Tag Archives: CDC

Via press release from the CDC: Today, the FDA approved an important new treatment for chronic hepatitis C. The drug, sofosbuvir, is a major advance in the treatment of a disease that affects approximately 3 million Americans and causes more than 15,000 deaths in the U.S. annually. Today marks a landmark advance in the treatment of hepatitis C, opening up …

Boston’s Fenway Health applauded the campaign last month: Tobacco use is one of the biggest health issues impacting the LGBT community,” said Scout, PhD, Director of the Network for LGBT Health Equity. “Right now it’s still historic to see LGBT inclusion in a national health media campaign. I hope other health agencies follow CDC’s lead and start to make it …

Today is the annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. From the website: February 7, 2013 marks the 13th year for National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, a national HIV testing and treatment community mobilization initiative targeted at Blacks in the United States and the Diaspora. There are four specific focal points: education, testing, involvement, and treatment. Educationally, the focus is to …

Epidemiologists says that the 2013 flu season has arrived weeks ahead of normal and may be notably worse than usual. “I think we’re still accelerating,” said Tom Skinner, a CDC spokesman. Twenty-nine states and New York City reported high levels of flu activity, up from 16 states and NYC the previous week. Flu was widespread in 41 states, up from …

Via press release from the CDC: Overall, the number of new HIV infections in the United States has remained stable at ~50,000 per year over the last decade. This is the first CDC incidence report to show a statistically significant decline in new infections among African American women (21% comparing 2008 to 2010). While additional years of data are needed, …

As part of their World AIDS Day project, today the CDC issued a report noting that that 25% of new HIV cases annually are among young people ages 13 to 24. Almost half of these 12,000 newly-infected youths are African-American males. An estimated 60% of all cases do not know they are HIV+.  Read more.

The self-hating “ex-gay” nutcases at PFOX have sent a letter to the CDC demanding that the federal government cease promoting websites that don’t endorse the brainwashing and brutal torture of LGBT people. The website also contains links to anti-heterosexual publications and organizations, such as PFLAG, which openly denigrates former homosexuals, and the infamous anti-ex-gay publication Just the Facts, which advocates …

A message from the Centers For Disease Control: On National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, we honor the remarkable history of gay men’s leadership in the fight against the HIV epidemic. Three decades ago, extraordinary community and public health prevention efforts led to dramatic declines in new HIV infections among men who have sex with men. Yet infection rates are …

A state of emergency has been declared in Dallas County after 16 people died from West Nile virus. Some are blaming global warming. An unusually warm winter and rainy spring in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and elsewhere in Texas has provided ideal conditions for breeding mosquitoes, West Nile carriers, officials said. The emergency declaration in Dallas clears the way for …

Via press release from the CDC: According to the revised guidelines, published today in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the most effective treatment for gonorrhea is a combination therapy: the injectable antibiotic ceftriaxone along with one of two other oral antibiotics, either azithromycin or doxycycline. In the past, gonorrhea has developed resistance to every antibiotic recommended for treatment, leaving …

JMG reader Mark King continues his informative series about the goings-on at AIDS Conference 2012. Today King teams up with openly HIV-positive Project Runway star Jack Mackenroth and chats with openly HIV-positive Voice contestant Jamar Rogers, who is one of the faces of the CDC’s just-launched anti-stigma campaign.

The Centers for Disease Control has launched a new national campaign intended to lessen the stigma of living with HIV. Via press release: Let’s Stop HIV Together features HIV-positive Americans from all walks of life –including “The Voice” star Jamar Rogers, POZ magazine editor , and young HIV advocate Hydeia Broadbent – standing in solidarity with their friends and family, …

Today Walgreens launches a two year partnership with the CDC during which the pharmacy giant will offer free onsite confidential HIV testing at two dozen (mostly) urban locations. “The goal of having the project at a pharmacy or at a retail clinic is really because of the ease of accessibility and the closeness to people’s homes,” Paul Weidle with the …

Via press release: Today, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), which tracks everything from seat belt utilization to tobacco use among America’s youth. While the report showed improvements among many risk factors, the percentage of U.S. high school students who had learned about HIV/AIDS in school dropped from …

You may recall that last year the Centers for Disease Control released its well-received Zombie Apocalypse Report, which was actually their cheeky way of encouraging disaster preparedness. However several recent news items forced the CDC to announce today that there are no actual zombies. “CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one …

The Centers For Disease Control has issued a call for all “baby boomers” to get a one-time test for Hepatitis C. One in 30 baby boomers – the generation born from 1945 through 1965 – has been infected with hepatitis C, and most don’t know it. Hepatitis C causes serious liver diseases including liver cancer, which is the fastest-rising cause …

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld the dismissal of a Centers For Disease Control counselor who was fired after saying that her Christian faith did not allow her to see homosexual clients. Walden worked as a contractor for the CDC in 2007 when a woman came to her for advice involving a same-sex relationship. She was let go …

Timed to coincide with tomorrow’s World AIDS Day, the Centers for Disease Control has launched a new national campaign urging gay and bisexual black men to get tested. You may already know that gay and bisexual men are the population most affected by HIV in the U.S. Black gay and bisexual men are getting hit particularly hard by the epidemic. …

As the AIDS pandemic continues its slow decline in the United States, the number of deaths attributed to the growing Hepatitis C epidemic now exceeds those from HIV-related illnesses. Death rates related to HIV infection continue to fall. Whereas HIV contributed to 6 per 100,000 deaths in 1999, the rate dropped to less than four per 100,000 deaths in 2007. …

The Family Research Council has issued a statement in reaction to yesterday’s CDC recommendation that boys get the HPV vaccine too. The CDC is quick to point out that the vaccine also protects against anal, mouth, and throat cancer–but they downplay the fact that these cancers are almost entirely the result of men having homosexual sex! Apart from the cost …