Tag Archives: HIV

Bob The Drag Queen Promotes PrEP [VIDEO]

Via Pink News: The newest winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Bob the Drag Queen, is urging people to take the anti-HIV medication, PrEP. The Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) drug Truvada can reduce people’s chances of being infected with HIV by up to 99 percent, if taken daily. In the latest HIV Beats video by the #endHIV campaign, Bob says: “Oh hey! …

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BREAKTHROUGH: Temple University Scientists Remove HIV From Living Animal Tissue For First Time

The Independent reports: Scientists have managed to remove DNA of the HIV virus from living tissue for the first time in a breakthrough that could lead to an outright cure. At the moment, treating the disease involves the use of drugs that suppress levels of the virus so the body’s immune system can cope. Now researchers in the US have …

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STUDY: HIV Rates Are Highest In US South

From the Associated Press: Three out of every 10 gay or bisexual men in several cities in the U.S. South have been diagnosed with the AIDS virus, three times the national rate, according to a study about how common HIV infections are in metro areas. The study echoes other research that reported higher rates of HIV diagnoses in the South, …

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Hillary Clinton: End The Criminalization Of HIV [VIDEO]

HIV Plus Magazine reports: Speaking via a pre-recorded video to attendees of the HIV is Not a Crime Training Academy, Hilary Clinton says if she wins the Presidential election, she will work to reform outdated, stigmatizing HIV criminalization laws. Clinton thanked attendees for their work, saying that efforts like HIV is Not a Crime “lift us all up.” Saying we …

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Nation’s First HIV+ Donor To HIV+ Recipient Organ Transplants Take Place At Johns Hopkins [VIDEO]

From the Los Angeles Times: In a first that gives HIV-infected patients yet another chance for long lives, surgeons at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center have transplanted a kidney and a liver from a dead donor who was HIV-positive into two HIV-positive recipients. The transplant surgeries, which used organs donated by the family of an HIV-positive woman, ended a 25-year …

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Man On PrEP Contracts HIV

Some of the most ardent proponents of PrEP have warned that few medications are 100% effective. Today, sadly, comes proof. Poz.com reports: Researchers have for the first time documented a case of an individual contracting HIV, a multi-drug resistant strain, while apparently adhering well to the daily regimen of Truvada (tenofovir/emtricitabine) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The scientists concluded that it …

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“Molecular Scissors” Seek Out Lingering HIV

A fascinating development via ArsTechnica: As long as there’s lingering HIV, patients must keep taking the drugs, which cause side-effects, make for high prescription bills, and raise the threat of drug resistance. At least, that’s the case for now. In a new study, scientists reveal a possible way to literally hack those lurking viruses out of a person’s DNA strands. …

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Johns Hopkins Launches Nation’s First HIV-Positive To HIV-Positive Organ Transplant Program

The Washington Post reports: Johns Hopkins announced this week that it had received approval from the nation’s organ-sharing authority to become the first hospital in the United States to conduct transplants involving HIV-positive donors and HIV-positive recipients. “This is an unbelievably exciting day for our hospital and our team, but more importantly for patients living with HIV and end-stage organ …

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Bill Maher Promotes AIDS Cure Quack [VIDEO]

Karen Ocamb reports at Frontiers: AIDS ain’t over, and neither is the effort to find money and fame by charlatans promising a cure. Friday night, controversial libertarian Bill Maher gave a primetime spot on his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher to an Australian doctor who claims he successfully treated HIV-positive actor Charlie Sheen through an alternative therapy. Maher …

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AHF Files FDA Complaint Against Gilead For Promoting “Off-Label” PrEP Usage Of Truvada [VIDEO]

Via press release from the ever-combative AHF: Advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) stepped up efforts to ensure that Gilead Sciences, Inc. be held accountable for promoting off-label use of Truvada for use as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV infection. AHF also wants Gilead to be compelled to promote and market use of its AIDS treatment in accordance with …

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AHF Takes Battle Against PrEP To Britain [VIDEO]

The use of the medication Truvada as an HIV preventive, a strategy known as PrEP, has not yet been approved by Britain’s National Health Service, a step the FDA took in 2012. Last night the BBC hosted a discussion on the issue in which a representative from the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation expressed his reservations. As you probably know, …

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Pharma Seeks Approval For Weekly Anti-HIV Injectable

Via press release from Cytodyn: “Essentially, if PRO 140 is FDA approved, the infected person could finally take a break and go on a vacation without having to remember their pills, and the exact times to take them each day. Some have been on their multiple pill regimen day-in and day-out for decades. Upon FDA approval, all they will need …

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HIV Antibody Curbs Virus In Trial Study

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports: A new medicine to control HIV infection may soon become available, if promising results from a Phase 1 clinical trial are confirmed. The drug is an antibody that neutralizes a broad range of HIV strains. The broadly neutralizing antibody, called VRC01, reduced the level of circulating virus more than 10-fold in 6 of 8 HIV-positive …

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CDC: HIV Infections Dropped 19% Over Last Decade

The CDC today reports that new HIV infections dropped by 19% in the years from 2005 to 2014. But as their headline glumly notes, “progress is uneven” in some communities, especially for black and Latino gay and bisexual men. From their report: Annual HIV diagnoses in the United States fell by 19 percent from 2005 to 2014, driven by dramatic …

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World AIDS Day Photo Project: When Dogs Heal

A World AIDS Day photo project titled When Dogs Heal launches this week in Chicago and New York City. Watch below as the Associated Press explains. The exhibit opens tomorrow at Chicago’s FLATS Studio and on Thursday at NYC’s LGBT Community Center.

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Twitter Ends Blood Drive Over Gay Ban

Twitter has ended its participation in blood drives after a gay man was rejected from donating at their San Francisco headquarters. International Business Times reports: “These are the only policies that the FDA has based on a person’s identification and not any type of risky behavior that they’re engaged in,” said Jim Halloran, Twitter’s Associate Manager of Sales Operations and President …

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Pharma Douche Loses $14.6M In One Quarter

Business Insider reports: The 5,000% increase in the price of an anti-parasitic drug hasn’t brought Turing Pharmaceuticals into the black just yet. For the third quarter, ending September 30, the company posted a $14.6 million net loss. Those three months cover the time that Turing acquired the US marketing rights to Daraprim, a 62-year-old drug that’s used to treat malaria …

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TRAILER: Countdown To Zero

Airing two weeks from tonight on HBO. Clip recap: Twenty years ago, HIV/AIDS was a death sentence. Now, through advances in medication, it has become a largely manageable chronic disease – and there may finally be a cure on the horizon. VICE investigates recent breakthroughs in medical science to see how close we are to life without AIDS. Hosts Shane …

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STUDY: Alcoholism Drug Can “Wake Up” Dormant HIV

Reuters reports: Scientists seeking a cure for the AIDS virus have made an unexpected discovery with a drug designed to combat alcoholism which they say could be a critical part of a strategy to “wake up” and then kill dormant HIV hiding in the body. The drug, branded as Antabuse but also sold as a generic called disulfiram, was given …

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Actor Charlie Sheen: I’m HIV+

This morning actor Charlie Sheen revealed that he is HIV+ during an appearance on the Today Show. “I am here to admit that I am in fact HIV positive,” the 50-year-old actor said. “I have to put a stop to this barrage of attacks and sub-truths and very harmful and mercurial stories that are about me that threaten the health …

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