Question:

My partner has been HIV+ for 25 years. His HIV is undetectable, but he now has Devic's (thought to be a form of MS). I have expressed my theory to many doctors that it was his HIV med's that kept him alive. He recovered better than anyone that Johns Hopkins had seen. It makes sense to me that HIV meds could work for MS/TM/Devic's and others but only a few Doctors (one at Stanford) have taken an interest. Is there any more information available about this?

Answer provided by:

Mark H. Katz, M.D.
Regional HIV/AIDS Physician Coordinator
Kaiser Permanente of Southern California

If your partner is receiving care at Johns Hopkins, he could not be doing much better in terms of where to obtain health care! It is a wonderful institution, and whatever information is available on Devic's and HIV, they would know it. I am familiar with Devic's syndrome--but have seen only one case in 30 years of practice (not in an HIV+ patient), just to give you an idea of how uncommon it is.

Thus, you are likely not going to find much information on it. However, the enclosed web sites may help you in your search. But I would speak to your partner's providers for more thoughts.

Good luck!

http://jnnp.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/68/6/795a

http://www.steadyhealth.com/Is_there_any_physical_therapy_for_devic_s_syndrome__t54277.html

http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Labs/Archive/TestingHIV/Q131532.html

http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/what_causes_multiple_sclerosis_000017_4.htm

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