At a cafe on 18th Street in San Francisco, David sipped coffee and talked about the regimen of daily HIV pills he recently started: Viread in July, and then last month, Isentress. He looked exhausted.
David does not have HIV. For 20 years he has endured a debilitating case of chronic fatigue syndrome, which has left him unable to work.
“All of a sudden my brain dies,” said David, who asked that only his first name be used for privacy reasons. “I have such a narrow range of concentration.” He hopes the medications will help.
Thirty years into the AIDS epidemic, the antiretroviral drugs that have provided lifesaving treatment for many of those infected with HIV — 1.1 million in the United States today — are now being used or considered for treating other ailments.
When medications have proved safe and effective for most patients, it is standard practice for pharmaceutical companies to see if the drugs have other applications. But with HIV drugs, the practice has been unusually contentious, fostering debates about questionable science, safety and profiteering, and concerns that thousands of Americans infected with HIV cannot get the medications.