opened both
eyes and smelled the fresh ocean air. Selenium is concentrated in seafood
because fish swim in ocean water teaming with viruses. If health officials want
to utilise an ‘unprecedented innovation’ to benefit people living with HIV,
who deserve better than they are getting now; follow the lead of Nigeria, Rwanda
and Zambia and examine the logic of adding selenium to ARV therapy – adding
icing to the cake of ARVs..
Selenium supplements are available, affordable and sustainable. They are
scientifically proven to increase CD4 count, reduce opportunistic infections and
have no contraindications or negative side effects. No one really needs to think
outside they box. They just need to open their eyes and ears and use good common
sense. Is that so difficult?
It’s time for this old surfer to go home – sad that people are still sick
and dying who do not need to be. Like following the waves, I’ll have to jump a
jet to touch down at my next AIDS conference, hoping to open the eyes of
officials to not just look at virology, but also look to the benefits of
understanding the immunology of this disease. Maybe the scientific waves will be
bigger in Mexico City – but sharks are ever present.
Howard Armistead