AIDS Combat Zone

gov mark sanford of south carolina approves $4million new state adap funds, reducing persons there with AIDS waiting for meds from 470 to 362.

2007-07-02T12:47:00.000-04:00

July 2nd, 2007

Across The Nation | South Carolina Gov. Sanford Approves $4M for HIV/AIDS Treatment
[Jul 02, 2007]

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) on Wednesday approved a measure that will provide $3 million annually, as well as a one-time grant of $1 million, to provide increased access to HIV/AIDS treatment in the state, the Columbia State reports. The funds also will be used to reduce the number of people on the waiting list for the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program. As of June 29, the state’s ADAP waiting list stood at 362 people (Reid, Columbia State, 6/29). ADAPs are federal- and state-funded programs that provide HIV/AIDS-related medications to low-income, uninsured and underinsured HIV-positive individuals.

South Carolina has the largest ADAP waiting list nationwide. HHS in April awarded a $26.8 million grant to the state to provide HIV-positive people with increased access to treatment and care services and remove 93 people from the ADAP waiting list. According to Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), $25.6 million will be allocated to provide low-income individuals and families in the state with access to treatment. The remaining $1.2 million will be given to three South Carolina community health centers for a variety of uses — including risk-reduction counseling and ongoing health services for HIV-positive people (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/10).

According to the State, the measure provides less than the $8 million requested by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control and HIV/AIDS advocates. Bambi Gaddist, executive director of the South Carolina HIV/AIDS Council, said that the approved amount is “monumental,” even though it is less than the $8 million requested.

By mid-June, 210 people had been removed from the ADAP waiting list with federal funds, but the ADAP receives about 25 new applications weekly. The health department expects to receive additional federal funds in August, the State reports.

The South Carolina HIV/AIDS Care Crisis Task Force will meet in early July to discuss this year’s progress in curbing HIV/AIDS in the state and to set goals for next year, the State reports. The task force plans to collect data on the effect HIV/AIDS has on hospital systems in the state, particularly in rural areas, and to help lawmakers understand the virus’ impact in the state. The funds are part of the state budget, which became law on Sunday (Columbia State, 6/28).

rahul bedi reports from new delhi: millions of free condoms converted, sold as balloons, toys, construction materials

2007-06-30T01:33:00.000-04:00

Indians use condoms as toys

By Rahul Bedi in New Delhi
Last Updated: 3:28am BST 30/06/2007

India is struggling to prevent millions of condoms from being made into toys or sold as balloons.

The contraceptives were distributed free to control the country’s population and restrict the Aids virus.

However, they are being used instead to strengthen roads, provide extra waterproofing for houses and to carry water.

Health activists said millions of condoms were melted down for their latex and made into toys. Others were dyed and sold as balloons.

In rural areas, villagers used them as water containers. India’s soldiers covered their gun barrels with condoms as protection against dust.

Only a quarter of about 1.5 billion condoms made each year were “properly utilised”, the activists said.

Health planners are trying to control India’s population of more than 1.2 billion. In 2005 the HIV epidemic afflicted more than 5.7 million people. Of the 891 million condoms meant to be handed out free, most were used by road contractors, who mixed them with concrete and tar to create a smooth surface.

Most Indians are hesitant to talk about sex openly.

The National Aids Control Organisation chief, Sujatha Rao, said yesterday that Indian attitudes had to change.

A campaign in nearby Thailand has led to a sharp rise in condom use and a fall in new HIV infections.

champ teleconference 7-19-07: anal carcinoma and pap screening

2007-06-29T17:33:00.000-04:00

American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM),
Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP),
Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA),
HIV Medical Association (HIVMA),
National Coalition for LGBT Health, and
Stop AIDS

invite you to
a teleconference on

Anal Health:
What We Should Know About
Anal Carcinoma and Pap Screening.

THURSDAY, July 19th at 2pm EST
[1pm Central, 12noon Mountain, 11am Pacific]

Toll-free number: 866-247-3147
Passcode: 4277#

Please register by contacting Sarah at showell@champnetwork.org or 401-427-2303 x2 with your name, city/state, email, phone, and organization (optional).
________________________________________
PRESENTERS:

• Terry Schwartz, RN, MS, FNP, ANP-C, nurse practitioner, HIV specialist & practitioner of High Resolutiion Anoscopy for the diagnosis/treatment of anal dysplasia
• Joel Ginsberg, Executive Director, Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA)
• Josh Thomas, Policy Fellow, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP)

Anal health is an often-ignored topic, but one with many implications for HIV-positive people and their communities. Anal cancer rates are estimated to be 60 to 90 times higher in people living with HIV/AIDS than in the general population. However, treating pre-cancerous cells can be very successful in halting the progression to anal cancer.

Anal HPV infection (which can be a precursor to anal cancer) has come under scrutiny in recent months after the release of the HPV vaccine, and there have been calls for anal pap screening – routine tests for signs of anal cancer – for populations at high risk (gay and bisexual men, men and women with HIV, and people who engage in anal intercourse).

Please join us to discuss the current state of anal pap screening, clinical and community concerns with the process, and unanswered questions regarding anal HPV, anal cancer, and preventive anal health care.

This call will provide:

• An overview of anal HPV and its associations with anal cancer, and the current state of anal pap screening
• A discussion of challenges and concerns for future screening proposals, including stigma, lack of a standard of care, patient access, and cost
• Implications for people living with HIV and their communities

There will be time for questions and discussion at the end of the call. Please feel free to email questions for the presenters to showell@champnetwork.org in advance.

Everyone is welcome to join the call.

Please register for the call by contacting Sarah at showell@champnetwork.org or 401-427-2303 x20 with:

Name:
City/State:
Email:
Phone:
Organization (optional):

—Sarah Howell
Director of CHAMP Academy
Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP)

232 West Exchange St.
Providence, RI 02903

32 Broadway, Suite 1801
New York, NY 10004

(401) 427-2302 x20
(646) 675-1438 cell
(401) 633-7793 fax

seth berkley, AIDS vaccine initiative: there’s “no way out of this epidemic without an AIDS vaccine”

2007-06-29T17:01:00.000-04:00

Opinion | Development of HIV/AIDS Vaccine Crucial to Fight Against Pandemic, Letter to Editor Says
[Jun 29, 2007]

A recent Washington Post article “shed welcome light on how, despite advances in access to AIDS treatment in the developing world, the disease is overwhelming efforts to combat it,” Seth Berkley, president and CEO of the AIDS Vaccine Initiative, writes in a Post letter to the editor. However, the article “failed to explore how these facts underscore the imperative for doing everything possible to find a safe, effective vaccine for AIDS,” according to Berkley. He adds that researchers have “made significant progress addressing the scientific challenges to designing an AIDS vaccine” and that more than “30 clinical vaccine trials are underway.” However, “more must be done to accelerate this research,” including expanding “developing-country involvement” in vaccine research and development; collaborating “creatively to deliver improved vaccine candidates” to trials; securing “sustained funding to overcome the enormous scientific” barriers; and developing “novel incentives to increase private-sector involvement in AIDS vaccine research.” Berkley concludes that the international community should “continue to build on current programs but not forget that there is no way out of this epidemic without an AIDS vaccine” (Berkley, Washington Post, 6/29).

NASTAD ADAP watch: 529 PWAs fester on HIV med waiting lists or under formulary restrictions nationwide (470 in south carolina) 6-25-07

2007-06-26T15:56:00.000-04:00

chers—

529 persons with AIDS in Alaska, Montana, Puerto Rico and South Carolina line up to stay alive, line up on waiting lists to receive life-sustaining HIV meds paid for by ADAP funds (AIDS Drug Assistance Programs), according to the ADAP Watch report issued by NASTAD (National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors) Monday, 6/25. Tuesday morning Kaisernetwork carried the story.

from my notes for an april 2, 2007 workgroup report for campaign to end aids,

karen [bates] said in south carolina, 512 hivers are currently on the waiting list to receive adap drugs there for the last 6-8 months. five hivers have died waiting. karen reports other hivers are getting themseves arrested so they can receive treatment in jail.

april 02
kearns @ aids-write: c2ea workgroup report 4-2-07 & upcoming meeting 4-16-07 (603)

it has not been possible to confirm the deaths karen reported.

but the waiting line to stay alive in the land of health & wealth & the capitol of the global war industry raises troublesome questions.

suppose tomorrow — national HIV testing day, 2007 — was wildly successful beyond our greatest deranged imaginings and we identified every one of those CDC-estimated quarter of a million persons with HIV infections in the united states.

could we treat them?

would we?

who would profit?

who profits now?

how much?

what’s too much?

who dies first?

namasté

—lyr

nastad’s press release:
Waiting Lists Continue for ADAPs;
Preliminary FY2008 Funding Levels do not Match Need
june 25, 2007

Washington, D.C. – According to NASTAD’s latest ADAP Watch, released today, a total of 529 individuals were on AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) waiting lists in four states (see attached Watch for details). Two of those states have had ADAP waiting lists for nearly two years. . . .

In the coming year, states are anticipating that ramped up testing efforts through CDC’s testing initiative will find more people in need of care. States must have the resources to provide immediate access to care and treatment to newly identified eligible HIV - positive individuals. Not everyone who tests positive will need ADAP services, but many will. In addition, three new promising antiretroviral medications will be available to help in the treatment of drug-resistant infection. ADAPs highly anticipate the arrival of these new therapies, but adding them to the formulary will be costly for the programs.

from the 6-26 kaiswenetwork report

Recent Releases | New Report on AIDS Drug Assistance Programs
[Jun 26, 2007]

“ADAP Watch,” National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors: The report found that a total of 529 people in Alaska, Montana, Puerto Rico and South Carolina were on waiting lists for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs as of May 16 (ADAP Watch, 6/25). ADAPs are federal- and state-funded programs that provide HIV/AIDS-related medications to low-income, uninsured and underinsured HIV-positive individuals (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/10).

• Alaska’s waiting list has one person,
• Montana’s has 22 people,
• Puerto Rico’s has 36 people and
• South Carolina’s has 470 people (ADAP Watch, 6/25).

The report also found that two ADAPs have adopted additional cost-containment measures to stay financially solvent. These measures include capped enrollment and formulary management, which have been instituted since April 1 (NASTAD release, 6/25). Indiana and Michigan have implemented such measures, according to the report. Kentucky reported that it anticipates having to implement new cost-containment measures during the current ADAP fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2008 (ADAP Watch, 6/25).

According to the report, many states in FY 2007 received a significant funding increase because of new Ryan White Program funding formulas.

from ADAP watch text

In FY2007, many states did receive a significant increase in funding to their HIV primary care and support service grants (Part B base of the Ryan White Program). As a result, 12 states have indicated they will be able to enhance their programs by expanding program formularies, eliminating the need to institute a waiting list, adding additional staff members, enhancing primary health care, raising financial eligibility, increasing capacity, and removing clients from waiting lists.

ADAPs provide life-saving HIV treatments to low income, uninsured, and underinsured individuals living with HIV/AIDS in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, American Samoa, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Since the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in 1996, AIDS deaths have declined and the number of people living with HIV/AIDS has markedly increased. ADAPs have played a critical role in making HAART more widely available.

ADAPs with Waiting Lists
(529 individuals as of May 16, 2007)

Alaska: 1 on waiting list
Montana: 22 on waiting list
Puerto Rico: 36 on waiting list
South Carolina: 470 on waiting list

ADAPs with Other Cost-containment Strategies (instituted since April 1, 2007)

Indiana: Capped enrollment
Michigan: Formulary management

Nine ADAPs also have capped enrollment for Fuzeon access and one state does not include the drug on its formulary (52 ADAPs reporting), as of May 16, 2007

Two ADAPs also have capped enrollment for Aptivus access and two states do not include the drug on their formularies (52 ADAPs reporting), as of May 16, 2007

One state does not include Prezista on its formulary (52 ADAPs reporting), as of May 16, 2007

One state does not include Atripla on its formulary (52 ADAPs reporting), as of May 16, 2007

ADAPs Anticipating New/Additional Cost-containment Measures (before March 31, 2008*)

Kentucky

• March 31, 2008 is the end of ADAP FY 2007. ADAP fiscal years begin April 1 and end March 31.

NASTAD (www.NASTAD.org) is a nonprofit national association of state health department HIV/AIDS program directors who have programmatic responsibility for administering HIV/AIDS and viral hepatitis health care, prevention, education, and supportive services programs funded by state and federal governments. To receive The ADAP Watch, please forward your e-mail address to Britten Ginsburg at bginsburg@NASTAD.org.

bryant responds to green responding

2007-06-22T18:20:00.000-04:00

chers---

i am remiss in not having posted this on the 20^th, when i received it. i talked with larry on the phone, when he double-checked about permission to post ted’s response.

to compensate, i offer the following metaphoric anecdote.

namasté

---lyr

[winston] churchill, who considered himself a true democrat, constantly opposed granting freedom to india. In more ways than one, [mahatma] gandhi was a much greater democrat, especially in believing in self-determination of people and the universal equality of mankind. . . . [in 1931], gandhi met face to face with churchill during the indian round table conference -- "...i have an alternative that is unpleasant to you" he told churchill and his clan of imperialists. "india demands complete liberty and freedom...the same liberty that englishmen enjoy... and i want india to become a partner in the empire. i want to partner with the english people ... not merely for mutual benefit, but so that the great weight that is crushing the world to atoms may be lifted from its shoulders".

http://www.kamat.com/mmgandhi/churchill.htm

larry bryant writes:

This is very interesting... Dr. Green cites his international work (mostly in southeast Asia and Africa) constantly in framing his discussion about prevention in the states. It's not like I was the only one in the room.

The larger point that I, and others, would like to make is that this 'advisory' body needs some, um, updating. I don't doubt the experience and education of PACHA. However, again and again, stereotypical and misguided (at best - ignorant and racist at worst) ideas and statements come from members of this group. Statements like stigma due to HIV/AIDS doesn't exist, HIV infection rates would decrease if everyone practiced "normal" sex are just symptoms of a much larger problem that is not limited to PACHA. Planning Councils, CPGs, and other groups share these same perspectives when it comes to addressing the epidemic among communities of color, gay men, and beyond. It's a little more that the fact that most of these individuals don't share the same zip code as these target populations.

Trust me, I am sure that you and me have heard much worse in our HIV lives. My question is: Have we fallen so deep into an apathetic sleep that the run-of-the-mill stigma and descrimination just floats by us like exhaust fumes on the street? We just get so used to smoke and the stink that it's more of a shock when we receive fresh air?

"We need to expand the civil-rights struggle to a higher level - to the level of human rights."

- Malcom X

<>Larry Bryant, National Field Organizer
Housingworks - Advocacy & Organizing
925 15th Street 2nd Floor, NW
Washington, D.C. 20005
(202)408-0305 office
(202)408-1142 fax
(202)419-9810 cell

2007 Youth Action Institute - Raleigh, North Carolina Go to www.campaigntoendaids.org <http://www.campaigntoendaids.org/> for information and to register or call 1 877 END AIDS (363 2437)

[RECTALMICRO] LUBRICANT SURVEY: JULY DEADLINE APPROACHES!

2007-06-22T13:34:00.001-04:00

chers---

thought i’d pass this along. jim pickett, from the aids foundation in chicago, posted a lot of interesting stuff on the TimeToDeliver site at the toronto AIDS conference.

namasté

---rk

------ Forwarded Message
From: Jim Pickett <JPickett@aidschicago.org>
Reply-To: Jim Pickett <JPickett@aidschicago.org>
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:12:11 -0500
To: LISTSERV.CRITPATH.ORG>
Conversation: LUBRICANT SURVEY: JULY DEADLINE APPROACHES!
Subject: [RECTALMICRO] LUBRICANT SURVEY: JULY DEADLINE APPROACHES!

IRMWG members ---- many of you have taken the survey, and perhaps there are those who have not yet. Please take a minute or two to either forward the survey on to friends and listservs... or take the survey yourself and then forward it on! You can use the blurb below in your emails to people. We have had incredible response to this survey - over 4500 have already completed it - and want to really increase our numbers before we close it out in July.

Thanks,

Jim

---------------------------------------------------------------------

LUBRICANT SURVEY: JULY DEADLINE APPROACHES!

Please participate in an important survey on lubricants used for anal sex before it closes on July 31! It takes less than 10 minutes to complete. Join the 4,500 women and men from 89 countries who have already participated!

Visit http://www.irmwg.org org>

WHY? Right now, lubricants do not need to be tested for safety before being sold. Some lubes commonly used for anal sex may not be as safe as others. By filling out the short survey, you will help scientists prioritize the next round of lubes that should be tested. Also, you will be giving valuable insights to researchers working on a new prevention technology called rectal microbicides.

HOW? On the homepage of the International Rectal Microbicide Working Group http://www.irmwg.org there is a link to the survey in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Turkish!

WHO ARE WE? The International Rectal Microbicides Working Group (IRMWG) is a group of community advocates and researchers from 35 countries who are working to increase options for the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections for the men and women around the world who have anal sex.

Please complete the survey today! Post a link on your web site! Forward this message to listservs!

Check out the new gay/bi men's sexual health and wellness website from the Sexual Health Xchange - www.LifeLube.org .org/> .

Jim Pickett
Director of Public Policy
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
411 South Wells Street Suite 300
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 334-0920 - direct
(773) 600-6407 - mobile voice/text
(312) 922-2916 - fax
www.aidschicago.org

green responds to bryant about pacha: a different story

2007-06-22T13:26:00.000-04:00

chers---

acz contacted dr. green and obtained the following response to larry bryant’s (info@campaigntoendaids.org 877-ENDAIDS) 6-15 press release that demanded an apology after a meeting with the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA).

dialogs are hard work. what else can be said here?

namasté

---rk

From: EGreendc@aol.com [mailto:EGreendc@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 11:55 AM

. . . I didn't say what they claim. I did say that Africans are unfairly accused of being "promiscuous" and that this is plain not true. The people who wrote the attack must really look down on Africans to project the idea that African-Americans must be outraged to be somehow associated with backward Africans, or whatever was in the minds of those at the gay website. They sure need to examine their views about Africans!

The record will show that the last item of the 2nd day was Dr Benny Primm, the most senior and most respected African-American on PAHA, saying he was satisfied that Ted Green would make the arguments for PEPFAR paying more attention to AIDS in the Caribbean (an issue Benny and I have been on together for a couple of years) . I have had only the best of relations with all Black members of PACHA--more than with Whites!

It was also Benny who brought up the statistic that more African Americans than whites are in jail, proportionately. However, I wish Frank Judson had not said this was "because Blacks commit more crimes," because that just opens a big emotional issue that can be attacked with reference to unfair sentencing practices..

I can't remember if I cc-e you on my letter to the editor, but here it is

cheers,

Ted

Edward C Green, PhD
Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies

Dear Advocate

I hope you will allow me to respond to an article that misrepresents discussion at the recent PACHA meeting (I am a member of the International Committee). The Washington Blade gave me equal time a couple of years ago, after a well-meaning but misguided activist tried to identify me with "Abstinence-only." I hope you will afford me the same courtesy.

Let me describe what actually happened at the recent meeting of PACHA. When the transcript becomes available at PACHA.gov, you will be able to see for yourself. I was asked by an African American member to explain the difference between generalized and concentrated epidemics. I did so and I hoped that the lesson would be learned that, whereas condoms have been effective in countries like Thailand and Cambodia, they have not been effective in Africa. A 2003 UNAIDS review of condom effectiveness found no examples in Africa of higher rates of condom use translating into lower levels of HIV infection, at the population level (of course, UNAIDS tried to bury this report. After all, no one want to be wrong. Still, it was published in Studies in Family Planning).

Now, western AIDS experts hate hearing these findings for any number of reasons including the fact that the condom is an icon of sexual freedom. Let me state here and now that, as I have said before, I totally support gay rights, gay marriage, women's liberation, fair drug sentencing practices (not 10 years for Blacks and 5 months for Whites for the same violation) tearing down unfair patriarchal structures and all the rest—after all, I am a lifelong leftie-- but that doesn't mean condoms are going to work to solve African AIDS. I wish I could say otherwise (my career would not have been destroyed, for one thing…).

Having fewer concurrent sexual partners is the thing that has worked in Africa. But there are no billion dollar programs behind partner reduction. No medical products get sold nor any medical services utilized (and calling this factor "Abstinence-only" is a big red herring that only prevents the truth from getting out.)

Back to PACHA: When I was next asked to translate these empirical findings from Africa to better understanding the situation of African Americans, I tried to beg off, saying that my expertise lies in Africa. I did point to several factors that have been mentioned by African American experts such as Dr. Benny Primm that might account for higher infection rates among African American men and women. I won't address comments directed at other members of PACHA but I would urge readers of this website to look at the survey and epidemiological evidence from Africa. I'm happy to discuss empirical evidence with anyone, anywhere, anytime.

You might also check out my article in the gay press:

Green, E.C., "Can we learn about AIDS from Africa? The Washington Blade. Sept. 2003.
http://washblade.com/2003/9-12/view/columns/africa.cfm

Republished in Southern Voice, Oct 2003
http://www.sovo.com/2003/9-19/view/columns/aidsles.cfm

And if you want to know the real deal about condoms in Africa, rather than the corporate
cheerleading (and I once was a major cheerleader myself) please read

Hearst, Norman and Sanny Chen, Condom Promotion for AIDS Prevention in the Developing World: Is It
Working? Studies In Family Planning 2004;35 [1 ]:39 -47)
http://www.usp.br/nepaids/condom.pdf

Edward C Green, PhD
Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies

AIDS ADVOCATES DEMAND APOLOGY FOR RACIST COMMENTS MADE BY MEMBERS OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ADVISORY COUNCIL ON HIV/AIDS

2007-06-17T14:09:00.000-04:00

Contact: Larry Bryant, 877-ENDAIDS (877-363-2467); info@campaigntoendaids.org

Immediate action necessary to diversify council membership

Washington, D.C. June 15, 2007 — On Tuesday at the 33rd meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), members of the council made egregious racially and ethnically insensitive remarks while discussing the state of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the black community. HIV/AIDS activists, grassroots organizations, and community leaders are demanding that PACHA issue an apology that acknowledges the comments were racist and take steps to address the lack of racial diversity on the council.

During the PACHA Members Open Discussion period on the first day of a two-day open-to-the-public meeting at Washington, D.C.'s TK venue, the conversation took a surreal, but all too common turn, when Harvard researcher Edward C. Green, Ph.D., suggested that prevention research and interventions done in Africa should be utilized in America's black communities. The presumption that black people living in Africa and the U.S. are indistinguishable shocked the audience into stunned silence.

On the subject of the disproportionate incarceration rates of black men, Franklyn N. Judson, M.D., rationalized that, "there are more blacks in jail, since they commit more crimes." Judson, who last year declared that stigma "doesn't exist" for HIV positive people, ignored decades of common knowledge that black people receive disproportionately longer sentences than white people. Judson and Green's remarks are just the latest in a stream of seemingly unconscious insensitivity and ignorance involving race, ethnic background, and sexuality.

HIV/AIDS organization and grassroots leaders are raising their voices to counter the insensitivity and ignorance of the councilmember remarks. "The racial and ethnic insensitivity was deeply disturbing," says Donna Crews, director of governmental affairs at AIDS Action. "For a statement to be said for the record that `there are more blacks in jail, since they commit more crimes' disregards the sentencing disparities that have been the norm in this country for more years than anyone would care to remember."

Larry Bryant, national field organizer of Housing Works and member of the Campaign To End AIDS (C2EA), who along with Ms. Crews was present on both days of the lightly attended full Council meeting, says that "black and Latino men and women as well as youth are sorely underrepresented at a table where trying reach those communities remains a mystery." PACHA is predominantly white but is addressing an epidemic in which over 70 percent of new infections are among people of color. "The collective face of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. has changed and so should its leadership," comments Mr. Bryant

National Demand For A Change

Actions are being organized to address the comments made by the PACHA members and to ensure and elevate the cultural competency and racial sensitivity of the council. C2EA, National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC), and the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA) are working to develop an effective and powerful strategy to force PACHA to acknowledge the comments as racist and apologize and change the makeup of the council, How can you help?

Express your comments and concerns about the cultural and racial insensitivity of the PACHA members and demand adequately diverse representation on the council to Mary (Marty) McGeein, Executive Director, Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS; (202) 401-8005. You can also send emails to info@campaigntoendaids.org and they will be forwarded to the Mary McGeein

For more information, press only, contact Larry Bryant, 1-877-ENDAIDS (363-2467), info@campaigntoendaids.org

june international carnival of pozitivities honored by blog carnival & call for july icp contributions

2007-06-15T14:07:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends of the International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP):

The International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP) has been selected by Blog Carnival as their featured carnival for today, June 15, 2007. I am thrilled to receive this honor, especially since it highlights the work of our last host, James Wortz, and all of the contributors to this volunteer project. Many, many kudos to all of you who have contributed in the past.

Please visit Blog Carnival today. You might find another carnival that brings you passion.

Peace to you all.

Ron Hudson

2sides2ron
Poundcake Love
The International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP)

The 13th consecutive and first edition of Year Two of the ICP will be hosted at ScribeSpirit eZine. We, myself and the hosts Jody and Jolen, are now seeking submissions for this first edition of the new year.

Please visit our last edition and the ICP Homepage to read the details of this project. All twelve existing editions are available via links from the homepage.

If you are living with, working to treat or cure, or concerned about HIV/AIDS and its potential effects on your loved ones, yourself or others, then consider adding your voice to the conversations about this disease. At the very least, please talk about HIV/AIDS among your peers and help us eliminate the stigma that so many of us in this community experience. Want to do more? Write up the story of your life with HIV/AIDS, tell about a loved one or friend who is your hero, or simply write how you feel about this topic. You can contribute anonymously, although our aim is to put a face on this illness and to live without shame and guilt for carrying a virus in our bodies. The more open, honest and genuine you can be, the more powerful your message.

We accept written testimonials, video, music, poetry, original artwork or anything else that might shed light on life with HIV/AIDS and its treatment. All of the work for the ICP is based on the idea of volunteerism. It is, in fact, a social experiment of sorts to show that through compassion and generosity, we can all gain more than what we put into life. If we care, we can make things happen on an international grassroots level without need for financial gain. If we simply take that first step of sharing, how powerful can we be? I hope that you will consider conquering fear. I hope that you can help us face our lives as the opportunities to promote compassion that they are rather than succumbing to our multi-culture of fear and stigma. We all need inspiration. Will you be inspiring?

As always, I must ask as well if you would like to host the blog carnival on your own website or blog. The ICP homepage has the schedule for future editions and a link to email me to volunteer. Any mention or permanent links added to your blogs and sites to promote the ICP will be appreciated. Feel free to forward this email to your friends as an invitation to join our community.

Peace to you all.

Safe Journeys!

Ron Hudson

2sides2ron
Poundcake Love
The International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP)

navajo nation AIDS awareness

2007-06-15T14:04:00.000-04:00

Across The Nation | Navajo Nation Addresses HIV/AIDS Awareness Among Tribe Members
[Jun 12, 2007]

The AP/Santa Fe New Mexican on Saturday examined efforts to raise HIV/AIDS awareness among members of the Navajo Nation tribe.

The Navajo Area Indian Health Service has identified 240 HIV/AIDS cases among group members from 1985 to 2006. There were 7.6 HIV/AIDS cases per 100,000 Navajo Nation American Indians in 2005 and 7.8 cases per 100,000 Navajo Nation American Indians in 2006, the AP/New Mexican reports. According to CDC data, there were 10.6 HIV/AIDS cases per 100,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives in 2005, compared with 72.8 cases for blacks, 28.5 for Hispanics, 9 for whites and 7.6 for Asians and Pacific Islanders.

According to the AP/New Mexican, the Navajo Nation faces many challenges in promoting awareness of sexually transmitted infections, including how “to relay to traditional healers that HIV and AIDS are not non-Native diseases,” address access to care and ensure patient confidentiality.

In addition, many HIV-positive tribal members forgo care because of stigma and misconceptions related to the disease. However, in recent years, efforts have been made to address health issues among the Navajo tribe. Jocelyn Billy, Miss Navajo Nation, has been recognized for speaking publicly about sex, relationships and HIV/AIDS, and tribal officials have run public service announcements encouraging safer sex and urging members to be tested for HIV.

Rita Gilmore, a traditional healer, said, “It’s not about who has the best remedies to cure this because right now, both sides don’t have a cure. We must come together and [find] ways to prolong the lives of these patients”

TB Testing, Treatment Should Be Linked With HIV Prevention Programs, WHO Official Says

2007-06-08T12:44:00.000-04:00

Kaiser Network | Global Challenges | TB Testing, Treatment Should Be Linked With HIV Prevention Programs, WHO Official Says

[Jun 08, 2007]
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=45457

African countries, especially those in Southern Africa, must link tuberculosis testing and treatment with HIV prevention programs to more effectively fight HIV/AIDS, Kevin de Cock, head of the World Health Organization's HIV/AIDS department, said recently at the 3rd South African AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, Reuters reports. De Cock said that the continued use of traditional treatments for TB could fuel the spread of the disease and exacerbate the HIV/AIDS epidemic. "TB programs alone cannot reverse the tide" of HIV/AIDS, he said, adding that it is vital to offer those living with HIV/TB coinfection convenient and effective treatment for both diseases.

The emergence of extensively drug-resistant TB, which is resistant to the two most potent first-line treatments and some of the available second-line drugs, in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, neighboring Lesotho and other parts of the world has created a more serious threat, especially in Southern Africa, where HIV/AIDS and TB are prevalent and interlinked. In South Africa, approximately 61% of the roughly 250,000 people diagnosed annually with TB have HIV, Reuters reports. XDR-TB also has led to higher mortality rates and faster deaths among HIV-positive people, according to Reuters. In addition, although people living with HIV/TB coinfection might have access to antiretroviral drugs, they often do not receive treatment simultaneously for both diseases.

Robin Wood, director of South Africa's Desmond Tutu HIV Center at the University of Cape Town, said, "HIV has caused a devastating reversal in our ability to treat TB." He added that the solution is to combine HIV and TB treatments, which will require a large investment in TB laboratories, as well as related medical infrastructure and resources, in much of Africa. Researchers are developing a urine-based dipstick test that would give TB results almost instantly. Wood said this "would be a great asset if we could get it" (Simao, Reuters, 6/7).

ICP 11 up

2007-05-03T19:42:00.000-04:00

The 11th International Carnival of the Pozitivities is up at Living in the Bonus Round, a blog I've enjoyed reading for the past year or so. A recent ACZ article is featured this month, as well as posts by my friends at Acid Reflux and DIRELAND, not to mention some first-time appearances at ICP. Check it out!

acz blast from the past: brad biggers from the suicide prevention line in louisiana, january 2005

2007-04-28T02:22:00.000-04:00

. . . three suicide calls in 2 hours is certainly a stressful event. They all are running together in my mind right now. Let me think about if I can sort out which was which.

The first one was one of our most common kinds of suicide call: the "I just found out I have HIV and my life is over" call. These calls are not easy. Living with AIDS or HIV means completely changing your life, which is often enough to make it feel like your life is over. You also have to overcome the stigma attached to AIDS, and make the choice of if and when to tell your friends and family, and what to do about your previous partners, and how to confront the person who you think gave it to you.

It truly shakes your world from the ground up, and it's more than some people can take (although a third of Americans living with HIV or AIDS say that their quality of life actually improved following their diagnosis. Meanwhile, a third said their life was about the same, and a third said their life was worse, and the result is that sometimes an HIV diagnosis makes people want to kill themselves. Many of those who do end up calling us.

My second one for the day was an uncommon one. The young woman who called us did not have any sort of AIDS related concern. Her husband had died three years ago, and her only child died in a car crash while driving home from spending Thanksgiving dinner with the caller. Basically she called us because when she opened up her phone book, she saw the words "trained counselors" next to our number, and so she called. It was my first non-AIDS related suicide call since I stopped volunteering at the suicide hotline, but Brianna told me she had taken two or three calls like that before.

The final call was by far the hardest. The caller was first diagnosed with HIV in 1984, and progressed to full blown AIDS in 1987. Back then he lived in New York, where he became active in HIV outreach among other young gay males. Many of his HIV positive friends did the same, however the last of them died in 1995, at which point he left New York for Louisiana, hoping to make a difference here. He became the associate director of an AIDS service organization in Shreveport before quitting to found his own clinic in a rural area with a disproportionate number of low income people with AIDS.

His health took a turn for the worse this past spring, 19 years after he was first infected with HIV. His temporary leave of absence from work soon became a permanent one, and he went under the care of his local hospice on November first.

For those of you who aren't familiar with hospice programs, they are set up to aid victims of terminal illness when they have less than a year to live. The ones I've had experience with are wonderful, caring organizations that make a tremendous difference to the patients they serve. Unfortunately, going into hospice care made my caller feel like his struggle with AIDS was nearing an end, and that he was tired of fighting. He was prepared to down a bottle of pain pills and wash it down with whiskey. Fortunately he did not. After 45 minutes on the phone with him, he agreed to call the hospice and let them know how he was feeling, and to call us back if he couldn't reach them or if he needed someone to talk to again. By that time my day was over, and I was ready to stop answering calls.

I hope my three callers are doing okay tonight.

[brad biggers]

claire howard @ the peoria journal star: 4-parter on HIV/AIDS in our heartland

2007-04-26T11:31:00.000-04:00

from the kaiser family network hiv/aids report April 26, 2007

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=44512

Across The Nation | Peoria Journal Star Publishes Series of Articles on HIV/AIDS

<>[Apr 26, 2007]

The Peoria Journal Star recently published a four-part series on HIV/AIDS. Headlines appear below.

"Avoiding Infection" (Howard, Peoria Journal Star, 4/23).

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/042307/TRI_BD10FCHA.025.php

The Client Advisory Board at Heart of Illinois HIV/AIDS Center is a club no one should want to join.

"When you join this club, you don't ever get out for the rest of your life," said a CAB member in his early 50s. "Some people want to feel part of a group. I'd say to them 'choose another group.' If I had the chance, I would."

Members of CAB are the HIV-positive patients treated at the center.

Another CAB member, Christina Henry, has devised a six-point checklist to keep people out of the club. Her points address all prospective inductees.

No. 1 on the list: Condoms.

No. 2 on the list: Education

No. 3 on the list: Needles

No. 4 on the list: Testing

No. 5 on the list: Know your partner's status

No. 6 on the list: Vaccine

"Devastated Families" (Howard, Peoria Journal Star, 4/24).

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/042407/TRI_BCVCRL1D.027.php

For more than 300 days, Michael Fleming was a regular visitor at Knox County Nursing Home, seeing his mother who was in the final stages of Alzheimer's and his "baby girl" who was battling HIV/AIDS and related brain cancer.

His mother died, and his daughter, Nicole Fleming, 30, came home after 11 months. She's lost her hair, which once fell to the center of her back. She still fingers the scar on the right side of her head where surgeons sawed into her skull to remove cancerous brain lesions.

Michael Fleming's younger brother died of HIV/AIDS . . . alone, without family with him.

Fleming recognizes his family's luck and vulnerability in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The Flemings trace their lineage to the first black family settling in Galesburg in the mid-1850s. There was a Fleming living on Mulberry Street for 150 years. Only tangentially did HIV/AIDS first insinuate itself into their lives. Then, over the past decade, the grip tightened on this and other African-American families nationwide.

"Silent Treatment" (Howard, Peoria Journal Star, 4/25).

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/042507/TRI_BD1JDPAD.025.php

Lisa Roeder's office bulges with documentation and looks like the work environment of any busy professional . . . except for one tell-tale indicator.

There is a handmade ceramic bowl filled with condoms on her desk, a practical and symbolic reminder of her fierce conviction that people have the right to truth and complete information regarding the spread of HIV/AIDS.

"We get 18- and 19-year-olds who learn they are HIV positive. That means they were HIV positive in high school," said Roeder, social services coordinator at the Heart of Illinois HIV/AIDS Center. "It's devastating for them. We hear them say time and again, 'I just didn't know.' It's heartbreaking. We have counselors and grief therapists to help them."

"'Those Other People'" (Howard, Peoria Journal Star, 4/22).

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/042207/TRI_BD08IABN.027.php

[Christina] Henry, 51, has her own mission. She received her HIV diagnosis at the Peoria City/County Health Department on her birthday in 2003. She prepared to die. She worried about who would care for her grandson. But as the people and resources dedicated to HIV/AIDS in central Illinois found her, she developed resolve. She decided to look at her diagnosis as a gift.

"To try to eliminate TOPS ... 'Those Other People' syndrome," she said.

laurie garrett @ us council on foreign relations speaks to senate subcommittee 4-18-07

2007-04-24T07:25:00.000-04:00

<>laurie garrett : "health systems are the key. Those targeted programs, such as PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), are terrific, but without functioning public health and medical systems in place, PEPFAR and its like are just big band-aids that barely cover gaping wounds."

excerpt from garrett's statement:

Treatment, yes: But not without prevention

Let me give you an example. About a year ago I was in a small town in Haiti. The people in this town were overwhelmed with infectious diseases. Their illnesses swamped the beleaguered clinics, where long lines of mothers and children stood in the tropical sun for hours on end, waiting to see a doctor. The children’s growth was stunted; mothers couldn’t produce enough milk to feed their babies; long-infected teenagers fought to keep their eyes open in class. In the parking lot of the town’s main hospital sat two rusted-out, broken USAID jeeps, the American insignias clearly evident. Though American charities were helping to subsidize the medical training and services in the hospital, nobody --- no Haitian government agency and no foreign donor, looked at this town and asked the obvious question: “Why are so many people sick with dysentery, typhoid fever, and intestinal problems? Why are so many children in this town dying before they hit their fifth birthdays?”

The answer: Water. The colonial-era water filtration and pumping system had long ago broken down. For about $200,000 the system could be fixed, children would drink safe water, and the disease and death rate would plummet. But no donor chose to take on that water problem. Instead, at the cost of far more lives, and dollars, the donors – including USAID – funded treatment of entirely preventable diseases, and supported the operation of a very busy morgue.

The emphasis my colleagues placed on maternal and child health is wise. What is killing babies and toddlers? The lack of essential public health services: clean water, mosquito control, basic nutrition, healthy moms.

What is killing their moms? The lack of medical systems: No safe C-sections, no sterile equipment for episiotomies, no prenatal care.

Public health systems keep babies and children alive. Medical delivery systems keep their moms alive.

Systems: Not individual, disease-specific programs – health systems are the key. Those targeted programs, such as PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), are terrific, but without functioning public health and medical systems in place, PEPFAR and its like are just big band-aids that barely cover gaping wounds.

We – Americans and the wealthy world, generally – have given, and given, and given for decades. Yet the gap between longest and shortest lived societies has widened, now a full five decades long. And despite mountains of foreign aid from the OECD nations, basic health markers such as life expectancy and child survival have barely budged over the last 60 years in any sub-Saharan African country – except, thanks to HIV, to go backwards in a few.

http://www.blogs.opc.on.ca/?p=111

Prepared Statement Before the Senate Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs:

http://www.cfr.org/publication/13130/

canadian HIV/Aids activist june callwood dies at 82

2007-04-16T11:40:00.000-04:00

<>
Activist Callwood dies at 82

Catherine Dunphy and Debra Black
toronto star Staff Reporters
Apr 14, 2007 09:32 AM

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/203138

“I’m okay, I’m 82 years old for heaven’s sake. Dust to dust is the way it ought to be. The death of the young is inexcusable.”

During one of her last visits to Casey House, the AIDS hospice she helped found that is named after her late son, June Callwood noticed that the place felt tired and that there was a 60-watt bulb in the ceiling of the lounge. No one could sit there and read under that light, she fretted.

Friends rallied, the hospice’s original interior designer was contacted, and before she died Callwood saw photos of a sparkling, repainted hospice, replete with the fresh flowers Callwood believes that facility must always have because it symbolizes caring.

When she first went into the palliative care unit she glimpsed a sign limiting visitors to 10 minutes. According to friend Marg McBurney, Callwood was outraged that the visiting time was so short when people had to pay “so much” for parking.

More than 2,500 men and women from Ontario and across Canada have received palliative and supportive care at the downtown hospice.

After announcing four years ago that she had terminal cancer, Callwood continued to write and lobby and win awards, the most recent earlier in March when she was given the Writer’s Trust award for distinguished contribution. Last summer, a Toronto east end laneway was named after her.

“She’s showing all of us how to die — with caring and humour and unfaltering caring of other people,” McBurney said.

. . . Her own books include The Law is Not for Women (1976), Portrait of Canada (1981), Trial Without End (1995), the story of Charles Ssenyonga, who infected several women with AIDS, and The Man Who Lost Himself (2000).

From 1975 to ’78 Callwood hosted CBC-TV’s In Touch; more recently she interviewed people on VisionTV’s National Treasures.

Over the years, Callwood picked up numerous honours, including more than 15 honorary doctorates, the Order of Canada, Officer (1985), the Order of Ontario (1988), the Canadian News Hall of Fame (1984) and the Toronto Arts Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award (1990).

In what was billed as her last interview, on April 2 with the CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos, Callwood talked about her life, her accomplishments, her love Trent Frayne, her husband of 63 years, and her illness.

“I’m a mess,” she said during an interview for CBC’s The Hour. “My cancer is all over the place. I’m blowing up like a Goodyear blimp, which I didn’t think was supposed to happen. I thought you were supposed to get lean and beautiful.”

Guest Post: AIDS is becoming feminine - Be conscious!

2007-04-13T09:35:00.000-04:00

The following comes from AIDS Combat Zone reader Mohammad Khairul Alam, Executive Director of Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation in Dhaka, Bangladesh. You can see other posts by Mr. Alam at his blog.

Lately, More than half of all new HIV infections occur in women between the ages of 15 to 24 years. The impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls is particularly acute. In many developing or poor countries, women are often economically, culturally and socially disadvantaged and lack equal access to treatment, financial support and education. In a number of societies, women are mistakenly perceived as the main transmitters of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Together with traditional beliefs about sex, blood and the transmission of other diseases, these beliefs provide a basis for the further stigmatization of women within the context of HIV/AIDS.

AIDS is a deadly disease, but also everybody can safe from it by gathering knowledge. While men generally have more access to information on sexual issues than women, some cultural barrier, the sexual knowledge for adolescent girls are often overlooked. Recent survey in Bangladesh by Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation & L.R.B Foundation has shown that while provide HIV information with discussions of safe-sex or gender issue may be discouraged for young girls and women because of the ordinary belief that to inform them about sexuality and safe-sex is to encourage sexual activity. Even though that for fear of encouraging sexual activity, mothers deny imperative information about sexual-live, safe sex, reproductive health information from their daughters.

Bangladesh is a poor country. Not all Adolescent girls are fortunate enough to attend school. This might be for one of a variety of reasons. In some areas, it is needed to pay for schooling, and poor parents may be unable to afford to send a child to school, or may be unable to send all their children to school. Sometimes children will be required to work. In some locations, young people may live in areas where a local school is not accessible. In some circumstances, young people may have been excluded from school for reasons that might be due to the young person’s behaviour, academic or intellectual abilities, or due to discrimination. These young girls are especially vulnerable and neglected, coming under the purview of government programs only once they are pregnant- the majority is out of school and are neither serviced by educational or school health programs nor by child health, reproductive health and nutrition services.

The developing world is now bearing the full brunt of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Gender discrimination, less jobs opportunity, women's rights and limited access to financial resources of women are more likely to become economically dependent on men, relegated to the subsistence sector or forced into commercial sex work. Men are also beginning to seek younger sexual partners believing that these girls are less likely to be infected with HIV. Young girls are vulnerable to coerced sex, including rape and other sexual abuse - within and outside the family - and forced sex work. Any non-consensual or coerced penetrative sex can carry an increased risk of HIV transmission, particularly as men are not likely to use condoms in these situations. The majority infections take place in infants or young children, adolescent and sexually active adults.

Safe-sex knowledge is an important part of effective HIV prevention. It is generally believed that it enables people to acquire knowledge and develop skills which they can use to protect and promote their sexual health through minimizing the risks that they might face in the course of their sexual experiences. We should being informed them about the facts and the dangers of HIV/AIDS enables young people to protect themselves and is a crucial tool in the battle against HIV/AIDS. There is no cure or vaccine for HIV/AIDS, so prevention is the only method in which we can place any limits on the epidemic. One of the most economical and effective means of HIV prevention is education – involving young people themselves in the HIV prevention effort.

References: UNAIDS, World Bank, STD network, LRB report 2006

“A-A-A-A-AIDS," he said

2007-04-09T22:39:00.000-04:00

sunday night, april 8, 2007 los angeles [dateline]

just got home from an unusual encounter at a los angeles-area medical cannabis dispensary where i spend time as an AIDS activist & a mmj (medical marijuana) advocate & a poet.

“johnnie,” a clinic patient with whom i’ve been talking for months now, told me tonight he has AIDS instead of leukemia. “not HIV,” he tells me. “AIDS.’

he could barely get the word out of his mouth for all his fear: “A-A-A-A-AIDS.”

suddenly, the two of us are at the beginning of a long dialog. here is someone who has asked me, and whom i know how to help.

“A-A-A-A-AIDS.”

how close did he come to saying nothing --- to me or anyone --- again tonight?

“A-A-A-A-AIDS.”

why did he pick tonight to speak? what did it take to speak?

“A-A-A-A-AIDS.”

johnnie lives on the street today. he says he’s in his thirties. he says he’s bisexual. he says he has two kids to whom he no longer has access. he says he “got away” with telling his family he had leukemia because he had an uncle who had it and died from it.

“really?” i ask.

we look at each other, and neither of us says “A-A-A-A-AIDS.”

johnnie gives me a confirmation about my work in the dispensaries here. i seem to be in the right place. it is a confirmation that saddens me. johnnie also breaks my heart.

i can’t post this among my regular notes, on my regular site. it’s an unfinished conversation as far as johnnie is concerned.

but the post isn’t about johnnie.

i feel a need to mark the moment as significant for me.

over the next weeks, i will work with johnnie to access the system i’ve learned my way around over the last twenty years. it is a relief to be able to help him out. PWAs in los angeles have access to a huge infrastructure of resources and services that persons with other diseases don’t have. PWAs and HIVers stand on the shoulders of others.

people with cancer, with chronic pain, or veterans even, don’t have what we have worked to build. (& there was a fire two weeks ago at the westside free clinic, so that’s the first option for everyone else down for the season.)

my aim is to share by metaphhor.

& i will always remember the way johnnie said it, repeating it several times during our conversation, wrestling with it each time:

“A-A-A-A-AIDS. i have A-A-A-A-AIDS.”

courage and shame in the same breath. triumph.

namasté

---lyr

acz chers---

thank you for the welcome. i look forward to the opportunity to be of service, and to act in support of brad & whitney's service in the peace corps in africa.

roy peter clark at the poynter institute characterizes journalism as a conversation, a culturally democratic and primarily american conversation. i look forward to our conversations that will follow.

(will have to learn labels as i go along)

---lyr

New ACZ Contributor - Richard Kearns

2007-04-09T21:54:00.000-04:00

The AIDS Combat Zone family continues to grow. Fellow blogger, activist, poet, and ACZ friend Richard Kearns of AIDS-Write.org has offered to help keep the posts flowing during my time in Africa. Richard is a long-term AIDS survivor with an inside view of West-Coast AIDS issues, with special attention to medical marijuana, PLWHA's over 50, and the Los Angeles activist scene. Richard worked with me on TimeToDeliver.org last year during the 2006 International AIDS Conference and has been an active participant in the ICP Blog Carnival. Please join Faith and me in welcoming Richard Kearns to AIDS Combat Zone!

And don't forget, AIDS Combat Zone is still looking for contributors. Please leave a comment or send an email if you're interested in participating!

PEPFAR far away from effective prevention

2007-04-06T14:56:00.000-04:00

I'm cross-posting today with my blog. Today is the first day of Blog against Theocracy and I'm participating...obviously.

PEPFAR is the U.S. President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief. In May 2003, Congress approved a $15 billion dollar U.S. expenditure on HIV prevention and treatment. 3 billion is supposed to be spent on prevention programs. It is, in my opinion one of the most theocratic, far-reaching, fucked up Bush Administration policies. Here’s why:

Just to start with, a major tenet of PEPFAR is ABC, otherwise known as the prevention model (in other words, it's for prevention-he he.).

ABC stands for Abstinence, Be faithful, when necessary use Condoms. I like to say it stands for Arrogance Beyond Credence, Absolutely Bizarre Convictions or perhaps Absurdly Bigheaded Citizens (anyway, I'm sure you can come up with some better ones)
This plan aims to teach people of the third world, the majority of whom do not speak English and for whom the cleverness of ABC means nothing, that in order to prevent HIV infection they must abstain from having sex, be maritally faithful or use condoms as a last resort. Of the 3 billion dollars spent, at least 33% of it MUST go to abstinence-until-marriage programs.
Here’s why this is a problem.

Abstinence is great if you’re into it. I’m not disparaging abstinence AT ALL. It does work. However, in context with human lives throughout the world where people:
i. Have survival sex
ii. Cannot deny sex to spouse in order to survive
iii. Have cultural/religious obligation to have children
iv. Have hormones like any other human on this planet
it doesn't work for everyone. Duh.

Let’s take an example: Sarvati is married to Rupesh who has a good job as a truck driver. Sarvati has heard the warnings around town that many of the men who drive trucks see prostitutes but she cannot withhold sex from her husband (abstinence) and she is faithful. Some of the prevention specialists visit the truck stops to teach the ABCs but when they leave, some of the prostitutes get rid of the materials they have left because it hurts business for a while after the prevention specialists come though they do keep the condoms they have brought even though they get paid less for sex with a condom. In order to support their own families, they must get rid of the materials.

Rupesh does not visit the prostitutes though. When Rupesh is driving, he tries not to think about his wife or his home because he knows that they would be ashamed of him. Rupesh likes to have sex with men but this is culturally taboo. He is ashamed, but on the road, some of the men are like him and he doesn’t feel quite so bad. After all, he does love his wife and the sex he has when he is on the road is not the same as real sex.

When Rupesh arrives home, Sarvati asks him if he has ever visited a prostitute. He answers truthfully, no, he has not. She feels lucky that her husband is not like some of the others.

Lets take another, less complex example.

Akwe is 12 years old. She is an only child. Her parents are both living. They want her to be a teacher and they scrape all of their money together for her education. Akwe spends quite a lot of time studying because she loves learning, she wants to be a teacher and she knows how much her parents have sacrificed to send her to school. When her teacher demands sex in order to give her the passing marks she deserved, she feels she has no choice but to accept.

b. The GAO -- a non-partisan investigative arm of Congress -- analyzed the effects of the abstinence-until-marriage requirement. In the report, it found that it limited efforts to design prevention programs that actually met the needs of the local population. This was primarily the teams who had experience with HIV prevention programs.

Well, of course! You might say. Who else is getting funding except those with experience in HIV prevention? Funny you should ask. PEPFARs New Partners Initiative provides funding to community and faith-based programs for HIV prevention outreach. Ideally, partnerships would be with proven effective, evidence-based public health programs. If it was about meeting the needs of communities PEPFAR would be partnering with institutions that have technical expertise in evidence-based HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care, or expertise in poverty reduction, capacity building, reducing gender inequalities, reducing stigma and discrimination, and strengthening health systems.

However, this is not the case. Some of the organizations that have received funding include:
Choose Life - a program for church laity and pastors that advertises "In this programme you will explore knowledge, attitudes and perceptions about HIV and AIDS. You will be empowered to combat HIV and AIDS through ethical and spiritual conduct. You will discover how to transform your community into an ethical community." And all this for 200 Rand - about 10 x the daily average income for an average South African.

Beyond our country, our president is forcing religious morality down the throats of people who need, more than anything, facts. He is contributing to the deaths of thousands. I urge you to ask your Representatives to support the PATHWAY Act which would remove the abstinence-until-marriage earmark that requires that 1/3 of all international HIV prevention funding be spent on abstinence-until-marriage programs and ensure that HIV prevention programs are based on scientific evidence, public health practice, and human rights concerns, not ideology.

Ultimately (this here is my POINT) - If I had kids I'd want them to be perfect. I'm sure your kids are perfect as were your parents in teaching you how to avoid sex until the rings were firmly in place. However, some kids aren't perfect. Some parents are assholes. Some parents are not in the picture, some parents have died of AIDS and some parents have sex with their children to get their rocks off. Let's allow condom distribution for them. OK?

There's a c, d and at least e but I didn't want to write an entire journal article and besides, there's a ton of information out there for the browsing. For more concise, coherent and evidence based information, go to PEPFAR Watch.

quick note

2007-03-31T13:55:00.000-04:00

I've written a guest post over at AIDS-Write.org. Check it out

Happy birthday Elizabeth Taylor

2007-02-26T14:28:00.000-05:00

Dear Ms. Taylor,

Happy 75th birthday! Thank you for all of your work in raising awareness of HIV disease and raising funds for care and research.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor was the first celebrity to make noise about the HIV epidemic months before Rock Hudson died 21 years ago. For this alone, she should be commended, however, she continued to press on. She did not get bored or complacent like SO MANY other celebrities. Celebrities that are either doing it to enhance their image or doing it because they care so much for "the people with the AIDS" but then they hear that PETA is having a protest and, well, they get distracted...

Dame Taylor continues, to this day to be a steadfast advocate in the fight against HIV disease and raising funds for research and care for people living with HIV.

Elizabeth Taylor has been working with amFAR and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation for 21 years because she is angry. She is angry at the ignorance of policymakers and she has no trouble saying so. She is annoyed at the lack of sex education in schools, she is livid that injection drug users do not have access to clean needles. She is steadfast in her support and I salute her.

Thank you Elizabeth and Happy 75th!!!

An AIDS warrior gets called to the front line

2007-02-17T00:03:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, I am a prospective volunteer in the United States Peace Corps. I applied over a year ago with the intention of joining after I finished the coursework for my Master's of Public Health degree. The application process usually only takes around 9 months, but married couples such as my wife and me are told to allow 18 months, so we applied early.

For most of the past year, we have only had vague notions of where our Peace Corps placement would take us and when we would depart. We were told early on that our most likely placement would be Africa, but that with 24 potential countries, that didn't help much. We were more fortunate than most applicants in knowing for certain that we would be given a health assignment thanks to doing my master's field experience through the Peace Corps. Nevertheless, there was much uncertainty.

After many months of waiting, our official Peace Corps invitation finally came in the mail. We now know for certain that we will be going to Kenya on May 22, 2007 to be HIV/AIDS and Hygiene volunteers. We will be living in a rural village, working closely with its residents to increase knowledge of HIV/AIDS issues, prevent waterborne and vector-borne illness, and assess other health issues so that the community can be mobilized to address them. We will be doing this until August, 2009.

As you can guess, Whitney and I are thrilled to be embarking on this journey. This marks the next big step in our lives. We're even considering staying in East Africa to live and work beyond the end of our service (by then we're very likely to be fluent in Swahili). Our future seems wide open from this point.

It had been my hope to continue blogging here at AIDS Combat Zone throughout the duration of my Peace Corps placement, but I've become aware of certain policies that will make it impractical to continue blogging here. Therefore, co-blogger Faith will be taking over my editorial duties in my absence, though I plan on continuing to be involved here via periodic "dispatch from the front line" posts which I will relay through Faith (by snail mail if necessary).

As always, your comments and contributed writings are welcome and encouraged. Additionally, we could use an extra regular contributor (or two) so if you're a good writer interested in global AIDS issues send an email our way. We'd love to have you on board!

Three steps back

2007-02-13T14:24:00.000-05:00

Around my office, we attempt to make strides against HIV every day. It doesn't always work, but at least we're trying. I can't say the same for everyone.

1. This morning Dr. Robert Gallo gave video testimony in a case in Australia where a man was accused of transmitting the virus to three women. His defense? HIV does not cause AIDS. Are we still doing this?

2. President of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, smallest country on the continent of Africa, has claimed that he can cure AIDS through traditional family medicine and the Koran. He has claimed to have cured a number of patients already. A little over 1% of the population of 1.6 million is living with HIV.

3. Lastly, while the University of California, San Francisco released this morning that their placebo-controlled trial of marijuana in HIV-related neuropathy showed that pot did, in fact, lessen neuropathy-associated pain, the U.S. government does not allow cannabis to be grown for research purposes. MDMA, heroin and cocaine are all made by DEA licensed firms, however. Today, a DEA judge recommended a change in this policy. For more information see the ACLU press release.

Here is the website for the clinic I work at and the work that I do.

Give your sweetheart HIV for valentine's day

2007-02-02T13:07:00.000-05:00

I came across the coolest site today:

GIANTmicrobes

GIANTmicrobes sells plush toys designed to look like your favorite bacteria, viruses, parasites, and vectors. That way you can give your sweetie HIV, syphilis, hepatitis C, mono, heartworm (awwwww) and many others this February 14th... without needing to seek medical attention afterwards!

I love it.

Doctor and nurses receive death sentences

2006-12-19T12:35:00.000-05:00

Seven years in a Libyan prison and justice has been miscarried again.

Five nurses from Bulgaria, all of whom, according to NPR have been tortured and one Palestinian doctor who was born in Egypt but has lived most of his life in Libya have been sentenced to death for allegedly infecting over 400 children with HIV in a Libyan hospital. In fact, the HIV epidemic in the Benghazi hospital began prior to most of these individuals' tenure at the hospital.

Despite scientific evidence to the contrary, including testimony from Dr. Luc Montagnier, the six medical professionals have been convicted twice.

According to reports all of the nurses have been tortured with electric shocks, beatings and rape.

For the sakes of
VALIA CHERVENIASHKA
SNEZHANA DIMITROVA
NASYA NENOVA
CHRISTIANA VALCHEVA
VALENTINA SIROPOULO
ASHRAF ALHAJOUJ

Please write to your senators. For those of you not in the U.S., write to your government officials. This is a human rights nightmare.

The numbers are in: Circumcision and HIV

2006-12-13T19:50:00.000-05:00

The results of the NIAID Trial of Male Circumcision to Reduce HIV Incidence are in. The results: a 50% reduction in new HIV cases among the men who were circumcised at the beginning of the study; results so dramatic that the study was haulted early so that the control participants (uncircumcised men who were compared to those circumcised) could be offered the procedure.

Due to the scale of this study, the results are rightly being heralded as monumental. Expect to see major demand for widespread circumcision in places with high prevalence. Correspondingly, I predict a number of governments and NGOs will begin incorporating circumcision into their prevention messages. Less certain is whether the push will be for adult circumcision or for circumcision of infants; I imagine that question will be resolved according to local descretion.

Edit: Looks like Faith beat me to the punch on this one. Great minds...

Cuts make sense

2006-12-13T19:21:00.000-05:00

But not in the way that you think. I'm not talking budget cuts, which has been on the minds of all of us receiving ADAP and Ryan White funding.

No, I'm talking about circumcision. Yes, the NEW YORK TIMES has finally picked up on what scientists the world over have been promoting for years and Bills Clinton and Gates have been promoting since the Toronto conference.

The fact is that two circumcision studies were halted, one in Kenya and one in Uganda, when it was discovered during a Data & Safety Monitoring meeting yesterday that circumcision reduced risk of HIV infection by one-half. Both of these studies were randomized. In stopping the studies, all participants will now have access to circumcision.

However as the World Health Organization noted today

"Countries or health care institutions which decide to offer male circumcision more widely as an additional way to protect against HIV infection must ensure that it is performed safely by well-trained practitioners in sanitary settings under conditions of informed consent, confidentiality, risk reduction counselling and safety.”

“These countries or institutions must also ensure that male circumcision is promoted and delivered in a culturally appropriate manner and that sufficient and correct information on the continuing need for other HIV prevention measures is provided. This will be necessary to prevent people from developing a false sense of security and, as a result, engaging in high risk behaviours which could negate the protective effect of male circumcision.”

This is still going to be a controversial issue, being that there are 20,000 nerve endings in the foreskin and there are plenty of people/organizations/institutions that will say the data are meaningless or less meaningful. However, as we do not have a vaccine, we are not quite there on microbicides, drug delivery is less than perfect and behavioral prevention efforts while extensive and more well-thought out today than ever before, are not as effective as we'd like them to be, a statistically significant reduction in transmission is a victory.

Discuss.

Guest Post - Paul Gulley

2006-12-12T00:45:00.000-05:00

AIDS Combat Zone reader Paul Gulley, a student at Elon University, shares his thoughts on the impact of AIDS on sub-Saharan Africa

AIDS and the Impact on Sub-Saharan Africa

Few countries have as much money and as many resources as the United States. The US consistently leads the rest of the world in the field of medicine, attempting to find cures for numerous diseases. With that advantage, it places a burden on the US to help other countries, such as poorer African countries like Nigeria, with the AIDS epidemic that exists. If the US spent more time, energy, and ultimately money in these countries, statistics show that the AIDS/HIV epidemic could be slowed down and eventually halted.

Africa is a continent characterized by various landscapes and a wide-variety of wildlife, but as we go further into the future, Africa will begin to be characterized by new traits: AIDS and HIV. The AIDS epidemic in Africa is so great that in 2004 the life expectancy for some African countries was less than 33 years. The country with the lowest life expectancy in the world is Sierra Leone which has a 25.9. The life expectancy in United States is 77.9 years, more than three times the life expectancy of Sierra Leone. Though these statistics may seem unreal, the life expectancy of countries in Africa, such as Sierra Leone, isn’t getting any higher.

So what is the key to reversing this trend in many African nations? Does the United States have an obligation as a world leader to donate time and money into the AIDS epidemic? Yes, it does. Due to America’s financial superiority and knowledge in the field of medicine, the burden of finding a cure to AIDS and helping not only these African countries, but anywhere AIDS is becoming a problem lays on the United States.

For a long time people thought AIDS was incurable and ensured death within 5 years. Recently AIDS research has proven that AIDS can be managed. 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton said it this way: “AIDS is no longer a death sentence for those who can get the medicines. Now its up to the politicians to create the ‘comprehensive strategies’ to better treat the disease.” The ‘comprehensive strategies’ that Clinton mentioned involve not only sending workers (whether they be trained doctors or just people trying to help) to the countries in need, but also spending money on AIDS and HIV research.

The AIDS epidemic has had quite an economic impact on the countries where the epidemic has had the biggest impact. AIDS mainly affects young adults who are the main part of these countries’ work forces. The economy of these countries suffers from the smaller workforce, and the countries lose money. It would then make sense for the United States to spend money to help these countries get back on their feet. Not only would the United States be a very big help to these countries, the world might start looking at the United States in a less negative way.

The Unites States doesn’t have a very good global image. Some countries in the Middle East have no respect for the United States and hate our image we put out. That is the reason that extremist groups such as the Al Queda have attacked the United States with very terrible acts of terrorism. If the United States were to put more money and effort into helping the countries plagued with AIDS, the rest of the world might start having a better image of the United States.

After mentioning the various ways the United States would benefit from helping the African nations, this question still remains: what can the Unites States do to help? There are numerous ways that anybody can help, not just trained doctors and physicians. The hospitals in the affected African countries are filling up with AIDS patients, as AIDS related cases occupy more than ½ of the hospital beds. The Untied States could help this problem out by: sending in missionary workers to help build new hospitals, sending workers in to help in the hospitals, or simply just sending to the right places that will make sure the money ends up helping the AIDS epidemic.

Not only does the United States need to send people and money but the United States needs to help ensure that the African hospitals are safe for the medical staff there. AIDS is taking a big impact on the medical staff at hospitals. Botswana lost 17 % of its medical staff due to AIDS, a very big impact on the country’s already small medical workforce (Avert). If the United States doesn’t take a major role in stopping the spread of AIDS in these countries, the people of the countries will continue to suffer and live shorter and worse lives.

African families affected by the AIDS epidemic have to use a substantial portion of their income to help their affected family member(s) fight their case of AIDS. This means the money that family members would normally be spending on items such as clothes and electricity would be cut down to provide for the AIDS infected family member (Avert).

AIDS has been a major global concern for quite some time, and with the help of United States (and other countries), the impact AIDS has will weaken. Eventually there might be a cure for AIDS, but until then the responsibility is on the United States to help suffering countries out.

Thanks for sharing this with us, Paul!

Free Training via Teleconference - Monday Dec. 11th

2006-12-07T22:37:00.000-05:00

The folks at CHAMP are holding free teleconference trainings at Noon and 8 PM (EST) on Monday December 11th. The topic of the training is The Art of Messaging - Making Media Impact. You may remember the CHAMP folks from the Time To Deliver collaborative blog during the International AIDS Conference. Full details follow.

Please join us for a teleconference training on the art of message discipline and having an impact in the media.

MONDAY, December 11th at 12noon EST and 8pm EST – you can join either call.
Toll-free number: 866-247-3147 Passcode: 4277#
Please register by contacting Sarah at showell@champnetwork.org or 401-427-2303 x2 with your name, city/state, email, phone, and organization (optional).

PRESENTER: Julie Davids, CHAMP

The media is a powerful tool in the struggle for HIV prevention justice. Crafting our message - the way we communicate the most important parts of our issues – is imperative.

Media messages are creative and sharp "soundbites" that explain the key components of your issue or campaign, in just 30 seconds!

Getting our message out is important – and not as easy as it seems. This call will cover:
- Crafting and using messages, including the "Problem/Solution/Action" model and values-based messaging
- Staying on your message in internal and external communication
- Keeping the media focused on your issue
- Directing interviews and responding to sensational or stigmatizing questions from reporters

The call will include tips for successful media work as well as time for questions about your local media challenges.

Everyone is welcome to join the call.

Please register for the call by contacting Sarah at showell@champnetwork.org or 401-427-2303 x2 with:
Name:
City/State:
Email:
Phone:
Organization (optional):

STAY TUNED FOR OUR UPCOMING TELECONFERENCES!
January: HIV Prevention in Prisons and Jails
February: Action Alerts: Making the Most of Your Email Listservs

Feel free to share this information with anyone you think may be interested.

Site to check out

2006-11-17T20:53:00.000-05:00

An anonymous AIDS Combat Zone reader leads us to AIDS: Remember me?, a site put up by the European Commission to encourage dialogue about HIV/AIDS. It's being done in conjunction with an event in Brussels, Belgium on the eve of World AIDS Day to screen new HIV commercials and select a favorite. Other areas of the site to check out include a contest encouraging you to write your own HIV/AIDS 60 second TV spot (European Union nationals only) and a vlog (video blog) you can participate in. This is the citizen-driven web at its finest!

Blogging update

2006-09-24T19:10:00.000-04:00

Though there has been a lot going on lately around the HIV blogosphere, I've barely had time to breathe, much less pay adequate attention to the 'Zone. Here's my update:

In conjunction with the USF chapter of Student Global AIDS Campaign, I've sent several fellow public health students to the 2006 United States Conference on AIDS as volunteers, activists, and hopefully to get a couple of first-hand reports from the conference. I'll learn more later this week.

The bloggers over at Effect Measure have done a series of posts on the "Tripoli six" healthcare workers who have been held for seven years and are now facing execution after being convicted (under highly questionable circumstances) of infecting hundreds of children with HIV. Having covered this story a couple of times in the past, I'm quite pleased to see a high-profile public health blog calling on Lybia's government to release these workers.

In other Blogging news, my friends over at RH Reality Check have been taking a close look at HIV issues in several recent posts, ranging from the new CDC guidelines on HIV testing to the Anglican Church's commendable move of appointing an openly HIV positive priest to a London parish with a large number of HIV infected members. All of RH Reality Check's HIV-related posts can be seen under their STI/HIV/AIDS Prevention category.

As always, if you see a blog post about HIV or related issues, you can send it my way or submit it to the International Carnival of the Pozitivities Blog Carnival. Next month's carnival will be held at Texas AIDS Blog, so be sure to check it out.

ICPoz Three

2006-09-10T17:44:00.000-04:00

Fellow AIDS blogger Richard Kerns of AIDS-Write.org has just posted the third edition of the International Carnival of the Pozitivities, the web's first blog carnival dealing exclusively with AIDS issues. Richard has done a fine job of capturing the past month's activities, ranging from the International AIDS Conference to a Drug Enforcement Agnecy bust of a medical marijuana clinic in Los Angeles, and introduces us to several new bloggers such as NotPerfectAtAll and Tim. Be sure to check out the full carnival post, as Richard has given it an engaging first-person narrative.

Quick Note

2006-09-02T11:10:00.000-04:00

Today is the deadline for submitting articles to the next International Carnival of the Pozitivities, which is to be hosted at AIDS-Write.org. To submit an article, click here.

Guest Post - The HIV/AIDS Potential

2006-08-24T16:39:00.000-04:00

Written and submitted to AIDS Combat Zone by Vikram Sheel Kumar, MD

August 24, 2006

As the director of the HIV/AIDS department at the World Health Organization, Dr Jim Yong Kim once said that what we will do for HIV/AIDS will define our generation. In sub Saharan Africa, the disease is devastating nations. People in Botswana should live to the age of 72 years. Because of HIV/AIDS their life expectancy is instead is 34 years. By 2010 it is estimated to fall to 27. In India, the population is so large that we have not even begun to notice the potential of HIV/AIDS.

A recent report by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) projects that HIV/AIDS can cause a fall in 0.86% of economic growth in India annually over the next decade. The justification is that more funds will go towards health care. Household savings and investments will substantially decline. Labor intensive industries are expected to be worst hit as the country’s unskilled labor pool will be particularly affected by the disease. The Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council disagreed with the report and argued that the economy has continued to grow despite the widespread prevalence of diseases such as tuberculosis.

For those lucky to receive effective treatment, HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence but rather a chronic disease. Cost effective interventions aimed at healthy behaviors can make a significant difference. Adherence is one such area. The World Health Organization defines adherence as “the extent to which a person’s behavior – taking medication, following a diet, and/or executing lifestyle changes corresponds with agreed recommendations from a health care provider.” Adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a very good predictor of progression to AIDS and death. Studies suggest that patients need to ingest 90% to 95% of their prescribed medicines regularly to suppress the virus. Unfortunately, average adherence to ART falls far below that.

So how do you change health behaviors? A popular theory is based on the concept of self-efficacy, or belief in one’s ability to complete a given task. Albert Bandura of Stanford University describes self-efficacy as a belief structure upon which people find motivation to perform. He introduces a concept of ‘modeling’ as a process through which a person reinforces behaviors by observing others reinforce themselves.

Many mass communication campaigns to improve HIV/AIDS behaviors have been based on modeling. In Tanzania, a radio show “Twende na Wakati” or “Let’s Go with the Times” began in 1993, around the time that myths including the belief that mosquitoes caused HIV were rampant. The story is of a woman, Tunu, and her promiscuous and alcoholic truck driver husband. Tunu puts up with her unfaithful husband, but eventually leaves him and with help from her community starts a business. Her husband becomes infected with HIV and suffers with AIDS while Tunu becomes a success in business. Like Tunu, the show was a resounding success. Just two years after the show began, Tanzanians discussed AIDS more often, started to believe unprotected sex spread HIV, and used condoms more commonly. In India, the first feature film focused on HIV/AIDS was sent to the Cannes Film Festival last year.

Adherence to medications is an important public health problem as well. When patients with HIV/AIDS fail to take their complete course of medicines, resistant strains of the virus emerge. The cost of therapy goes up considerably for resistant cases of HIV. Just as tuberculosis treatment became complicated by the emergence of multi-drug resistant strains, the future of HIV/AIDS looks very complex.

What is the best way to fight HIV/AIDS? Focus prevention on high risk individuals. Distribute condoms in prisons, provide needle-exchange programs for injection drug users (no these do not lead to increased drug use, and yes they do decrease the number of new HIV infections), and educate high risk individuals such as commercial sex workers and truck drivers. For those who have the HIV virus, monitor them closely and institute therapy when they begin to have AIDS-related complications or laboratory evidence of progression to AIDS. Once patients are on therapy, motivate adherence. Community support, reminder systems, education about expected side effects of medications, and monitoring for psychiatric co morbidities such as depression are all important steps that can enhance a patient’s self-efficacy and help them stay on their medication course.

If India adopts these aggressive measures, its fate need not follow that of Africa. Otherwise we may have to accept NCAER’s analysis as final and begin to release economic projections in pairs. The unadjusted growth, and growth adjusted for HIV/AIDS.

The author is the Chief Executive Officer of Dimagi Inc., a public health informatics company based in Cambridge, MA. In 2004 he was named one of the world’s top 100 innovators by MIT’s Technology Review.

Mailbox

2006-08-19T13:07:00.000-04:00

Nina Vucenik of the World Bank contacted me during the conference with a heads up that the World Bank has just released a new report on HIV/AIDS in South Asia. I haven't had the chance to look closely at it yet, but you can scope it out for yourself.

The full report

Report summary page

Postscript - I made it safely home from the conference, but not before getting involved in protests over hotel workers being suspended for wearing AIDS buttons and ribbons. Several of us slipped letters under the doors of hotel guests informing them of the hotel's actions against the workers. News cameras had arrived on the scene by the time we left.

Also, here is a picture of me and the other activists on stage with Tony Fauci of the NIH on Thursday. You can't see me very well, but I'm holding the green sign near the middle of the picture.

International AIDS Conference posts

2006-08-17T16:19:00.000-04:00

If you haven't yet, check out my International AIDS Conference posts at Time To Deliver and the International Collaborative Blog:

Brad's Prologue

Opening Ceremony Play By Play

Rural Africa: Still Forgotten?

A hidden epidemic

And you may have seen yours truly on stage during one of yesterday's sessions. To see me click here then click the "video" link. My friends and I can be seen about 6-7 minutes into the video. We made the front page of the IAC newsletter and were featured in a CBC News Article. It's nice to sometimes make news rather than simply reporting it.

I fly home tomorrow, and at that point hopefully I'll have a chance for a more comprehensive update.

The Word

2006-08-17T12:45:00.000-04:00

In the style of Stephen Colbert, I bring you "THE WxRD"

Incipient Neocolonialism

Today is Day 5 of the International AIDS Conference held every other year in countries throughout the world. Oh, that's right, not ever in the U.S. because we have an idiotic law that states that if you have HIV you cannot gain entry to the United States, even if you are a tourist or business traveler.

We, along with Colombia, Eritrea, Syria (A fine group of allies) are the only countries in the world to limit travelers with HIV from entering our borders. Over 150 countries have restrictions, ours and the countries above basically say, nope, not welcome here.

Is a woman with HIV coming to visit her family in this country going to increase our infection rates? No. Will keeping her out make ignorant Americans feel better about themselves? What do you think? See the UNAIDS Statement here.

In practice, no one is testing at our borders (hell, no one at our borders is doing much of anything useful). Plenty of HIV infected people travel in and out of this country every day for tourism, for business and for the White Party.

This may get more difficult as security gets tighter. Packing antiretrovirals (some of which come in gel capsules) in carry on luggage is going to be difficult, if not impossible. Sure, there are waivers but then you have to prove that the prescription is yours and if that prescription happens to be written to some damn Canadian or other foreign born soul...well, God help you.

Sure. You can pack them in your luggage and avoid the scrutiny all together. However, that means that when your luggage goes into airport purgatory and you are without your meds, that you MUST TAKE EVERY 12 HOURS, you're fucked.

Stephen Lewis, the United Nations Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa, a man who seems, by all counts to know what the hell he's talking about responded to our country's emphasis on ABC.

Did you not know your ABCs?

Abstinence, Be Faithful, Use Condoms.

With a distinct emphasis on the A.

According to the Washington Post, "By law, at least one-third of HIV prevention funds countries receive through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief -- a $15 billion, five-year program -- must be used for abstinence-until-marriage and faithfulness programs"Our U.S. AIDS Czar says that is untrue. He says that only 7% is going to abstinence programs. Hmmm. There seems to be an apples/oranges thing going on here. Or maybe a bowling ball/teapot.

So back to Stephen Lewis. This is his quote responding to our policies on stipulations for using U.S. aid."No government in the Western world has the right to dictate policy to African governments around the way in which they respond to the pandemic. That kind of insipient neocolonialism is unacceptable. ... We're saying to Africa: 'This is how you will respond to the pandemic,' and that's not appropriate because African governments are eminently capable of deciding what their priorities are and what the response should be."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the Word.

Blogging elsewhere

2006-08-10T23:55:00.000-04:00

Dear readers,

For the next week I will be attending the International AIDS Conference, and I will be posting at Time To Deliver and the AIDS Conference International Collaborative Blog. Please read those blogs and spread the word about them... I expect some exciting stuff to be featured there over the coming week. And if you'd like to join the conversation, Time To Deliver is allowing readers to make posts.

Also, wish me luck as I brave the long lines of the orange-terror-alert-level skies.

-Brad

Mailbag - Poz California Bloggers Wanted

2006-08-09T22:15:00.000-04:00

While I was busy with the 2nd Edition of the International Carnival of the Pozitivities I got an email from Dr. Alberto Curotto, a researcher with the University of California in San Francisco. Apparently he and his team are putting together a website aimed at gay men's sexual health, and as a part of that they would like to recruit several HIV+ Californian bloggers to write for the site.

The email:

Hi there!
I am part of a research team atthe University of California, San Francisco that is developing a website for gay/bi men with the goal to improve the sexual health of the community, specifically when it comes to preventing new HIV infections. Whereas that is the ultimate goal, the website is not focussed merely on education, rather it is designed to involve men in discussions about issues that affect them. One major feature of the website will be a set of blogs, which we're striving to make as representative as possible of the entire community, including HIV+ men. So far, we have advertised in non-HIV-specific venues and none of the men who volunteered appear to be HIV+.

Sweetening the deal a bit, it appears you could get paid for your participation:

A small stipend is offered but the chief incentive is participation in a community-building experiment to generate ideas and promote dialog among gay men online.

If you are interested, or if you know someone who might be, Alberto can be contacted directly at:

415.597.4996
877.359.6443 (toll-free outside of San Francisco)
415.597.9213 (fax)
alberto@CaliforniaMen.net

Update: Alberto as informed me that they will also be launching a Massachussets site, and so bay state poz bloggers may also be able to blog for him and recieve the stipend.

International Carnival of the Pozitivities, number 2

2006-08-08T21:39:00.000-04:00

WELCOME to AIDS Combat Zone, host of the Second Edition of the International Carnival of the Pozitivities. As was mentioned in the First Edition of this carnival, the AIDS epidemic turned 25 this summer, and as we reflect on that milestone we're seeing the many ways in which the face of this disease has changed and continues to change. Thanks to blogging and the internet, it is now possible to bring together the voices and faces of the many people whose lives have been touched by HIV and AIDS, and to put their stories into a global context. That's what this carnival is all about.

In looking over the submissions for this month's carnival, we had a good broad range of topics, but two themes kept resurfacing: Friendship and Art. Friendship and Art have been helping people infected and affected by HIV for longer than antiretroviral therapy has been around, and the posts featured in this edition make it certain that they will continue to be a source of strength and support for as long as strength and support are needed.

Friendship

Our first tale of friendship comes from Jody Kuchar at Grey Matter Flatulence. In her post If it flies, it dies, Jody recounts a previous job she had where she was fortunate enough to consider her employers as her close personal friends. As it so happens, one of her two bosses was an HIV positive gay man living in a small rural town. Her story recounts the challenges of living in an area where people were sometimes openly discriminatory against homosexuals, and follows through to her friend's unfortunate descent into depression, drug use, and death. Despite the tragedy of her friend's end, Jody makes it clear that his kindness had touched her and others, and that he will be missed forever.

This month we also heard from Richard at AIDS-Write.org. In his post Flashes from three summer days..., Richard tells the story of where he is now - a long-term HIV survivor - and where that journey began - in 1987 in a testing clinic on a hot Los Angeles day. Though the three days in the story span over 19 years, the friendship of his companion Cherie is with him from start to finish. The value of that friendship is quite apparent to Richard. His closing words are thus: "i am the medicine. we are the cure."

Many of you already know Ron Hudson, the founder of this carnival and author of 2sides2ron. Ron wrote about an experience he had in Portugal and the friendship that can result from the kindness of strangers. Mario is an HIV positive homeless man who lives the streets of Lisbon. On a recent visit there, Ron reached out to Mario, providing him with food, clothing, and company while capturing their conversation on film. To me this is a touching example of a friendship born of HIV/AIDS.

Which brings us to our final friendship post. I mean no disrespect to the previous authors, but I feel like I saved the best for last. This post comes from Steve Schalchlin of Living in the Bonus Round, in which Steve tells a story of spirituality, gratitude, friendship, and love that is both timely and touching. In Sometimes its Enough to say Thank You, Steve tells the story of going to the Hollywood United Methodist Church with an old friend on Pride Sunday in Los Angeles. Hollywood UMC, as Steve explains, was one of the first churches in America to actively and vocally welcome and accept people living with HIV and AIDS, and Steve and his friend were honored guests on that day. Without saying too much about the post let me just encourage you to read it all the way through. The post has already been featured by Andrew Sullivan, and the more people who read it the better.

Art

The art posts from this month were shorter but just as numerous. I'll begin with Mike and Jana's post How Cool Is This in their Peace Corps blog l'aventure africaine. The post points us to the Mother Bear Project, a nonprofit organization which collects knitted and crocheted teddy bears and delivers them to children affected by HIV and AIDS in developing countries. To me this seems like a creative and personal way to make a difference to a young life, and I praise Mike and Jana for spreading the word.

Word of another opportunity to create AIDS-related art comes again from 2sides2ron. Ron is seeking artists to help with the Azuela Project, an AIDS fundraiser book on CD. He is specifically seeking out artists with work that is of Mayan/Aztec influence to be paired with existing poems. If you are interested in participating, please email Ron with the subject line "Azuela Project"

Stephanie Robinson is a visual artist who shares with us her painting Seasons of the Soul, which has been well-received by many in the LGBQT and HIV+ communities. Lithographs of her painting are available, with information on her blog.

Our final art post is the news of the founding of AIDSvideos.org. This news has actually been featured on several of my favorite AIDS blogs including VisualAIDS, Texas AIDS Blog, and 2sides2ron. AIDSvideos.org is particularly exciting to me because it is bringing AIDS education materials to "Web 2.0" services such as YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, and the Open Media Network. My praise goes out to the folks working on AIDSvideos.org for their creative use of these new media options to disseminate a very important educational message.

Odds, Ends

It wasn't all Art and Friendship this past month. In his post Day 16, Brian Finch of Acid Reflux: Life and Times of a Poz Guy relates a day in the life of a "treatment experienced" AIDS survivor. He tells of the lethargy and side effects he's experiencing on his current regimen, and laments the attitude he sees taken by many young gay men today. "I see an entire generation of education being flushed down the toilet," he says, "I think every young gay guy should have to take these pills for a month, just as they do with post-exposure prophylaxis. Then they’d be paying a bit more attention."

Our final post before I go off on a tangent comes from Nightmare Hall, where The Dreamer recounts common questions he used to get during his days volunteering for an HIV positive speakers bureau, and gives his answers. The post serves as a good quick-reference for people who wish to learn more about HIV, as well as an entertaining look into The Dreamer's lively style of fielding people's questions.

Upcoming Events

As many of you know, next week marks the 16th annual International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada. What you may not know is that I will be in Toronto to attend the conference and to serve as a correspondent for two brand new collaborative blog projects.

TIME to DELIVER: an activist blog project organized by CHAMP and the Harm Reduction Coalition. See the full press release here.

AIDS Conference International Collaborative Blog: seeks to bring together a variety of perspectives on the International AIDS Conference that are not available through the mainstream press.

Please keep an eye on these two exciting projects over the next two weeks. Better yet, add them to your blogrolls and feed readers and join the conversation. These projects draw their power from grassroots support, and so we're counting on readers and bloggers like you to help them succeed.

Closing

This concludes the Second Edition of the International Carnival of the Pozitivities. Thank you for visiting. While you're here I encourage you to look around AIDS Combat Zone and to subscribe for updates if you are interested in reading more from me and Faith. Also please visit my post on Matthias Rath to learn how you can help fight AIDS in Africa by copying and pasting some HTML into your blog or website.

Next month's carnival will be held at AIDS-Write.org in early September, so go ahead and start submitting HIV/AIDS related blog posts. Also, we're still in need of a host for the October edition of the carnival, so let Ron know if you would like to host this carnival in the future.

Technorati Tags: aids, hiv, art, friendship, iac, international aids conference, toronto, religion, medicine, hiv/aids, medication, portugal, conference

Reminder: Carnival deadline

2006-08-02T07:34:00.000-04:00

Please note that today is the deadline for submissions to the International Carinval of the Pozitivities blog carnival, which will be hosted right here at AIDS Combat Zone. If you've come across any outstanding AIDS-related blog posts that you'd like to share with others, please be sure to submit it to the carnival. This is a brand new carnival but it has already been attracting a great deal of interest, so now's a great time to get in on the ground floor by submitting a post, or by volunteering to host an upcoming edition of the carnival.

Technorati Tags: hiv, aids, blog carnival, carnival

Blogging the XVI International AIDS Conference

2006-07-21T00:12:00.000-04:00

Last night I purchased my tickets for the sixteenth annual International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada. In addition to blogging the event I will also be a youth correspondant for CHAMP and possibly guest-blogging for a new Human Rights Watch blog.

Are any other AIDS Combat Zone readers planning on attending the conference? Is there any interest in an organized meetup? I'll be in Toronto from August 11-18th.

Technorati Tags: HIV, AIDS, Conference, International AIDS Conference, CHAMP, Toronto

AIDS Concert Featuring Anti-gay Artists

2006-07-12T20:26:00.000-04:00

A number of blogs including one of my favorites have been following the story of LIFEbeat, a nonprofit AIDS charity hosting a benefit concert next Tuesday. The twist is that two of the concert's headlining artists promote violence against homosexuals in their music. A sizable number of bloggers and other activists raged against this decision, and the latest news is that LIFEbeat has canceled the concert, but only after the news made national news. Here's the official LIFEbeat Statement:

LIFEbeat - The Music Industry Fights AIDS, has collectively decided to cancel its Reggae Gold Live concert, scheduled for Tuesday, July 18 at New York’s Webster Hall. While the organization’s staff and board believe very strongly in the positive purpose and intention of this event, the possibility of violence at the concert from the firestorm incited by a select group of activists makes canceling the event the only responsible action. Dialogue is important and LIFEbeat’s staff and board respect the opinions of those who came forward to make their feelings known. We have always and will continue to support the GLBT community. [emphasis added]

Wow. Way to shift responsibility onto the whistleblowers, guys. There's more:

It is very unfortunate, however, that the intended good that could result from bringing this community together around this potentially ground breaking event will not be realized. The Caribbean American community needs our help in bringing attention to this unspoken and often stigmatized illness. We hope in the wake of this decision that those who came forward and spoke out will now come forward again to do something positive for the Caribbean American community and help bring attention to the devastation this disease has wreaked in that community so awareness, prevention and healing can follow. [emphasis added]

I'd say bloggers and activists like Terrance already did something positive for the Caribbean American community by keeping these artists off the stage. LIFEbeat could have turned this into an opportunity to send a strong message about discriminatory messages in the media, but instead they chose to not only cancel the entire concert without attempting to find replacement artists, but also to place the blame onto people who did the right thing. Shame on you, LIFEbeat.

Update: Direland also has a good write-up on this topic.

Technorati Tags: HIV, AIDS, Gay, LIFEbeat, violence, concert

Help in South Africa contingent on bible studies

2006-07-06T11:46:00.000-04:00

According to the Washington Post, a Baptist-affiliated treatment center in South Africa has started a program for traditional "witch doctors" known as "sangomas." The program is designed to spread HIV awareness messages through traditional medicine in the community - 80% of which consult sangomas according to WHO.

A lofty goal, indeed. The program, however is contingent on the sangomas agreeing to study the Gospel of John twice a week before receiving lessons in human anatomy, symptoms of HIV infection and the function of antiretrovirals and other modern medicines.

According to the Post, Nobuntu Matholeni, a chaplain at the center, brushed aside criticism. "They came to us knowing very well what we stand for and knowing that this is God's thing," Matholeni said.

Living Hope is funded heavily by South African and US taxpayers; nearly half its money comes from President Bush's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief. According to the U.S. State Department, Living Hope received Obligated FY05 Funds $385,299.00. Their program areas according to this report are: Abstinence/Be Faithful and Palliative Care: Basic health care and support

Living Hope has no substantive data on the program's success, but points to signs such as expanding involvement within the community structure of Masiphumelele, the conversion of a prominent sangoma to Christianity, and increased attendance at AIDS awareness courses.

Technorati Tags: HIV, AIDS, South Africa, PEPFAR, Religion, Traditional medicine

Blogs and blogging

2006-07-05T21:45:00.000-04:00

The First Edition of the International Carnival of Pozitivities is up! Several posts from bloggers on my blogroll were nominated to the carnival, as well as one post from AIDS Combat Zone. I'm finding more and more that there really is a warm, friendly, dedicated community of HIV/AIDS bloggers, and this carnival is a great way to pull us all together while also letting others get to know us better. Please visit the above link if you're interested in how others across the blogosphere are reacting to AIDS issues in their everyday lives, at an international level, and everywhere in between.

The Second Edition of the International Carnival of Pozitivities will be hosted right here on AIDS Combat Zone. If you see any good AIDS themed blog posts in the next month, be sure to submit them to the carnival so they can be seen by everyone.

Also, July means it's time for Blogathon 2006. I first learned about Blogathon last year. Blogathon is a way you can use your blog to raise money for a charity by staying up and blogging for 24 hours straight on July 29-30. I'll be supporting the blogathon by directing readers to the bloggers who are sponsoring HIV/AIDS related charities, as well as making my own personal donation.

So far three bloggers are raising money for HIV/AIDS charities:

Judy is blogging for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (Click here to sponsor Judy)
Sarah Ashley is blogging for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (Click here to sponsor Sara Ashley)
Submodalities is blogging for Avert (Click here to sponsor Submodalities)

Full list of all bloggers and charities

There are lots of ways to support Blogathon 2006.

Join the blogathon
Sponsor a participating blogger
Buy blogathon merchandise
Visit participating bloggers' blogs
Blog about Blogathon 2006 on your own blog

Also, I encourage you to use give.org and charity navigator for help in choosing what charity(ies) to support or sponsor. These two services are very useful in determining how your money gets used once you give.

Technorati Tags: HIV, AIDS, Carnival, Blogathon, Charities,

Housekeeping

2006-06-30T20:22:00.000-04:00

Just a few odds and ends before the July 4 holiday weekend begins...

Tomorrow is the submission deadline for the first ever International Carnival of the Pozitivities AIDS Blog Carnival. If you've seen (or written) any good blog posts on AIDS topics please consider submitting them to the carnival.

The World Bank Private Sector Development Blog has an interesting post on why global health issues may deserve higher priority than climate change. They remind us that it would take an Aceh-sized earthquake and tsunami every month to keep pace with the number of deaths caused by AIDS alone.

The AIDS Awareness Blog links to a Reuters story that India is going to attempt to verify UN reports that in 2005 the country overtook South Africa as the country with the most residents living with HIV. Understandibly, India does not wish to have the distinction of "country with the largest number of HIV infected residents." I applaud them for investigating the UN's numbers rather than continuing to rhetorically challenge them.

Technorati Tags: Carnival, World Bank, Climate Change, Global Health, Tsunami, United Nations

Free Global Health E-Books

2006-06-30T18:36:00.000-04:00

Fellow USF student and good personal friend Erika sent an email letting me know about Hesperian Publishers, a nonprofit organization that publishes health care manuals aimed at rural developing communities. The books (available in English, Spanish, and other languages) can be purchased online and many can be downloaded free of charge.

The books offer step-by-step, illustrated instructions in clear, simple language. Though they are intended for developing nations, much of the content is helpful for individuals in Western nations as well. I've just downloaded HIV, Health, and Your Community, Where There Is No Doctor, and A Book for Midwives, and I'm putting several of the ones not available for download onto my Peace Corps wishlist.

Please consider making a donation to Hesperian so that they can continue producing, translating, and distributing these important reference books!

Technorati Tags: Hesperian, Free books, e-books, medical advice, health manuals, Peace Corps, Global Health, Midwives

Interview Posted

2006-06-29T18:17:00.000-04:00

Justin Gerald's article on AIDS Combat Zone has been posted over at The Blog Reader. Snippet:

“One of the very first things that struck me about AIDS — on everything from a local, national, and global level — is how preventable a disease it is.” This realization inspired Brad Biggers, founder of the AIDS Combat Zone, to fight the spread of both the illness itself and the misinformation and stigmas associated with it.

Check it out.

~~P.S. Can anybody figure out what the first commenter is talking about? Mad Pigeon? Iraqi Regime on e-bay? I'm totally lost.~~

Mystery solved. Thanks Justin!

Technorati Tags: HIV, AIDS

Testing Day, part deux

2006-06-27T13:06:00.000-04:00

In the week leading up to National HIV Testing Day, a number of news items have come to my attention that relate to HIV testing. Read on...

The diagnostics division of Bayer HealthCare has received FDA approval for a new HIV antibody test that is able to detect all known strains of HIV including type O, which is not consistently detectible using standard HIV antibody tests. The test is called the ADVIA Centaur EHIV test, and will be distributed by Johnson & Johnson. Type O HIV is typically found in West and Central Africa. The inability to test for type O HIV antibodies has resulted in a ban on blood donation by people who have lived in areas where type O HIV is endemic. Whether the ADVIA test will enable the lifting of that ban will probably depend on the price of the test compared to current blood supply screening methods.

As noted here previously, as many as 5% of Washington DC residents are thought to be HIV positive. To prevent further spread of the virus, public health officials are beginning a campaign to test all DC residents for HIV. This will be acomplished by making a rapid HIV test a routine part of every medical exam. Such a campaign is reminicent of strategies used in places like Botswana, and is unprescedented in any American city.

The campaign is being spearheaded by the head of DC's Administration for HIV Policy and Programs, Marsha Martin. Last year I called news of Martin's hiring to that post "disappointing," given the direction of her previous organization, AIDS Action. Now, after a bold move such as this one, I'm beginning to suspect that I will be proven wrong. Thank you for leading your city in this direction, Ms. Martin, and I urge you to continue your offensive against HIV in our nation's capital.

In a related note, I'm seeing increasing calls for the CDC to make routine HIV testing a part of all medical exams nationwide, with the latest coming from the HIV Medicine Association. While I agree with this concept in principal, I'd like to see it demonstrated that a change in policy would be cost-effective, and I'd like to have good reason to believe there wouldn't be a strong backlash against such a policy. Perhaps if DC's strategy is a strong success we can copy its model to other cities and eventually to all of America.

Technorati Tags: HIV, AIDS, HIV Testing Day, AIDS Test, HIV Test, Washington DC, Botswana, FDA, ADVIA, CDC

Testing Day 2006

2006-06-27T07:22:00.000-04:00

Today is National HIV Testing Day 2006. Organizations all around the country will be hosting free and reduced-price HIV testing all day and into the evening. If you're interested in taking an HIV test, you can find a location at HIVTest.org or by calling the CDC National AIDS Hotline at 1-800-342-2437. Most states also have AIDS Hotlines that can link you to a nearby testing site.

Whenever I'm asked what people should do in their everyday lives to fight the spread of HIV, my first answer is "Get tested." When people get tested, it enables them to protect their partner(s) from contracting the disease, it enables them more timely access to life-saving treatment, and it reduces stigma by prompting more people to recognise their own risk factors for HIV, breaking down the barrier between "poz" and "neg." Getting tested also encourages people to talk about HIV, creating important dialogues between friends, lovers, and community members.

To everyone reading this post today, please celebrate National HIV Testing Day. Wear a ribbon, start a conversation with someone, or take the leap and get tested like you've been meaning to do for so long.

250,000 Americans are infected with HIV but don't know it. Make sure you're not one of them.

Technorati Tags: HIV, AIDS, HIV Testing Day, HIV Test, AIDS Test

Carnival

2006-06-23T20:43:00.000-04:00

For the first time I'm aware of, HIV/AIDS has a Blog Carnival. Blog Carnivals are informal communities of blog posts with something in common. They may share a specific topic, political slant, or some other common bond. To quote Ron, author of the International Carnival of the Pozitivities:

The intent of this carnival is to provide an international forum for interaction among those of us who are living with HIV/AIDS...all topics are up for consideration within the framework of life with HIV and AIDS. Submitters can write about their personal experiences, their medications (including successes and failures), their lifestyle, in short, anything that applies to their fight for life. This forum is also open to submissions from medical professionals and caregivers, though the aim is to provide non-technical articles to assist those of us living within the HIV community. In effect, this forum is intended to present all aspects of life that we experience in our struggle to fight infection with HIV and the development of AIDS.

The first carnival is scheduled for July 10th. You can help by submitting relevant blog posts to the carnival. You don't have to be the author of a post to submit it to the carnival - you are encouraged to submit any and all relevant posts you come across.

You can also help by offering to host the blog carnival. Please contact Ron directly if you are interested in hosting a future carnival on your blog.

In related news, today I was interviewed for an article on AIDS Combat Zone to be featured in The Blog Reader, most likely next week. I'll let you know when it goes up.

Technorati Tags: HIV, AIDS, carnival, AIDS carnival, interview

Friends featured in POZ

2006-06-20T11:31:00.000-04:00

Two of AIDS Combat Zone's blogging friends are featured in the July issue of POZ:

Doug Ireland wrote up a scathing critique of the Bush administration's efforts to prevent developing countries from producing low-cost antiretroviral drugs, and calls America's AIDS organizations to the task of standing up to Bush and the Pharmaceutical industry.

Christina Rock was interviewed by POZ and posed for some sexy pics for the magazine as well. A few of the pics can be seen on her blog.

Catching up on a few headlines:

We're beginning to again hear calls for the ban on gay blood donation to be lifted . This is a common theme among gay rights activists worldwide. Anybody got any insight on if we're any closer to seeing the ban get lifted?

We're only ONE WEEK AWAY from National HIV Testing Day! If you're overdue for an HIV test, there's no better time than next Tuesday to get tested. HIVtest.org even lets you narrow down your search by rapid, free, oral, and anonymous testing.

Technorati Tags: HIV, AIDS, poz, blood, HIV test

The Age of AIDS

2006-06-14T22:27:00.000-04:00

Carolyn at Texas AIDS Blog points out that the full 4 hour Frontline special The Age of AIDS has been made available for download. I missed the original broadcast due to evening classes, so I'm quite pleased that this is now available.

Technorati Tags: HIV, AIDS, PBS, Frontline, Age of AIDS

More from Faith

2006-06-09T14:04:00.000-04:00

AIDS Combat Zone contributor Faith's interviews of several Los Angeles AIDS experts is now up over at Fronteirs Magazine.

More on 25 years of AIDS

2006-06-06T22:41:00.000-04:00

A number of the sites I read regluarly have also done posts on the anniversary of AIDS first being described in the June 5, 1981 MMWR:

Terrence of Republic of T writes a touching story of how his own life has been so greatly affected by the AIDS epidemic

The World Bank Private Sector Development Blog examines the progress we're making 25 years in

The June 2, 2006 MMWR sums up how far we've come and how far we still have to go.

Ethan Jacobs, 25, examines why his generation of gay men has not taken up arms over AIDS the way his elders did.

And the UNAIDS 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic was released last week

Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report has a good summary of newspaper reports, and a link to an NPR special on the UNAIDS report

Also, with a touch of envy I offer my sincere congratulations to Casey Parks, winner of the Win a Trip with Nick Kristoff Contest. Casey will be traveling to Africa with the New York Times columnist this September, while blogging about the experience. Way to go Casey!

Technorati Tags: HIV, AIDS, AIDS at 25

Please Welcome... Faith

2006-06-05T19:19:00.000-04:00

For the second time in three weeks, AIDS Combat Zone welcomes a new contributing writer. Faith is the Administrator of the UCLA HIV Research Facilitation Core. She was also the administrator of the UCLA AIDS Institute Vaccine Initiative and the Southern California HIV/AIDS Hotline. Landsman reported for Frontiers Magazine for the XVI International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, and will have another article published with them in this week's edition. In keeping with her current job, Faith will be focusing on research-related topics here at ACZ, but don't be surprised to see other types of posts from her as well. You can check out her personal blog at http://soqueer.blogspot.com

Faith's first post is already up. Please join me in welcoming Faith to AIDS Combat Zone!

25 years and counting

2006-06-05T18:35:00.000-04:00

25 years ago Monday the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (a weekly bulletin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) published the first incidences of what we now know to be AIDS.

When the paper was published I was 10 years old. I had just finished the 5th grade at Sierra Canyon elementary school in Chatsworth. A little more than 10 years later I was working at AIDS Project Los Angeles, meeting some of my best friends and attending some of their funerals.

15 years later we are in such a different place. It’s not that people aren’t dying. They are. It’s just no one I know. It’s no one we know. It is so very far away that we forget about it, we turn away from it. We are so tired of it.

It’s ok to be tired of AIDS. It’s exhausting.

I learned very early on in my social justice career that you can’t fight every fight. You have to choose one and trust that someone else is going to pick up the slack on the others. I have chosen HIV – or rather, HIV, somewhere along the way, chose me. If I can’t trust that others are doing their part, I find it desperately hard to focus on my own part.

Someone will fight for peace in the middle East. It is something I care about deeply.

Someone will be an environmentalist – that’s not to say that I don’t recycle, I just don’t attend rallies. Will I see Al Gore’s new movie? You bet I will! I’m not an ostrich, I’m just focused.

I’m not entirely sure that I should, but the optimist (tiny and weak though she may be) trusts that someone out there is focused on ending the genocide in Darfur. Please?

I used to hear, when I told people what I do, "that must be so hard." It’s not hard, in as much as any challenging job is hard. Just like any other job, it is boring and fun and frustrating and intellectually stimulating, if you are as lucky as I am. Making my life’s work to do tikkun olam (repair the world) is what I have always known I would do. I will always, even if I leave this job, do something to help repair the world.

Here’s to Jeff, Janis, Shane, Frank, David, Michael, Connie, Anthony, Wayne, Jerry, Ron, Joey, Carlos. People I was honored to know, adore and work with over the years. I raise a diet coke to your memories.

Here’s also to Bill, Charlie, Chris, David, Diane, Donna, Drew, Ernie, Francis, Gary, Glenn, Jane, Jeff, Jim, Joe, John, Justin, Kathie, Kristin, Larry, Laura, Margaret, Mark, Marty, Mary Ann, Matt, Michael, Michelle, Peter, Phil, Philip, Richard, Ricky, Ruben, Sal, Shannon, Shawn, Stephan, Steven, Terry, and many, many, many more that encouraged me, that laughed with me, that laughed at me (2 words - suntan pantyhose), that taught me so much, that fought alongside me.

I will retire in about 25 years. The epidemic will be 50 years old. A lot can happen in 25 years. Choose something.

Technorati Tags: HIV, AIDS, AIDS at 25

Moving on... New ACZ Contributor

2006-05-18T18:14:00.000-04:00

With my Peace Corps placement less than a year away, I've turned my thoughts towards how to keep AIDS Combat Zone going while I'm away. Towards that goal, I've been keeping my eyes open for other writers to bring on board so I can show them the ropes while I'm still in the country, and I'm happy to report that I've found someone.

Hana has helped out AIDS Combat Zone in the past by emailing me with news items and commenting on posts. She is a pre-med student who is active in such organizations as Student Global AIDS Campaign and International Medical Relief of Children. At the moment she is getting ready to move to a new apartment and so she won't be able to begin contributing immediately, but look for her posts to start sometime in June.

Please join me in welcoming Hana to AIDS Combat Zone!

(P.S. To anyone else who is interested in joining the team or just contributing an article now and then, drop me an email and we'll talk about the possibilities)

HOLD YOUR FIRE!

2006-05-17T00:50:00.000-04:00

The progressive blogosphere (which I consider myself to be a card carrying member of) is currently shitting a brick over this news report from the Washington Post. The skinny:

"Forever Pregnant"

New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.

Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control.

As inflammatory as this may sound to many, it is music to the ears of anyone like me who is currently preparing for a career in the (overwhelmingly progressive) field of public health. The USA has the worst prenatal care health outcomes in the developed world precisely because we're not facilitating the kind of preventive medicine. Still, many of my compatriots are worried that this guideline is going to lead down a slippery slope.

A good glimpse of what's being said is just a Technorati search away.

Considering that the Post article didn't link to it, I doubt many of the folks angry about this have read the actual report. In a nutshell, it has four goals:

1) improve the knowledge and attitudes and behaviors of men and women related to preconception health;
2) assure that all women of childbearing age in the United States receive preconception care services (i.e., evidence-based risk screening, health promotion, and interventions) that will enable them to enter pregnancy in optimal health;
3) reduce risks indicated by a previous adverse pregnancy outcome through interventions during the interconception period, which can prevent or minimize health problems for a mother and her future children; and
4) reduce the disparities in adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Those goals have prompted 10 recommendations:

1) individual responsibility across the lifespan,
2) consumer awareness,
3) preventive visits,
4) interventions for identified risks,
5) interconception care,
6) prepregnancy checkup,
7) health insurance coverage for women with low incomes,
8) public health programs and strategies,
9) research,
10) monitoring improvements.

snip

CDC developed these recommendations by 1) reviewing published research; 2) convening the CDC/ASTDR Preconception Care Work Group, representing 22 programs; 3) evaluating presentations of best and emerging practice models at the National Summit on Preconception Care in 2005; and 4) convening the Select Panel on Preconception Care (SPPC), comprised of subject matter specialists on obstetrics and gynecology, nursing, public health, midwifery, epidemiology, dentistry, family practice, pediatrics, and other disciplines.

snip

The health status of minority women with low incomes contributes to persistent, and sometimes increasing, disparities in birth outcomes. In one study, the reduced overall health status (including poorer physical and emotional health) of women with low income during the month before pregnancy was associated with an increased risk for preterm labor (59). Socioeconomic status directly and indirectly influences three major determinants of health: healthcare access, environmental exposure, and health behavior (60,61). Racial inequalities in access to effective treatment also influence these determinants of pregnancy outcomes for women and infants

So let's recap. We're making an evidence-based, collaborative approach to a problem that disproportionately affects poor and minority women by empowering them to make changes in their lives that will ultimately help to pull them out of the vicious cycle of poverty and poor health outcomes. Sounds a lot better when we look at it that way, doesn't it?

But what are we to make of goal #2? Isn't it strongly worded?

Yes, it is, but for good reason. Bear with me.

This isn't a case of "them" trying to disguise an anti-abortion agenda as being about healthy babies. This is a case of "us" trying to disguise the progressive agenda as being "pro-family." We're fighting fire with fire. Poor women, under the guise of "prepregnancy checkups," will have added access to birth control. Minority women will have fewer poor pregnancy outcomes thanks to effective preventive care. Women as a whole will be given greater access to affordable health insurance... and all we have to do is put up with it being called "prepregnancy care" (a term taken from the scientific literature). Talk about the lesser of two evils.

Look, I'm as much about keeping the government's hands off of my wife's uterus as anybody, but these guidelines are about empowering women to take control of their reproductive health.

To my allies in the liberal/progressive blogosphere... please don't make the CDC's good advice a casualty of friendly fire. If we're serious about ensur[ing] that children will be wanted and loved (Planned Parenthood), we need to take the above steps, and take them in a way that brings our political enemies on board with us.

Please visit these fine progressive bloggers and ask them to read what the CDC wrote and reconsider their harsh judgment of this set of guidelines.

Bitch, PhD.
Feministing
Atrios
Feministe
pesky'apostrophe
Road to Serfdom
Hughes for America
Pinko Feminist Hellcat
Shakespear's Sister

and all the rest.

Update:
More bloggers are weighing in, mostly without reading the report first, it seems -
Bring it on
Gun Toting Liberal
Blondesense
edrants

Fortunately...

Outside the Beltway gets it.
Pandagon gets it.
Gabbiana gets it.
Echidne of the Snakes tones things down a bit after reading the report itself

One Last Thought:

From Ezra Klein:

If we want to remain the side committed to serious science and the preservation of expertise, we've got to support well-documented research when it emerges, even if its leaves us uncomfortable.

Put a fork in me... I'm done.

Technorati Tags: forever pregnant, sexual health, health disparities, poverty, health, insurance, prenatal care, CDC, abortion, preventive care

More cartograms

2006-05-15T22:57:00.000-04:00

A lot of people expressed interest in the HIV world map I linked to last month. Since then I found a site that currently has 100 such cartograms and is promising more to come. So far the only health related ones are related to births, population, elderly population, under 15 population, and refugee movement, but they say to expect maps on health infrastructure and infectious disease before the end of the year. Check it out (via BoingBoing)

Technorati Tags: maps, hiv, aids, cartogram

Deadline Extended

2006-05-15T22:27:00.000-04:00

The deadline to apply for the 2006 Youth Action Institute has been extended to May 24th. Full details are here

Also don't forget that AIDS Combat Zone is offering assistance to one reader who applies to attend this summer's Youth Action Institute. This offer is yet unclaimed.

Technorati Tags: hiv, aids, c2ea, yai, 2006

Saluting a fellow AIDS Warrior

2006-05-14T21:15:00.000-04:00

This article was difficult for me to read. It was written by Author and Washington Post Reporter John-Manuel Andriote, who has covered AIDS news for 20 years. Last fall, Andriote tested positive for HIV, and his disclosure comes in today's Washington Post. For me it was a poigniant reminder of how little separation there is between the people who battle AIDS from behind a computer keyboard and the people who battle AIDS inside their own bodies.

A message to John-Manuel Andriote, should he happen to stumble across this post: You have my respect and support. Keep up the fight.

Technorati Tags: hiv, aids

Mailbag

2006-05-07T15:10:00.000-04:00

AIDS Combat Zone reader Hana A. points out this Wall Street Journal article on efforts to integrate traditional healers into the fold of modern HIV treatment.

Integration of traditional and modern practices is one of the biggest challenges facing health efforts in Africa today. Modern healthcare is expensive, overburdened and impersonal, often requiring long journeys to the nearest clinic, while traditional medicine is readily accessible. Healers are typically members of close-knit communities who have earned the trust of their neighbors, while western healthcare is often associated with the corrupt national governments and memories of bitter colonial rule. Efforts such as this one are precisely what we need to be seeing more of, and not just in the fight against AIDS (pregnancy and childbirth are also in dire need of an intigration of traditional and modern practices).

Thank you, Hana, for sending this my way.

Technorati Tags: aids, hiv, traditional medicine, healers, south africa, wall street journal

Resistance Testing and more

2006-05-06T09:56:00.000-04:00

The newly founded AIDS Awareness Blog has an interesting report stating that US HIV treatment guidelines are now recommending that all new HIV cases should undergo a genotype resistance test. This will tell patients and their doctors whether or not a patient will respond to treatment from all classes of AIDS drug, or whether the strain of HIV they have contracted has developed genetic resistance to one or more classes of drug. This should result in more effective first-round treatment of these patients, and will lessen the frustration of going onto ARV treatment only for it to fail and require a new regimen. It is estimated that 10% of newly diagnosed HIV cases have at least one resistance mutation.

In a significant turn of events, the Catholic Church appears to be backtracking on reports from two weeks ago that it was planning on revising the no-condoms-ever policy. Still, it has been confirmed that a dialogue is taking place at the upper levels of the Vatican, which leaves the door open to an official change after discussions have taken place.

Of course, one wonders how relevant the "official policy" is when two thirds of catholic priests (in England and Wales at least) consider condoms a morally acceptable way to stop the spread of AIDS.

Also, please note that my email address has changed to . I will continue receiving email sent to the old address at least temporarily.

Technorati Tags: aids, hiv, genotype, mutations, benedict, catholic church, condoms, priests

Take the next step: Youth activism opportunity

2006-05-04T17:53:00.000-04:00

Let me first say that I love you guys. You -- the readers of AIDS Combat Zone -- are the kind of people who make a difference in this world. You are aware of the problems affecting the world's poor and underprivledged. You use that awareness in your everyday lives and you spread it to others in creative ways. You're opinionated, dedicated, and you're ready to see things change for the better.

In short, you're just the sort of people who ought to attend the Campaign to End AIDS Youth Action Institute this summer.

The Youth Action Institute is a summer-long opportunity for young people ages 16-26 to come together and learn from each other and from experts about everything from working with the media to organizing young people to taking action to end AIDS.

In Chicago, youth will hear speakers talk about their experiences with living with HIV and AIDS in the U.S. and around the world; develop skills in grassroots organizing, public health, advocacy and directaction; connect with other young people from around the country; and work on concrete ways to fight together to end AIDS.

After the institute, each participant will carry out a grassroots organizing project to help make progress on a high-priority AIDS issue and build participation in C2EA. And after this summer, they'll help build new C2EA and youth advocacy networks all across the country.

The institute will be held June 28-July 2 in Chicago, IL. This is your chance to take it to the next level, learn new skills, and meet people who care about the issues as much as you do. All it takes is your time and $500 worth of fundraising. After that all your expenses (including travel) are covered.

AND

AIDS Combat Zone will be helping applicants with their fundraising. Any Youth AIDS Institute applicants who email me at will receive a write-up on AIDS Combat Zone encouraging ACZ readers to donate towards your fundraising drive. Not only that, I will personally pledge $100 to the fundraising drive of the first applicant to contact me.

I can't say enough good stuff about the Youth Action Institute and Campaign to End AIDS. Please don't miss out on this opportunity to become a first-rate AIDS activist. I'm putting my money where my mouth is on this one. Apply for Youth Action Institute. You won't regret it.

Youth Action Institute 2006 Brocure (.pdf)

Youth Action Institute 2006 Application (.pdf)

Application deadline: May 15th!

Technorati Tags: c2ea, AIDS, HIV, Activism, Fundraising, YAI, Campaign to End AIDS, Youth Action Institute, Chicago

Next: Microbicides for anal sex?

2006-04-29T18:34:00.000-04:00

This is the first I've heard of it, but it seems that between 2000 and 2006, $34 million was spent on research into rectal microbicides as an HIV prevention method. Though anal sex is often associated only with men who have sex with men, it is used by heterosexuals in many countries (including the USA) as an alternative to vaginal sex, sometimes among couples trying to avoid pregnancy. Anal sex is associated with a high risk of transmitting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. It's good to know that it's not just vaginal microbicides attracting interest from researchers.

Technorati Tags: aids, hiv, anal sex, vaginal sex, microbicides, hiv/aids, prevention, homosexual, heterosexual

Circumcision and Faithfulness touted above Abstinence and Condoms

2006-04-28T01:17:00.000-04:00

An advisor for USAID has come out suggesting that circumcision and faithfulness to one partner should take higher priority in the fight against AIDS in Africa than condom use and abstaining until marriage. Daniel Halperin of USAID cited recent evidence that circumcision may reduce female-to-male transmission of HIV by up to 70%, and mentioned reports out of Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia, where campaigns to get people to limit their number of sex partners have shown promise. Meanwhile both condom use and abstinence-until-marriage programs have shown limited success.

With regards to these suggestions, I stand fully behind promoting faithfulness to a single partner. People who would not consider abstaining until marriage are often open to faithfulness in their premarital relationships (Case in point: my wife and myself). Monogamy protects against sexually transmitted diseases regardless of marital status. The above-linked article also mentions the very real problem of HIV spreading "like wildfire" if a newly-infected person has numerous partners, fueled by the fact the newly-infected have high viral loads.

Circumcision is a touchier subject, for reasons I've discussed here before. Many people have argued that more research should be done before advocating such a controversial intervention, but my feeling is that we in the global health field should leave that decision to the affected communities. Yes, we should continue researching the effecacy of circumcision in preventing HIV, but in the meantime we should present both sides of the argument to national, regional, and community leaders and empower them to decide whether circumcision should be a part of their public health strategy.

Then there's condoms and abstinence. I think the debate that exists surrounding these two methods of prevention consists largely of people on each side attacking the other without looking critically at their own side. Outside a perfect world, neither condoms nor abstinence is going to save us, and by focusing on these two interventions in a vacuum, we risk ignoring the kind of multidimensional, evidence-based approach being advocated by USAID.

I will add to the fray a fifth intervention, namely the vaginal microbicide gels I've been talking about since early last year. The gels are in the news again following the Microbicides 2006 Conference in Cape Town, South Africa earlier this week. Vaginal microbicide gels are often touted as the most promising new strategy in HIV prevention, and have earned praise for their potential to put contraception and STD prevention under the control of women. Kaiser has a rundown of the highlights of the conference here.

Technorati Tags: aids, hiv, microbicides, condoms, abstinence, fidelity, circumcision, africa, usaid, monogamy,

HIV world map

2006-04-27T00:50:00.000-04:00

The blog HIV Information for Myanmar posted an excellent HIV Cartogram -- that is, a map of the world where the size of each country is proportional to the number of people living with HIV/AIDS. It puts things in perspective to see South Africa, India, and Nigeria each appearing larger than North America and South America combined.

[edited to correct link]

Technorati Tags: hiv, aids, nigeria, india, south africa, north america, south america, map, cartogram, africa

Benedict revisits condom decision

2006-04-24T08:34:00.000-04:00

Just a bit more than a year after ascending to the papacy, Pope Benedict XVI may be on the verge of relaxing the official Catholic ban on condoms by allowing HIV serodiscordant married couples to use condoms. This is a small step, and one that has already been enacted throughout the Catholic flock (albeit in a localized and de facto way), but it is an important step nevertheless. The Catholic church has been relying on baseless rhetoric and pseudoscience to say, among other things, that an 85% reduction in disease transmission is a sign that condoms "don't work" and that viruses are capable of jumping through holes that even water can't pass through (surface tension keeps fluid - and everything within it - inside the condom). Allowing condoms as a form of prevention between two married people means dropping the bullshit and acknowledging that they work... and that, my friends, is a tremendous step in the right direction.

I may have been a bit hasty about my prediction, but there is still time.

Technorati Tags: catholic, church, aids, hiv, catholic church, benedict, benedict xvi, condoms, pope

Briefly...

2006-04-22T23:45:00.000-04:00

I got everything turned in on time for the contest. I've got my fingers crossed.

Papal "runner-up" backs expanded condom use

Postwar Liberia sees HIV rate jump

Egalitarian gender roles linked to better sex life

Mailbag

2006-04-15T14:29:00.000-04:00

A nameless commenter from Real Up Human.net writes:

A few things I am "doing" for our AIDS global world community.... of humanity...

Please Join with me in FightAIDS@Home....

An AIDS research project that uses your computer's idle resources to accelerate new anti-HIV drug design.

[ http://fightaidsathome.scripps.edu/ ]

It is a PART of the the ever evolving future of the world.....

Toaddress these challenges, World Community Grid's FightAIDS@Home projectruns a software program called AutoDock developed in Prof. Olson's laboratory. AutoDock is a suite of tools that predicts how small molecules, such as drug candidates, might bind or "dock" to a receptor of known 3D structure. The very first version of AutoDock was writtenin the Olson Laboratory in 1990 by Dr. David S. Goodsell, while newer versions, developed by Dr. Garrett M. Morris, have been released which add new scientific understanding and strategies to AutoDock, making it computationally more robust, faster, and easier for other scientists to use. AutoDock is used on the World Community Grid to dock large numbers of different small molecules to HIV protease, so the best molecules can be found computationally, selected and tested in the laboratory for efficacy against the virus, HIV. By joining forces together, The Scripps Research Institute, World Community Grid and its growing volunteer force can find better treatments much faster than ever before.

JOIN IN THE ACTIONS OF COMPUTING SCIENCE --- NOT JUST MAKING WORDS --- BUT MAKING HUMANS SURVIVE INTO THE NEXT DECADE....

My thanks go out to this reader for bringing up this simple way of helping in the fight against AIDS. As some of you may remember, I've been a supporter of FightAIDS@Home for quite some time now. I even started a FightAIDS@Home team about six months ago. If you're interested in sharing your computer's processing power for a good cause, join my FightAIDS@Home team.

Crunch time

2006-04-14T00:34:00.000-04:00

I've once again reached my end-of-the-semester crunch time... and added to that crunch will be the application and 700 word essay I will be writing for a certain New York Times contest. Yes, I've definitively decided to enter the Nick Kristof journalism competition. Thanks to everyone who has offered encouragement -- it's wonderful to know that AIDS Combat Zone has such loyal fans.

But before I lock myself away from the world and bury myself under mountains of books, powerpoint printouts, and journal articles, here are a few AIDS Headlines that have caught my eye over the past few days.

DC area CVS pharmacies keeping condoms under lock and key. As most of you may remember, Washington DC has the highest estimated HIV prevalence of any city in America. Now is not the time to be moving condoms behind the counter. Regardless of if you live in DC or anywhere else, if you happen to notice a pharmacy engaged in this practice, ask to speak with the manager. Ask him/her why this barrier to condom access exists and if there are plans to return them to an accessible part of the store. If not, inform him/her that you will be taking your business elsewhere.

World Bank suspends TB/AIDS funds in Ukraine. Three years into a $60 million dollar anti-Tuberculosis/AIDS program in the Ukraine, the World Bank has suspended funds. The bank hopes to restructure the program to enable a more effective disbursement of the funds, according to a statement.

I haven't read it yet, but Kaiser tells us that The Government Accountability Office released a report last week that highlighted the mixed messages caused by President Bush's PEPFAR AIDS relief program, and provides links to editorial and opinion pieces responding to the GAO report. I'm linking to this as a reminder to myself as well as a suggestion for you to take a peek at it.

Once-in-a-lifetime shot

2006-04-07T23:28:00.000-04:00

This afternoon I was glancing through some feeds and I came across a post in the Livejournal Public Health Community announcing a contest to accompany New York Times columnist Nick Kristof on a journalism voyage into the underdeveloped world:

Over the next month, I’ll be holding a contest to find a university student or two to accompany me on a reporting trip to the developing world. I’m not sure where yet, and that will depend partly on what’s in the news at the time. But to give you a sense of the kind of travel I’m thinking of, the possibilities include a jaunt through rural Burundi and Rwanda in central Africa, or an odyssey from the coast of Cameroon inland to the heart of the Central African Republic.
Don’t expect comfort so much as diarrhea. We’ll be on the go from dawn tolate at night every day, interviewing anybody from peasants to presidents (usually the peasants are more interesting). We might visit a clinic, an AIDS program, a school, a factory.
And you won’t just be watching. I want you to report as well – probably in a weblog or video blog on the New York Times Web site, maybe in some other way. I’m open to other ideas as well, but I want you to convey reactions to what we encounter to the Times audience. You won’t be practicing tourism, but journalism.

At first it sounded like it was a bit far out there, even for me, and so I have been trying to come up with a reason not to apply for this contest. Try as I might, I have been unable to talk myself out of it. I think I'd have a good shot at being accepted, though it has crossed my mind that between the MPH and my blog, I might be overqualified.

So I've told Whitney that I'm going to sleep on it, and if I'm still interested at the end of the weekend, I'll get to work on my application.

And if a rough and rustic journalistic tour of the third world sounds appealing to you, I encourage you to apply as well.

Zuma's fall from grace

2006-04-05T11:40:00.000-04:00

A year ago I made a couple of posts about South Africa's ex-deputy prime minister Jacob Zuma. At the time he made waves first by challenging the prime minister's assertion that good nutrition is the key to overcoming AIDS, then he was fired and charged over his alleged role in a financial scandal, a case which has not yet come to trial. Zuma is, however, currently in court facing rape charges, accused by a woman who he knew beforehand to be HIV positive. Zuma insists that the sex he had with the woman was consentual.

What has come to light during the case has been nothing short of astounding. Zuma chose not to use a condom because he perceived his risk of contracting HIV to be low... though he did shower after the act because he believed this would protect him from HIV.

Mr. Zuma is wrong on both of these counts... and additionally, he is presenting a defense that is not making me think he is innocent of the rape charges.

And, he added, he had no problem having sexual intercourse with her, bearing in mind that she "had needs".
Zuma said the woman had never visited him wearing a skirt before. On the night of the alleged rape, she had arrived wearing a knee-length skirt.
"She had never in the past come to my house dressed in a skirt. Including times when I was living in Pretoria.
"When she came to me in a skirt after those talks I referred to earlier on, well, it told me something," he said.

Sounds much too much like the "she was asking for it" defense -- which doesn't fly here in America and shouldn't fly elsewhere either.

In short, the kind words I had for Mr. Zuma last year? I take those all back.

At it again...

2006-03-04T11:42:00.000-05:00

The March issue of Harper's magazine has created a stir by featuring an article by a prominant AIDS denialist, creating an uproar among scientists, activists, and others. I'm getting in on the story a little late, so I'll provide links to what others have to say about this:

Direland

Gay City News

The Nation

I will add that I, too, would like to see a retraction of the Harper article. There's too much at stake to go around pushing a debunked idea that costs more peoples' lives the farther it spreads.

Personal update

2006-02-28T00:34:00.000-05:00

Whitney* and I received our Peace Corps nomination today. All the details are at Life is Calling, our Peace Corps blog. To make a long story short, we received a placement in rural Africa, working on a health project, and leaving in March of '07. We really don't know much more than that other than some best guesses.

But anyway, you can subscribe to Life is Calling in the same ways as AIDS Combat Zone:

Atom/XML
Bloglines
Email
Livejournal

In other news, my first day on the new job was uneventful. I ran out of things to do because I don't have a computer login yet, so I got sent home early.

*the beautiful and talented fiancée

AIDS walk and other good stuff

2006-02-26T18:31:00.000-05:00

Today I had my first encounter with an "AIDS celebrity." I attended the Tampa AIDS Walk with the USF Student Global AIDS Campaign and was introduced to Jeanne White-Ginder, mother of the late Ryan White. Mrs. Ginder is a member of the board of directors for The AIDS Institute here in Tampa, and was a speaker for the event. She was a very friendly and down-to-Earth woman, and I was happy to have the chance to speak with her.

Apart from that it was your typical AIDS walk. Fun was had, money was raised. The weather was beautiful, if a bit chilly at first. I don't know all the details, but over $10,000 was raised, with proceeds going to The AIDS Institute. I'm glad I made it.

While it's too late to contribute to that particular AIDS walk, I received an email asking me to help get the word out for Bradley and his friend Nabeeha, who are trying to raise $5,000 for the Kansas City AIDS Walk in April. The write-up on Nabeeha's sponsorship page was touching and so I will share it here:

I am walking for Lorena who lived in Kansas City and was diagnosedHIV positive in 1993, but stayed silent because of stigma and fear ofdiscrimination. This fear discouraged her to get early care andsupport. She died several years later. Most will say the virus killedher; in reality, it was stigma.
I am walking for the resilient, the brave, the beautiful Shukriafrom Lahore, Pakistan who is the first women in Pakistan to come outpublicly about her HIV status. An HIV activist and mother of two whowas infected by her husband, she does not have access to the treatmentand care she needs. In tears, she said she doesn't know if she will bealive next year, but she does know that her days with her children arenumbered. In Urdu, Shukria name means "Thank You." This is my "Shukria"to her.
I am walking for Olive who was gang raped repeatedly during theRwandan genocide. Of the tens of thousands of women raped during thegenocide and who have come forward for testing, more than 75 percentare HIV positive. Olive and her baby, conceived during one of therapes, are among them.
This is for my community down the block, and my communities acrossthe country and around the world. I am walking for a different future;one where if our daughters or sons or nieces or nephews become HIVpositive, they are able to live and be loved in spite of HIV/AIDS, andnot die and be discriminated against because of it.
Peace and love.
Nabeeha

If you are interested in helping her meet her sponsorship goal, visit http://www.firstgiving.com/Nabeeha

For some headlines, UNAIDS director Peter Piot is warning of the potential negative effects of avian influenza (H5N1) in Africa, even if the disease never jumps to humans. Poultry is an essential source of nutrients in many parts of Africa where food is often scarce, and the kind of mass cull necessary to contain the current outbreak (currently in Nigeria) could have a devistating impact on people living with AIDS in the region and beyond.

In addition to the current range of vaginal microbicide gels being researched, we may see a new twist on an old medicine. Researchers have found tenofovir (Viread) to be safe in a gel form, meaning that if future studies find that the drug is also effective, this treatment drug will gain a preventive application. Currently, however, trials of the vaginal microbicide Ushercell are in their final phase of clinical trials, and are very likely to beat a tenofovir product to the market. (see also my post on this topic from last May)

Footnote: I'm setting a goal of updating AIDS Combat Zone a minimum of once a week. I'm told that anything less than once a day is blog suicide, but I'm willing to take that chance. I'm going to try and have pictures up from the last couple of SGAC events, hopefully including pics of yours truly. Also, I'll be sure to tell you all how my first few days of work turn out. Until then...

Technorati Tags: AIDS, AIDS Walk, HIV, Microbicide, Bird Flu, Avian Influenza, Ryan White

Edited to add: A warm thanks go out to Nels, Stroll, Stefan, and Nio for their warm congratulations left in response to my last post. Thanks all!

Job

2006-02-17T09:49:00.000-05:00

I got a job as the database manager for an AIDS research project going on at the county health department. Maybe this will breathe new life into my blogging efforts... unless it means I have even less free time for blogging.

I start Monday. We'll see what happens.

I'm Not Dead

2006-01-27T21:19:00.000-05:00

Contrary to what my sparse updates would suggest, I am not dead.

Rather, other priorities have taken center stage in my life. I wish I could say with confidence that this is temporary, but I fear things are likely to stay as they are.

The good news is that the things distracting me are joyful and positive. The wedding has been set for March 18th, and invitations went out Wednesday. Also, everything is on track for our Peace Corps application, and if things go as planned we'll be finding out in about a month what region we'll be sent to. Also classes are going well, but this semester is going to require an extra bit of effort. Meanwhile I'm staying active in campus organizations.

So while the fight continues, I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave AIDS Combat Zone in an indefinate state of suspended animation. As always, the links in my sidebar provide excellent access to HIV/AIDS news and resources, and I recommend checking them out in my absence.

Also, if you get the chance, check out Donkey's prostitution blog. In it he tells candid stories about visiting and talking to prostitutes, and he explores the good and bad sides of the sex trade, including the dark world of human trafficking.

Until next time,
-Brad

Bogus cures plague mainstream African churches

2006-01-04T13:02:00.000-05:00

The online edition of today's Guardian newspaper has a sad report on Christian churches in Nigeria touting HIV/AIDS cures. The situation is growing desperate in Nigeria, which has the 3rd highest population of HIV positive adults, and the single highest population of HIV positive children.

In another outrageous story, Misty Media Sex Blog points us to news reports that Albertson's supermarkets have pulled Seventeen magazine from its shelves because it featured a medical diagram of the vagina. We can't have teenage girls knowing anything about their anatomy, after all.

Sorry for the long absence. More updates will follow.

Finals

2005-12-05T17:05:00.000-05:00

This week is finals week for me. Updates will be sparse to nonexistant.

Today's Final Thoughts

2005-12-01T23:23:00.000-05:00

Until now I've been too busy tracking down other peoples' news, posts, and thoughts about World AIDS Day to properly post about what today means to me.

One year ago today I posted that it was the first time in five years that I was not working or volunteering for an AIDS Service Organization on World AIDS Day. 2005 marks the second such year, but in the intervening year I have started my degree in Global Health, made concrete plans to begin an international health career, and built AIDS Combat Zone from its modest roots into a proper blog. I've surprised myself with how involved in health activism I've become; putting many hours into planning and holding meetings, events, and demonstrations.

Through all of this, AIDS Combat Zone helps me keep my focus. By reading headlines and news items every week, I keep myself aware of the cutting edge of HIV/AIDS research, news, and developments. I'd still write what's in this blog even if nobody ever visited. Thanks to all of you who do, and who enrich its content with your questions, comments, and contributions.

World AIDS Day is (almost) over, but keep wearing the ribbon. Keep getting tested. Keep asking questions and taking action.

Technorati Tags: AIDS, HIV, World AIDS Day, AIDS Ribbon

Blogging World AIDS Day

2005-12-01T23:03:00.000-05:00

I plan to update this post throughout the day on Thursday December 1 with links to blogs and news items on the topic of World AIDS Day. Check back often for the latest!

Like what you see here? Subscribe to get the latest updates via Email or RSS/XML.

10:45: World AIDS Day is winding down. Thanks to everyone who posted on this important topic today. I'll leave you with these news items and blog posts:

AIDS Combat Zone friends/readers Niobium and Stroll both took a moment to reflect on World AIDS Day. Thanks guys!

National Public Radio's Marketplace told of India's strategy of providing free AIDS-themed cell phone games to millions of young people. You can listen online.

Visual AIDS posted a thourough round-up of AIDS related pieces in today's issue of the New York Times.

Nathan of Politics and Policy of HIV/AIDS made a post criticizing Pope Benedict XVI's stand against condoms as a way of preventing the spread of AIDS, and another applauding South Africa's decision to legalize gay marriage. South Africa is the 5th country lift the ban on gay marriage.

Texas AIDS Blog made a follow-up post listing World AIDS Day events in the lone star state.

Doug Ireland gives us the text of a speech by Poz Magazine founder Sean Strib on what's wrong with today's AIDS movement. Don't miss this one.

5:25 PM: I'm about to be late to class, but just wanted to throw in links to AIDSWatch and TerranceDC (aka Republic of T's Terrance).

More when I get back!

4:30 PM: I just found out from Kaiser that yesterday National Public Radio's Morning Edition featured a story about South Africa's Bishop Kevin Dowling, who I featured in a Sunday Surmonette last month. You can listen to it here.

Anzidesign reminds us that today is also the 50th anniversary of Rosa Parks' arrest, and takes it as an opportunity to compare and contrast the plight of blacks in the civil rights era with that of seropositive individuals today.

J. Bernard Jones shares his deeply personal experience of just having found out last night that someone very close to him is HIV positive.

Nick's Bytes has posted the ribbon and a large collection of facts, figures, and links about HIV/AIDS

The Love Hater says it with poetry.

The Unconquerable Soul reflects on the fight against AIDS over the past year, and tells his own story of opening his eyes and protecting himself.

1:30 PM: I just got back from a Student Global AIDS Campaign demonstration. Our members laid down outside the Student Center holding up signs with AIDS awareness messages. We drew quite a crowd. I'll post the pictures once they get emailed to me.

The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report has a listing of media events and also a good summary of worldwide efforts to push the message of World AIDS Day. Update: They also have a Compilation of Op/Ed news items on World AIDS Day topics.

My personal friend Bluestare put up a ribbon and provided an excellent link to a holiday buying guide featuring products and companies that support gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality. Thanks Andy!

Bejata is continuing to update his list of bloggers with World AIDS Day posts. I haven't checked them all out yet, but I encourage you to take a look. He's up to 28 sites now, including AIDS Combat Zone.

Housing Works has posted a series of updates today, including an upbeat assessment of the progress made against AIDS in 2005.

Dr. Peter Piot, director of UNAIDS, has released his World AIDS Day statement for 2005.

10:30 AM: Brothalove disspels several myths surrounding AIDS and gives information for folks in the Atlanta area who want to get involved or get tested.

J. Brotherlove gives us a touching story of how AIDS entered his life.

9:45 AM: Bejata has several good World AIDS Day posts, including news, statistics, and his own personal insight into what's driving the crisis. He also has his own list of blogs participating in World AIDS Day.

Google is displaying a red ribbon on their home page.

Walk Your Own Path lists facts about the AIDS crisis and his own suggestions on protecting yourself and those around you from HIV.

The Starr Report has a post on personal responsibility.

Lee's Space makes a post on World AIDS Day, another on HIV vaccine research, and pledges to post more on AIDS throughout December (Way to go, Lee!).

Advertising/Design Goodness shows us a powerful Doctors Without Borders public service announcement aimed at fighting AIDS in Africa (strongly recommended viewing),

Swaziland, the nation with the highest HIV prevalence in the world, has canceled World AIDS Day events because they interfered with a traditional celebration. Tell me, King Mswati, what good are your traditions if there are no Swazis left to celebrate?

Neighboring Lesotho has set a much better example, offering free HIV tests to all its residents, nearly 30% of whom are believed to be infected with HIV.

12:01 AM: In a rare display of cojones, the UK is leading the EU in denouncing America's role in "the resurgence of partial or incomplete messages on HIV prevention which are not grounded in evidence and have limited effectiveness." While the US is not specifically named in the statement (alas...), the connection is an obvious and timely one. Two Thirds of the $15 billion allocated under PEPFAR is earmarked for abstinence-only organizations.

On that subject, Carolyn has an insightful post on the abstinence issue at Texas AIDS Blog.

MTV will be airing a full-length film on AIDS on all MTV channels and several other broadcasters reaching many countries hard-hit by HIV.

Transit, shot on location in St Petersberg, Mexico City, Nairobi and Los Angeles, follows eight characters on a journey across four continents that sees them exploring emotion and sexuality in a candid and gripping way – all driven by a strong music soundtrack. Translated into 13 languages, including Mandarin, Hindi, Russian and Spanish, it is being offered completely cost- and rights-free – a practice for all Staying Alive programming.

For once in my life I have a reason to watch MTV...

For the podcast fans among you, I suggest checking out Mandrake Society Radio's podcast on World AIDS Day and the rising numbers of gay black men being diagnosed with HIV. Music and poetry are also featured, making for a very enjoyable show.

Now I'm calling the rest of you out: If you are on my blogroll, I expect a World AIDS Day post out of you. As an AIDS Combat Zone reader, you have a responsibility to help raise awareness at least once a year. The industrialized world hasn't kept its promises of fighting AIDS, and it's up to us to spread the word that more needs to be done. Spread the word. It's up to you.

Technorati Tags: World AIDS Day, WAD, HIV, AIDS, MTV, Keep the promise, PEPFAR

Campaign to End AIDS protest video

2005-11-30T18:24:00.000-05:00

Please view this video of a recent Campaign to End AIDS protest at the Family Research Council headquarters. If enough people register and vote for the video, it will appear on Current TV.

Link (Requires Internet Explorer, I promise it's worth it anyway)

Grassroots activism at its best!

Technorati Tags: C2EA, Abstinence, Condoms, AIDS, HIV, Family Research Council

World AIDS Day 2005

2005-11-30T10:16:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow marks World AIDS Day 2005, the 18th World AIDS Day since the event began back in 1988.

The theme for this year's World AIDS Day is Stop AIDS, Keep the Promise refers to the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, (Full version / Summary) signed by all 189 UN members including the United States. The Declaration stated the following priorities:

First, to ensure that people everywhere — particularly the young — know what to do to avoid infection;

Second, to stop perhaps the most tragic of all forms of HIV transmission — from mother to child;

Third, to provide treatment to all those infected;

Fourth, to redouble the search for a vaccine, as well as a cure;
Fifth, to care for all whose lives have been devastated by AIDS, particularly more than 13 million orphans.

In accordance with those priorities, the Declaration set several targets for the end of 2005:

Reduce HIV prevalence by 25% among men and women aged 15-24 in the most affected countries.

Ensure that at least 90% of young people aged 15 to 24 have access to the information, education and services necessary to develop the life skills required to reduce their vulnerability to HIV infection.

Reduce the proportion of infants infected with HIV by 20% by increasing access to services which prevent mother-to-child transmission.

Increase annual spending on HIV and AIDS to $7-10 billion in low and middle-income countries and those countries experiencing or at risk of experiencing rapid expansion of HIV epidemics.

Those of you who are regulars to AIDS Combat Zone know that the progress towards these goals has been modest at best. Prevalence continues to increase in most countries, and many young people have no access to the services necessary to reduce their vulnerability to HIV infection. To my knowledge we have not seen a significant reduction of mother-to-child transmission outside industrial countries, and the United States has recently cut funding to the Global Fund.

Please join me tomorrow by getting involved in the fight against AIDS. Here are my suggestions for action:

Wear a ribbon, or at least put a virtual ribbon on your website

Donate to a local AIDS Service Organization, or to a national/international one, such as AVERT, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Advocates for Youth, or the Campaign to End AIDS.
Attend a World AIDS Day event (see here, here, and here)

Get Tested

Join my FightAIDS@Home team

Talk to the people you love about AIDS and sexual health

Please help in any way you can.

Technorati Tags: World AIDS Day, AIDS, HIV, Keep the promise, Global Fund, AIDS Ribbon, @home, WAD

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-22T11:09:00.000-05:00

I'll be going out of town for Thanksgiving shortly, so I'll leave you with these headlines:

Worldwide AIDS count hits 40 million
- HIV rate rising in Middle East
- HIV rate declines in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda; but rises elsewhere in Africa

Update: Full details can be found in the 2005 UNAIDS Epidemic Update

China denies reports of building separate prisons for HIV + inmates

HIV drug resistance increasing in UK (researchers find double the drug resistance rate of the US - very scary)

Condom use linked to lower rates of genetal herpes

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

Join my FightAIDS@Home team!

2005-11-21T09:26:00.000-05:00

FightAIDS@Home has switched to a new software client, the World Community Grid, and is finally allowing members to start teams. I've been waiting for this to happen for a while now so that I could start an AIDS Combat Zone team.

For those of you who don't know what FightAIDS@Home is, it's a shared computing project, much like SETI@Home, GIMPS, and the Cancer Research Project. To participate, you download the client and set up an account. The program then runs in when your computer is idle, processing data to look for new chemical compounds that may work to inhibit the HIV reproductive process. When the program is done running it sends the results out over the internet, downloads a new project, and starts processing again. Since the program runs in the background, your computer's performance won't be affected (in theory anyway). To learn more about the project and about shared computing, read this page.

Once you are running the client, you can join the AIDS Combat Zone team, and your statistics will be counted in with other AIDS Combat Zone readers. Having a lot of members and good statistics will make our team stand out, giving publicity to AIDS Combat Zone... not to mention helping the FightAIDS@Home project complete its goals.

What are you waiting for? Join FightAIDS@Home and join the AIDS Combat Zone team. It's a simple way to help make a difference.

Blogosphere reaction to AIDS "cure" case

2005-11-15T21:39:00.000-05:00

I was going to write up a post summarizing the blogosphere's reaction to the Andrew Stimpson story, but Slate beat me to it. It's worth a look, especially the link to Derek Lowe, who wrote a provocative post questioning Stimpson's motives. Lei at Genetics and Public Health Blog also made a post about the genetics behind Stimpson's case, which is worth checking out.

UPDATE 11/16/05: From Planet Out:

Stimpson's publicity agent yesterday insisted Andrew was seeking "specialist advice" on how he should submit himself for testing.

He has a publicity agent now? Why does he need one of those?

In other news, our demonstration went well. Please join me in calling Senator Frist. That is all for now.

Technorati Tags: slate, andrew stimpson, activism, blogging

Week of Political Action

2005-11-15T09:29:00.000-05:00

This week has been designated a week of political action in support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, a program which right now risks suffering from a major funding shortfall. The US typically supports this fund with around $700 million per year (we spend twice that every week in Iraq), however this year our government has only pledged $450 million for fiscal year 2006.

To try and reach the $700 million goal, a phoneswarm targeting Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has been organized. Participating in this phone swarm should take approximately two minutes of your time. Here's what to do:

Call Senator Frist's office at 202-224-3344.

Read the following script to whomever you speak with:

"Hello, my name is ______ and I care a lot about AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria prevention. I would like to urge Senator Frist and any other key decision-makers to support the Senate funding level of 150 million dollars for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria in the 2006 Labor HHS Spending Bill. Also urge him to support an additional $250 million in emergency spending for fiscal year 2006 so we can pay the full US share towards this important program. Thank you."

This script is only a suggestion. Feel free to modify it to include other issues of importance to you, and feel encouraged to use this same script on other Senators and Representatives. What's most important is that you let your voice be heard.

I will be participating in a small demonstration in favor of fully funding the Global Fund today in front of the Marshall Center on USF's campus. The event is planned for 10am to 2pm, and I'll be showing up at 12:30. I know I don't have a lot of local readers, but any of you who show up and give your support will be greatly appreciated!

Technorati Tags: aids, tuberculosis, malaria, usf, activism, global fund

Analysis: What the Andrew Stimpson case means for the fight against AIDS

2005-11-14T15:18:00.000-05:00

Okay, taking one look at my site meter has told me that the case of Andrew Stimpson, the British man who has seemingly fought off HIV, is getting a LOT of attention, so let me take a few minutes to address what it means for people with AIDS or at risk of contracting HIV.

First of all, we don't yet know if there really is anything special about Mr. Stimpson. He may simply be a lucky guy with a healthy immune system that was able to do its job when push came to shove. He took vitamin supplements, a strategy proven to help keep the body healthy against HIV for a longer period of time compared to not taking vitamins. If this was going to happen with anyone, it would most likely be someone like Andrew Stimpson.

Nevertheless, the fact that this has never happened to anyone else before is a pretty good indicator that something else is at work, but what? We already know that around 10% of Europeans are sometimes genetic carriers of the CCR5 delta 32 protien, which is known to convey some resistance to HIV. If Mr. Stimpson is one of these carriers (or better yet, carried 2 CCR5 delta 32 alleles), it gives us some reason to believe he had a rare level of resistance, which, combined with good health, might have enabled his body to do what millions of others could not, and defeat HIV in vivo.

But we are still faced with the reality that, there are many thousands of individuals with HIV and the CCR5 delta 32 gene, and while by and large they have better outcomes than other people, none of them has rid themselves of HIV. So what else might be at work here? We certainly could be seeing the effects of an as-yet undiscovered gene, possessed by Mr. Stimpson, that has conveyed him with an immune system that is more robust against HIV. This is the prospect that excites me. If researchers can identify what is different about Andrew Stimpson that has allowed him to do what nobody else could, it opens the door to medicines that may be able to reproduce his good fortune for others.

Please understand that the above scenario is a long shot. Even if Mr. Stimpson has a unique genetic advantage against HIV, it's going to require a lot of time and study to figure out what exactly that is. Once it has been identified, it may take years for a drug to be formulated, tested, and released. Even then, the drug may only work to varying degrees. If Andrew Stimpson is our salvation against AIDS, we won't know it for many years to come. So far Stimpson has agreed to undergo further testing which is the vital first step on the road to developing new medications against HIV/AIDS.

Unfortunately for people who are right now living with HIV and AIDS, this case really only offers the same glimmer of future hope and promise that has been talked about since scientists first started looking for an AIDS vaccine twenty years ago. Still, I think it underscores several things people with AIDS should do, namely, talk to your doctor about taking vitamin supplements, and if your viral load test keeps coming back undetectable consider getting re-tested for HIV. We only know about Andrew Stimpson because he took a second HIV test. There may be more people like him out there who have shaken HIV but who don't know it because they have not yet been retested. World AIDS Day is coming up on December 1st, so testing will be free and widely available. If we discover others with the same ability as Mr. Stimpson, it can only bring us closer to creating new medicines to help those who aren't as lucky as he is.

I'm promoting this post through Samantha Burns' open trackback alliance.

Technorati Tags: aids, hiv, Andrew Stimpson, hiv cure, hiv treatment, aids cure

Man of the Hour: Andrew Stimpson

2005-11-14T09:01:00.000-05:00

There has understandably been a lot of interest in yesterday's story about the London man who has experienced a reversal in his HIV status. Since that post, there has been a mild backlash against the report, ranging from cautious optimism to full-blown doubt. Here's the round-up:

BBC: Frequently Asked Questions
Good overview in The Guardian
Stimpson "went straight to newspapers" instead of doctors
AIDS groups urge caution
Some experts skeptical over HIV claims, Doctors urge caution

Special thanks go out to the folks at The Daily Headache for featuring AIDS Combat Zone in Carnival of Compassion #9, my first such mention in a Blog Carnival.

British man shakes HIV

2005-11-13T02:10:00.000-05:00

For the second time this year comes a report of a person testing negative for HIV after previously being conclusively diagnosed with the virus. The first case was an Israeli man back in February. Today similar news comes from England, where a man who tested positive in 2002 has since tested negative, this time without the use of anti-retroviral medication. The man, Andrew Stimpson of London, was tested 3 times at the time of his initial diagnosis, and officials have ruled out the possibility of those results being caused by mix up or error. Stimpson has agreed to undergo further medical tests to determine why his body was successful at fighting off a virus that has killed millions.

Technorati Tags: aids, hiv, hiv cure, england, london,

Sunday Sermonette: Catholic Church Update

2005-11-13T00:30:00.000-05:00

As we march closer and closer towards World AIDS Day 2005, Catholic priests and bishops continue speaking out in favor of condoms as an effective HIV prevention strategy. On November 4, the Chicago Tribune featured a story about Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa, who has been speaking out publicly in favor of condoms as a "pro-life" solution to AIDS since 2001. In some parts of his diocese, nearly 50% of women who test for HIV come back positive. From the Tribune:

What he would like to see from Rome, he says, is a "humble attitude" and a recognition that "we have to develop a theology for the HIV-AIDS pandemic that [recognizes] the poor and the suffering and the marginalized and the vulnerable" and is based on an ethic of "human dignity and justice and human rights instead of just on an ethic of sexuality."

Despite this modest and well-reasoned appeal, his words are falling on deaf ears throughout most of the church hierarchy. Fortunately Bishop Dowling is not giving up, and thanks to this recent article, his message is reaching an even broader audience.

Last week Reverend Stefan Hippler, who wrote a May 16 article in the Mail & Guardian challenging the Catholic Church to adopt the Greek Orthodox principle of oikonomia (economy), published a follow-up article, in which he further advocates oikonomia, answers his critics, and calls on the church to take the lead in fighting stigma, discrimination, and ignorance. "The Catholic Church is the world's largest religious body - what a difference could we make by ensuring that more and more people know their status and act accordingly," he says. Oikonomia, which he defines as "the application of God's unconditional love for people in a certain situation by accepting the standing rules which are overwritten in these circumstances," is just the sort of principle that should be considered as we continue to grapple with the AIDS pandemic. I cheer Reverend Hippler for his continued push for more being done to prevent the spread of AIDS.

But in light of Rome's continued adherence to the 1968 "no condoms" ruling, I can only hold out hope that the new antimicrobial gels will be given some sort of new status as a non-traditional (and thus, permissible) contraceptive.

I'll close with words from Bishop Kevin Dowling's 2001 appeal:

If we simply proclaim a message that condoms cannot be used under any circumstances, either directly or through not trying to articulate a proper response to the crisis we face, then I believe people will find difficulty in believing that we are committed as Church to a compassionate and caring response to people who are suffering, often in appalling living conditions. The fact that condoms are not 100% safe in every case cannot be advanced, in my view, as an argument that they should never be used in any circumstance. We live in an imperfect world, and sometimes even imperfect results at least can save some lives.

Edited to add: I'm participating in the Samantha Burns Open Trackback for this entry.

Technorati Tags: condoms, catholic church, aids, hiv, south africa

Namibia mulls legalized prostitution

2005-11-11T12:47:00.000-05:00

Namibia, in an effort to reduce its 20% HIV Prevalence rate, is being urged to consider decriminalizing prostitution. Namibia's Legal Assistance Center has pointed out that decriminalizing prostitution would help reduce the spread of HIV and allow the government to work with prostitutes to spread HIV prevention information and materials. Additionally, it would increase the safety of sex workers by allowing them to report cases of abuse and exploitation. Prostitution in some form is legal or tolerated in most countries.

I strongly support the decriminalization of prostitution. Public health interventions cannot be effective on underground prostitution compared with legal, government regulated prostitution. Countries that have chosen to prohibit prostitution have been completely unsuccessful in stopping the practice. A harm reduction strategy is needed rather than one of absolute prohibition.

Technorati Tags: prostitution, sex work, harm reduction, aids, hiv, namibia

Mailbag - from Save the Children

2005-11-08T19:12:00.000-05:00

I expect to be caught up with my schoolwork shortly, but for now it's still eating up entirely too much of my time. You can expect more updates once I cross that bridge.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a letter I received today with information on how to help improve global health in children.

Hi Brad,

I just noticed that you’ve blogged about the Rx for Survival series on Aids Combat Zone. I’m writing on behalf of Save the Children, which was a partner in producing the series.

We’re trying to get the word out about new legislation in Congress which could save the lives of millions of children who would otherwise die from treatable or preventable diseases. The CHILD and Newborn Act (HR 4222), just introduced last week, would commitnew resources to reducing child and infant mortality around the world.

We have launched agrassroots advocacy campaign and are urging citizens to speak out about this issue at www.savethechildren.org/childsurvival. Please take a look at the press release below and consider writing about or mentioning www.savethechildren.org/childsurvival.

Thanks,

Michael Sherrard
Save the Children

Mr. Sherrard included the following press release:

Newly Introduced Legislation to Support Children’s Health and Survival; Lives of Millions Could Be Saved

Save the Children urges public to support the CHILD and Newborn Act at

www.savethechildren.org/childsurvival

Washington, DC – November 3,2005 – Amid growing concern about preventable or treatable diseases that kill nearly 30,000 children worldwide each day, Save the Children today called on the American public to support new legislation in Congress that would seek to reduce mortality rates among children under 5 in the world’s poorest countries.

Introduced today by Representatives Betty McCollum (D-MN), Christopher Shays (R-CT) and other Members of Congress, the Child Health Investment for Long-Term Development (CHILD) and Newborn Act of 2005 (H.R. 4222) would increase support for basic life-saving tools that could save millions of children’s lives each year.

Save the Children is urging members of the public to support the legislation by visiting www.savethechildren.org/childsurvival and urging members of Congress and the Administration to support the legislation.

Each year, over 10 million children under age 5 die from preventable or treatable diseases such as measles, tetanus, diarrhea, pneumonia and malaria. Malnutrition contributes to more than half of these deaths.

“This legislation is about survival. These children do not have to suffer or die,” said Charles MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children. “Simple and affordable tools – vitamins, vaccines, antibiotics – exist to save them. That is why I am urging the public to speak out in support of the CHILD and Newborn Act,” said MacCormack.

U.S. leadership has made an enormous contribution in saving children’s lives over the past two decades, but funding for these programs has remained stagnant in recent years, while life-saving programs in many countries have actually lost ground. The CHILD and Newborn Act is a welcome move that promises to improve child and maternal health around the globe.

There are effective and affordable solutions. Antibiotics to treat pneumonia can cost as little as 15 cents. A child can be immunized against six major childhood diseases for as little as $15. Vitamin A, one-year dose of which costs just a few cents, is estimated to have saved 1 million lives between 1998 and 2000 alone. Oral rehydration solutions have helped reduce diarrhea deaths by half.

“We cannot wait a day, an hour, a second – nearly 30,000 children will die in the next 24 hours,” said Carol Miller, Associate Vice President for Public Policy & Advocacy. Miller added, “we are grateful to Representatives Betty McCollum and Chris Shays for introducing legislation that invests in tools that cost mere pennies but could spare thousands of young lives every day. We are urging Congress to pass the CHILD and Newborn Act and Americans to show their support by visiting www.savethechildren.org/childsurvival and taking action.”

The introduction of legislation comes amid a week of national attention to global health issues. Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge, anchored by a compelling six-part PBS/NOVA documentary broadcast this week, seeks to raise awareness among Americans of child survival and other health challenges. In New York, leaders in the fields of medicine, government, business and public policy gathered at the TIME Global Health Summit to discuss solutions to global health crises.

About Save the Children

Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating real and lasting change for children in need in the United States and around the world. It is a member of the International Save the Children Alliance, comprising 27 national Save the Children organizations working in more than 110 countries to ensure the well-being of children.

In case you skimmed or skipped over any of that, I'll make a long story short: visit www.savethechildren.org/childsurvival and urge congress to support this legislation aimed at stopping tens of thousands of senseless deaths caused by preventable causes. It's a worthy cause that I wholeheartedly endorse. Thanks to Michael Sherrard for visiting AIDS Combat Zone and providing us with this information.

WAD Red Ribbon

2005-11-07T09:15:00.000-05:00

Please join me in supporting World AIDS Day 2005 by adding a virtual red ribbon to your site.

RX for Survival

2005-11-01T23:30:00.000-05:00

So who else caught RX for Survival?

Wasn't it awesome? I'm not ashamed to admit I cried during a couple of parts.

I love public health.

If Global Health is important to you, you need to watch this series!

Four more episodes will be shown: two Wednesday night and two on Thursday, all from 9:00 to 11:00 PM. I can't recommend this series strongly enough. WATCH IT!

Check your local PBS listings for local channels featuring this event.

Briefly...

2005-10-31T08:48:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post has a good article about the C2EA Caravans. I'll be speaking tomorrow at the rally when the Key West caravan stops in Tampa. event details