Tag Archives: HIV/AIDS

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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?

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 …

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 …

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 …

From the NY Times: The number of new H.I.V. infections in men under 30 who have sex with men has increased sharply in New York City in the last five years, particularly among blacks and Hispanics, even as AIDS deaths and overall H.I.V. infection rates in the city have steadily declined. New figures from the city’s Department of Health and …

Huckabee’s comment on AIDS and DADT start about four minutes into the clip. Huckabee agreed to meet Ryan White’s mother last week, but so far she hasn’t heard from him. In the next segment of the show, Huckabee shillster Chuck Norris chimes in. (Via – HRC Back Story.)

More than two dozen Democrats in the House have sent Homeland Security a letter protesting the proposed new travel rules for HIV+ foreigners. The letter says that the so-called “streamlining” of the process of allowing HIV+ individuals to enter the United States places the burden of the decision on those lacking the necessary medical expertise. The letter goes on to …

The Human Rights Campaign is trying to engineer a meeting between Mike Huckabee and Jeanne White-Ginder, mother of Ryan White, the Indiana teenager whose battle with AIDS in the 80’s riveted the nation and made Ryan a darling of AIDS activists such as Elton John. White-Ginder says Huckabee’s recent comments about AIDS have infuriated her and that “We have to …

Clubland was rocked this weekend by the news that Mel Cheren, the “Godfather Of Disco”, has died from complications of AIDS. Cheren provided the financial backing to open legendary gay nightclub the Paradise Garage, and founded seminal dance music label West End Records. Earlier this year, Cheren’s biography, My Life and the Paradise Garage: Keep On Dancin’, was turned into …

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee yesterday refused to recant his 1992 call for AIDS patients to be quarantined, saying “I still believe this today, that we were acting more out of political correctness. I don’t run from it, I don’t recant it.” In 1992, Huckabee said, “It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers …