Tag Archives: HIV/AIDS

A new study published in The Lancet says that advances in treatment since the late 90’s have added 13 years to the average life expectancies of people with HIV. In high-income countries with the appropriate health care available, a 20-year-old infected with HIV in 2008 can expect to live another 49 years with the disease. The team, involving Bristol University …

Less than a year after Merck gave up on its initially promising HIV vaccine trial, the U.S. government announced yesterday that it too was giving up on a massive HIV vaccine trial. Plans for a large human trial of a promising government-developed H.I.V. vaccine in the United States were canceled Thursday because a top federal official said scientists realized that …

And the United States inches closer to the civilized world…. AIDS Action applauds the Senate for overwhelming, bipartisan passage of the Lantos/Hyde U.S. Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act (S 2731), which reauthorizes the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The organization particularly commends the lifting of the statutory requirement that bars travel and immigration to …

This is unbelievable. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) wants to rename the the current AIDS relief bill after Jesse Helms. SA 5074. Mrs. DOLE submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill S. 2731, to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2009 through 2013 to provide assistance to foreign countries to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and for other …

Former Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), the most notoriously racist and homophobic politician in the history of the United States, has died at the age of 86. Happy Independence Day!!! And now for some choice quotes from DEAD Jesse Helms, the greatest embarrassment to my home state of North Carolina and the nation: – On threatening the life of a sitting …

Fascinating story from Science Magazine: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) responsible for most of the AIDS cases in the world infected people approximately 100 years ago, more than 20 years earlier than previously believed, according to findings presented here this week at the Evolution 2008 meeting. Its lesser known cousin, HIV-2, jumped into humans decades later, from a monkey species …

Today is National HIV Testing Day. The above video is Part One from a web series called HIV Big Deal, which follows the lives of young gay men in Manhattan dealing with life, love, health, and HIV. Watch the clip. The acting is quite good, but be aware that the language is very frank and NSFW. And consider today’s news …

Noted psychotherapist and writer Michael Shernoff, who authored numerous books on gay culture and HIV/AIDS, has died of pancreatic cancer at 57. In his practice and in his writing, Mr. Shernoff confronted the realities of homosexual life with bluntness and compassion. In essays and books and as a mental health columnist for the Web site TheBody.com, he cast a sympathetic …

New York Magazine has posted an excellent dissection of “who still dies of AIDS, and why.” By the time [Mel] Cheren learned he had AIDS [in 2007], he was already suffering from a rare, drug-resistant pneumonia, what infectious-disease specialists refer to as an opportunistic infection, and he had lymphoma, an AIDS-related cancer that had spread to his bones. Within a …

Via the Independent (UK): A quarter of a century after the outbreak of Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted that the threat of a global heterosexual pandemic has disappeared. In the first official admission that the universal prevention strategy promoted by the major Aids organisations may have been misdirected, Kevin de Cock, the head of the WHO’s department …

In a similar vein to HotOrNot.com, it’s actually spelled Pos Or Not, and it’s from MTV and Kaiser. Pos or Not, has a serious purpose (tasteful or not). The site, www.posornot.com, introduced in late April, is an H.I.V. education effort disguised as a game. It shows photographs and brief biographies of men and women ages 21 to 30, and asks …

According to the just-released diary of Saddam Hussein, the late Iraqi dictator feared that his American captors would give him AIDS by using his prison clothesline to dry their clothes. Saddam Hussein feared catching AIDS or other diseases during his U.S.-supervised captivity, a leading Arab newspaper said in publishing excerpts of his prison writings. The London-based Al-Hayat said the comments …

Here’s the audio of Eric Leven’s appearance on Michelangelo Signorile’s show on Sirius OutQ yesterday in which Eric talks about his HIV/gay youth activism. He’s got some great ideas. Eric has a wonderful radio voice, maybe Sirius should offer him a show too. Eric gives me a kind shout-out at the 9:30 mark.

And interesting new study reveals that HIV+ people may not need the regular monitoring of their virus now insisted upon by most doctors. A paper published by The Lancet medical journal has revealed that patients who suffer from HIV may no longer need to have regular testing. The research showed that there was little difference between the survival rates of …

Horrible survey from England’s Independent: A shocking new survey has uncovered that the international community of Aids scientists are giving up hope of finding a vaccine for the virus. The growing pessimism of scientists comes after the disastrous failure of a trial vaccine. The trial drug, manufactured by pharmaceutical company Merck, has been found not to work and in some …

I was talking to a pharma insider the other day who told me that Orasure is getting ready to roll-out an over-the-counter version of their rapid oral swab HIV test kit, possibly as soon as this summer. Home Access currently sells a $35 home kit which requires a blood sample; Johnson & Johnson sold a similar product at one time, …

Health insurance companies are adopting a new pricing model which forces people taking expensive medications to pay up to 33% of the cost, rather than the typically low co-pay. With the new pricing system, insurers abandoned the traditional arrangement that has patients pay a fixed amount, like $10, $20 or $30 for a prescription, no matter what the drug’s actual …

As Congress considers repealing the ban on foreign travelers with HIV from entering the United States, a Canadian man reports an encounter with border agents last November. The U.S. Senate is expected to vote next month on a bill proposed by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry that would lift what he calls a Draconian travel ban that has caused thousands of …

Despite that the 2006 data includes cases from seven states that previously had not reported new HIV infections to the CDC, AIDS activists and government researchers are “stunned” by a 48% increase in new infections over 2005. Reported new HIV infections in the United States increased by 48 percent in 2006 according to new data from the Centers for Disease …

After a spate of failures in AIDS vaccine trials, the U.S. government is calling for “new and novel ideas”. The U.S. government began a major overhaul of its effort to produce an AIDS vaccine on Tuesday, stressing a return to basic scientific research after the failure of a key clinical trial last year. Government officials at a summit with AIDS …