AIDS in the Rent film...

Remember that not everyone who dies of AIDS-related complications ends up emaciated and legion-covered at the end. It depends on the opportunistic infections the person gets. A couple of friends of mine who died of pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) never lost a pound (one was 250+ pounds at the time of his death -- the same weight he'd always been) and never got KS so they had no legions. A couple of other friends died of brain cancer once the virus managed to get past the brain stem -- one suddenly became forgetful of names and couldn't recognize people he had known for years; he checked into a hospital and was dead two weeks later. Others die of pancreatitis, kidney, liver or other major organ failure and a variety of cancers.

There are roughly 30 AIDS-indicator diseases/conditions that are the most frequent causes of death to those infected and several of them result in neither legions nor weight loss.

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Updated On: 7/29/05 at 03:23 PM

Margo makes an interesting point, and is entirely correct that not everyone who dies of AIDS ends up covered in lesions or emaciated. It might have been misleading of me to suggest that every HIV positive person will go on to be lipodystrophic, infected with PCP or Candida or develop Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). I share the opinion of evelynNesbit, who says, "I just question whether a film with four HIV+ characters - be it this one or another - would just use the "anyone could get the disease and still people wouldn't be able to tell" excuse to not make the actors deglam." On a very idealistic level, the movie could have been used as a safe sex, anti-drug advertisement, however that's probably pushing it a bit far, and might not even be appropriate in a movie musical.

Some research has yielded scant evidence for the incidence of HIV-related illness. Here's what I have found on two diseases I mentioned earlier (these not being the only visible or cosmetic manifestations of HIV/AIDS by any means):

Lipodystrophy occurs in up to 60% percent of patients who are HIV positive. In patients on protease inhibitor drugs, it occurs in 13%. It is prevalent in 4% of untreated HIV positive patients.

Kaposi's Sarcoma occurs in up to 15% of HIV positive homosexual males, and up to 2% of other HIV positive groups. It is an aggressive illness with high mortality, especially in the HIV-related form.

I just thought I'd throw some facts into the mix, but my main point is that amongst a group of HIV positive drug users, I would expect one of them to look more ill than they are ever portrayed as being (although who knows what the movie will show us...). It is obviously difficult to work out the likelihood of anyone contracting a certain illness (not least in this case because these characters aren't real - haha) but I think it's important to note that however gruelling the show is, it's still a bit fantastical in its portrayal of a cruel illness and a harrowing addiction.

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Updated On: 7/29/05 at 04:43 PM

I totally agree, uncageg! I love how it isn't preachy (cf. Lennon) and energises me. Even if the ending is terribly schlocky and a bit of a cop-out. I still love that little hand twitch.

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