Jurisdictions Use HIV Self-Testing Programs to Improve Testing Uptake and Increase Diagnoses
From HIV.gov… More than 160,000 Americans with HIV are unaware they have the virus because they have not been tested and diagnosed. Yet we know that early diagnosis and treatment with ART are associated with better health outcomes for those with HIV. There are profound prevention benefits as well—a CDC analysis found that the nearly 15% of […]
National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day in Pennsylvania: ‘We’re making progress but…’
From the Pennsylvania Capital-Star… Black people make up 12 percent of Pennsylvania’s population of about 12.8 million people. But they accounted for 49 percent of HIV diagnoses in 2018 — and to Rep. Brian Sims that’s “racist as hell.” “A racist system produces a racist result. You don’t need to look at the data to […]
Prevention Point Pittsburgh providing needle exchange for 25 years
Prevention Point provides sterile syringes and other supplies to reduce spread of HIV and Hepatitis C. Prevention Point Pittsburgh was founded in 1995 when James Crow and Caroline Acker, along with a handful of dedicated volunteers, began providing needle exchange services once a week in the Hill District to prevent the spread of injection-related blood-borne […]
Together for Love: February 7 is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
From the Chronicle online… National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD) is February 7. NBHAAD is a day to increase awareness about HIV among blacks/African Americans and encourage people to get involved in prevention efforts, get tested, and get treatment if they have HIV. HIV diagnoses have fallen in recent years among black/African American women (25% […]
Facebook disables some misleading ads on HIV prevention drugs, responding to growing outcry
From the Washington Post… Facebook has quietly started removing some misleading ads about HIV prevention medication, responding to a deluge of activists, health experts and government regulators who said the tech giant had created the conditions for a public-health crisis. The ads at issue — purchased by pages affiliated with personal-injury lawyers and seen millions […]
NIH Statement on World AIDS Day 2019
From the NIH… Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America aims to close this implementation gap. NIH-funded advances in effective HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care are the foundation of this effort. In addition, expanded partnerships across HHS agencies, local community organizations, health departments, and other organizations will drive new research to determine optimal implementation […]
The most insidious virus: stigma
From the Washington Blade… Stigma did not create AIDS. Yet it prepared the way and speeded its ravaging course through America and the world. First stigma delayed understanding of the disease: it’s a gay cancer, it’s a punishment from God, they brought it on themselves, so who cares? Then stigma delayed government action, research, and assistance for […]
We won’t end the HIV epidemic until we help the most vulnerable
From Plus magazine online…. By Terri Jackson How do we reduce rates concentrated among black and Latino men who have sex with men? Or meet the needs of HIV-positive patients caught between insurance plans or places to live? To end the epidemic, we must start where we began — by focusing on those most affected, uniting […]
Documentary 5B shows the real heroes of the AIDS epidemic
From People.com… This was a time when people weren’t even touching patients with HIV,” says Priyanka Chopra, a prominent supporter of the film on behalf of the AIDS charity RED, which will receive 30 percent of all box office proceeds. “They would lay in their soiled bedsheets for days where nobody would come and even […]
Challenging HIV Stigma
From Sean Strub, POZ Magazine’s founder… Biomedical advances against HIV since the dawn of the epidemic have been nothing short of astonishing. An almost always fatal disease is now, for those with the privilege of access to treatment, a manageable chronic illness, treated with a single daily pill. A person who acquires HIV today has […]