February 2012
61 posts
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Burma in Serious Need of HIV, TB Drugs
Because of a poor health system and lack of international aid, roughly 85,000 HIV-positive people in Burma aren’t receiving treatment—and things could get worse, The Associated Press (AP) reports. Faced with reduced donations, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has cut funding that would have provided HIV medications to 46,500 Burmese and treatments for...
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Chinese Court Voids Marriage Due to HIV...
The People’s Court of Qingyang District in the Sichuan province of China has invalidated a marriage because the husband failed to disclose his HIV-positive status, the China Daily reports. After dating for one year, the couple (whose names were not disclosed) married. When the wife pushed the issue of starting a family, the husband revealed he has HIV. The wife then moved to have the...
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Women on Hormonal Contraceptives Advised to Use...
The World Health Organization (WHO) is trying to settle a four-month-old controversy by affirming in its guidelines the safety of injectable hormonal contraceptives, while also cautioning women to use condoms to prevent HIV, PlusNews reports. A WHO investigation into the safety of certain types of hormonal contraceptives was sparked by an October 2011 study in The Lancet that suggested that...
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NYC Concedes Cuts to HIV Prevention Funding
New York City’s health department has cut $19 million from its HIV prevention budget during the past five years and is planning to cut more—despite rising HIV rates among local gay and bisexual young men, Gay City News reports. In addition, Public Health Solutions (PHS), the nonprofit organization administering the city’s HIV prevention programs, attempted to halve the budgets of...
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Remembering...Whitney Houston: 1963-2012 →
When I heard Whitney Houston was dead, like many other people I was stunned. Even now after the announcement of her death, I find it hard to believe such a vibrant woman is gone. But on Saturday, February 18, 2012, Houston’s family will lay the singer to rest.
Interestingly, although Houston touched many with her amazing voice, she also affected the lives of countless people because of the...
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On Pins and Needles - Part 2 by Daniel Angelis →
Initiating the process to report discrimination is the easy part (filling out the forms and sending them in). What is not so easy is living through the discrimination and other events that prompt someone to report it. Not only is discrimination itself a horrible experience, but gathering the courage to engage those who committed the discrimination in a mediation or court room setting is equally,...
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AIDS: This Four-Letter Word Doesn’t Have to Be a... →
When Candice Wiggins thinks about her father’s AIDS-related death, the thing that stands out the most is the silence about what killed him. “No one talked about it,” she says. Today, she is the one starting the conversation. Wiggins is a guard for the Minnesota Lynx and also a spokesperson for the Greater Than AIDS campaign, a movement to respond to the epidemic among black Americans. In the...
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Nicki and Ricky Fight AIDS →
These two musical superstars, Nicki and Ricky, are now not only sharing a spot on my ultimate party playlist but also combining forces as the new spokespeople of the MAC Viva Glam Collection.
Minaj (she is also known by her alter-egos Cookie, Harajuku Barbie, Roman Zolanski, Martha Zolanski and Nicki Teresa) represents the Caribbean (she was born in Trinidad) and African-American women. Both...
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On Pins and Needles - Part 1 by Daniel Angelis →
What got me through discrimination? My family, my case manager, and AIDS organizations that I donate my time to. I know that without them, I would not have survived this experience and that they helped me become a stronger person by helping me through it. Click here for more.
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Cash Payments Help Reduce HIV in Young Women in...
Providing small, regular sums of money to young women in sub-Saharan countries may reduce their risks for HIV, The Guardian reports. U.S. and World Bank researchers performed a randomized controlled trial with 1,300 women ages 13 to 22 from an impoverished district in southern Malawi, where HIV is prevalent. Some of the young women in the trial were given $1 to $5 per month—with their families...
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Elton John AIDS Foundation Grants Over $3M →
The Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) announced the recipients for its December 2011 HIV/AIDS grants, according to an EJAF statement. Totaling $3.2 million, these grants are aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS among under-supported populations such as African-American women, men who have sex with men (MSM), injection drug users and people in the Caribbean. The awards bring EJAF’s 2011 grant total...
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Disclosure- Part One/Workplace by Aundaray Guess →
My first journey begins with how disclosure affected my job. It began with me sitting across from supervisor who wanted some answers as to why I seemed to called in sick or every several months I put in half a day as I had to leave the office for one reason or the other. It was tricky as I was running out of excuses of telling my boss why I was late for work. How many times could I use the...
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Sex Ed Not Reducing Birthrates in Conservative...
Despite the presence of sex education courses, U.S. states with high degrees of conservatism and religiosity have above-average adolescent birthrates, according to a Washington University in St. Louis study reported by LiveScience. The researchers found a wide disparity in birthrates among teen girls based on their state’s degree of conservatism, ranging from 9.7 births per 1,000 girls ages...
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FDA Gives Priority Review of Truvada as PrEP
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted Gilead Sciences’ application to give priority review of Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir) as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), according to a Gilead statement. This PrEP is when an HIV-negative person takes a daily dose of Truvada as a means to lower the chance of contracting the virus during sex. The FDA grants fast-track appraisal to...
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South Africa to Make Active ARV Ingredients
South Africa will establish its first pharmaceutical plant to manufacture the main chemicals used in HIV drugs in an effort to lower the prices of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, Reuters reports. The $211 million joint venture with Swiss chemical and biotechnology company Lonza Group will enable the country to produce Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), components that account for about 75...
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Swaziland Seeks Gay Couples for HIV Testing
On Valentine’s Day, public health officials in Swaziland urged male couples to test for HIV together, despite the country’s laws that prohibit same-sex relationships, PlusNews reports. In a new nationwide campaign called “The Love Test,” organizations are encouraging the country to acknowledge the existence of men who have sex with men (MSM) and encourage them to use HIV testing and counseling...
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Lessons in Love
Valentine’s Day may be over but that doesn’t mean you should lose that romantic feeling. Click here to check out an article in the January/February 2012 issue of POZ on the dating game after an HIV diagnosis. If you’re ready to connect with HIV-positive singles, check out POZ Personals.
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Al Jazeera Fires HIV-Positive South African...
Demonstrators plan to picket the Johannesburg office of Al Jazeera, an Arabic-language news network, to protest the firing of a South African journalist allegedly because of his HIV-positive status, AllAfrica.com reports. The journalist, known as “MR” to protect his identity, was working as a senior editor for the Qatari state-owned news channel and maintains that he was never informed by doctors...
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First Sex Ed Video in Iran Debuts
The Islamic Republic of Iran’s first-ever sex education video has been approved by both its ministries of Culture and Islamic Guidance and Health and Human Services, GlobalPost reports. The video illustrates the act of conception, discusses physical touching and features quotes attributed to the Prophet Muhammad about a married woman wearing perfume and makeup and presenting herself to her husband...
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Advocates Decry HIV Criminal Charges Against...
HIV groups and public health experts are opposing the severe criminal charges brought against an HIV-positive Missouri man for allegedly biting a police officer, according to a Center for HIV Law and Policy (CHLP) statement. Because of his HIV-positive status, and because attempted exposure to HIV counts as a Class B felony in Missouri, the man could serve five to 15 years in prison if he is...
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WatchNicki Minaj and Ricky Martin stop by ABC’s Good Morning America to talk about their MAC Viva Glam campaign. Click here for more.
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AIDS Memorial Quilt in San Francisco for...
Merchants and advocates are in talks with the family that owns the vacant Market and Noe Center near the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco to put on public view 40 sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt during the week of Valentine’s Day, The Bay Area Reporter (BAR) reports. Roughly 320 individual panels stored locally would be showcased. Organizers said it would be the largest quilt display in...
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Universal Love...by Lora René Tucker
Well, Valentine’s Day is upon us… and whether you light a candle for the Saint, open a box of chocolates (may you get Knipschildt or Godiva), or buy a couple of king size Hershey bars to drown your sorrows (because you just can’t find a date!) I want to share with you a poem that I feel embraces everyone and makes us think of a love larger and stronger than a Hallmark card or...
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Free Condoms for Valentine’s Day in Philippines
Health officials will give away condoms on Valentine’s Day in the Philippines despite protests from a Catholic archbishop, GMA News reports. Health workers will focus their distribution efforts in bars, massage parlors and similar establishments targeting men who have sex with men (MSM). Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said, “The use of contraceptives affects the morality of our people and our society...
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Advocates Seek Changes to Iowa HIV Criminalization...
Advocates in Iowa are lobbying their state legislature to change the HIV criminalization law so that a person can be prosecuted only in cases that include both an intent to transmit and an actual transmission, The Daily Iowan reports. Currently, Iowa prosecutes people for nondisclosure of their status, no matter the circumstances. Advocates also want other considerations taken into account in the...
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Elizabeth Taylor's Paintings Sell for Nearly $22M →
On February 7, the last 88 paintings from the late Dame Elizabeth Taylor’s private collection—a mix of Impressionist, Surrealist and modern works—were auctioned at Christie’s International in London for $21.9 million.
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Editor-in-Chief Regan Hofmann on "The Shit People... →
I confess. I am totally addicted to the “Shit People Say” You Tube phenomenon. It started with “The Shit Girls Say” and went wildly viral from there. In the video above, “AIDS” is part of the “Shit Nobody Says.” (Read to the bottom and see POZ’s own video…”The Shit People Say About AIDS.”) That AIDS is something nobody talks...
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Controversy on Publication of AIDS Denialism Paper...
A member of the Italian Journal of Anatomy and Embryology editorial board has resigned over the publication of a paper written by longtime AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg that says there is no link between HIV and AIDS. The controversial paper, published in December, challenges estimates of HIV/AIDS death tolls in South Africa and questions the effectiveness of antiretroviral drugs. The paper...
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Hershey School Asks Court If It Violated HIV...
The Milton Hershey School has filed a petition asking the court to decide if it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it denied admission to a student because he has HIV. The school, a free private boarding school in Pennsylvania for low-income students, has argued the 13-year-old’s status poses a health threat because the student can become sexually active while at the ...
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WatchHIV on The Voice
Jamar Rogers — a contestant on NBC’s singing competition The Voice — comes out as HIV positive. Click here to read more.
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Planned Parenthood Sues Tennessee After Losing HIV...
Two Planned Parenthood groups have filed a lawsuit against the State of Tennessee for withholding funding for HIV and syphilis prevention programs, The Tennessean reports. The Greater Memphis and Middle and East Tennessee Planned Parenthood chapters argued that political anti-abortion motivations were behind the state’s decision to bar the organization from receiving funds for sexually...
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