Chinese AIDS activist and gynecologist Dr. Gao Yaojie, 80, received a Vital Voices Global Partnership "Global Leadership Award" in Washington, DC yesterday, after being released from house arrest in
China due to international pressure. In the mid-nineties, Dr. Gao exposed the
HIV epidemic in China's rural Henan Province caused by the sharing of needles
at blood banks and via transfusions throughout the region.
Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."