Tag Archives: HIV/AIDS

FL Gay Activist Michael Brown Murdered

Beloved South Florida gay bar owner and AIDS activist Michael Brown, 50, was found murdered in his West Palm Beach home on Friday. Brown’s presumed killer, Brant Hines, 27, stayed in Brown’s home for two days after the murder before hanging himself on a bedroom door. Brown and Hines had had a turbulent off and on relationship for several years. …

Read More »

On Rev. Wright’s HIV Claim

Slate discusses Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s charge that the U.S. government invented AIDS to kill blacks. Barack Obama rebuked his former pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Tuesday for giving sermons in which he blamed the government for creating a racist state and “inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color.” Wright isn’t the first to …

Read More »

Repeal Of HIV+ Immigration Ban Advances

One step closer: The Senate Foreign Relations committee on Thursday approved legislation that would repeal a travel and immigration ban on people with HIV. The measure now moves to a full vote on the Senate floor. The ban was originally enacted in 1987, and explicitly restated in 1993, despite efforts in the public health community to remove the ban when …

Read More »

U.S. Ban On HIV+ Immigrants And Tourists May Be Repealed

Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) and Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) have authored a provision to an upcoming AIDS funding bill that will end the United States’ ban on tourists and immigrants with HIV. Using the global AIDS reauthorization bill as a vehicle for repealing the HIV immigrant and visitors ban dramatically improves chances for passing the repeal because the global AIDS …

Read More »

Potential HIV Vaccine Breakthrough (Again)

Via Canada’s Globe And Mail: Researchers in Canada and the United States have made a breakthrough discovery in the fight against HIV infection: a protein that can limit the viral attack. The study, published in the online edition of Nature Medicine, found that the protein FOX03a not only can limit the deterioration of certain disease-fighting immune cells, but could help …

Read More »

Talking To Kids About AIDS

Yesterday the NY Times published a piece about a film called Please Talk To Kids About AIDS, which explores when to teach children about safe sex. From the story: In it, two incredibly sweet and precocious sisters — Vineeta and Sevilla Hennessey, ages 6 and 4 — accompany their parents, the filmmakers, to the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto. …

Read More »

HIV Vaccine May Never Come

Caltech’s Nobel winning biologist David Baltimore, who won the prize for his 1975 discovery of an enzyme later proven to be part of HIV’s reproductive mechanism, said yesterday that science is no closer to creating an effective vaccine for HIV than they were 25 years ago and that a vaccine may never be found. When HIV was linked to Aids …

Read More »

Valentine’s Day: Love Beats AIDS

Embiggen the photo above or go here to learn about a fun Broadway event this Valentine’s Day in NYC: LIFEbeat – The Music Industry Fights AIDS is joining forces with Borders for Love Beats AIDS, a special discount promotion taking place on Valentine’s Day ONLY in all New York City Borders stores. Borders will match the discount amount dollar-for-dollar with …

Read More »

Swiss AIDS Experts Claim “Undetectable” Pozzers Can Bareback Safely

Controversial news from Swiss AIDS researchers: GENEVA (AP) — Swiss AIDS experts said Thursday that some people with HIV who meet strict conditions and are under treatment can safely have unprotected sex with non-infected partners. The proposal astonished AIDS researchers in Europe and North America who have long argued that safe sex with a condom is the single most effective …

Read More »

Pfizer Licenses HIV Med To Non-Profit

Interesting news from Pfizer today: A new Pfizer Inc. HIV drug will soon be reformulated in an effort to prevent the transmission of the virus, offering a faint ray of hope in an arena littered with disappointments. The New York drug maker is expected to announce today that it will license its new medicine, Selzentry, to a nonprofit that investigates …

Read More »

NYC Hospitals Test 134,000 For HIV

In a letter to the New York Times, City Council Speaker Christin Quinn announced that an additional $5.6M funding for rapid HIV tests has allowed the city’s hospitals to test almost 134,000 patients over the last year. Quinn: “The only way to truly combat this crisis is to ensure that all New Yorkers take a simple first step to learn …

Read More »

Approved: New HIV Med Entravine

Johnson & Johnson’s HIV drug, entravine, was approved by the FDA on Friday. As mentioned here in July, the medication has proven to be very effective against advanced multi-drug resistant HIV. Entravine is an NNRTI (non-nucleoside reverse transriptase inhibitor) and must be taken in combination with other anti-HIV medications. The drug was approved under the fast-track or “priority review” status …

Read More »

Rethinking AIDS Spending

With the AIDS pandemic in the middle of its third decade, some AIDS experts are saying that resources spent to fight HIV/AIDS might be better spent elsewhere. [W]ith revised numbers downsizing the pandemic published last year along with an admission that AIDS peaked in the late 1990’s, some AIDS experts are now wondering if it might be wise to shift …

Read More »

HIV Drugs Work To Prevent Infection In Mice

Two commonly prescribed HIV drugs have been shown to prevent mice from contracting the virus. One of the drugs, tenofovir (sold as Viread), is reportedly already being sold in gay dance clubs as an HIV preventive. Tenofovir is most commonly prescribed in combination form with Emtriva as the single pill Truvada. After 25 years of researchers around the globe being …

Read More »

NYC AIDS Deaths Lowest Since ’84

Finally, some good news regarding HIV. According to the latest Annual Summary of Vital Statistics, the “definitive registry of births and deaths in New York City”, deaths in NYC from HIV/AIDS fell nearly 15% in 2006 . In 2005, the death toll was 1419. In 2006, 1209 New Yorkers died from AIDS complications, the lowest number since 952 died in …

Read More »

Taking It Personally

My dear friend Father Tony, a man who is “no stranger to those venues providing the probabilities of good friction for the price of a beer or a ‘six month membership'”, has responded in his typically eloquent fashion to my post about the possible closure of NYC’s commercial sex establishments. Go read Tony’s take on personal responsibility, it’s beautiful.

Read More »

Australia’s Glam Reaper

Twenty years ago, Australia’s Department of Public Health launched a disturbing HIV awareness campaign featuring the Grim Reaper mowing down people in a bowling alley. Here’s their update, this time featuring local drag star Mitzi Macintosh as the Glam Reaper. Interesting clip, but, uh…Doogie Howser?

Read More »

NYC Mulls Closing Bathhouses, Sex Clubs

Via Duncan Osbourne at Gay City News comes word of a six-page internal memo from the NYC Department of Health which explores the city’s options in closing down bathhouses, sex clubs, and commercial sex parties. After saying for years that new HIV infections among gay and bisexual men are high, but stable, a city health department memo given to Gay …

Read More »

Longtime Pozzers Face Senior Years With Lengthy List Of Debilitating Illnesses

As more people living with HIV/AIDS move into their senior years, the toll of the medications and unforeseen damage from the virus is beginning to surface. Today the New York Times has published a grim article depicting life for some long-term AIDS survivors. This should be required reading for young gay men who think that seroconverting merely means a lifetime …

Read More »

Link Farming

A few quick links for your perusal…. – USA Today publishes a guide to where 14 of the presidential candidates stand on gay rights. – Ted Kennedy to introduce ENDA in the Senate in 2008. It will be the same gay-only version of the bill that passed in the House last year. – Bilerico Project guest blogger Jim Pickett of …

Read More »