Monday, December 30, 2013

Love an Chronic Illness

“Don’t even tempt me.”
That was Ashley Pierce’s response when her friend Tammi tried to set her up with Walter. Having spent a good portion of the last 10 years in a Las Vegas hospital bed, Pierce didn’t even want to entertain the thought of dating.
Besides, if he was anything like other guys she had pursued, she didn’t think he’d be able to handle it. He’d back out. Four years later, they are engaged. He never backed out.
Her conditions? Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis—chronic inflammatory conditions that affect the gastrointestinal and digestive tracts and include complications ranging from abdominal cramps to malnutrition.
For Pierce, the most extreme cases were when the doctor told her parents she wouldn’t make it through the night, either because she had stopped breathing or was dangerously anemic, weighing in at 63 pounds. On more ordinary days, she experiences stomach issues and a chronic cough, among other non-terminal-but-annoying symptoms caused by medicines that suppress her illnesses.
According to a report published by the National Health Council, nearly half of Americans have at least one chronic illness, with that number expected to grow in coming years. If this number sounds high, it’s worth noting that the category of “chronic illness” can include minor cases of asthma or oral herpes or major conditions like Crohn’s.
The more extreme physical chronic illnesses can make dating seem unrealistic or especially difficult, causing people like Pierce to think, “don’t even tempt me.”
One major issue chronically ill people face in dating is disclosure. The question of when to share the illness with a prospective partner fills online forums, videos, articles, blogs, conferences, and discussions. Sharing too soon may scare the person off and sharing too late may lead to a lack of trust.
Amber Miller, a 26-year-old college student in Oklahoma City, was waiting to tell Josh about her type one diabetes. They had been dating for a month. So when he didn’t hear from her for a month while she was recovering from a diabetic coma, he expected the worst.
“Josh thought I broke up with him because none of my family told him about the coma and he didn’t hear from me for a month,” Miller said. “I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I was in a coma.’”
The classic coma excuse.
In Miller’s case, it turned out okay, even with the misunderstanding—the couple eventually married. But that’s not always the case, which is why the question of disclosure remains a hot topic in the chronically ill community. Some choose to be upfront from the get-go, others wait until things head in the direction of exclusive dating.
Disclosure becomes even more nerve-wracking if the chronic illness is contagious, like Nate Butler’s HIV.
The 51-year-old Denver native has had the disease for nearly 25 years and has dated both HIV-positive and negative men and women since then. And while it's unlikely he would spread the disease through protected sex, he’s had a decent number of people turn him down. He usually tells the person about his HIV after he sees that it’s going to be more than a platonic relationship. Even waiting two or three dates is too long for some people, who accuse him of wasting their time.
Butler has been dating an HIV-negative woman for three months now, though he thinks dating someone with HIV would be simpler. He’s been on many HIV dating sites in hopes to avoid the nuisances of dating an HIV negative person, namely disclosure and condoms.
“Most of us HIV positive people know the online dating drill completely,” said Butler, who owns a small business. “If we like each other, someone’s flying out on an expensive date weekend. In most cases, sex happens more quickly, probably due to not having had it as frequently as they would like to. You don’t have to have the disclosure talk. Then it turns into a joke. ‘Oh by the way, did I remind you I’m HIV positive? Oh, you too? Good.’”


Butler’s on a combination of medications that produce side effects no worse than occasional gas, though they cost him around $2,000 a month. For him, the stigma of the illness hurts the most, which has kept him from approaching as many dating prospects as he used to. He sees his HIV as one more deal-breaker to add to the pile that has stacked higher as he’s gotten older.
Chronic illness is no doubt a deal-breaker for many people.
On DateHookup.com, the question of whether people would date someone with a chronic illness has come up more than one time in the forums. Some would if they really liked the person. Some would if the disease or illness wasn’t contagious. Some have and realized it was too much for them and won’t again. And then there are people like the person in the forum who wrote, “No, no, and no!!” and explained that she doesn’t want anyone to interfere with her active life.
Freelance writer Sascha Rothchild, in an article on Match.com, considered the question of whether she’d date a chronically ill person. She wrote, “Was I really willing to step into a relationship with someone with health issues when love is hard enough healthy?” In her case, she was, but clearly not everyone is. Or, if they are willing to take the leap, find it too difficult later. There is a statistic—“75 percent of marriages dealing with a chronic illness end in divorce”—that floats around forums and sites like About.com and Focus on the Family, but I was unable to find its origin.
Some people just don’t want to end up caregivers or to mix “that world and this world,” as the girlfriend put it in the film “50/50”—starring Joseph Gordon Levitt as a cancer patient. Others nip the idea in the bud, since they can’t imagine losing someone they love to a disease (even though 7 out of 10 deaths in the United States are from disease according to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
These are often the objections the chronically ill face from people who aren’t sick. Karen Swindells, 27, who has epilepsy, says a guy once dumped her right after she had a major brain surgery intended to reduce her seizures.
“He felt like nothing positive was going on in my life at that time,” said Swindells, who works at a college bookstore and is now married. “He couldn’t handle it. It was too much. Too depressing.”
Swindells has up to 10 seizures a month, which is nothing compared to the 15 to 40 she had every day before her brain surgery at age 17. A few have been major, but most are small and stop her functioning for no longer than a few minutes. After she has one, she’s often too tired to do much else, which has ended dates and prevented sexual activity.
How guys responded to her illness in the past helped Swindells separate the quality from the non-quality, though, as she reversed the deal-breaker onto them, using her illness to determine if they were the type she wanted around when things go wrong.
“If my time were cut short, were they the one I wanted to know was by my side or could I trust that they would be?” Swindells asked. “Or if I was left impaired from a seizure, were they someone who would love me enough to stick by and take care of me no matter what? I knew that whoever I married would have to be someone that could be emotionally strong themselves but also for me. It makes the words ‘til death do us part’ have even more meaning.”
Even if someone is interested them, the chronicallyill may not want to subject anyone else to their disease—the potentially debilitating symptoms and depression that follows. This was the mentality of a person who posted on Yahoo! asking for advice on dating, saying she’s never dated anyone before because she doesn’t think she’d be any fun, considering her symptoms (constant headache, seizures, gagging fits, trouble processing new information, etc.). Some people in the comments urged her to stop being so insecure.
Insensitive responses like that aren’t uncommon. Dr. Shanna Reeves, a psychologist in Austin, Texas who works with chronically ill people, has seen clients (she doesn’t like calling them “patients”) who feel alienated by negative comments like these. They think others can’t possibly understand what it’s like to be in that much pain.
The pain and the symptoms can make planning a date difficult, and Reeves has seen her clients struggle with this.
“How do you sign up for a date three days from now when you may have a flare up?” Reeves asked, reflecting the concerns of some of her clients.
For Pierce, her Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis, as well as the medicine she takes to keep the illnesses at bay, don’t allow her to know that she’ll feel okay on any given day. She and Walter don’t go out often. But there’s one day in the not-so-distant future where they both wish she could know how she’ll feel: their wedding day.
“My biggest fear is picking out the wedding dress, since I have no way to predict when I’m going to be heavier or thinner,” said Pierce, whose weight fluctuates depending on which medication she’s on.
Way before wedding planning, Pierce told Walter about her illnesses. She did it up front, before the line between lust and love could blur too much. And he replied with “So?” To which she replied, “Okay, fine. You picked this thing.”
But Walter doesn’t see “the thing,” he sees the person. He is the first guy Pierce has felt doesn’t feel sorry for her, instead just enjoying the moment. And it’s the promise of these moments that the chronically ill—in spite of the pain, fear of disclosure, and fear of rejection—allow themselves to be tempted into dating.

Friday, December 27, 2013

Why this Atlanta guy put his trick on public blast

Craigslist hath no fury like this gay Atlanta man scorned. He's now publicly accusing his ex of knowingly exposing him and other sex partners to HIV through bareback sex, lies and drugs.
So he posted this stark warning on Thursday to Missed Connections on Craigslist: Goodlooking black guy spreading STD's.
There is a good looking, younger, black guy in Atlanta spreading STD's knowingly and doesn't tell you he is POZ. He will tell you straight faced that he is clean and has little sexual experience but has been POZ for years and hates for others to know it. He never wears protection and only tops. He will entice you to his place or come to yours for drugs or to get drugs. I know someone will soon take action legally when they learn his game, only a matter of time. If you think you have been a victim email me either his name, location, pic, or what he drives and I will confirm if it's him or not. I was a victim.
Another version of the message, posted about a week earlier, has already been removed from Craigslist. But the man says after 18 months of dating, he discovered the startling truth about the ex's sexual antics and wants to warn others. In Georgia, it's illegal for HIV-positive people to engage in sex without first disclosing their status, a law that angers HIV activists and may soon see a court challenge.
The man discussed his relationship, the Missed Connections posting and what he hopes will happen to his ex in an e-mail interview with Project Q Atlanta.
You mention in your post today that, "I was a victim." What happened? How did you two meet? And did he infect you with an STD?
We were friends for several years and eventually started to date. The relationship moved quickly and we, or I, fell madly in love. I was not infected but I was told from the beginning he had tested prior to our relationship and was negative. About a year and half into the relationship I found out that he had been lying to me about his HIV status. I questioned him directly and he said it was from a false-positive test a couple of years ago. He eventually told me the truth that he was HIV-poz. I later found out he had infected a previous partner a few years prior to me and had known his poz status for almost three years.
What motivated you to post the Craigslist ad?
I know he has had many, many sexual partners while in our relationship. I caught him a couple of times with random sexual partners and caught him at some of the Atlanta sex clubs late at night. He was also on sex sites and posed as an HIV-negative person and only did bareback. I posted on Craigslist in hopes to alert others who may have been exposed, not only to HIV but to his recent diagnoses to yet another STD.
Have you received any replies from other people claiming to be victims?
I have had many replies to the listing. Many with questions about who he is and many who feel they have been with him. No one has been willing to share his name -- if they even know his real name -- nor have they produced anything concrete for me to confirm him. I have not and will not put his name or picture out for public display. That is not the way to resolve this issue.
What do you want to happen? In other words, what's your end game in all of this?
First, it's not a game to me. I had hopes he would change and become a different person, get help for his drug addiction as well as become the person he claims to be in front of everyone around him.  If there are others who have actually been victims and have become infected as a result of his non-disclosure I seriously believe he should have to suffer the legal consequences for his actions.
And you thought it was dramatic to chase your ex's trick through the parking lot. Please.

By Matt Hennie

Thursday, December 26, 2013

HIV ...your Future? Its up to you #HIGHSCHOOL #FRATS..

Hey young people the Future is yours an your peers changing that future by having risky habits like sharing needles with shooting heroin in high school an having out of control unsafe sex habits with multiple partners at parties sharing sex partners an from my experience there is always some more cooler an experienced that goes to big city clubs have sex an then bring back #HIV or #STD an hey he o...r she is cool so you hang with them an want to know what they know an you get high an have sex then you have sex with others in your school an they have sex with someone ....unknowingly spreading #HIV an before long by the time they graduate they may be getting symptom's an the late teens or early college years are spent sick from medicine side affects. You miss college your friends hear your hiv an your family too an if your lucky they won't disown you.. Your resume ends up sketchy not able to get a good job ...maybe? But your still young reading this an you still have a chance to influence yours an your friends an families futures, because HIV ends up affecting all around you if you become POZ.. But GOD had me to write this., so that you have an early chance to stay healthy with an awesome future...so what will you ...do? Its your choice!

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

NEW YEAR ...TRYING TO BEAUTIFY MY "FACE OF AIDS"

STOP....... ITS NOT WORTH THE RISK!

UNITED NATIONS

Please contact UNITED NATIONS
#Stop the Crimes against HUMANITY through killing #gay people in @AFRICA #UNITEDNATIONS please give warning to Africa that this wont be tolerated.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

A mobile clinic takes the war on HIV/AIDS to Miami’s streets

As the gleaming white van pulls up to the curb near Northwest Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, a slender woman materializes out of the night.
The mother of 13 children, “Little Mama,” as she is nicknamed, boards the van for a rapid, free HIV test because she doesn’t trust her sexual partner. When her result returns — negative — she flashes a relieved smile.
Night and day, the Borinquen Medical Center mobile clinic that tests for sexually transmitted diseases roams Miami-Dade County’s most-under-served neighborhoods trying to reach people like her who might otherwise go undiagnosed and untreated.
Despite the war on HIV/AIDS that began in the 1980s, the number of new cases has remained stubbornly high. South Florida counties have some of the nation’s highest new-infection rates with 59 cases per 100,000 people in Broward in 2012 and 49.8 cases per 100,000 in Miami-Dade.
Borinquen, a nonprofit federally qualified health center with seven locations in Miami-Dade has two vans equipped to dispense rapid HIV pin-prick tests with a 15-minute wait for results. If the test is positive, a phlebotomist draws blood for a second test, which takes about two weeks to get results. From January 2009 through December 2013, Borinquen mobile units performed 18,157 HIV/AIDS tests with 575 positives, or about 3.2 percent.
On this Thursday night, six outreach and case workers are bound for Overtown, one of several neighborhoods the Borinquen van visits twice-weekly, offering blood pressure and other health screenings, as well as tests for sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs. They try to retest those who were screened after three months, the time it takes for people newly exposed to HIV to register the antibodies in their systems. The team’s most valuable assets: cultural sensitivity and street smarts.
“I try to meet clients where they’re at,” says outreach specialist Don Crews, 56, as he steps into the night with a bag of condoms to hand out when he approaches people on the street.
He connects with some of them by recounting his own history. When Crews came to Miami from Atlanta in 1999, he was hooked on crack cocaine. Clean for 10 years, he continues to attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings. He says most of the new HIV-positive cases he sees are associated with drug use.
“When I share my story, they know I’ve been there,” Crews says. “It bonds us.”
Catching substance abusers when they’re ready to get help, and finding a bed for them right away is where cases are won and lost, he says. Once he finds someone who wants help, Crews tracks them daily to keep their motivation high until they’re in treatment.
About 30 minutes have passed, and the team has tested six people — a number deemed “very good” by Irose Dalce, the Borinquen medical assistant manning the case-watch computer, the heart of the mobile unit. Every factoid from Social Security number to medical history must be logged in the system for each contact made; some who visit the van are already recorded as HIV-positive cases.
“We call them lost in care. They leave treatment, disappear and return to drugs,” Dalce says. It’s one of the reasons controlling the spread of infection is so difficult.
Crews observes a pair of drug dealers taking up positions on either side of the van. “We’re interfering with them,” he says. The team moves on, to another Overtown location at Northeast 11th Street and First Court where Crews says there’s likely to be “lots of action.”
The van stops next to an empty trash-strewn lot. Crews takes his bag of condoms to the corner where the lights of a convenience store draw neighbors to hang out, smoke and drink beer from cans in paper bags. Like actors passing through a spotlight, they move in and out, pausing to interact before vanishing into the darkness.
A man with a suitcase and a beach chair begins a monologue in the middle of the street, while another man approaches with politely cupped hands: “May I have some condoms, please?”
Some boys saunter up. “Can I have some?” says one, who might be 12.
Besides condoms, many request the gift cards worth $5 that the workers use to entice those at risk who don’t volunteer to take an HIV test.
Tony, who refuses to give his last name, approaches Crews and says he wants to get into a substance abuse program, but was turned away at Camillus House because too many others were waiting to get in. He is Crews’ fourth substance abuser of the night.
“I can get you a bed,” Crews says. Tony measures the outreach worker with his eyes.
Crews repeats, “This is for real, man. I’ve got a bed for you if you want it.”
“I want it,” Tony says.
The substance abuse program Crews has in mind is a one-year, faith-based program called New Hope in Homestead. They agree to meet the next day.
“I’ve got you,” Crews says reassuringly as Tony walks away.
The sound of gun shots outside a nearby apartment building sends the crew hustling to the van, where one client remains in a testing room. Out of almost 30 HIV tests tonight, she is the team’s first positive: a gray-haired, homeless woman with stress etched into her face and drug needles’ pricks into her arms.
Breaking the news of a positive result is the hardest part of the Borinquen crew’s job. Outreach specialist Ashley Byrd says when she told her first HIV-positive client the test results, the client took it well, but Byrd cried.
Wendy Aquino, the outreach worker on Thursday night’s case, looks tired. “It was hard. I tried to work with her, but she’d been drinking,” Aquino says. “She refused treatment.”
The rejection demoralizes the healthcare workers. “Linking a client to medication and a case worker is the best feeling,” Dalce explains.
As they roll back to Borinquen’s midtown office, the crew makes a plan to look for the woman tomorrow. Their moods in the van brighten.
Byrd, who worked the counter at McDonald’s before discovering outreach work, says, “I love this job.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/12/24/3836545/a-mobile-clinic-takes-the-war.html#storylink=cpy

Life Expectancy for Young People With HIV Is Nearly Normal

December 24, 2013
Life Expectancy for Young People With HIV Is Nearly Normal


In the United States and Canada, the last decade saw life expectancies for young people living with HIV raise dramatically, to almost normal levels, the Huffington Post reports. Publishing their findings in PLOS ONE, investigators drew a sample of just under 23,000 people with HIV ages 20 or older from the North American AIDS Cohort Collaboration, covering January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2007.

There were 1,622 deaths in the cohort, which contributed 82,022 person years to the study, for a crude mortality rate of 19.8 per 1,000 person years. During 2000 to 2002, the life expectancy for a 20-year-old was an additional 36 years. By 2006 to 2007, this figure had leapt to 51 years, so that a 20-year-old could, on average, expect to live into his or her early 70s—almost as long as the general population.

There were key differences in life expectancies between the different subpopulations. There were no significant gender differences in life expectancy except in the 2006 to 2007 period, when the women reached 47 additional years of life expectancy past age 20 and the men 53. Men who have sex with men (MSM) had an expected 69 years of life past 20 by the end of the study period, compared with 29 years for injection drug users—whose life expectancy was essentially flatlined at around 30 years past 20. Non-whites, while still trailing whites, made significant headway in closing the gap. Whites began the study with 53 years and ended it with 57 years of life expectancy past 20, while non-whites started with 30 years and ended with 48. Those with a CD4 count of at least 350, measured when they began, or within six months of beginning, antiretrovirals, had 69 years of life expectancy past 20 in the final period of the study, compared with 47 years for those with CD4 levels below this threshold.

To read the study, click here.
 
 
 
P.S. I believe their health should stay good if they take care of themselves void of drug abuse an risky behaviors while taking medications if needed.

Contact your #Senators ask to put end to this!

Why do ‪#‎MSM‬ keep having ‪#‎unsafe‬ sex...when everyone knows they could be spreading ‪#‎HIV‬ an costing the government more money putting financial hardship on the country ‪#‎USA‬ . If this makes you mad contact you @Senators an complain!

HIV, Christmas, an Gratitude!

 

Hello, Good morning... How are you? I hope your doing good an not feeling bad.. I am doing Ok.. seems am having emotions flood through me for all my family members that are sick this Christmas. I always thought id be the one sick an not well but guess GOD has plans for me. I am dealing with past affects of having daily threats racial slurs an stigma from being HIV an open about my status in Public ...housing in Atlanta for 12 years which i almost died from an now have PTSD. Housing took advantage of me having a breakdown an in bad health from the hate. They moved me into another place were I have lived in fear of this management team always trying to find something to seek revenge for the past at the other place. I am not the same person anymore. Is there a time limit to take them to court? I have spent allots of this time educating on HIV an they had their first HIV Education seminar while I was at other place before I left from there. When they moved me here they didn't think id live very long because I had lost allots of weight an had had heart emergencies were I had to call Ambulance! It took me a year to get healthier but am still not the same person I was I now have tremors an memory loss from the 4 strokes or seizures I had at other place.. You know I told myself I wasn't going to let anyone run me off. I fought against housing management team who were caught up in illegal activities an were fired just after I moved in which I have been looking over my should from the death threats from those people....but do I have a legal case? I really get mad when I think they could get away with this... But all this time I stayed open about my HIV/AIDS status so others may have a better chance to not have so much stigma in public housing. So this is what I've been going through in the last few years an this is why I don't back down or give up when people now try to bully me. You should stand up an protect yourselves as I did.. but not let it get as far as I did! Give yourself a Christmas gift by loving the person you are an what you stand for today. Find your gratitude for being here an able to read this an enjoying your friends family or just your puppy or kitty Kat. Count everyday as a gift as I do an don't forget to love were ever you go. An be Honest to yourselves! Merry Christmas yes I can be morbid loll But I try to get my story out so others understand they aren't the only ones...TG GREEN

Monday, December 23, 2013

AIDS cases could rise in Kentucky due to shared needles, complacency

LEXINGTON, Kentucky — Experts who watch HIV and AIDS cases in Kentucky say the rate of infection may see a rise thanks to the complacency of a younger generation and the increase of heroin abuse in the state.
In spite of ongoing education and prevention efforts, the rate of infection in the state has remained constant over the past decade in Kentucky.
But now it seems to be on the rise, according to Mark Royse, executive director of AVOL which serves clients with HIV and AIDS in 72 Kentucky counties.
"With people now, the consciousness of HIV and AIDS is of poor little orphans in another country," Royse told the Lexington Herald-leader (http://bit.ly/1c2VP8T). "They think people aren't dealing with this at home."
Since the introduction of antiretroviral drugs in the late 1990s, the ability to manage HIV and AIDS has increased, and the urgency to avoid infection has waned, Royse said.
Although the numbers haven't been officially tabulated, health department officials are seeing more and more young people contract HIV, said John Moses, HIV and AIDS outreach specialist for the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department. Part of that surge is from the use of shared needles as heroin use in Kentucky is on the rise, he said.
"We are just sort of biting our nails on that one," said Royse, adding that the official epidemiological data on new infection rates is about 3 years old, but "our gut is that it is on the rise."
A 57 percent increase in heroin-related arrests prompted Lexington Mayor Jim Gray to form a task force during the summer to look into how to stem the problem.
Royse said there was a sizable number of people who do not know they have been infected because they haven't been tested.
"We have a whole lot of people who have been left behind," he said, "and they are the most vulnerable people in Kentucky."

A GIFT OF LIFE..CAN COME IN A WRAPPER!

They are innocuous looking, but those square, multicolored foil-wrapped condoms can be a gift of life to those who may be at risk of contracting HIV.

They are old-school and not as sexy as the new technologies and approaches to defeating the spread of HIV, such as antiretroviral medications, but condoms work, experts say.

“Condoms continue to be an extremely effective mechanism for protecting against HIV infection,” said Phill Wilson, founder, CEO and president of the Black AIDS Institute.

Research has shown that increasing the availability of condoms is associated with significant reductions in HIV risk, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If used correctly during every sexual encounter, male condoms are 98 percent effective.

HIV, like other sexually transmitted diseases, is transmitted when infected urethral or vaginal secretions contact mucosal (or moist) surfaces that line the inside of the body, such as in the male urethra, the vagina, or cervix.

Latex condoms provide an essentially impermeable barrier to genital secretions that transmit STD-causing pathogens, laboratory tests show.

Latex is formulated from rubber, tapped from trees in Brazil, Southeast Asia or West Africa, according to an article on Howstuffworks.com. During the factory process other ingredients such as antifungal and antibacterial compounds; zinc oxide and sulfur, which help make the rubber more durable; ammonia, an anticoagulant; potassium laurate, a stabilizer and other preservatives and pigments.

Water is also added to determine the condoms' thickness -- the more water, the thinner the condom.

More recently condoms have been produced from polyurethane or polyisoprene, extremely strong materials that allow for thinner condoms. They are ideal for people who are allergic to latex.

Water-based lubricants are safe to use with all types of condoms. Oil-based lubricants, such as moisturizer, lotion and petroleum jelly, can make latex condoms less effective, but they are safe to use with condoms made from polyurethane or polyisoprene.

Heart Disease Therapy Cleared for Phase 2 Clinical Trial

Heart Disease Therapy Cleared for Phase 2 Clinical Trial to be Funded by Stem Cell Agency
 

December 23, 2013
San Francisco, CA – A stem cell therapy aimed at treating patients who have had a heart attack has been given approval to begin a Phase 2 clinical trial funded by California’s stem cell agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).

The treatment, developed by Capricor Therapeutics, Inc., uses unrelated donor-derived stem cells, called cardiosphere-derived cells, that are then infused into a patient’s artery with the aim of reducing scarring caused by heart attacks. In a Phase 1 clinical trial designed to test the safety of the therapy, the cells were introduced into 14 patients and were found to be safe.

“This is really encouraging news and marks a potential milestone for the use of stem cells to treat heart disease,” says Alan Trounson, Ph.D., President of the stem cell agency. “Funding this type of work is precisely what our Disease Team Awards were designed to do, to give promising treatments up to $20 million dollars to develop new treatments for some of the deadliest diseases in America.”

The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Gene and Cell Therapy (GST) gave Capricor approval to move into the next phase after reviewing safety data and determining that it met all the required goals. CIRM independently reviewed the safety from the Phase 1, as well as other aspects of the Phase 2 clinical trial design and operations, and gave approval to move forward into the CIRM funded Phase 2 component of the study.

"This is a highly significant announcement for us at CIRM as it's the first time we have funded a therapy into a Phase 2 clinical trial," says Jonathan Thomas, Ph.D., J.D., Chair of the governing Board of the stem cell agency. "Heart disease claims around 600,000 American lives every year, so clearly there is a huge need for new approaches and more effective therapies. We are hopeful this is the first of many treatments to turn the tide against this disease, and that this will be the first of many projects we are funding to get to a Phase 2 trial."

Capricor CEO, Dr. Linda Marbán stated, “Meeting the safety endpoints in the Phase 1 portion of the trial is a giant leap forward for the field and for Capricor Therapeutics. By moving into the Phase 2 portion of this trial, we can now attempt to replicate the results in a larger population.”

The next phase will involve an estimated 300 patients who have had heart attacks, and they will be evaluated in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.  This will be further broken down into two groups: one will include patients 30-90 days post attack, the second will be 91 days to one year after the incident.

About CIRM: CIRM was established in November 2004 with the passage of Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act. The statewide ballot measure, which provided $3 billion in funding for stem cell research at California universities and research institutions, was overwhelmingly approved by voters, and called for the establishment of an entity to make grants and provide loans for stem cell research, research facilities, and other vital research.
 

Simple Depression-Easing Holiday Activities

When you're feeling depressed, celebrating the holidays can seem overwhelming.
The first thing to do is realize that whatever you feel about the holidays this year is OK. Allow yourself to feel whatever you feel, to be numb or uninterested.
The second thing to do is realize that taking action helps to alleviate depression, or at least keep it from deepening. If you do not want to do anything to celebrate the holidays, you do not have to. However, if you can muster a little energy, you might try these simple activities to brighten your day.

Simmering Scents

The next time you grocery shop, pick up a jar or tin of whole cloves, whole or ground nutmeg and some cinnamon sticks. Then one afternoon or evening, fill your home with the scent of holiday potpourri.
In a medium saucepan, simmer:
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 Tbsp. whole cloves
  • 3 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 whole nutmeg or 1 tsp. of ground nutmeg
Add additional water and spices as needed if you choose to keep it going.

Note of Appreciation

Write a simple note of appreciation to anyone who is a welcome part of your life. It can be on a holiday card, a plain sheet of paper or blank note card. Just two or three handwritten lines are all that is necessary.
For instance, the note of appreciation might be to a neighbor who you may not pal around with but is always available if you need help. He or she will give you a stamp or a cup of sugar if you need to borrow one, or will gladly help you move a piece of furniture. Write a note to a co-worker who has been supportive and always has a ready smile. Or write to a friend or family member who always remembers your birthday – even when you forget his or hers.

Mini Holiday Party

You can enjoy this treat by yourself or turn it into a very small, simple holiday party with one to three friends. It is always beneficial to socialize when you are depressed, even if it feels difficult.

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 quart milk
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (3 oz.)
  • 7 peppermint sticks; 3 crushed and 4 left whole
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 to 4 mugs

Preparation

  1. Pour cocoa into medium saucepan. Gradually whisk the milk into the cocoa until all the cocoa has dissolved. Add the chocolate chips, crushed peppermint and pinch of salt.
  2. Simmer over medium heat until the peppermint and chocolate are melted, stirring occasionally. This takes about 8 to 10 minutes.
  3. Bring the mixture to a boil and immediately remove the pan from the heat. Ladle the drink into mugs and serve each with a peppermint stick.
If you need to, ask one of your friends to help you prepare the cocoa. Enjoy!
Source: Martha Stewart

Sunday, December 22, 2013

I am Grateful for you guys who come to visit!

THANK YOU, I've been under weather some an got to get some tests done I've known awhile I had some health problems but I've been scared because if it comes out to be a cancer diagnoses. I've decide not to take treatment because I've lived so long with AIDS am tired. But I haven't totally given up but I do need your prayers that am ok an can get back to writing many people have turned against me because I have very strong views about HIV SERVICES an biz. Plus I do not condone unsafe sex! I believe until we stop the risks we won't end HIV'AIDS.   TG GREEN

Getting forgetful with Longterm HIV?

Monday, December 16, 2013

when to start HIV therapy

In the last 30 years, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has been transformed from a devastating disease causing acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and early death, to a well-understood and treatable condition. This tremendous progress has occurred as a result of effective antiretroviral therapy, which blocks HIV replication and as a consequence leads to restoration of immune function, the prevention of AIDS, and improved quality of life. Despite these great advances in treating HIV-infected individuals, there is a great deal of controversy surrounding when to start antiretroviral therapy. While some experts advocate starting therapy early in order to reduce viral replication and inflammation, others are concerned over the long-term side-effects of treatment, and advocate that treatment be deferred until it is absolutely needed.
International guidelines are divided in their recommendations about when to start therapy. The US guidelines recommend starting therapy in essentially everyone, whereas a number of European guidelines advocate deferring therapy until a patient’s CD4 count drops below 350 cells/mm3. This controversy is addressed by two debate articles in BMC Medicine by Michael Saag from the Center for AIDS Research at the University of Alabama, USA, and Jens Lundgren from the Department of Infectious Diseases, Denmark. Saag recommends an early start, whilst Lundgren favors a deferred approach.
Here, we talk to two experts from international guideline committees, to explore the reasons behind the differing global recommendations. Steven Deeks from the University of California San Francisco, USA, is a member of the US guideline committee viewpoint, and a strong advocate of early therapy. Caroline Sabin from University College London, UK, represents the British HIV Association (BHIVA) guideline committee, which is in line with European guidelines.

When do US guidelines recommend starting HIV therapy?
SD: In the late 1990s, clinicians and their patients became increasingly concerned about the toxicity of the antiretroviral drugs commonly used during that time. The prevailing philosophy for the next decade was to delay therapy as long as possible. This perspective began to evolve a few years ago, when most clinicians and clinical researchers began to realize that more modern regimens are far safer and that subtle but perhaps permanent harm was occurring during untreated HIV infection. The risk-benefit analysis had clearly shifted from one where treatment was bad to one in which treatment was good. Around 2011, the guidelines at the US DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services) shifted the recommendations towards earlier therapy. The most recent set of guidelines now recommends that therapy be strongly considered for everybody, with some rare exceptions.

How do the US guidelines differ from other guidelines worldwide, such as in Europe?
SD: I think this is largely a philosophical issue. It depends on your default perspective. If your default perspective is ‘we should treat until you prove that we should not treat’, then you go with the American guidelines. But if your default perspective is ‘you should not treat until we prove it’s actually better to treat’, then you should wait. There are no definitive, randomized, clinical trial data showing that you should treat people whose CD4 counts are above 350. Everyone agrees that such data is lacking. So what certain guideline panels have done is say that in the absence of definitive therapy, we’re just going to assume that untreated disease is more benign than treated disease. That is philosophically quite distinct from the perspective that the American guidelines have taken, which is the complete opposite.

When do UK guidelines recommend starting HIV therapy?
CS: For anybody with a CD4 count that is less than 350 cells, in the UK we would recommend starting therapy immediately. In addition to that, if there are people who have a clinical AIDS event or an HIV-related comorbidity or, for example, a malignancy where they’re going to have immunosuppressant therapy, then those people as well would also get treatment immediately, regardless of their CD4 count.
If somebody has a CD4 count that is above 350 and they also have hepatitis B or C co-infection, then our guidelines may also recommend that they would start treatment. Finally, people with primary HIV infection, if they also have neurological involvement or an AIDS event or a low CD4 count, would also be recommended to start treatment.
For people who are asymptomatic and have a CD4 count that is above 350 cells, however, treatment would not be recommended for their own benefit. However, there is a clause in the BHIVA guidelines where for all patients, the clinician is encouraged to discuss the possibility that treatment might reduce transmission. The evidence should be presented to the patient and should be discussed; there should be an assessment of what their own risk is for transmission, and if the patient then wishes to start treatment for that benefit and they’re aware of the fact that there may be no benefit to them from a clinical perspective, then treatment can be started.

In patients with CD4 counts greater than 350, what are the main arguments for deferring therapy?
CS: I think that at present, we really don’t have any idea about what the risk-benefit ratio is in that group of patients. For people with a CD4 count less than 350 cells, we know that their risk of clinical progression from HIV-related diseases is relatively high. Although the drugs themselves have some side effects –  some of which may be life-threatening and may lead to loss of quality of life – in this group, the risk of those side effects occurring is more than outweighed by the benefits that that person may get from starting treatment through the prevention of AIDS-related diseases.
However, for people with a higher CD4 count who are asymptomatic, we don’t believe that the evidence is yet strong enough to be able to reliably inform patients that this is the case. We know that the risk of clinical events from HIV-related conditions is very low at that higher CD4 count anyway, so even if treatment is deferred for a short while, their actual risk of having an AIDS-related condition is very, very low. The risk of side effects from the drugs may also be low but at that point it may be that the risks start to outweigh the benefits. That’s why in people with a higher CD4 count, who are asymptomatic, BHIVA have made the recommendation to defer therapy.

The US Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council does not recommend deferring therapy and takes the opposite stance. What are the main arguments for starting therapy as soon as possible?
SD: There are several major arguments. The first is the recognition that in almost any study that has compared treatment versus no treatment –  in the context of randomized clinical trials, or observational cohort studies – those on treatment did better than those who were not on treatment. The strength of this data is unquestioned in people whose CD4 counts are below 350. However, as you get to earlier stages of the disease, particularly with CD4 counts above 500, the quality of the data is suspect and the conclusions are not definitive. But in general, whenever anyone has looked at this question, treatment has always been better than no treatment.
Then there is the data suggesting that HIV replication causes irreversible damage to the immune system even before the onset of clinically-relevant immunodeficiency. This damage to the immune system leads directly or indirectly to chronic inflammation, which in turn causes harm to blood vessels and a variety of organ systems. Chronic inflammation has been associated with early onset of cardiovascular disease, cancer, osteopenia, kidney disease, liver disease and neurologic syndromes.
There is also the emerging story that individuals with early stage disease, when they are viremic and off therapy, are infectious. If you put those people on therapy, their ability to transmit virus to others is greatly diminished. Finally, there is a growing consensus that the drugs given to treat people in the modern era are a lot safer and have fewer drug-drug interactions than the drugs that were given five-to-seven years ago.
All of this has led to the argument that the default choice when people show up in the clinic is to treat them, unless there is a good reason not to.

What are the public health implications of starting treatment early?
SD: We’ve known for many years that one of the major predictors of viral transmission during sexual interactions is the amount of virus in the infected person; the larger the viral load, the more likely they are to transmit virus to others. This hypothesis was tested in a landmark randomized clinical study of serodiscordant couples. The HIV-infected partner was randomized to immediate versus deferred antiretroviral therapy. Transmissions were exceedingly rare in the treated arm and not uncommon in the untreated arm.
This has led to this paradigm that if you could treat everybody in the world –  a big ‘if’, but if you could –  you’d stop the epidemic without a vaccine.
In my clinic, the major motivator for patients seeking early therapy is to protect their partners. People really do not want to be infectious, which makes great sense. Although some may argue that treating early has as not yet been convincingly shown to reduce transmission rates from a public health perspective, its impact on an individual level is unquestioned, and the guidelines show in my opinion to be focused on the individual’s needs.

Studies have shown clear benefits for the early treatment of HIV in the prevention of transmission. How can this be reconciled with the UK stance of deferring treatment in certain cases?
CS: It’s certainly true that the results from the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 052 trial have demonstrated clearly that individuals who are treated successfully seem to be at very low risk of transmitting HIV to their partners. There has also been published data showing that the proportion of people on treatment and with a suppressed viral load is inversely correlated with the incidence of new HIV infections. But that doesn’t seem to be the case in all settings.
Certainly in the UK, we actually have a very large proportion of people who are diagnosed, who are in care, who are on treatment and have a suppressed viral load. Yet we’ve seen record numbers of new infections over the last few years, particularly in the population of men who have sex with men (MSM), which is quite probably the population where we can intervene most effectively. Although we know that we have a very good record of getting people on treatment and viral loads are largely suppressed, it doesn’t seem to be translating into a reduction in the risk of incidence in the UK. I think the same may well be true in other Western European countries.
Now, why is that? Well, there are a couple of hypotheses. Firstly, we know that in the UK the people who are likely contributing to the epidemic are those who are not yet diagnosed. They don’t know they’re infected and of course they can’t then take any steps to reduce onward transmission of the virus. It may be that, unless we can identify that group and get them into care and on treatment, the impact of an increased number of people on treatment in terms of preventing transmission in the UK, may be quite minimal.
I think that in certain settings, it really does seem clear that there may be a public health benefit to starting earlier, but it is not clear that it’s going to have the same public health benefit everywhere. Certainly in the UK, we’re still looking into that to see if there is any impact.

The factors to be considered in the debate of when to start HIV treatment can vary across nations. When it comes to resource-limited settings are there any special considerations?
SD: You need to factor in that the healthcare systems may not be able to afford to treat everybody, or may lack infrastructure to deliver these drugs to everyone. In those settings in which you simply cannot afford to treat everybody, it is reasonable to treat those with the greatest need.
CS: I think there are special considerations because there may be settings in which the public health benefit of earlier treatment certainly is stronger. It has been said, particularly by some of the investigators in the US, that putting people onto treatment actually engages them in care and ensures that they come back for their medications. Certainly, that is a reason for starting treatment earlier because it allows people to come into care and they benefit in lots of other ways; not only through preventing transmission of the virus to other people, but also by ensuring their own health is really cared for. I imagine in resource-limited settings that may be a powerful argument for getting people on to treatment earlier. However, this is not easy to do in these settings; you have to find a way to identify people to get them diagnosed, and then there are the financial issues around getting all those people on to therapy. There is a very strong argument within resource-limited settings for early treatment – it could have a very big impact on controlling the epidemic as well as on the health of those people – but I think there are a lot of feasibility issues that have to be worked through.

Why do think there are differences in recommendations on when to start HIV therapy from the different guideline committees?
CS: Some of the guidelines say that their decision is based on trial evidence, whereas others acknowledge that this decision isn’t based on trial evidence, but rather expert opinion and beliefs about the potential public health benefits of earlier treatment.
The trials that are out there at the moment, which have been cited as contributing to this discussion and look at deferral of treatment versus non-deferral, have often been conducted in very different populations. The deferral may be to a very low CD4 count, a point at which certainly in Western Europe we would have initiated treatment anyway. I think there has been some confusion, certainly between the guideline committees, as to what constitutes high quality evidence.
There are some observational studies that have addressed this issue. Four large cohort collaborations in particular have looked at whether deferral is likely to lead to an increased risk of clinical outcomes or at least mortality in AIDS-related events. But again, the results from those studies are very inconsistent, and there is a lot of confounding in observational studies that is just impossible to remove.
However hard we try, and whatever fancy statistical methods we use, ultimately it comes down to whether we believe that that confounding has been removed. I think many of us feel that it is virtually impossible to do that, even though we contribute to those observational studies and have been involved in some of those analyses.

What further work needs to be done to resolve the controversy about when to start therapy?
CS: There are two trials: the START trial is a large randomized trial which has randomized people either to start treatment early or to start treatment at the level that we would consider treatment at the moment. That trial is now recruited and we’re waiting for the follow-up. The problem with that of course is that the data probably won’t be available until 2016 at the earliest, so we have got to wait a few years before we get the results from that trial. But it will directly address the risk-benefit ratios for starting treatment earlier and I think that when the data is available, it will be very strong evidence in one direction or the other. There is also another on-going trial in a resource-limited setting, the TEMPRANO trial in Côte d’Ivoire, which should report its findings in the next two to three years and which will also contribute to the discussion, but maybe for a very different population where the issues may be quite different.
SD: Hopefully the START study will be able to provide some definitive data regarding the optimal time to start antiretroviral therapy. My concern is that it may in fact show no difference because it is studying a group of people who are relatively young – I think most of the people in these studies are in their 30s and 40s – and these people are going to be followed for a relatively short period of time (several years) for a disease process that is going to play out over five decades.
This leads to a related issue: there are epidemiologic data, as well as strong theoretical considerations, that suggest the harm associated with delaying therapy will not emerge until years later, when patients are much older. That is to say, if a decision is made to defer therapy in a person in their 30s and 40s, the consequences of that deferred therapy is not going to be measurable until people are in their 60s and 70s. This leads to the issue of whether or not this question will ever truly be definitively addressed. No-one can afford, and no-one really wants, a study that will play out for decades to prove this conceptual issue.
There are three potential outcomes from the START study; you could show that early treatment is beneficial, harmful of neither. I predict that the study will likely find no real difference, given the age of the subjects and the duration of observation. If this happens, I suspect the default position in the United States will remain the same, and the guidelines will continue to recommend early therapy, assuming the patient is motivated.
 by STEVEN DEEKS-Professor of Medicine in Residence at the University of California San Francisco, USA,
      CAROLINE SABIN Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at University College London

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

"The Battle of amfAR,"

’The Battle of amfAR’ runs on HBO through DecemberThrough the month of December, HBO Documentary Films will present "The Battle of amfAR," the story of the founding of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the nation’s first AIDS research foundation, by Elizabeth Taylor and research scientist Dr. Mathilde Krim. The thought-provoking documentary is a must-see for all who lived through the darkest days of the AIDS pandemic.

"Our goal with this film is to let people know that HIV/AIDS is still with us - it’s not over till it’s over - and to spread the word that with enough support it may be possible to find a cure and end the epidemic once and for all," said filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman in an interview on the film’s website. Their previous HBO credits include the Oscar®-winning "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt," the Emmy®-winning "The Celluloid Closet" and "Paragraph 175." Epstein also directed the Oscar®-winning film "The Times of Harvey Milk."

In 1981, research scientist Dr. Mathilde Krim learned of unusual cancer cases, all of which involved gay men showing up in the medical practice of a friend. A politically and socially active New Yorker, she was eager to learn all she could about the disease, and when people began to die, the potential magnitude of the problem became a concern. In response, Dr. Krim and a few colleagues committed their own money to gaining a better understanding of the disease.


Unlikely Allies

AIDS research found an unlikely ally in Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor, who was devastated by the loss of her good friend, actor Rock Hudson, to the disease. When Dr. Krim called Taylor to see if she would be interested in getting involved with the cause, the actress agreed immediately, and amfAR, the first national organization to mobilize the scientific community in the fight against AIDS, was born. As they started speaking out about the disease and the need for research, Krim recalled that Taylor "was terrific. She was moving. The public responded to her."

"No one is safe... It is not just a minority disease. It belongs to all of us," testified Taylor before Congress. "I ask here and now for the national leadership that is necessary to fully appropriate this bill. Because I will continue to come and ask for it again, and again... And I will not be silenced, and I will not give up, and I will not be ignored."

Taylor pressured President Ronald Reagan to acknowledge the existence of HIV/AIDS as a worldwide pandemic and convinced him to speak at an amfAR fundraiser. Both women were leaders, sharing an activist spirit.

"Dr. Krim was very impatient about what she saw as red tape, and Elizabeth was too, and I think that’s what they had in common, that activist spirit," noted Taylor’s former publicist, Sally Morrison, who was an early amfAR employee.


Dr. Mathilde Krim in the lab  (Source:amfAR)

The Fight Continues


By the mid-90s, AIDS was the leading cause of death for Americans age 25-44. In 1996, research partially funded by amfAR led to lifesaving new drugs that made HIV/AIDS treatable, a diagnosis that no longer guaranteed a death sentence. Facing the prospect of patients requiring lifelong therapy to survive, amfAR continued its diligent search for a cure.

In addition to recent and archival interviews with Krim and archival footage of Taylor, "The Battle of amfAR" features interviews with amfAR chairman Kenneth Cole, AIDS activist Richard Berkowitz, philanthropist Aileen Getty (Elizabeth Taylor’s daughter-in-law), journalist Regan Hofmann, New York University microbiologist Dr. Nathanial Landau, AIDS researcher Dr. Jeffrey Laurence, researcher Dr. Mario Stevenson and Black AIDS Institute founder Phill Wilson, among others.

Since its inception in 1985, amfAR has invested more than $366 million in HIV/AIDS-related research programs and awarded grants to more than 2,000 research teams worldwide. Elizabeth Taylor passed away in 2011, but Dr. Krim and amfAR continue their quest for a cure.

Someone is infected with HIV in the U.S. every ten minutes, and an estimated 30 million people have died from AIDS since the epidemic began. Although the war against AIDS is not over, the great victories in the history of research could not have been won without these two women, who stood up for the good of truth and human dignity in the face of illness and fear.

Monday, December 9, 2013

EVERY YEAR

Christmas is hard time for me because I always wanted a life like others an by NEW YEARS I excepted with loss that it was another year like always.

Emory Researchers Partner With Community Groups to Kickoff Atlanta HIV Study

The impact of HIV/AIDS for women is growing. Today, women account for 1 in 5 or 20 percent of new HIV infections in the United States. Emory Center For AIDS Research (CFAR) researchers led by Igho Ofotokun, MD, MSc, associate professor of medicine (infectious diseases) at Emory University School of Medicine, and Gina Wingood, ScD, MPH, Agnes Moore professor of behavioral sciences and health education at Rollins School of Public Health, are partnering with SisterLove, Inc. and other metro Atlanta community based organizations to spread awareness and kick-off implementation of the Atlanta Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS).
Established in 1993 by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in partnership with other NIH agencies, WIHS is a collaborative, multi-center prospective observational cohort study of women who are either HIV-infected or at risk for HIV infection. The purpose of WIHS is to characterize the long-term, natural and treated history of HIV infection in the existing cohort of women, and to recruit and retain new women into the cohort to provide insight into the changing demographics of the HIV/AIDS epidemic among women in the United States.
WIHS was launched at six clinical research sites in the Midwest, West Coast, and East Coast. In 2013 WIHS expanded with four new sites in Atlanta, Chapel Hill, Miami and Birmingham to address the growing burden of the AIDS epidemic among minority women in the South. Current sites include: Bronx, New York; Brooklyn, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Washington, DC; San Francisco, California; Los Angeles, California; Atlanta, Georgia; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Miami, Florida and Birmingham, Alabama.
Approximately 4,137 women are currently enrolled in WIHS. The AtlantaWIHS, led by co-principal investigators Ofotokun and Wingood began enrollment on Oct. 1, 2013 and will continue to recruit 300 HIV-infected and at-risk HIV negative women from across the state who will be evaluated bi-annually. Housed at the Grady Infectious Diseases Program Clinic (The Ponce Clinic) and the Woodruff Extension Building at Grady Emory Campus, the Atlanta WIHS study offers a standard gynecologic exam and PAP smear, physical, and routine laboratory tests to all participants during each study visit.
“A number of the women enrolled in the Atlanta WIHS study so far have no primary care providers nor health insurance and need a wide range of health care services. These women are beginning to benefit from the WIHS linkage to care program that is helping to facilitate access to these services available within the State for WIHS participants,” says Wingood, who also co-direct the Emory CFAR Prevention Science Core.
“The expansion of the WIHS clinical research sites in the South opens new opportunities to advance women’s health research in HIV/AIDS in Atlanta and Georgia.
We have begun to feel the excitement and the support from the community and we are receiving a record number of referrals of potential participants from both the Emory and non-Emory based practices in town,” says Ofotokun who also is a staff physician at Grady Memorial Hospital.
A critical component of the Atlanta WIHS is its roots in the community made possible by a long-standing collaboration between Emory and various community-based groups in the metro Atlanta area. Through these relationships Emory physicians and researchers have developed a deep appreciation for the role of community in research, building trust and gaining respect within the HIV/AIDS community.
For many years, community-based organizations have worked side-by-side with Emory investigators to ensure successful implementation of NIH-Division of AIDS (DAIDS) supported research projects, including those conducted by the AIDS Clinical Trials Network (ACTG), HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), and the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN).
“We are honored and excited for the opportunity to partner with Emory as a new WIHS site,” says Dazon Dixon Diallo, founder and president of SisterLove. “This is an incredible moment for women living with HIV in the deep South, and we are looking forward to being an integral part of advancing the knowledge of how to fight HIV and AIDS. We believe that women, especially those who are living with HIV/AIDS, are the key to ending the epidemic, and we recognize the importance of their engagement in service delivery, advocacy, policy and research.”
“The WIHS is a tremendous tool for advancing HIV science in women’s health and bridging the gender gap in research participation,” says Lauryn Taylor, a member of the newly formed Community Advisory Board (CAB) for the Atlanta WIHS. “It offers a unique opportunity for women to give back and to contribute towards the fight to overcome this epidemic.”
Other members of the Atlanta WIHS Community advisory board include representatives from the Center for Black Women’s Wellness (CBWW) and AID Atlanta. “Continuing engagement of the CAB members and the organizations they represent will be vitally needed for the success of the Atlanta WIHS,” says Paula Frew, PhD, Emory assistant professor of medicine and a WIHS investigator.
“This study allows those who may not have otherwise had access to health care the chance to access regular examinations and referrals for health and social services,” says Neena Smith-Bankhead, director of the department of education and volunteer services at AID Atlanta and WIHS CAB member. “I applaud Emory University and the other southern partners on successfully competing to bring the WIHS study to the southeastern region of the United States, offering the women of this region an opportunity to be represented in this groundbreaking national research project.”
Additional information about the Atlanta WIHS can be obtained by contacting the Project Director, Sara Sanford: sesanfo@emory.edu.
The WIHS is primarily funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the NIH, with co-funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Women have been affected by HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic. Of the more than 1.1 million people living with HIV in the U.S., nearly 280,000, or 24 percent are women. Women of color, particularly Black women, are disproportionately affected by HIV, accounting for the majority of women living with the disease and women newly infected and HIV-related deaths among women in the U.S.

They tried to teach HIV PREVENTION without the MSM

I was astonished recently when one of my stepdaughters arrived home from public high school in Washington state with a red ribbon painted on her cheek. Sex education in the schools – which conservatives have tried to limit to abstinence-only – has now gone well beyond simple education. Today's students are being coerced into promoting and acting out the politically correct views taught them. It is being done so sneakily, using the authoritative stamp of approval by the public schools, that even my conservatively raised children were cajoled into participating.
There was no way to pull your child out of the day-long event. The entire school "celebrated" HIV/AIDs Awareness." A student group formed to educate other students about AIDs was responsible for putting on the event, and took over the front part of the school with tables and displays. On the tables were baskets of mint-flavored condoms, and students working the tables encouraged others passing by to take them.
Every few seconds, a loud gong would sound and someone would announce, "Every 12 seconds, someone is infected with AIDs, and every 16 seconds, someone dies from AIDs." The windows throughout the school were covered with HIV/AIDs awareness messages and posters were plastered on the walls. Almost every light throughout the hallways was turned off for further dramatic effect. The main staircase inside the school was covered with red ribbons. There was a giant wheel that students were encouraged to spin in order to see what disease they would contract. Students were lured into spinning it with the promise of a prize.
Students were encouraged to wear a slick-looking pin featuring a red ribbon.They were given hip-looking little educational pamphlets that contained a free music download from onecondoms.com/freemusic. There were two pages of very graphic instructions inside on how to put on a condom.
There was absolutely nothing in the pamphlet about homosexuality. This is dishonest considering HIV/AIDs affects homosexual men disproportionately. The website aids.gov reports, "Although men who have sex with other men (MSM) represent about 4% of the male population in the United States, in 2010, MSM accounted for 78% of new HIV infections among males and 63% of all new infections." Instead of warning men that homosexual activity puts them at high risk for HIV and AIDs, which would perhaps save some lives and prevent some misery down the road, the politically correct teaching method would rather pretend that everyone is the same in order not to offend anyone.
The student advocacy group was allowed to take over an entire class period of the ninth graders. They handed out cups with "fluids" in them, and instructed the students to choose another student to exchange fluids with. There was no option to choose abstinence as a teenager and not exchange fluids. Then, members of the advocacy group dropped some liquid in the cup. If it turned the liquid pink, that meant the student contracted AIDs. If it stayed white, the student didn't contract AIDs.
Each student was given a paper clover and told to write down three goals, one on each leaf. The students who supposedly contracted AIDs were told to rip off one of their leaves, since contracting AIDs had made that goal no longer obtainable, and explain how they felt. Students were given candy for raising their hand and participating, and encouraged to join the advocacy group when they become sophomores or juniors.
A man with the AIDs virus spoke to the class. He said he had contracted AIDs by sleeping around with women. Again, this was a subtle maneuver done to further create the impression that AIDs affects everyone. He told the students that condoms are 99 percent effective. In reality, the failure rate from condoms is probably closer to 17 percent.
There was nothing in the pamphlet about the failure rate of condoms, or advising kids that they would be safer simply by abstaining from sexual conduct. The Centers for Disease Control, no bastion of conservatism, warns on its website, "Latex condoms can only protect against transmission when the ulcers or infections are in genital areas that are covered or protected by the condom." Additionally, the herpes simplex virus, which is frequently found in the genital area, is transmitted by merely skin-to-skin contact so would likely not be blocked by a condom.
There was nothing about pregnancy whatsoever. Approximately 15 percent of women who use condoms become pregnant.
This kind of indoctrination continues to grow every year, crammed down our children's throats. Where will it stop? The number of AIDs/HIV awareness days is staggering. There are now 11 of these days each year, listed at aids.gov.
Encouraging kids to use condoms goes against the advice of the experts. Dr. Harold Jaffee, chief of epidemiology at the National Centers for Disease Control, said, "You just can't tell people it's all right to do whatever you want as long as you wear a condom. It (AIDS) is just too dangerous a disease to say that." Dr. Robert Renfield, chief of retro-viral research at the Walter Reed Army Institute, has said, "Simply put, condoms fail. And condoms fail at a rate unacceptable for me as a physician to endorse them as a strategy to be promoted as meaningful AIDS protection."
Forcing children to go along with politically correct behavior contrary to their values and religion does not belong in school. Education is for reading, writing, arithmetic and similar subjects. High school students do not "spin a wheel" to determine whether or not they acquire an STD. They can consciously choose not to engage in premarital, underage sex, which will give them a zero chance of contracting an STD or having a baby.
My eldest stepdaughter observed after undergoing that day at school, "The school prides itself on being a top school. If so, then why are they encouraging kids to go out and sleep around, which will hurt their ability to be successful?" ESR

Rachel Alexander and her brother Andrew are co-Editors of Intellectual Conservative. She has been published in the American Spectator, Townhall.com, Fox News, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, The Americano, ParcBench, and other publications.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

An Ordinary Family


Thomas is blindsided when his estranged brother, Seth, shows up unannounced to the annual family vacation with his boyfriend.

THANK YOU to my loyal viewers

WOW  blog went over 20000 views around the world , thank you my loyal viewers please ask questions.

STOP UNSAFE MSM!

TELL #MSM TO STOP JEOPARDIZING THE LIVES OF OTHERS JUST SO THEY CAN GET THERE RAW N*T!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

MY TRUE CHRISTMAS "FACE of AIDS"

IM NOT ASHAMED of MY FACE! I WILL NOT LET SOCIETY MAKE ME HIDE IN SHAME!

Florida courts differ on the meaning of sexual intercourse for HIV statute

The term "sexual intercourse," left undefined in HIV statute, has led to various interpretations in decisions by courts in Florida.
December 07, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- In 1986, the Florida legislature made it a felony crime, punishable by up to 5 years in prison for someone with a sexually transmitted disease to have sexual intercourse with a person before notifying them they have the disease.
The law left undefined what was considered to be sexual intercourse, and this has led to problems with the statute. Several same-sex couples have been charged with sex crimes for violating this statute. The rulings in these cases have been at odds with one another, and these decisions may require the Florida Supreme Court to intervene.
In one case, a woman was charged with the offense after failing to notify her partner that she was HIV-positive. In her case, the court used the definition of sexual intercourse that is present in statutes concerning incest which states that the interaction must take place between a man and a woman. Using this definition, the court held that this rule did not apply to same-sex couples.
A different case involving the same question concerned two men involved in a relationship. In this case, the court held that the definition of intercourse was much broader, and did not require a man and a woman, meaning that this law could apply to same-sex couples. A third case also arrived at a similar result.
There are very clear implications for those individuals involved in same-sex relationships charged with these types of crimes. Unless the court or legislature steps in to define the words in the statute, being charged with a crime under this law will depend simply upon where a person lives within the state. It is difficult to determine what exactly will happen or what defenses may be available in each situation.
If you have been charged with a sex crime, you may find yourself facing significant penalties if convicted. Depending upon the offense, you may even have to register as a sex offender after you have completed your prison sentence. You need to begin preparing a strong defense as soon as you are aware that you are the target of an investigation.
Contact an experienced criminal defense attorney in your area to learn more about the options that are available to you in your specific case. An attorney can help you understand the evidence that the prosecution has, and also protect your rights throughout the investigation.
Although no lawyer can guarantee what will happen in a particular case, working with a lawyer who is a specialist in criminal trial law certainly means the lawyer has the experience, reputation and knowledge that only an expert can possess. There is no more serious case than one in which your freedom is at stake. Make sure you work with a lawyer who knows how to handle these types of cases.
Article provided by Rothman & Associates, P.A.
Visit us at www.tandrlaw.com


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