POZ

HIV and the Power of Escape

Health professor, Perry Halkitis reflects on why some long-term survivors have used sex and substances to cope in the AIDS Generation.

Sex Highly Rated Regardless of Condoms or Lubes

Sex is highly arousing and pleasurable to men and women in the United States whether or not condoms and/or lubricants are used.

Read more… http://www.poz.com/articles/condoms_lube_1_23428.shtml

Lubes May Damage Cells, but Do Not Raise HIV Risk

While many personal lubricants may irritate vaginal and rectal tissues, they do not increase the risk of HIV transmission—at least in test tube experiments with vaginal cells—according to a recent study published in PLoS ONE.

Read more: http://www.poz.com/articles/HIV_lubricant_damage_761_23115.shtml

Vermont Pays High-Risk Teens to Complete Sex-Ed Classes

A Vermont teen center called The Bristol Hub is giving $100 to every teen who completes a 16-hour sex education program, reports Seven Days. The program is a “personal responsibility education program (PREP)” funded by the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, and it was created to educate teens on both abstinence and contraception. PREP is giving out more than $55 million in grants to states to start programs aimed at preventing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, with more money available specifically for reaching high-risk youth. At the Hub, program managers are setting aside part of the money and offering it, as a motivation, to kids who complete the course. Currently, Vermont has the third lowest teen birth rate in the country, behind New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

N.Y. High School Gives Free Condoms at Safer-Sex Assembly

Administrators at the Bedford-Stuyvesant Preparatory High School in Brooklyn, New York, planned to make condoms available to students at the prom, but when the Department of Education said that parents would all have to sign release forms, the prom condoms were nixed and instead made available during a special assembly about safe sex, DNAinfo.com reports. Condom-maker NuVo hosted the event and provided the free prophylactics. The principal of the high school said some of his students are already parents and that the school hosts a special program for pregnant teens.

CDC: Sex Ed Not Expanding in U.S. Public Schools

Public schools throughout the United States have not expanded their instructions on how to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as HIV, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and reported by Reuters. Between 2008 and 2010, among 45 states surveyed, sex education programs remained stagnant and 11 states saw declines in instruction. The CDC suggests teaching 11 topics on HIV, STI and pregnancy prevention, but found that the percentage of schools teaching all of its topics in grades 6, 7 or 8 ranged from 12.6 percent in Arizona to 66.3 percent in New York.

Earth Day Condoms to Raise Awareness of Endangered Species

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is marking Earth Day by distributing 100,000 free condoms packaged in special edition wrappers that feature six endangered species, according to a CBD statement. The group hopes to recruit thousands of volunteers to hand out the condoms in all 50 states on Earth Day, April 22. CBD hopes the effort will raise awareness about the connection between an unsustainable human population growth and increasing extinction of plants and animals around the world.  

I highly recommend you click this link to see the wrappers and their slogans. My favorite: “When you’re feeling tender, think about the hellbender.”

Last year, a study known as HPTN 052 proved that treating HIV-positive people with an effective antiretroviral drug regimen (one that lowers their viral load to an undetectable level for at least six months) reduces the risk of transmitting the virus to HIV-negative sexual partners by 96 percent. We’d like our HIV-positive readers to take our confidential survey and let us know if—and how—this new scientific insight has affected your mind-set and/or sexual relations. Click here for more.