Science Names HIV Treatment as Prevention Breakthrough of 2011
The journal Science has chosen the HPTN 052 clinical trial, an international HIV prevention trial sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as the 2011 Breakthrough of the Year, according to an NIH statement.
Lady Gaga, Ellen Degeneres in Top 20 Celebs Gone Good for 2011
Pop star Lady Gaga and talk show host and comedian Ellen Degeneres are among the celebrities who made it onto DoSomething.org’s annual “Top 20 Celebs Gone Good” list, DoSomething.org reports.
December 29, 2011
Grassroot Project Teaches HIV Prevention to DC Teens The Grassroots Project, a nonprofit in Washington, DC, uses varsity, college and professional athletes to teach middle school students about HIV through games and sports, The Washington Post reports.
Most New HIV, TB, Hep B Cases in Britain From Immigrants
The majority of new HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and tuberculosis cases in Great Britain are found in immigrants, according to a United Kingdom Health Protection Agency (HPA) study and reported by Mail Online.
December 28, 2011
Julio Montaner Urges Decriminalization of HIV
Julio Montaner, MD, director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, says that HIV-positive Canadians shouldn’t be legally required to reveal their status to sexual partners, CTV News reports.
UC Berkeley Gets $1.47M Gates Foundation Grant Luke Lee, a professor of Bioengineering at University of California at Berkeley (UCB), has been awarded $1.47 million in research funding over three years through the Grand Challenges in Global Health program, an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according at a UCB statement.
December 27, 2011
Arizona HIV/AIDS Charity Distributes $228,000
Aunt Rita's Foundation, an HIV/AIDS Foundation in Arizona, will be distributing $228,000 to 19 HIV/AIDS service providers in the local area this year, according to a statement released by the foundation.
Ukraine to Produce Antiretrovirals in 2 Years
The Ukrainian pharmaceutical industry is gearing up to manufacture antiretroviral drugs for people with HIV/AIDS within two years, Ukrinform reports.
December 23, 2011
FDA Warns Private Sperm Donor on Lack of STI Testing The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sent Trent Arsenault a cease-and-desist letter late last year telling him he must stop donating sperm because he does not follow the agency’s requirements for getting tested for sexually transmitted infections within seven days before giving sperm, according to The Associated Press (AP).
Medical Marijuana Nonprofit Expands Services in Maine Northeast Patients Group, one of the nonprofits licensed to operate medical marijuana dispensaries in Maine, has changed its name to Wellness Connections of Maine, according to an article in Mainbiz.
December 22, 2011
Same-Sex Marriage Reduces Health Care Costs for Gay Men
State laws legalizing same-sex marriage result in gay men leading healthier lives and spending less on health care costs, especially those related to mental health issues, according to a study led by researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Activist Threatened With HIV-Tainted Needles in India Anna Hazare, an anti-corruption activist in Delhi, India, received an anonymous letter threatening to inject him and his supporters with needles tainted with HIV, Gulf News reports.
December 20, 2011
Supreme Court to Hear Health Care Reform Arguments in March
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of different aspects of the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. health care reform, from March 26 to 28, Bloomberg News reports.
Suit Claims Patient Contracted HIV at Mississippi Cancer Clinic Meera Sachdeva, MD—a Mississippi cancer clinic doctor arrested on charges of Medicare and Medicaid fraud and using watered-down chemotherapy drugs and old syringes—is now facing a civil lawsuit claiming that one patient contracted HIV from a dirty needle, The Associated Press (AP) reports.
Petition Against Dental Clinic HIV Discrimination Gains Support A petition in support of James White—a Detroit man who alleges workplace discrimination because of his HIV-positive status—has thousands of signatures, according to a Change.org statement.
Behavioral Interventions Increase Condom Use, Decrease STIs
Behavioral interventions
aimed at reducing risky sexual behaviors can also successfully lower rates of
sexually transmitted infections (STIs), according to a report in the Journal
of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
December 16, 2011
Boston AIDS Official Guilty of Embezzling Over $100,000 Valerie Tebbetts, a former executive director for Boston Living Center, an HIV/AIDS nonprofit organization, recently pleaded guilty to charges of embezzling more than $100,000 from the center, according to Boston.com.
HIV Education to Stop Homosexuality in Ghana
Paul Krampah, a public relations officer for Ghana’s Education Ministry, said he is “optimistic” that his department’s sex education programs will make homosexuality a “thing of the past,” according to PinkNews.com.
Depression in People With HIV Often Overlooked in Africa People living with HIV in Africa frequently suffer shame and depression, but the continent’s health care systems are ill-equipped to handle the issue; this can affect not only people’s quality of life, but also their adherence to HIV treatment regimens, according to PlusNews.
December 15, 2011
Wisconsin Clinic Continues Testing for HIV, Hepatitis Exposure
Because of possible exposure during the past five years to HIV and hepatitis B and C, more than 1,500 patients at the Dean Clinic in Madison, Wisconsin, have been tested for the viruses, madison.com reports.
Gilead Seeks FDA Approval for Truvada PrEP Gilead Sciences has filed an application with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve its combination drug Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir) as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), in other words, as a method of preventing HIV infection, according to iPrEx News.
December 14, 2011
Elizabeth Taylor's Jewelry Collection Sells for $115M Elizabeth Taylor's extensive collection of jewelry fetched a record-breaking $115 million on the first night of auction at Christie's in New York City, The Associated Press (AP) reports.
San Bernardino Gets $27M to Assist Ex-Prisoners With HIV, Hepatitis
To better handle cases of tuberculosis, HIV and hepatitis, the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health has received nearly $27 million to connect with prisoners of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation immediately following their release, RedlandsDailyFacts.com reports.
NYC AIDS Memorial Park Coalition Gains Support New York City bold-faced names and leaders are stepping forward to support the Queer History Alliance's proposal to turn St. Vincent's Triangle Park in the West Village into an AIDS memorial, according to an AIDS Memorial Park (AMP) statement.
APLA Renames Food Pantry to Recognize $3.5M Gift The family of Vance North, a young man who died of AIDS in 1995, has given $3.5 million to AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), according to an APLA statement.
School Bans Girl With HIV-Positive Father in Indonesia A 6-year-old girl in Indonesia was thrown out of a Jakarta elementary school after other parents complained to administrators about her father having HIV, asiaone.com reports.
December 12, 2011
Obama Administration Seeks Jobs for People With Disabilities The Obama administration is instituting an affirmative action rule that would require federal contractors to hit a hiring goal of 7 percent for workers with disabilities, The Huffington Post reports.
NYC Explains Proposed Increase to HIV/AIDS Data Surveillance New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) is defending its proposal to more widely share collected health information on people with HIV, Gay City News reports.
Study: Hep C Doesn’t Impair Women’s Cognitive Faculties Infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) doesn't damage women's cognitive function—mental tasks such as attention, memory and the abilities to solve problems and make decisions—according to Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) data published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and reported by aidsmap. The researchers confirmed, however, that HIV infection alone is independently associated with cognitive impairment.
December 09, 2011
Obama Seeks Decriminalization of Homosexuality Worldwide
The Obama administration announced that the United States would use all the American diplomacy at its disposal, including foreign aid, to promote gay rights around the world, according to The New York Times.
HIV Stigma Among Gay Men Remains Widespread “Stigmatization of HIV-positive gay men appears to be extensive and wide-ranging.” That’s the conclusion of a recent review published in the journal AIDS Care.
Jury Convicts NYC Physician in HIV Medicaid Scam
A New York City jury has convicted Suresh Hemrajani, MD, for scamming Medicaid out of $700,000 by prescribing HIV medications for patients who weren’t tested for the virus and for billing Medicaid for treatment he didn’t provide, according to The Associated Press (AP).
Proposed Guidelines to Identify 'Elevated Risk' Organ Donors
Organ donors who’ve had more than one sexual partner in the past 12
months will be labeled as 'elevated risk,' but this won’t keep their organs out
of the donation process, according to newly proposed guidelines by Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) and reported by ABC News.
Needle Exchange in Prisons Abandoned in Canada
Despite recommendations from public health and corrections officials, a Canadian parliamentary committee has rejected needle exchange programs in the nation's prisons, The Globe and Mail reports.
December 07, 2011
Elizabeth Taylor’s Jewelry on Display at Christie’s Elizabeth Taylor’s sizable collection of jewelry, clothes and accessories is now on display at Christie’s in New York City, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Bill Clinton Proposes Generic ARVs in U.S. Until 2014 To help people with HIV who cannot afford their antiretroviral (ARV) medications, former President Bill Clinton has proposed that the U.S. government allow low-cost generic versions of patented HIV drugs to be sold domestically until the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. health care reform) takes full effect in 2014, The Washington Post reports.
Nancy Mahon Appointed as New Chair of PACHA Nancy Mahon, the executive director of the MAC AIDS Fund, was appointed to chair the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), according to a Health and Human Services (HHS) statement.
Supreme Court to Hear Privacy Case of HIV-Positive Pilot
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a lawsuit by an HIV-positive pilot who is suing the federal government for damages over losing his license to fly, National Public Radio (NPR) reports.
1 in 11 Gay Men in London Have HIV
The number of people with HIV in the United Kingdom has reached about 91,500, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and reported by Pink News.
HIV Rates Up in China Among Older Men, College Students New data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that an increasing number of older men and college students throughout the country have contracted HIV through unsafe sex in recent years, Xinhuanet reports.
December 02, 2011
National HIV Awareness Month to Launch July 2012
The Coalition for National HIV Awareness Month has established July 2012 as National HIV Awareness Month to re-ignite a national discourse on the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic, according to a coalition statement.
New Recommendations for Managing Older People With HIV The American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM), the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA) released the first clinical treatment strategies for managing older people who have HIV.
December 01, 2011
'Getting to Zero' on World AIDS Day 2011 The theme of this year's World AIDS Day is 'Getting to Zero,' to emphasize the long-term goals of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths, according to a World AIDS Campaign statement.
IAS Selects Melbourne to Host AIDS 2014 The city of Melbourne, Australia, has been chosen to host the XX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014), according to an International AIDS Society (IAS) statement.
Penn. School Sued for Rejecting HIV-Positive Boy The Milton Hershey School, a free private school for low-income students, rejected a 13-year-old honor roll student because he has HIV, according to a federal discrimination lawsuit reported on in the Philadelphia Daily News.
Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa Faces Closure
Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), an HIV/AIDS activist organization in South Africa, may shut down in January 2012 due to lack of funds, the Mail & Guardian reports.
Obama Pledges Additional HIV Funds in U.S. and Abroad During a World AIDS Day speech, President Barack Obama set new goals for U.S. investment in the fight against HIV/AIDS, The Associated Press (AP) reports. (Watch video.)
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During a World AIDS Day speech, President Barack Obama set new goals for U.S. investment in the fight against HIV/AIDS, The Associated Press (AP) reports. (Watch video.)
