USA: HIV women no.1 threat

February 24, 2005 -- BOSTON — HIV-positive women in New York City are more likely to have unprotected sex than infected gay or heterosexual men, a new Health Department survey has found.

The anonymous computer-assisted study done in 2004 of 1,106 HIV patients found that more than 750 of them were sexually active.

Among those, 307 women were sexually active, with nearly half, 144, saying they had engaged in unsafe sex within the previous 12 months.

This shows that "people, even though they are infected, still need to use condoms," said Christopher Murrill, the New York City Health Department's research director.

He said condom use was essential by this group not just to prevent spreading the virus but to ensure they didn't get other infections.

Murrill presented the findings yesterday at an international scientific gathering here to discuss HIV.

Participants in the Health Department study at four city-run clinics were not asked if they told their partners their HIV status and Murrill couldn't say for sure if more infected women were in general practicing unsafe sex or just more willing to report it.

The reasons given by participants for unsafe sex included: partners didn't want to use condoms; none were immediately available; some partners also had the HIV virus; and safe sex was difficult to practice.

Marjorie Hill, who runs the women's Institute at Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), said a lot of women are still struggling with safe sex issues even when they already are infected.

"Some women don't feel they are equal partners [for socio-economic reasons] and can't make demands on the men," Hill said.

She also pointed out that it is men who actually need to use the condoms.

Of 341 HIV-infected heterosexual men, 131, or 38 percent, had unsafe sex within the previous year.

For gay men, 51 out of 137, or 37 percent, had had unprotected sex with other men.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: 24 February 2005
Source: New York Post (NY)
Section: Pg 24
Copyright: 2005 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
Contact: letters@nypost.com
Website: http://www.nypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/296
Author: Frankie Edozien

USA: Deadly AIDS Strain May Have Meth Link

Researchers are looking into whether a rare strain of the HIV virus recently identified in New York could be related to a spike in methamphetamine use among young gays and other high-risk groups.

The New York Times reported Feb .22 that not only does meth lower inhibitions -- leading to more high-risk sex -- the drug also seems to hurt the immune system, raising the risk of getting HIV.

"There seems to be something about methamphetamine that predisposes people to HIV infection," said Dr. Grant Colfax, co-director of the HIV epidemiology biostatistics and intervention department at the AIDS office of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. "When we look at why methamphetamine is increasingly responsible for the HIV epidemic, I do think we need to look more closely at whether it is somehow suppressing immunity and increasing viral loads."

The New York man found to be carrying the rare version of HIV is thought to have been a meth user. Studies have shown that meth use raises the risk for HIV infection, even when subjects are controlled for other factors.

Meth seems to suppress killer T cells, which fight infection. the drug also tends to dry out mucous membranes, raising the likelihood of abrasions that could lead to infection.

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Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: 24 February 2005
Source: Join Together
Website: http://www.jointogether.org

USA: Weighing in on prevention

Some veteran gay activists are proposing radical new HIV-prevention strategies to combat unprotected sex among some sexually active gay men, including confronting these men directly in sex parties and chat rooms. Justifying the aggressive new stance in an interview with the New York Times, Charles Kaiser, a noted gay author, was quoted saying, "A person who is HIV-positive has no more right to unprotected intercourse than he has the right to put a bullet through another person's head."

In an era when the Bush administration is spending millions advocating abstinence-only prevention, are these acceptable measures?

How do you think the LGBT community should combat the upswing in unsafe sex?

There are a lot of dumb gay men out there right now with limited respect for themselves and for others when it comes to unsafe sex and drugs. Crystal is worse than heroin: It reduces you to a fucking right-wing robot -- a superconsumer of sex, as if it were some kind of K-Mart blue-light special. Some say it destroys the part of your brain that allows you to experience pleasure without help from the drug.

This reported new virus is a huge wake-up call. I don't mind scare tactics from peers in the community -- better that than from the goddamned government. There needs to be serious cash for new education campaigns with new slogans that are tailored to the present situation. The recent crystal ads were a good start, but the messages have to be more specific to young homos' lives: If you become positive, you'll have a much more difficult time finding a boyfriend. If you become positive you'll have to get a job with health insurance for the rest of your life. If you're poor, you could die. If you continue to fuck around unsafely, you could die faster. No one knows the long-term effects of HIV -- this supervirus makes complete sense from a biological point of view, and it could be only the beginning of big trouble.

And somebody's got to do something about the sex sites. They've got a lot to answer for. They've got to shut down the crystal culture on their sites before the government does. Keep Bush out of this.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: February 2005
Source: Gay.com
Website: http://www.gay.com
Author: John Cameron Mitchell

USA: Gay Users of Internet Play Down Concerns Over New Strain of AIDS

Alerts popped like flashbulbs all over the Web this weekend as news of a rare and potentially more aggressive form of H.I.V., first reported publicly in New York on Friday, spread through gay chat rooms, Web logs, dating sites and e-mail.

Officials said the H.I.V. strain had been detected in an unidentified man who, while using crystal methamphetamine, had engaged in unprotected anal sex with multiple partners. Gay users of the Web, especially those who initiate sexual encounters online, had ample reason for concern: the man had apparently met some of those partners on an unnamed Web site.

And yet, while a touch of anger and fear could be found among the Web's textual din, some of the most popular gay dating and discussion sites buzzed with the usual banter of love and lust, with many of those online advising against panic.

Health officials said the new strain was worrisome because it had resisted nearly all the drugs used to treat the viral infection and had progressed swiftly to full-fledged AIDS. When a participant in a popular gay forum at Craigslist.org, an online bulletin board, whoidentified himself as armyjackson1 asked on Saturday if he was the only one "freaked out" by the news, the responses recommended calm.

"Let's not freak out," a user with the ID jrzcty wrote. Another said: "Use protection, steer clear of party drugs, and encourage your friends to do the same. This is no time to freak out - it's just time to sober up."

It was much the same at other sites. For example, the new strain of the virus, which one Web log labeled "H.I.V. 2.0," attracted little interest at Gay.com. The site, which maintains more than four million dating profiles and has about 30,000 users online at any given time, manages dozens of chat rooms. An academic study that surveyed about 3,000 of the site's users in 2002 found that 84 percent had met sex
partners online, and that these users were 6 percent more likely to have unprotected anal sex than those who met their partners offline.

At Gay.com, the topic of AIDS rarely came up. In one of the Brooklyn discussions yesterday, about 50 men lurked and flirted, offering opportunities to meet, as advertisements for gay video sites repeatedly interrupted. In more than three hours of online conversation, the new strain of H.I.V. was not mentioned once.

During a private online chat with a reporter, Louis, 37, a former publisher of a gay tabloid who was in Gay.com's Brooklyn chat room yesterday, said the site's users were not panicking because they already understood the danger of H.I.V. mutations.

He said that after he became infected with H.I.V. in 2004, he learned a great deal about the various permutations of the virus as his doctor struggled to identify his strain. Many other gay men, he said, are equally well informed, and need more information about the current scare before they can share health officials' concern.

"If the guy had multiple partners, he could have picked up a bunch of different mutations to begin with," he wrote. "There is still a lot of scientific 'what abouts' and 'what ifs' that go along with this story."

Louis, who answered questions on the condition of anonymity because he has not yet come out to some of his relatives, also said reaction might be delayed because those who are infected by the unidentified man still need to be tested. And even if they are found to be positive, it could take weeks to know whether they are infected with exactly the same strain. For now, he said, the new strain is "not that big a deal."

Others went even further in dismissing the warning. In the misc.health.aids Usenet group found through Google, a contributor with the name PaulKing wrote: "Some poor NY meths addict, who has wrecked his immune system with this highly dangerous drug, is being used to try to revive the dying 'AIDS' myth. Seems they will stop at nothing to
keep the big bucks rolling in and the public in fear of sex. Shame on them."

City officials reject the claim that they are trying to scare people into abstinence, stressing that the public was alerted so that medical providers would be more vigilant.

Convincing people to alter their behavior may not be easy, however.

Jon, a 33-year-old New York escort who uses the Web site Manhunt.com, a popular gay dating site, said in a telephone interview that even the most educated and cautious often slip into dangerous behavior. On Friday night, he said, an H.I.V.-positive lover he had met online came over to watch a movie. Though he worked in health care for 15 years and usually insists on practicing protected sex, this time he did not make his lover wear a condom.

"After the sex, I freaked out," he said. "I thought, 'How stupid to go that route after 40 years of being negative.' "

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: 14 Feb 2005
Source: New York Times (NY)
Section: National Desk, Pg A1, Column 2
Copyright: 2005 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Damien Cave

USA: Experts dispute New York Aids alert

The HIV/Aids epidemic has affection millions worldwide

A day after New York health officials issued an alert over the discovery of a fast-developing Aids case, experts are saying there is no real cause to panic.

Alarm bells rang on Friday after health officials announced that "a highly resistant strain of a rapidly progressive" HIV had been diagnosed for the first time in a city resident.

But leading experts downplayed the alarm on Saturday.

"There is absolutely no evidence that this is a super virus," Dr Robert Gallo, director of the University of Maryland's Institute for Human Virology said. Gallo is a co-discoverer of HIV, the virus which causes Aids.

The case was found in an unidentified man in his 40s with a history of unprotected gay sex. He developed Aids as early as 2-3 months after infection, and no more than 20 months, officials said.

Alert

Dr Thomas Frieden, commissioner of the New York City Development of Health and Mental Hygiene, called the case a potential major problem and the department issued an alert to hospitals and doctors to test for evidence of the strain of HIV.

The strain was resistant to three of the four classes of Aids drugs, and the concern was compounded by the fast onset of the disease, the health department said.

"There is absolutely no evidence that this is a super virus"

Dr Robert Gallo

Director of the University of Maryland's Institute for Human Virology
However, Gallo said it was prudent to pay attention to the case, but there was no evidence that the virus in question could be transmitted. He said the type of HIV that may be involved in the New York man's case can be particularly virulent, but it is difficult to transmit.

"This is not novel and the odds are enormous that the virus is not going to go anywhere," he said. What could change the assessment is if there were multiple cases of the virus being retransmitted, he said.

Dr John Moore, an Aids researcher at Cornell University's Medical School, was similarly cautious over the New York health department's announcement.

"Is this particular virus something that completely changes the equation? No I don't think it does," he said. "Rather than a big super bug, it might turn out to be quite wimpy."

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: 13 February 2005
Source: Aljazeera
Website: http://www.aljazeera.net

USA: New AIDS super bug

A frightening, never-before-seen "superstrain" of the AIDS virus - unimaginably aggressive and resistant to nearly all treatments - has been found in New York City, alarmed health officials announced yesterday.

A gay, 40-something city man recently diagnosed with the new virulent strain is believed to be the first known case in the world.

The most striking characteristic of the strain is that full-blown AIDS sets in with lightning speed after HIV infection - as quick as two to three months, in contrast to the nine- to 10-year lag that is normally the case when a victim is untreated.

"We've not seen a case like this before," city Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said at a press conference yesterday.

"We've identified this strain of HIV that is difficult or impossible to treat and which appears to progress rapidly to AIDS."

Ronald Valdiserri, a deputy director at the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, said: "We're talking about a single case, but clearly the fact that we are dealing with such broad resistance of drugs and the rapid clinical progression is quite alarming.

"We have to use this as a wake-up call to remember that HIV is still a formidable adversary," he added, noting that federal health officials aren't aware of another case like this in the United States or elsewhere.

Kendall Smith, an HIV researcher at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center, said that because the virus is constantly mutating, a possible superstrain "has been the dark shadow lurking behind us."

The superstrain was dubbed "3-DCR HIV" because it's resistant to three of the four HIV drug classes that are currently in use, which amounts to 19 of 20 drugs that are rendered useless.

The infected city man, who was diagnosed in December, is believed to have contracted HIV in October. He already has progressed to full-blown AIDS, officials said.

The man, whose name was not released, engaged in high-risk sexual practices with multiple male partners, officials said. They are now trying to locate his partners.

The man's judgment was clouded because he was taking the drug crystal methamphetamine, which causes users to lose their inhibitions.

While city officials don't know how wide the new virus has spread, they are ramping up safe-sex messages.

Ana Oliveira, executive director of Gay Men's Health Crisis, said fighting crystal meth and other drugs is instrumental in bringing down rates of HIV infection.

"This is a story of somebody who remained HIV-negative for over 40 years which is a success, but under the influence of crystal meth made decisions and took risks," Oliveira said of the infected city man.

There are about 88,000 New Yorkers living with HIV.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: 13 February 2005
Source: New York Post (NY)
Section: Pg 24
Copyright: 2005 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
Contact: letters@nypost.com
Website: http://www.nypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/296
Author: Frankie Edozien

USA: US warns of new drug-resistant HIV strain

United States officials say a new strain of the AIDS virus that is drug-resistant and also causes a quick onset of the disease has been discovered in New York, prompting an alert to city health providers.

Officials say use of the illegal drug crystal methamphetamine was probably a contributing factor in transmission of the virus, which infected an unidentified man in his 40s who had multiple male partners and unprotected anal sex.

The New York Times quoted two other AIDS specialists as saying the case, discovered on January 21, may have been an isolated incident.

But Dr Thomas Frieden, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, called the case a potential major problem and issued an alert to hospitals and doctors to test for evidence of the strain of HIV.

Officials say it is the first time in New York that a strain of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has been diagnosed that is both highly resistant to major anti-AIDS drugs and progressed rapidly.

"It's a wake-up call to men who have sex with men, particularly those who may use crystal methamphetamine," Dr Frieden said in a statement on the department's website.

Methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant often used in conjunction with sex.

- Reuters

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: Sunday, 13 February 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Website: http://www.abc.net.au
Email: comments@your.abc.net.au
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

USA: Navajo Nation Outlaws Meth

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — The Navajo Nation's (search) governing council voted Friday to outlaw methamphetamine, an addictive stimulant that has become a scourge for tribal police and health officials on the sprawling reservation.

The tribe's drug laws ban most other substances that are illegal in the rest of the United States, but until Friday made no specific mention of methamphetamine (search).

"This legislation is a matter of urgency," said Hope MacDonald-LoneTree, who sponsored the bill and heads a public safety committee updating the Navajo's criminal code, which, she said, had not been updated "for a couple of decades."

The measure passed in a 64-0 voice vote. It now goes to Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. (search) for consideration; he has previously said he would support codes to stop drug and alcohol use on the Navajo Nation, which is home to roughly 200,000 people.

The bill would make the possession or sale of methamphetamine punishable by up to one year in tribal jail and a $5,000 fine.

The council was meeting in a special session called after it failed to vote on the bill during its scheduled winter session last month.

Law enforcement officials say most methamphetamine on the vast reservation — the largest in the United States, reaching into parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah — is brought in from Phoenix or Albuquerque, N.M., repackaged and sold.

The FBI estimates up to 40 percent of the violent crime cases it handles on the reservation are methamphetamine related.

"Under the influence of methamphetamine, people don't think rationally," said FBI special agent Nick Manns, who testified on behalf of the bill.

He said the new law will allow authorities to put more pressure on methamphetamine distributors because tribal police can arrest people for its sale and use.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: Friday, 11 February 2005
Source: Fox News (USA)
Author: Associated Press
Copyright: 2005 Fox News
Website: http://www.foxnews.com
Email: comments@foxnews.com

USA: NYC Health Officials Find New, Virulent HIV Strain

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- New York City doctors have discovered a man with a previously unseen strain of HIV that is resistant to three of the four types of anti-viral drugs that combat the disease, and progresses from infection to full-blown AIDS in two or three months, the health department said.

``We've identified this strain of HIV that is difficult or impossible to treat and which appears to progress rapidly to AIDS,'' said New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden. ``We have not seen a case like this before. It holds the potential for a very serious public health problem.''

The case was diagnosed in a New Yorker in his mid-40s who reported multiple male sex partners and unprotected anal sex -- often while using the drug crystal methamphetamine.

``It is likely there are others infected with this strain and this individual has infected others,'' Frieden said. The case is ``extremely concerning and a wake-up call,'' he said.

Antonio Urbina, medical director of HIV education and training at St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Center, site of one of Manhattan's largest AIDS clinics, said the patient's use of crystal methamphetamine shows that the drug ``continues to play a significant role in facilitating the transmission of HIV.'' The drug reduces peoples' inhibitions and their likelihood of using condoms or other forms of safe sex, he said.

`Alarming'

While drug resistance is increasingly common among patients who have been treated for HIV, cases of three-class antiretroviral-resistant HIV -- or 3-DCR HIV -- in newly diagnosed, previously untreated patients are extremely rare, and the combination of this pattern of drug resistance and rapid progression to AIDS may not have been seen previously, the health department said in a news release.

The strain found in New York was ``highly unusual,'' said Ronald Valdiserri, 53, deputy director of the National Center for HIV, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Tuberculosis at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in an interview.

``We're talking about a single case, but clearly the fact that we are dealing with such broad resistance of drugs and the rapid clinical progression is quite alarming,'' Valdiserri said.

U.S. health officials intend to contact clinics across the country to set up a surveillance system for the HIV strain, he said. City officials are working to identify, contact and counsel the patient's sex partners, Frieden said.

Fuzeon

Frieden said the one drug the HIV strain isn't resistant to is Enfuvirtide, sold under the trade name Fuzeon, developed by Trimeris Inc. of Durham, North Carolina, and Roche Holding AG of Switzerland. The problem, Frieden and other physicians said, is that this drug is most effective when used in a ``cocktail'' with other retrovirus drugs such as nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors.

Trimeris stock closed at $13.60, up 86 cents or 6.75 percent, in composite trading on the Nasdaq, the biggest single- day percentage gain since Sept. 10, when it rose 11.49 percent, and down $4.63 from $17.93 a year ago. Roche shares traded at 123.2 Swiss Francs, up 0.5 francs, in composite trading in Zurich, down six Swiss Francs from a year ago.

The news ``is probably positive for Trimeris,'' said Sharon Seiler, a biotech analyst with New York-based Punk, Ziegel & Co., which she said owns no shares in the company, though it does act as a market maker. Fuzeon's required twice-daily injections and the need to mix the solution for 20 minutes ``have been significant impediments to the drug's sales'' in two years on the market, she said.

Fast Onset

The drug, which costs a patient an average $20,000, is the first in a class called fusion inhibitors that work by preventing HIV from infecting healthy cells.

The infected New Yorker had gone for AIDS tests frequently over the years and tested negatively until December, when he tested positive for the virus, Frieden said. Physicians believe he became infected in October.

``In this patient's case, onset of AIDS appears to have occurred within two or three months and at most 20 months after HIV infection,'' Frieden said. The patient, whose name was withheld, has symptoms usually associated ``with someone who has very advanced disease,'' he said.

The normal time of progression from infection to full-blown AIDS in an untreated patient is about nine years, with death following within 18 months, said Karlie Stanton, a spokeswoman for the CDC in Atlanta. For someone treated with anti-viral drugs, the average progression to disease from infection is 11 years, with death occurring within an average six years, Stanton said.

Watching for Cases

Doctors at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in Manhattan diagnosed the patient, Frieden said. David Ho, director of the center, said that while this represents a single case, ``it is prudent to closely watch for any additional possible cases while continuing to emphasize the importance of reducing HIV risk behavior.''

Persons diagnosed and living with HIV/AIDS in New York City totaled 88,479 out of a total population of 7.3 million in calendar year 2003, the last year in which statistics are available.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Henry Goldman at New York City Hall hgoldman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Edward DeMarco at edemarco1@bloomberg.net.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: 11 February 2005
Source: Bloomberg.com
Author: Henry Goldman

UK: Viagra: the hard sell

Viagra - it is the drug that has transformed the lives of millions and changed the way we think about sex forever.

The rise and rise of Viagra has created a £1.5bn worldwide market in anti-impotence pills.

Now rivals are fighting for a share of the spoils and it is becoming a recreational drug of choice for some in the party generation.

Last week, Pfizer's chief executive Henry McKinnell warned that Chinese made counterfeits posed a threat to its business and urged the country's authorities to clamp down on the copycats.

New research

Pfizer, the world's biggest pharmaceutical company, stumbled on the drug by accident at their research labs in Sandwich, Kent.

In the late 1980s, they had been developing a new treatment for angina, but noticed a strange side-effect in trials - increased erections among volunteers.

The effect on their sex lives was so marked that once the angina trails were over the volunteers wanted to keep on taking the medication.

Pfizer decided to commission some new research.

In 1989 they approached Clive Gingell, one of Britain's top Urological Surgeons, based in Bristol.

He had spent his whole career trying to treat and improve the lives of thousands of men suffering from impotence.

In those days, commonly used treatments included the fitting of implants directly into the penis, a vacuum pump and self injection.

Most sufferers were thoroughly put off and consigned themselves to a life without sex.

Viagra arrives

Mr Gingell ran a new series of trials, and the results impressed him.

He describes Viagra as "a wonder drug".

"The thought of having a pill that would cure impotence was amazing to me," he says.

"I never thought I would see it in my lifetime."

"There has been a kind of Holy Grail idea associated with curing impotence," Pfizer's Mariann Caprino tells the Money Programme.

"And here it was in a little blue pill."

Colossal market

When Viagra was launched in 1998, Pfizer's share price doubled. It was apparent that there was a huge previously untapped market out there.

Doctors claim that half of all men over 40 become impotent at some point in their lives.

That is more than 150 million worldwide, with two million sufferers in Britain alone, so the potential market for drugs like Viagra is colossal.

Overnight Viagra made Pfizer famous. "We discovered the mass production of penicillin, yet it was Viagra that put Pfizer on the map," says Ms Caprino.

Embarrassing subject

Nevertheless, despite the highly successful launch, the company faced a huge potential problem in selling Viagra.

Men were simply not willing to talk about impotence, they were ashamed.

If they were not prepared to discuss their impotence, how could they be persuaded to ask their doctor for a prescription?

Ray Reynolds, who suffered from impotence for 30 years, had simply given up hope of ever being able to have sex again.

"I thought well, I'll just put it to one side and remain a eunuch for the rest of my life," he says.

Celebrity endorsement

To overcome the problem, Pfizer came up with a series of marketing ploys.

Firstly, they asked the Vatican, and other world religious leaders, for their blessing. This headed off possible moral and religious objections.

Secondly, they employed big name celebrities to encourage men to seek treatment for impotence.

Pele, the legendary footballer, headed a men's health campaign about erection problems, and 75 year old former US Presidential candidate Bob Dole went public for Pfizer about his own impotence problem.

American men rushed to their doctors.

Leon Steinberg, an 84-year-old impotence sufferer living in a retirement community in Florida, was impressed by Mr Dole's courage in coming forward.

"When I saw it on TV, I admired him for it," he says.

"You might say he was my idol."

Withdrawal of campaign

Pfizer decided not to use the term "impotence" in the advertisements, instead replacing it with a more bland technical term "erectile dysfunction".

Pfizer's Mike Suesserman says the new term "allowed us to make the condition a household name".

Pfizer reasoned that few men may admit to impotence, which employs a complete loss of ability, but a lot more may own up to erectile dysfunction, which suggests a much broader range of symptoms.

But Pfizer's aggressive marketing campaign has recently run into trouble.

A recent television advertisement has been criticized in the United States for suggesting that Viagra might be better and more effective for patients than the clinical experience suggests.

The Food and Drug Administration ordered its withdrawal.

Efficient sex

There are potential problems, too, in the increasing use of Viagra as a recreational drug.

"For a lot of gay people it is just a normal way of life," says Gary Mercado, who runs the Elysium Resort, the largest gay hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

When Viagra is taken with amphetamines, "you forget about having protective sex, so there are huge capabilities of transmitting all sorts of sexual diseases", he says.

Pfizer says that a very small percentage of people abuse Viagra, but accepts there is great potential in developing the market for sexual pharmaceuticals.

Meika Loe, author of the book The Rise of Viagra, agrees: "In the Viagra era, sexuality is subject to the cult of efficiency. It's become almost McDonald's-ised. Serve it up fast and hot."

The Money Programme: Viagra: The Hard Sell was broadcast at 2200 GMT on Wednesday, 9 February on BBC Two.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: Wednesday, 9th February 2005
Source: British Broadcasting Corporation
Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk
Copyright: 2005 British Broadcasting Corporation