According to Sheen’s ex-wife, Denise Richards, he contracted the virus after they divorced. She is not infected, and neither are their 10- and 11-year-old children. Also according to Richards, she knew about his diagnosis “for years.”
Poor Charlie. I don’t wish HIV on anyone, no matter how “horrible” or “abominable” they are. Granted, it’s no longer a death sentence, but that antiretroviral regimen is no walk in the park either. At least he has meds, though. Hard to believe that only thirty years ago his diagnosis meant almost certain death…
All that being said: Good grief, man. We know how to prevent this disease! What were you thinking?!
If he knew his status and was getting treatment then it’s likely his viral count was very low and the two people he had sex with are at relatively low risk.
The risk of transmission from each act of unprotected sex is not as high as people think and if he’s in treatment then it’s even lower.
Ironically I gave a guest lecture on hiv yesterday morning and someone asked how you prevent transmission with IDUs ( injection drug users). If anyone is curious and ever needs this advice since very few places have drug exchange programs, most anywhere you can buy animal medicine will sell clean needles. Clean needles are really the only way to prevent transmission in IDUs.
I cannot imagine why one would have unprotected sex with a man well known to have had hundreds of sexual partners, prostitutes among them. You would have to know you were risking not only contracting HIV, but any number of other STDs. It doesn’t make him less culpable if he deliberately kept his status a secret and insisted upon engaging in unprotected sex, but given his admitted sexual history, you would have to be pretty gullible to accept his word that he was safe.
The only 100% safe sex is abstinence, but one also knows that some people have more risk factors than others, and that the prudent thing to do when in a relationship with a person whose acknowledged sexual history makes him very high risk is to insist on protection.
Porn stars probably aren’t remarkable for their good sense and discretion. But she may be able to turn this into another payday. You can see her laying the groundwork in the interview.
I am glad that she is not HIV positive. I gather she entered the porn industry after they started making all of the participants be tested…
Both H and I lost friends to AIDS in the 80s. I’m thrilled that the treatments enable people to live a much longer and relatively normal life. If he has been paying blackmail, that should come to a quick end now that he’s gone public.
I just an interview with a doctor who specializes in HIV related issues. He said that with proper treatment, HIV would probably not lessen Charlie Sheen’s lifespan at all.
In fact, he may be in more danger from his smoking habit than his HIV status.
Yes.
Provided that someone knows their status, monitors it properly, and takes the proper medicine the odds are very good that you’ll live a normal lifespan.
It’s been this way for several years and it’s very frustrating that many people still think of HIV as a death sentence.
@romanigypsyeyes, I’ve known for a while that the lifespan of HIV positive individuals has been vastly expanded, but I actually didn’t know they can essentially control it indefinitely. That’s awesome. I wish they could do the same with cancer. My friend lost her daughter less than two weeks ago to brain cancer, and today my aunt died of breast cancer.