CANADA: Widespread HAART Treatment Reduces New HIV Infections

A new study just published in British Columbia suggests that a very effective way to prevent new HIV infections may be to put all pozzers on HAART therapy.

A new study conducted in British Columbia has found that the infection rate in the province has been halved since 1996 by the widespread adoption of HAART, researchers reported online Sunday in the journal Lancet and at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna. For every 100 new patients treated, the infection rate went down 3%, Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, reported. "This study strengthens the evidence that maximizing HAART coverage within current medical guidelines will help to curb the spread of HIV," Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in a statement. The agency funded the study. "These findings are especially important since new HIV cases have remained stubbornly steady in the United States at a rate of about 56,000 per year for the past 10 years." British Columbia is a good place for such a study because it is relatively small — population about 4,420,00 — and everyone in the province receives free medical care.

Earlier this year the San Francisco Health Department recommended patients begin HAART therapy immediately upon diagnosis, regardless of disease progression, a strategy that has been met with some controversy.

At The Florent World Premiere

Thursday night Father Tony and I attended the world premiere of Florent: Queen Of The Meat Market, David Sigal's documentary of the of famed Meatpacking District restaurant, its flamboyant owner Florent Morellet, and the incredible scenes staged almost nightly over the 25 years that NYC's night creatures inhabited the place.

On hand at the premiere was a who's who of Manhattan's downtown scene, including Michael Musto, Murray Hill, Penny Arcade, Edgar Rodriquez, Dirty Martini, Brian Griffin, Kenneth Walsh, Simon Doonan, and Jonathan Adler. One person I didn't expect to meet was openly gay DNC treasurer Andrew Tobias, who outed himself as a JMG reader.

The movie is a sort of tone poem to the now lost Meatpacking scene and the audience cheered every time a beloved Florent employee or patron appeared on the screen. But it's also a real history of NYC activism, AIDS, art, and nightlife. After the screening, everybody moved into a giant room next door where performance artists and Florent regulars Tigger, Penny Arcade, Murray Hill, and others did their thing on stage as we noshed, drank, and mingled far too late on a school night. I got to chat a chat times with director David Sigal (also a devout JMG reader!) and he seemed thrilled with his film's reception. Even if you've never lived in Manhattan, you should definitely find Florent when it appears at your local film festival.

RELATED: This week Gothamist posted a great interview with David Sigal and five years ago Towleroad published a lengthy profile on Florent. Father Tony's possibly NSFW slideshow from the premiere is here.