IT CAN EVEN TURN A BUSH-VOTING PRO-WAR PUNDIT INTO A CABANA BOY TOY:

Scans show loss of brain tissue with HIV: Drug cocktails help people live longer, but cognitive functions remain vulnerable. (Susan Brink, November 7, 2005, LA Times)

Neurologists who study AIDS have watched, waited and worried for nearly a decade about the long-term effect of HIV on the brain. They've known that the drug cocktails that so effectively extend lives don't protect the brain very well from the virus.

Now they've gotten their first actual look at the destruction HIV causes in living brains. A study published by the National Academy of Sciences last month used 3-D brain scans to see how much tissue was damaged. In vivid, color-coded images, researchers found up to 15% tissue loss in the centers that regulate movement and coordination, as well as a thinning of the language and reasoning centers.

"As people are living longer, the major risk of HIV is not the immune system anymore, but the brain," said Dr. Paul Thompson, professor of neurology at the UCLA School of Medicine and author of the brain scan study. "People who are doing well with HIV, living with it for over 10 years, have this progressive damage going on in the brain, well before symptoms are obvious."

For the more than 1 million Americans living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, it could mean minor problems with forgetfulness — or it could mean early-onset dementia is on the horizon.