Lower Pneumonia Risk in Some With AIDS. “Researchers
are offering additional evidence
that people infected with the AIDS
virus can safely stop taking drugs
designed to prevent a deadly
pneumonia as long as their immune
systems are relatively healthy.” The risk of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, an opportunistic infection that was one of the early causes of devastation in HIV-infected patients, has consigned a generation of AIDS sufferers to preventive therapy. This new finding is important both because of the possibility they do not have to take pneumocystis-preventing meds but also as a paradigm. If the immune system with modern AIDS treatment can be kept vigorous enough to prevent this infection, patients may be at lower risk than commonly thought from other infections that prey on immune-compromised hosts. New York Times