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 March 17, 2010
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Obama Donates Portion of Nobel Prize Money to AIDS Relief
President Barack Obama said he will donate his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize winnings to programs helping students, veterans’ families, survivors of the earthquake in Haiti and people living with HIV/AIDS, The Associated Press reports.
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Insurance Company Allegedly Targeted HIV-Positive People and Dropped Coverage
Last September, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld a verdict against the Fortis Insurance company for revoking South Carolinian Jerome Mitchell health coverage after he tested HIV positive.
The case, Reuters reports, has helped expose a Fortis—now Assurant Health—policy of
targeting policyholders living with HIV and dropping their coverage.
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March 16, 2010
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UNAIDS: Criminalizing Homosexuality Boosts Global HIV Rates
Laws criminalizing homosexuality, drug use and sex work have increased new HIV infections globally, according to UNAIDS head Michel Sidibe as reported by The Associated Press. At a luncheon hosted by the United Nations Foundation, Sidibe told journalists that misdirected legislation hinders high-risk groups from accessing HIV prevention and care because they fear persecution.
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Vatican Decries Condom Machines in Rome High School
The Vatican is criticizing a high school in Rome for installing condom vending machines, saying that making prophylactics readily available will encourage young people to have premarital sex, which the Catholic Church opposes, The Associated Press reports. While schools in other European countries have installed condom machines to prevent teen pregnancy and HIV transmission, the Keplero high school is believed to be the first school in Rome to do so. Vatican City, the headquarters of the Catholic Church, is located in Rome.
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March 15, 2010
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FDA to Reevaluate MSM Blood Donation Ban Following Criticism
Following criticism from elected officials as well as HIV/AIDS and LGBT advocates, the Food and Drug Administration announced March 13 that it will re-examine its lifetime ban on blood donations from men who have sex with men (MSM), the Los Angeles Times reports. The policy was introduced in the mid-1980s in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
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CDC: Nearly 50% of Black Women Ages 14 to 49 Have Genital Herpes
Almost one in every two African-American women ages 14 to 49 has genital herpes, as does two out of every five blacks in that age group, according to data presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at an STD Prevention Conference last week and reported on by the Los Angeles Times. In addition, one out of six Americans in general is living with the virus.
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March 12, 2010
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Study: Circumcision Might Not Prevent HIV Transmission Among MSM
While studies in Africa have shown that circumcised heterosexual men are as much as 60 percent less likely than their uncircumcised peers to contract HIV from female partners, a new three-year study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that circumcision does not necessarily prevent transmission among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Western countries, Reuters reports.
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New York City Activists Rally Against Proposed HIV/AIDS Cuts
AIDS activists groups are protesting New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to cut 248 of the 850 HIV/AIDS Service Administration (HASA) case managers in an effort to close a $4.9 billion deficit in the city’s 2011 fiscal year budget, Gay City News reports. HASA is a unit of the Human Resources Administration (HRA).
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March 11, 2010
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Female Condom Campaign Urges Chicago Men and Women to “Put a Ring On It”
Taking a lyrical cue from Beyoncé Knowles’s Grammy-winning hit, “Single Ladies,” a coalition of Chicago health organizations is encouraging female condom use by asking men and women to “put a ring on it!” through its Chicago Female Condom Campaign. The campaign launch was timed with the observance of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on March 10.
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Black Churches Recognize National Prayer Week for the Healing of AIDS
This week, 26 Rochester, New York-based black churches pledged their support against AIDS in the African-American community during National Prayer Week for the Healing of AIDS, 13 WHAM News reports. African Americans make up 51 percent of all new HIV/AIDS cases in the United States, while black women represent 61 percent of new cases among women.
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March 10, 2010
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March 10 Is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
Wednesday, March 10, marks the fifth annual Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, coordinated by the Office on Women’s Health to educate women and girls about HIV/AIDS prevention and testing. A woman tests positive every 35 minutes in the United States, and 50 percent of the estimated 33.4 million people living with the virus worldwide are women.
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CDC: New MSM HIV Diagnoses 44 Times That of Other Men
The rate of new HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men is more than 44 times that of other men and more than 40 times that of women, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), presented at the 2010 National STD Prevention Conference in Atlanta.
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March 09, 2010
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Health Officials Convene in Atlanta for 2010 National STD Prevention Conference
More than 750 public health leaders are meeting in Atlanta this week for the 2010 National STD Prevention Conference, which will feature 300 new studies on sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including results of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analysis of HIV and syphilis rates among men who have sex with men.
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Queens Designer Wins NYC Condom Package Design Contest
After tallying more than 15,000 online votes, the New York City Department of Health announced the winning wrapper design for its limited-edition city-branded free condom. The entry, designed by Luis Acosta of Queens, displays an image of an electronic power button, which voters felt best encapsulated the city’s public health message.
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March 08, 2010
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HIV Can Hide in Bone Marrow, Evade Treatment
HIV can infect bone marrow cells and remain hidden to avoid treatment, according to a new study reported on by The Associated Press. The study, led by Kathleen Collins, MD, of the University of Michigan, is published this week in the journal Nature Medicine.
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DC Is First U.S. City to Distribute Free Female Condoms
In the next month, Washington, DC, will become the first U.S. city to hand out free female condoms, distributing 500,000 of the prophylactics in beauty salons, convenience stores and high schools in sections of the city with high HIV rates, The Washington Post reports. The program is funded through a $500,000 grant from the M·A·C AIDS Fund, which also supports the city’s needle exchange programs.
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March 05, 2010
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Senators Call on FDA to Lift Gay Blood Donation Ban
John Kerry (D-Mass), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and 16 other U.S. senators are urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to lift its 25-year-old ban on blood donations from men who have sex with men (MSM), The Advocate reports. The ban was put in place to protect the blood supply from HIV/AIDS, which was reported primarily among MSM at the beginning of the epidemic.
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In Philippines, Catholic Bishops Demand Condom Ad Ban
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines recently issued a resolution urging for a total ban on condom advertisements, alleging that condoms do not protect against HIV/AIDS in spite of scientific evidence to the contrary, Agence France-Presse reports. The resolution, called “On the Government’s Revitalized Promotion of Condoms,” calls for a ban on condom ads in newspaper, magazine, radio and television.
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March 04, 2010
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“Massive Good” Global Health Fund-raising Initiative Launches
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former President Bill Clinton are teaming with recording artists Will.I.Am., David Guetta, Yvonne Chaka Chaka and director Spike Lee for Massive Good, a.k.a. MASSIVEGOOD, a fund-raising initiative that will allow travelers to make a $2 donation toward global health causes such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis each time they purchase a plane ticket, book a hotel room or rent a car.
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Ludacris, Jamie Foxx Promote HIV Prevention to Black Youth
Recording artist Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and actor Jamie Foxx have joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) “i know” social media campaign, which aims to encourage HIV prevention and testing among young African Americans, USA Today reports. The initiative, which launched today at Clark Atlanta University, is part of the five-year, $45 million Act Against AIDS effort announced last year at the White House.
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March 03, 2010
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Vegas Taxi Authority Manual Lists Gay Men as “High Risk”
The Las Vegas Taxi Authority (TA)—which monitors thousands of cabs in the city—is distributing a policy manual to officers listing homosexuals alongside intravenous drug users and sex workers as “persons of high-risk groups” for communicable diseases, such as HIV and other blood-borne illnesses, lasvegasnow.com reports.
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UNAIDS Launches New Initiative for Gender Equality
UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibé with singer and activist Annie Lennox launched the “Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV” at the United Nations during its 54th meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women.
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March 02, 2010
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UNAIDS Warns of HIV Risk in Haiti Following Earthquake
UNAIDS is calling for swift action to prevent the spread of HIV in Haiti following the January 12 earthquake, Voice of America News reports. The United Nations’ HIV/AIDS agency warns in a new study that chaotic conditions and overcrowded camps for displaced Haitian quake survivors might increase the country’s already-high HIV prevalence.
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Study: Neglecting IV Drug Users Drives New HIV Infections Worldwide
Governments that offer no HIV prevention programming for injection drug users face a potentially devastating public health crisis of increasing HIV incidence, according to a study published in The Lancet medical journal and reported by Reuters. UNAIDS estimates that about 30 percent of HIV transmission outside of sub-Saharan Africa is driven by unsafe injection drug use practices.
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March 01, 2010
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Indiana Police Say HIV-Positive Man Put 26 Women at Risk
An HIV-positive Indiana man pleaded guilty February 24 to
two felony counts of failing to warn a sexual partner that he had HIV, the Indiana
Star reports. Tony Perkins, 47, was
arrested last month after a former girlfriend reported him to the authorities.
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Lawsuit Claims Illinois Clinic Leaked HIV Information
Patients of a clinic in the
Chicago area have filed a class action lawsuit claiming that confidential
information, including their HIV status, was inappropriately shared on computer
networks, the Kane County Chronicle
reports.
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