Charlie Sheen's Blood Returned to Detectable Levels of HIV After He Went Off His Meds and Visited a Quack in Mexico
On today’s episode of Dr. Oz, Charlie Sheen revealed that he had gone off the live-saving cocktail of antiretroviral drugs he was prescribed to treat his HIV, which predictably caused the level of HIV in his blood to become once again detectable. Sheen said when he came out as HIV positive, he began to receive offers of alternative medicines that he then explored. At one point he said of his antiretroviral therapy as “amazing for the [viral load] number, but I don’t know how amazing it’s been for me, ya know?”
With his typical foolhardy cockiness, he explained in a pre-taped segment that followed him on various trips to doctors:
I’ve been off of meds for about a week now, and I always feel great. And yeah, am I risking my life? Sure. So what? Um, I was born dead. So that part of it doesn’t faze me at all. I told my mom on Day 1 that the disease picked the wrong guy if it wanted to stay alive.
But man can not survive on bravado alone. He sought alternative therapy from one Dr. Samir Chachoua, who, according to Dr. Mehmet Oz’s report, is not licensed to practice medicine in the U.S. (he does so in Mexico) and claims to know how to cure cancer and AIDS. Chachoua told Dr. Oz that Sheen was “the first adult in history to go HIV negative.” Spoiler alert: This turned out to be false. Earlier in the show, Sheen reported that he was “a little off my game, because right before I walked out here, I got some results that I was disappointed about.”
Sheen said that Chachoua’s “series of injections and blood work” initially produced “incredible results early on”—the HIV in his blood, he claimed, was undetectable without antiretroviral therapy. He says he added his blood to samples of blood taken from two of his friends and after a four-day incubation period “all three were undetectable.”
The story went fully bonkers when Dr. Oz played the clip of Chachoua revealing that he had injected himself with Sheen’s blood. Dr. Oz described this as “something I never thought I’d hear out of the mouth of a doctor.” Sheen confirmed that he watched Chachoua do this. Sheen called it “inappropriate and completely mind-blowing.” He also said it was “radically bizarre,” but in the context of his life, “just another Wednesday.”
At the end of the segment, Dr. Oz, with backup from Sheen’s doctor Robert Huizenga (who is, in fact, actually licensed to practice medicine), implored Sheen to go back on his meds. “I’m gonna take ‘em on the flight home, what am I an idiot?” responded Sheen.
Since he asked, the answer is: yes.