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Positively Positive - Living with HIV/AIDS:
HIV/AIDS News Archive - May 2021
New project to look at ethics behind epidemiological tools to curb HIV transmissions
MAY 31, 2021 - UM TODAY STAFF - The HIV pandemic remains one of the world’s most intractable public health problems and new molecular epidemiological tools can reveal previously unseen transmission networks in communities, bolstering efforts to curb HIV’s spread. But a University of Manitoba team has received federal funding to ask a basic question: how can these data be used in a safe and effective manner in collaboration with communities affected by the HIV pandemic?
Lessons from 40 years of HIV/AIDS
May 30, 2021 - Subir Roy - DR Smarajit Jana, who took the lead in unionising sex workers of Kolkata’s largest red light area, Sonagachi, began his professional career not as a trade unionist but as an epidemiologist.
In the early nineties, Jana, who was then with the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health in Kolkata, was helping develop the HIV sentinel surveillance plan for India. He did a part of this work among the sex workers, and out of this was born the globally known Sonagachi Project.
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Ending HIV in Canada Together: We’re Ready
May 31, 2021 - The I’m Ready research program launch celebration, featuring Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam.
When: Wednesday, June 2, 2021, 1 to 1:45 pm.
Where: This is an online event. Register on Zoom.
I’m Ready combines mobile and web apps, scientific expertise, proven peer support methods and 50,000 HIV self-test kits for a unique program that harnesses the best in Canadian innovation. Together with our community, policy and private sector partners, we designed I’m Ready so that everyone can get access to testing and care that works for them and meets them where they are.
AIDS warrior who lost Covid battle
May 30, 2021 - Subir Roy - DR Smarajit Jana, who took the lead in unionising sex workers of Kolkata’s largest red light area, Sonagachi, began his professional career not as a trade unionist but as an epidemiologist.
In the early nineties, Jana, who was then with the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health in Kolkata, was helping develop the HIV sentinel surveillance plan for India. He did a part of this work among the sex workers, and out of this was born the globally known Sonagachi Project.
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Nearly 1 mln people living with HIV in Mozambique without access to treatment
MAPUTO, May 31 (Xinhua) - Half of the two million HIV sufferers in Mozambique are without access to treatment as the country ranked fourth in the world in terms of the new HIV infection rate, said the Mozambican Health Minister Armindo Tiago on Monday.
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Indiana county hit by HIV outbreak could end needle exchange
MAY 30, 2021 - BY RICK CALLAHAN ASSOCIATED PRESS - A rural southern Indiana county that was the epicenter of the state’s worst-ever HIV outbreak driven by intravenous drug use is poised to end its needle exchange program despite warnings that doing so could lead to increased disease risk.
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For Larry Kramer: Poetry by Hank Trout
May 28, 2021 - by Hank Trout - For Larry Kramer
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Dr. Fauci on 40 Years of HIV and AIDS
MAY 28, 2021 - BY JOHN CASEY - A startling report crossed his desk on June 5, 1981 and changed his life — and the world.
For some, realizing that June marks the 40th anniversary of the first HIV/AIDS cases in the United States will be an astonishing reminder for all that has been lost. I did a column, not too long ago, about the AIDS Memorial on Instagram, and I continue to follow that page. It’s a daily reminder of heartbreaking stories about the lives of lovers, partners, best friends, sons, brother, uncles, and mixed among them daughters, moms, sisters and aunts, all who succumbed to the disease.
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Elton John leads HIV activists urging Boris Johnson to ‘tackle new AIDS emergency’
May 28, 2021 - LILY WAKEFIELD - Leading HIV activists including Elton John and Gareth Thomas have urged Boris Johnson to fight “a new AIDS emergency” as he prepares to chair the G7 Summit next month.
In an open letter, John and Thomas joined other signatories, including Annie Lennox, Charlize Theron and former presidents Joyce Banda of Malawi and Festus Mogae of Botswana, in warning Johnson that “critical gains are in danger” when it comes to progress on HIV and AIDS during the coronavirus pandemic.
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HIV/AIDS advocacy group to honor 'one of the greatest influences to have around you'
May 28, 2021 - ABBY MACKEY - Clarisse Jordan remembers sitting in health class as a senior at Westinghouse High School while a guest speaker discussed HIV/AIDS. “This doesn’t concern me,” she thought. It was 1987, when the disease was believed to affect “gay white men” almost exclusively. But as she sat in that class — indifferent to its lessons as a heterosexual Black woman — she was, unknowingly, already infected with HIV.
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UAB professor receives research grant for HIV suppression study
May 27, 2021 - by Eric-Lamar Burts - The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Scott Batey, Ph.D. has received a $2.98 million grant from the National Institute on Mental Health.
The award will help Batey, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Social Work, investigate the effectiveness and implementation implications of the Project nGage intervention, ultimately leading to human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, suppression among participants.
Writing the Past
May 27, 2021 - by Hank Trout - Ernest Hemingway said, Writing is easy, you just sit at the typewriter and bleed
On the Monday after Easter, I learned from mutual friends that Irene Smith, the renowned massage therapist, had died Sunday night. Irene had been something of a legend here in San Francisco’s HIV community since the early 1980s. As AIDS raged through the city, at a time when even healthcare providers were afraid to touch those of us who had AIDS, Irene insisted upon touching us, holding our hands, massaging our exhausted, wasting bodies. The staff at San Francisco General’s Ward 5B [A&U, November 2019] remember Irene’s angelic presence and the many hours she volunteered there, massaging and soothing the dying patients.
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AIDS@40: Stories of hope and heroes
May 27, 2021 - BY FRED HUTCH NEWS SERVICE STAFF - The people and the science devoted to stopping HIV
June 5, 2021, will mark 40 years since Los Angeles physician Dr. Michael Gottlieb and colleagues published the first medical account of what would eventually become known as AIDS. It was a short summary in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s printed weekly newsletter of five cases of pneumonia in gay men, all of whom eventually died. The global story that has unfolded since is an unspeakable tragedy. HIV/AIDS has claimed more than 32.7 million lives, dwarfing the toll of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
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Conquering COVID-19 with antivirals
May 26, 2021 -The COVID-19 pandemic has seen scientists perform incredible feats in a short amount of time, from developing tests to new types of vaccines. Despite these victories, experts are still working to develop an effective antiviral drug to kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, details the challenges of and progress toward creating a drug that would help the world conquer COVID-19.
NEW Program! A Girl Like Me LIVE starting June 2nd!
CARSON CITY, NV- May 26, 2021 - Announcing new bi-weekly series by and for women living with and impacted by HIV
The Well Project is thrilled to announce the launch of our newest program, A Girl Like Me LIVE!, an interactive, livestreaming series created to advance health and wellness education among women living with and vulnerable to HIV. Taking place every other Wednesday from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm ET, The Well Project program coordinator Ciarra "Ci Ci" Covin will partner with a variety of co-hosts to chat about key topics in our communities. Each episode will be broadcast live to The Well Project’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.
NEVADA LEGISLATURE PASSES BILL TO MODERNIZE STATE’S HIV LAWS
CARSON CITY, NV- May 26, 2021 - Silver State Equality, Nevada’s statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization and a partner of the Nevada HIV Modernization Coalition, praised Nevada legislators for their bipartisan passage of legislation that modernizes Nevada’s HIV criminal laws.
Senate Bill (SB) 275, introduced by Sen. Dallas Harris, won approval with a unanimous vote in the Nevada Senate and by a 26-15 vote in the Assembly. The bill now moves to the Governor for his signature.
Fauci says U.S. can still end HIV epidemic by 2030 despite Covid pandemic
May 25, 2021 - White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that the U.S. can still achieve its goal of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030 despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which saw testing sites for other diseases temporarily shut down and medical personnel being reassigned.
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Study highlights strategies that help teenagers living with HIV feel ready to move into adult care
25 May 2021 - Ugandan study suggests peer educators, visiting adult clinics, counselling and education can all make the transition process go smoothly.
A Ugandan study has found that trusting peer educators, having counselling, visiting adult clinics and being educated beyond secondary school level are all things that help adolescents and young people living with HIV feel ready to move into adult HIV care.
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The role of parliaments in addressing inequalities to end AIDS by 2030
May 25, 2021 - Monday, 7 June 2021
The event will take place virtually and will be open to all interested parliamentarians and parliamentary staff as well as other stakeholders involved in the HIV response. The working languages will be English, French and Spanish (simultaneous interpretation).
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Book Review: Our Story: Coming Out in the Time of HIV and AIDS
May 25, 2021 - by Kaila Johnson - Know. Your. History. This phrase is what motivated me to learn more about queer history and pick up this memoir. My knowledge of the AIDS crisis had been reduced to “silence = death” and the understanding that many people died. I had never learned about someone’s personal experience living through it and how it impacted their life.
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Polymer ‘wafers’ placed under the tongue could deliver vaccines of the future
2021-05-25 - A team of researchers, led by a University of Minnesota associate professor, have developed a polymer “wafer” that, when placed under the tongue, can effectively deliver and preserve protein-based vaccines for diseases. The research could open the door for vaccines that can be more easily produced and distributed to communities around the world.
The study is published in the Journal of Controlled Release, a biweekly peer-reviewed medical journal.
Palais des congrès de Montréal to host AIDS 2022 - the 24th International AIDS Conference - in July 2022
2021-05-25 - The Palais des congrès de Montréal and Tourisme Montréal are proud to announce that IAS - the International AIDS Society - has chosen Montréal as its host city for the 24th International AIDS Conference, known as AIDS 2022. The conference will follow a hybrid model that combines in-person and virtual components to ensure accessibility for all who wish to attend. HIV scientists, policy makers and activists will be expected in the city July 29 through August 2, 2022, with pre-conferences taking place July 27-28. This should generate 39,000 hotel room nights and an estimated $20.7+ M in tourism spending.
International AIDS Society announces Montreal as host city for AIDS 2022
Tuesday, 25 May 2021 (Geneva, Switzerland) - IAS – the International AIDS Society – announced today that AIDS 2022 – the 24th International AIDS Conference – will take place in Montreal, Canada, and virtually from 29 July to 2 August 2022 with pre-conference meetings set to begin on 27 July 2022
“We know that there is still a long way to go in the fight against HIV and AIDS,” said the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Canada’s Minister of Health. “In 2022, Canada will proudly host AIDS 2022 so that we can further our commitments to ending the HIV and AIDS global epidemic.
'Rare Cancer in Homosexuals': First HIV Reports Appeared 40 Years Ago
May 24, 2021 - By Trudy Ring - The summer of 1981 saw the first media reports about mysterious diseases in gay men. What did they get right — and wrong?
Forty years ago this summer, the first news emerged about rare diseases that were killing gay and bisexual men. No one could know then that the events heralded a global pandemic, but fear was there in the early days — fear both of disease and of the stigma it would bring to an already marginalized population.
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How the AIDS Quilt Allowed Millions to Memorialize the Epidemic
May 24, 2021 - JOSEPH BENNINGTON-CASTRO - The AIDS Memorial Quilt—with 1,920 individual panels, each inscribed with the names of people lost to AIDS—was displayed for the first time on October 11, 1987. It has grown ever since.
First imagined by gay rights activist Cleve Jones in 1985, the AIDS Memorial Quilt—with 1,920 individual panels, each inscribed with the name of a person lost to AIDS—was displayed for the first time on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on October 11, 1987.
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Sask. task force struck to stop spread of syphilis
May 24, 2021 - Zak Vescera - Recent years have seen transmission grow exponentially among young women, raising the risk of babies acquiring the disease in the womb.
Of all the diseases Dr. Rupeena Purewal was watching, syphilis was never at the top of the list.
But the Saskatoon pediatric infectious disease doctor says the surging case numbers across Western Canada have suddenly made the disease an emerging issue, particularly for newborn children if their mother is infected during pregnancy.
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Carol Carter’s Discovery 20 Years Ago Changed the Future of Antiviral Drugs
May 24, 2021 - On July 3, 2001, a research paper co-authored by Carol Carter, professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook, and a team of fellow researchers, was published. Its findings would open a new field of investigation into how pathogens escape from infected cells and reveal new opportunities for anti-viral drug development.
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TV Special to Explore What It’s Like Living With HIV Today
May 24, 2021 - Trenton Straube - Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness narrates the Vice TV documentary marking 40 years of the HIV epidemic. It premieres June 2.
June 2021 marks 40 years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. For the occasion, Vice Studios filmed a two-hour documentary titled Vice Versa: The Neglected Pandemic, 40 Years of HIV & AIDS. The special premieres Wednesday, June 2, and is narrated by Queer Eye star and author Jonathan Van Ness, according to an exclusive in The Hollywood Reporter.
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City honors contributions of drag queen
May 23, 2021 - Keiara Carr - Even at 81, Charles Miller is looking to raise a little hell.
It's just his nature.
In different phases of his life, Miller, also known as the legendary drag queen “Tula,” has been a stripper, a hair dresser, a business owner, a prescription drug addict, a caretaker to his ailing mother, and to many more who suffered from AIDS.
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Skepticism Of Science In A Pandemic Isn't New. It Helped Fuel The AIDS Crisis
May 23, 2021 - Forty years ago, Lawrence Mass, a young, gay doctor living in New York City, made history. It is the kind of history no one wants to make.
Mass began writing news stories about a disease that many did not want to acknowledge.
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HIV STIGMA FIGHTER:
I want the world to know
May 21, 2021 - By: Eliane Becks Nininahazwe - Founder: HIV STIGMA FIGHTER - “In May 2014 I finally told my secret; I published a note called ”The Hidden truth” on facebook to inform everyone about my HIV. I had been thinking about coming out of the closet for many years and that day I was ready to share my reality and prepared to face a storm of reactions.
Before coming out I told a few friends, neighbours and parents of my kid’s friends. Why did I do that? I was creating my small safe haven, in case the world would turn its back on me. So I was assured that these people would hold my hand and support me!
OU researcher identifies new mode of transmission for bacteria
OKLAHOMA CITY AND DENMARK - 21-MAY-2021 - Campylobacter infection, one of the most common foodborne illnesses in the Western world, can also be spread through sexual contact, according to a new research discovery by an OU Hudson College of Public Health faculty member, working in conjunction with colleagues in Denmark.
The team's research has been published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, a journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and is the first known study to prove this mode of transmission for Campylobacter.
Penn Medicine Study Suggests Long-term Suppression of Hepatitis B in Patients Who Are HIV-coinfected May Lower Cancer Risk
May 21, 2021 - PHILADELPHIA - Hepatitis B in the Blood Raises Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Among HIV/Hepatitis B-Coinfected Patients
While the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) – primary liver cancer – is higher among patients who have HIV, it’s even higher among patients who have HIV and detectable hepatitis B, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Among participants with HIV and hepatitis B, suppressing detectable hepatitis B infection with the use of antiretroviral therapy cut the risk of developing HCC by 58 percent. These findings suggest that the best care for individuals with HIV and detectable hepatitis B includes sustained hepatitis B suppression with antiretroviral therapy in order to cut the risk of developing HCC. The study is published in the journal Hepatology.
Dr Perry N. Halkitis: Injectable HIV Treatments Could Be a Game Changer
May 21, 2021 - Injectable versions of HIV treatments and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) will be a game changer in terms of convenience over daily pills, explained Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health and director of the Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Prevention Studies.
This video excerpt is part of our third entry in a series on individuals and international organizations working to bring local and global awareness to the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic, which is marking its 40th anniversary this year.
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AIDS Took Larry Stanton in 1984; His Male Portraits Remain Forever Young and Compelling
May 21, 2021 - Trenton Straube - The art—and boys—of Larry Stanton inspires a gallery show, a book of poems and a documentary. [VIDEO and SLIDESHOW]
We can’t stop gazing at the young men Larry Stanton captured on paper in pencil and oil. The artist, who was known for his colorful portraits, died at age 37 of AIDS-related illness in 1984, early in the epidemic. Like Stanton, many of his subjects had escaped to 1970s Manhattan, where it was safe to be gay. Although many of them contracted HIV and died, their portraits remain and continue to inspire new generations—and new works of art, including a book of poems, a gallery show and an in-the-works documentary.
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All the Rage with Brad Fraser
Tuesday May 25 Live Online Event 7:30pm–8:30pm
This event, presented in partnership with the Ottawa Public Library and Qu’ART spotlights’s the life and work of Brad Fraser, and his new book, All the Rage: A Partial Memoir in Two Acts and a Prologue which chronicles his rise to fame as a playwright, amid the terrors of the AIDS era.
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Michael Montess and Nathan John Lachowsky: HIV survivors' stories show the loss, resilience and activism of the early years of AIDS pandemic
May 21, 2021 - It has been 40 years since the onset of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The International AIDS Candlelight Memorial is a time not only to remember the many lives lost to AIDS, but also to reflect on the stories of long-term survivors and caregivers.
These stories must inform our practical response to HIV today, both in policy and for social equity. The wisdom of these stories can also improve our responses to COVID-19, future pandemics and other contemporary crises.
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AIDS Activist History Project
Welcome to the AIDS Activist History Project website!
AIDS activists changed the world. They organized, strategized, and put their bodies on the line.
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Researchers aim to modify fragmented health care system to reduce HIV incidence among trans women
OKLAHOMA CITY AND DENMARK - 21-MAY-2021 - HIV prevention services will be combined with access to gender-affirming hormonal therapy and peer health navigation to try to reduce the disproportionate percentage of transgender women who are HIV positive in an innovative study led by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHeath).
“It’s important that we ensure we are meeting the health care needs of transgender women in Houston, as they have some of the highest estimated HIV prevalence of any key population,” said Jordan E. Lake, MD, MSc, the principal investigator for the UTHealth site and an associate professor of infectious diseases at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth.
In ‘Let the Record Show,’ Sarah Schulman Erects a Monument to the AIDS Movement
May 20, 2021 - By Rebecca Makkai - Antiretroviral therapy, the common approach in the treatment of HIV, halts replication of the virus and has saved the lives of millions of people. However, for patients the drug cocktail becomes a lifetime necessity because they continue to harbor latent HIV in a small number of immune system cells. In the absence of treatment, HIV can again replicate and rebound into full blown AIDS.
A new study, however, suggests the addition of a single small molecule can rip away the cloak that shields those cells containing HIV and make them susceptible to the patient’s own antibodies that otherwise are not normally of much use against HIV.
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Molecule enlists patient’s immune system to combat HIV
May 20, 2021 - By Bill Hathaway - LET THE RECORD SHOW
A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993
Nearly every Monday night from 1987 to 1992, hundreds of people met on West 13th Street in New York City to plan and execute the fight of their lives. Among them was the author Sarah Schulman, whose new history of ACT UP — the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power — is based not only on her own involvement in the movement but on 17 years of interviews she and her collaborator, the filmmaker Jim Hubbard, conducted with 188 members of the group. The resulting book, “Let the Record Show,” is a masterpiece tome: part sociology, part oral history, part memoir, part call to arms.
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Real Talk with Realize and ASAAP: A Conversation with South Asian Communities: HIV Issues at the National Level
VIRTUAL TOWN SERIES
May 28th Real Talk – From 1:30 – 2:45 PM ET
Real Talk with Realize and ACAS: Igniting East and Southeast Asian Youth Activism on Anti-Asian Racism, Anti-AIDS Stigma & Discrimination, and Anti-Homophobia & Transphobia
VIRTUAL TOWN SERIES
Wednesday May 26th, 2021 – 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. ET
Head of Historic AIDS Organization GMHC to Step Down
May 20, 2021 - By Trenton Straube - Kelsey Louie has been the CEO of Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) in New York City for the past seven years.
Kelsey Louie was appointed CEO of GMHC, the iconic HIV/AIDS service organization based in New York City, in 2014. On June 25, he will step down from the helm of the group and begin a new chapter as CEO of The Door, a nonprofit that offers comprehensive youth development services.
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HIV is associated with accelerated ageing that antiretroviral therapy only partially reverses
20 May 2021 - Alain Volny-Anne - Untreated HIV infection is associated with epigenetic age acceleration, which is more pronounced in individuals with severe immunodeficiency, according to a study recently published in The Lancet HIV. It also suggests that epigenetic ageing can be partly reversed by antiretroviral therapy only two years after starting it. However, no significant difference was found in epigenetic age between the two antiretroviral regimens taken by the study participants.
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HIV Basics
May 20, 2021 - The revised 2021 edition of this brochure offers the basics on HIV transmission, testing and treatment written for the general public.
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Working Towards Better Supports: Lessons from the BC People Living with HIV Stigma Index
May 19, 2021 - The BC People Living with HIV Stigma Index is a community-based research study, linked to the international People Living with HIV Stigma Index. It is designed by and for people living with HIV, with people living with HIV (PLHIV) leading the charge. This study explores PLHIV’s experiences of stigma and supports the development of stigma reduction initiatives. In BC, the research team completed 176 interviews with PLHIV as part of this study.
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Prioritizing HIV in LGBTQ Asian and Pacific American Communities
May 19, 2021 - As I reflect on today, National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day , I think of the tremendous changes made since it was first commemorated in 2005 by API Wellness Center. Seismic advances in testing, prevention and treatment, especially, have given us the tools to make HIV a manageable condition, and actually end AIDS in the years to come. I can certainly appreciate the progress from my first HIV test 20 years ago when I was tossed a box of condoms and told to “try and live a decent life” before going home to wait two excruciating weeks for the results. Yet, old and persistent barriers like gross inequities in access to care, stigma and a lack of culturally competent strategies stand in our way.
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Call for Video Proposals: Day With(out) Art 2022
May 19, 2021 - By Visual AIDS - Visual AIDS invites artists and filmmakers to submit proposals for new video works for Day With(out) Art 2022.
Visual AIDS has organized Day With(out) Art every year since 1989, coordinating art museums, galleries, and nonprofits across the world to present programs in response to the AIDS crisis. Since 2015, Visual AIDS has commissioned short videos from artists and activists to be distributed and screened at over 100 venues worldwide on/around December 1, World AIDS Day.
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3 of the best at-home HIV tests: Options, considerations, and more
May 19, 2021 - At-home medical testing is becoming more popular, and people can now purchase HIV tests to take at home. Studies have found numerous benefits to home HIV testing, stating that they can be accurate. However, there has been no definite conclusion on the accuracy of home HIV tests to date.
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"30 Chairs For 30 Years" A Collection Of 30 Chairs Curated By Top Designers To Commemorate Housing Works' 30th Anniversary
NEW YORK, May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON CHAIRISH STARTING MAY 22 AS PART OF THE THE 2021 DESIGN ON A DIME BENEFIT
ADDITIONAL DESIGNERS ADDED TO STYLE IN-STORE + ONLINE COLLECTIONS
THREE-DAY SHOPPING EVENT | MAY 20-MAY 22 IN-STORE @ HOUSING WORKS' SOHO, GRAMERCY + BOOKSTORE LOCATIONS
NEW YORK, May 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Housing Works, in honor of its 30th anniversary, is introducing an exciting new component, "30 Chairs for 30 Years," to its highly anticipated annual Design an a Dime fundraiser being held May 20-22, 2021. Founded by designer James Huniford, Design on a Dime brings together the industry's most recognized interior experts to design and curate vignettes featuring an exceptional assortment of luxury home decor, furnishings, and art that will be sold at deep discounts. This year's event will take place in-store at three of Housing Works' retail locations–the Bookstore, Soho Thrift Shop and Gramercy Thrift Shop as well as online at the Housing Works new eShop.
Billy Porter reveals he is HIV-positive, breaking 14-year silence: 'The truth is the healing'
May 19, 2021 - BY BILLY PORTER, AS TOLD TO LACEY ROSE - Billy Porter is breaking his silence about being HIV-positive.
In an emotional interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Wednesday, the "Pose" star opened up about his diagnosis 14 years ago, the "shame" surrounding it and why he decided to share his story.
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The Art of Shaving Launches Campaign to Support Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
NEW YORK, May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Campaign features Broadway stars Adam Perry, Alex Wong, L. Steven Taylor, Michael Arden, and Miguel Cervantes
The Art of Shaving, the barbers-endorsed men's luxury grooming brand, announced today their partnership with New York-based charitable organization Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The Art of Shaving has donated $75,000 to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The brand will also donate 25 percent of the sales of every GilletteLabs Heated Razor sold in June, up to $25,000, bringing the total support of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS to $100,000.
Nation's Largest Blood Centers Conducting Innovative Research That Could Help Lead to Additional Changes in Donor Eligibility for Men Who Have Sex with Men
MAY 18, 2021- Participants Age 18 to 39 Needed in Eight Communities
Three of the nation's largest blood centers have launched a pilot study through a contract funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that could potentially lead to changes to blood donor eligibility for men who have sex with men.
Vitalant, OneBlood and the American Red Cross, together representing approximately 60% of the blood supply in the United States, are conducting the ADVANCE study, which stands for Assessing Donor Variability And New Concepts in Eligibility. Participants who are 18 to 39 years old are needed in eight communities as the study ramps up.
New Vaccine Approaches Show Early Promise for HIV
May 18, 2021 - Liz Highleyman - Two experimental vaccine approaches, using mRNA protein delivery and germline targeting, are in the early stages of development.
After more than three decades of research, scientists have had little success developing vaccines to prevent HIV. But advances in vaccine science—including those that led to the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines—could offer hope for the future.
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Fighting to End the Invisibility of Women With HIV
MAY 18, 2021 - BY JEFFREY MASTERS - For years, the public face of the HIV epidemic has been made up almost entirely of white gay men. There have been a few prominent exceptions, like Magic Johnson and Ryan White, but the bulk of HIV prevention and care was directed at this single community, allowing it to spread at devastating rates in other populations.
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40 Years Later: The Denialism That Shaped The AIDS Epidemic
May 18, 2021 - NOEL KING - It's been four decades since the first U.S. AIDS cases were reported. Some people who experienced the early years of the crisis say the effects of denialism have carried into the COVID-19 pandemic.
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A Proclamation on National Hepatitis Testing Day, 2021
MAY 18, 2021 - PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS - Our efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year have reinforced many public health lessons, including the importance of communication, community engagement, and a comprehensive testing strategy to reduce the spread of infection. These same lessons hold true for another epidemic affecting our Nation: the silent epidemic of viral hepatitis. Viral hepatitis is a serious, preventable public health threat that puts people who are infected at increased risk for serious disease and death. When left undiagnosed and untreated, hepatitis B and hepatitis C can cause liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, and even early death.
CTV Windsor's Stefanie Masotti wins RTDNA award for World AIDS Day story
WINDSOR, ONT. - May 18, 2021 - Lindsay Charlton - CTV Windsor reporter Stefanie Masotti has won a Regional Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Central Region award for her feature Devastating Loss: Family’s Struggle with AIDS.
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HIV UNMUTED
May 18, 2021 - It has been 40 years since AIDS was first reported. HIV unmuted, the IAS podcast, talks to the global HIV change makers who have shaped the response and asks what we must do to end the AIDS epidemic.
Listen now to Episode 1 with Dr Anthony Fauci
Before the Storm: The Inside Story of the Earliest News Coverage on HIV/AIDS
May 18, 2021 - Mathew Rodriguez - An Interview With Larry Mass, M.D.
This year, many people will honor and observe an important milestone in the HIV/AIDS epidemic: Namely, that 40 years ago on June 5, the Centers for Disease Control published the infamous Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that first spoke about cases of pneumocystis pneumonia that would later be recognized as the first documented conditions related to AIDS. A month later, The New York Times published its own first article about AIDS.
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HIV Vaccine Awareness Day 2021
May 18, 2021 - By Trenton Straube - AVAC’s theme for HVAD 2021 is “HIV Vaccine Research: Building on Lessons from COVID.”
Tuesday, May 18, marks HIV Vaccine Awareness Day (#HVAD) 2021. It’s designated as a time to thank the researchers, community leaders, health professionals and volunteers working to develop a vaccine to prevent HIV/AIDS. It’s also a day to educate the public about advancements in vaccine research and raise awareness about the need for an HIV vaccine (sample social media posts are embedded throughout this article).
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40 Years of Progress – It’s Time to End the HIV Epidemic
May 18, 2021 - NOEL KING - June 5 will mark the 40th anniversary of the first official reported five cases of what later became known as AIDS in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). The U.S government and its domestic and international partners will commemorate this important milestone and also observe HIV Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day the same day. The United Nations (UN) High-Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS follows these observances June 8–10, where the UN General Assembly will review the global progress made in reducing the impact of HIV and is expected to adopt a political declaration to guide the future direction of the HIV response around the world.
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New combination immunotherapy plus ART expand innate cells critical to controlling HIV
ATLANTA - 17-MAY-2021 - Yerkes National Primate Research Center researchers in collaboration with Institut Pasteur have determined a combination immunotherapy of Interleukin-21 (IL-21) and interferon alpha (IFN?) when added to antiviral therapy (ART) is effective in generating highly functional natural killer (NK) cells that can help control and reduce simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in animal models. This finding, published online today in Nature Communications, is key for developing additional treatment options to control HIV/AIDS, which impacts 38 million people worldwide.
Brad Fraser All the Rage Virtual Edmonton Book Launch
17 May 2021 - Tue, May 18, 2021, 4:00 PM PDT
Former Edmontonian playwright Brad Fraser discusses his new memoir, All the Rage and his rise to fame amid the terrors of the AIDS era.
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Two times a year is better than four: people spend less time off ART if they only visit their clinic every six months, African study shows
17 May 2021 - Gus Cairns - A cluster-randomised study in Zambia and Malawi has confirmed that patients with stable, non-complicated HIV infection are less likely to have gaps in their supply of antiretroviral therapy (ART) if they only visit their clinic and get their medication every six months instead of every three months or less.
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Queen makes Trini trans-woman a Point of Light
May 17, 2021 - JADA LOUTOO - TRINIDADIAN Brandy Rodriguez was recognised on Monday by Queen Elizabeth II for her exceptional service supporting the trans community and LGBT+ rights, with her award coinciding with International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.
A release from the British High Commission said Rodriguez was bestowed the180th Commonwealth Point of Light.
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Controversial Quebec singer who denied COVID-19, HIV/AIDS, dies
17 May 2021 - Elianna Lev - A controversial Quebec singer who used his platform to share conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS, has died.
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In Memoriam: Jahaira DeAlto Balenciaga
MAY 14, 2021 - Beloved activist and artist Jahaira DeAlto Balenciaga died May 2 at the age of 42 years old. Her death is a devastating loss for countless members of the greater Boston LGBTQ community who looked up to her. She was the 21st transgender woman to be murdered in the United States this year.
Guelph HIV/AIDS care nurse wins national award
May 16, 2021 - By: Richard Vivian - ARCH’s Deanna Clatworthy receives award of excellence from Canadian Association of Nurses in HIV/AIDS Care
Her plaque is coming in the mail due to the pandemic, but Deanna Clatworthy will soon have a new award recognizing her efforts as an HIV/AIDS care nurse.
The HIV/AIDS Resources and Community Health (ARCH) clinic manager was announced Saturday as this year’s recipient of the Jill Sullivan Award for Excellence in Clinical Practice from the Canadian Association of Nurses in HIV/AIDS Care (CANAC).
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Health Ministry unveils number of HIV patients in Azerbaijan
16 May 2021 - By Vafa Ismayilova - Azerbaijan's Health Ministry has made public the number of AIDS/HIV patients registered in the country in the past 34 years.
"A total of 7,449 people living with HIV are officially registered at the Republican AIDS Centre. Of them, 5,198 (69.8%) are men and 2,251 (30.2%) are women. The number of citizens living with AIDS is 1,889, and the number of people who died of HIV infection is 1,119," the Health Ministry reported on its website on May 16.
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Trans activist and AIDS survivor Felicia Elizondo dies
May 15, 2021 - by Cynthia Laird - Felicia "Flames" Elizondo, a transgender woman and longtime AIDS survivor, died Saturday, May 15. She was 74.
According to friends and social media posts, Ms. Elizondo was in hospice care in San Francisco at the Veterans Administration Hospital.
Ms. Elizondo was a fixture in the San Francisco LGBTQ community for many years.
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‘People were just disappearing': Scot with HIV speaks out about AIDs crisis
May 15, 2021 - By Jim Murty - BILLY Thomson drinks out of whichever cup is on the draining board in the family home these days and that’s the way he likes it. It means that his HIV is understood.
Thomson, a 62-year-old living well specialist with Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland, has been living with HIV for 11-and-a-half years and has seen first hand how attitudes have changed in that time.
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Artists tell the stories behind 4 art installations that will anchor Seattle’s AIDS Memorial Pathway
May 15, 2021 - By Megan Burbank - This summer, a busy corridor on Capitol Hill will be home to the AIDS Memorial Pathway, a new permanent installation marking the legacy of the AIDS crisis in the Northwest through the work of local artists and designers Christopher Paul Jordan, Storme Webber, Horatio Hung-Yan Law and design studio Civilization.
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Talking about a decade of kudos and AIDS and laughter and plays, celebrated Toronto playwright Brad Fraser rages against the dying of the bright lights
May 15, 2021 - By Bert Archer - His early influences were Peter Gabriel and Bruce Springsteen. He grew up poor, with profoundly unsupportive parents, and he didn’t go to university. When he’d had enough success to be interviewed, he said — in these very pages — that though he thought government grants were great, writers should really find a commercially viable audience. He survived physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, but was more interested in writing from it than about it, more interested in the places it elbowed him into than in the trauma itself. He had sex with men and women, and over time increasingly men, but kept on making most of his characters not-gay, while making them all distressingly sexual. His subject matter was lurid, but his quippiness was polished to a neo-Quentin Crispiness that critics literally did not know what to do with, but people loved. He wrote prosthetic erections and concentration camp newsreel backdrops — in the same play — and didn’t see a thing wrong with it.
Award-winning photographer Kurt Weston on surviving two pandemics
May 15, 2021 - By Alina Oswald - Kurt Weston: Portraits through time
I came across Kurt Weston’s photographic work in 2005. I’ve had the chance to interview him over the years, including for a biography, Journeys Through Darkness, which follows his journeys through the darkness of HIV and AIDS, and of losing most of his eyesight to the virus, and learned a lot from his inspiring story of survival, as well as from his art.
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New Pre-Clinical Model Could Hold the Key to Better HIV Treatments
MAY 14, 2021 - A team led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Children’s National Hospital has developed a unique pre-clinical model that enables the study of long-term HIV infection, and the testing of new therapies aimed at curing the disease.
Thirty Years and Counting
May 14, 2021 - By Christopher Reilly - Christopher Reilly is proof you can survive.
It was a newspaper headline that changed the course of my life. In July 1991, a Newsday article confirmed for me the fear of every gay man: A former lover had tested positive for HIV. “Patients of AIDS Dentist Seek Tests” was the headline. I wasn’t just Dr. Feldman’s patient; I had been his sexual partner. My positive result a few days later catapulted me into a new landscape, unchartered territory, a journey with no road map. I was only 26 years old. My journey continues today. I’m now in my 50s and I am grateful. There are so many others, infected before me and after me, who sprinted from diagnosis to death.
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Playwright Brad Fraser’s new memoir fans the flames ?of his provocative legacy
May 14, 2021 - Brad Fraser is not a psychic, though people have often suspected otherwise. He explains that his keen intuition was developed as a child, reading his parents’ mercurial moods. “When you are raised as I was by parents who you’re constantly second-guessing, who don’t tell you what they’re really feeling, who expect you to know what’s going on inside, as a young child you learn to read the signs,” he says.
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Canada’s Bruce House Readily Adapts to Its Clients’ Changing Needs
May 14, 2021 - Bruce House in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, has been serving individuals living with HIV and AIDS for 33 years, and in this interview, Doug Cooper, former manager of client programs and services, discusses the history of the organization.
Bruce House in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, has been serving individuals living with HIV and AIDS for 33 years. Here we speak with Doug Cooper, former manager of client programs and services, who worked at Bruce House for 28 years, progressing from part-time to full-time employee to team leader and management. He was also a caregiver at Bruce House’s transition house in the early 1990s.
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AIDS cases surge
May 14, 2021 - By Red Mendoza - The Philippines is in the midst of a “new wave” of HIV/AIDS — human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome — cases that have spread mostly among young people.
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9TH Symposium on HIV, Law, and Human Rights
May 14, 2021 - A VIRTUAL EVENT
HITTING THE MARK: ENDING THE HIV PANDEMIC BY REALIZING RIGHTS FOR PEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS
The HIV Legal Network’s Symposium on HIV, Law, and Human Rights is back for its 9th edition, and you’re invited!
Please join us on Thursday, June 17th for Hitting the Mark: Ending the HIV pandemic by realizing rights for people who use drugs — a free, virtual event that will examine Canada’s current reality and what needs to be done to achieve global targets and eventually overcome this decades-long public health challenge.
Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik: Courage and Hope in the Face of Global Pandemics
May 14, 2021 - The threat of the COVID-19 global pandemic is terrifying on its own. What many of us may not realize is that millions of people are simultaneously fighting a second pandemic caused by HIV/AIDS. In these dark times, people will look to sources of light to help them navigate through these tough experiences. For residents of Guelph and people around the world, Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik has been their source of hope and guidance. Her courage in the face of COVID-19 and her tireless efforts at helping HIV/AIDS patients shows that two pandemics will not prevent her from being the leader that everyone needs.
CAHR2021 Virtual - Official Opening & Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Mark Wainberg Lecture
Premiered May 13, 2021 - CAHRACRV - Official CAHR 2021 Virtual Opening/CAHR-CANFAR Excellence Awards/CAHR Red Ribbon Award/Dr. Mark Wainberg Lecture
Dr Anthony Fauci: Lessons from the Concurrent HIV/AIDS and COVID-19
Pandemics/Leçons tirées de pandémies simultanées : VIH et COVID-19
CAHR2021 - Symposium- Together We Can Stop The Virus/Ensemble, nous pouvons stopper le virus
May 13, 2021 - CAHRACRV - A collaborative panel discussion on the efforts being made in Canada to stop the spread of HIV. With topics focussing on prevention, treatment, social determinants of health, and the future, the panel will discuss and debate what is working, what is not and how we can jointly work together towards our shared goal of eliminating HIV. The panel, which will consist of health care professionals and a community representative, will provide different perspectives about working towards elimination in Canada.
CAHR2021 - Symposium -The Voice of PLHIV in Treatment Decisions
May 13, 2021 - CAHRACRV - The Voice of PLHIV in Treatment Decisions
/ La voix des PVVIH dans les décisions thérapeutiques
CAHR2021 - Symposium - Take it to Heart Managing Cadiovascular Risk in People Living with HIV
May 13, 2021 - CAHRACRV - Take it to Heart: Managing Cardiovascular Risk in People Living with HIV
/ De tout cœur : Gestion du risque cardiovasculaire chez les personnes vivant avec le VIH
CAHR2021 - Special Session I - At the Intersection of Multiple Pandemics
May 13, 2021 - CAHRACRV - At the Intersection of Multiple Pandemics: Colonialism, Racism, Overdose Crisis, Gender-Based Violence, and COVID-19: A panel discussion/Séance spéciale : Au croisement de multi-pandémies : Colonialisme, racisme, crise des opioïdes, violence sexospécifique et COVID-19 : tribune-discussion
Guelph HIV/AIDS care nurse a finalist for national award
May 13, 2021 - By: Richard Vivian - ARCH clinic manager Deanna Clatworthy in the running for CANAC award of excellence
The efforts of a Guelph and area HIV/AIDS care nurse have earned her a nod from peers throughout the country.
Deanna Clatworthy is a finalist for the Jill Sullivan Award for Excellence in Clinical Practice from the Canadian Association of Nurses in HIV/AIDS Care (CANAC).
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HIV survivors’ stories show the loss, resilience and activism of the early years of AIDS pandemic
May 13, 2021 - It has been 40 years since the onset of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The International AIDS Candlelight Memorial is a time not only to remember the many lives lost to AIDS, but also to reflect on the stories of long-term survivors and caregivers.
These stories must inform our practical response to HIV today both in policy and for social equity. The wisdom of these stories can also improve our responses to COVID-19, future pandemics and other contemporary crises.
Enochian BioSciences announces Scientific Presentation of a Person with HIV Exhibiting Controlled Blood Levels of Virus for 255 Days Following Treatment with a Novel Cellular Therapy
LOS ANGELES, May 12, 2021 (NASDAQ: ENOB) - Enochian BioSciences, Inc., a company focused on gene-modified cellular and immune therapies in infectious diseases and cancer, today announced the release of preliminary data relating to the use of a novel cell therapy approach in controlling human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in humans. Dr. Serhat Gumrukçu, co-founder and inventor of Enochian BioSciences and Director of the Seraph Research Institute (SRI), presented the findings at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT).
Sister Roma: Cover Story
May 13, 2021 - By: Hank Trout - Sister Roma of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Fights HIV & Stigma
by Hank Trout
Photographed Exclusively for A&U by Saul Bromberger & Sandra Hoover Photography
The World's Most Photographed Nun
Her full name, of course, is Sister There’s No Place Like Rome.
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Non-profit providing free HIV self-test kits to gay, bisexual, transgender, 2-spirit and non-binary people
May 12, 2021 - Community-Based Research Centre offering up to 3 kits to eligible participants who complete an online survey
British Columbians who identify as non-binary, as well as men who identify as gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit or queer, can now receive up to three HIV self-test kits in the mail from a Canadian health advocacy organization.
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Virtual AIDS Walk Slated for May 16
May 12, 2021 - By Tat Bellamy-Walker- More than a half-dozen cities are collaborating for a virtual “AIDS Walk: Live at Home” event on May 16 featuring a star-studded slate of celebrities eager to raise money for HIV/AIDS service organizations.
New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, Austin, Milwaukee, and Seattle are participating in the event, which will be broadcast live at 1p.m. EST on May 16 on AIDSWalk.net. The event is being led by GMHC New York and the AIDS Walk San Francisco Foundation.
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A Promising Approach To HIV Cell Therapy, With Exciting Preliminary Results, Was Presented Recently At The Leading Conference On Gene And Cell Therapy
LOS ANGELES, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- (NASDAQ: ENOB) - A novel approach to HIV cell therapy developed by Dr. Serhat Gumrukçu (Dr. Serhat), Director of the Seraph Research Institute (SRI), and his team was presented yesterday as a new approach to treating HIV in humans. The research findings and developments were presented at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) to thousands of industry attendees.
COVID-19: make it the last pandemic
GENEVA, 12 May 2021 - UNAIDS strongly welcomes the report and recommendations of the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR). Amongst others, the panel calls for the establishment of a Global Health Threats Council with participation at the highest political level to coordinate global action against pandemics and secure agreement between governments in aligning efforts to tackle the health, social and economic challenges of major pandemics.
Toronto Living With AIDS (1990-1991)
May 11, 2021 - by by AIDS Activist History - Ryan Conrad, a long-time member of the AAHP team, has recently published an article titled “Cable Access Queer: Revisiting Toronto Living With AIDS (1990-1991)” in the open-access media studies journal Jump Cut. The article analyzes the Canadian AIDS activist community television series Toronto Living With AIDS and provides insight into how this extraordinary program came to be, how it was received by various imagined publics, how it ended, and why revisiting this series is useful for today’s video activists. The article contains nearly 100 images and archival documents about the public access show and AIDS activist media in Canada.
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AIDS activism by the book: 'Let the Record Show' captures a movement's rise and decline
May 11, 2021 - by Jim Provenzano - In the lengthy Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993, author Sarah Schulman documents and analyzes the ideals, actions, successes and failures of the people who made up the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power, specifically the first chapter in New York City, from its early days to its diminution in the early 1990s.
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People living with HIV more likely to get sick with, die from COVID-19
HERSHEY, Pa. - May 11, 2021 - Tracy Cox -Over the past year, studies have revealed that certain pre-existing conditions, such as cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure, can increase a person’s risk of dying from COVID-19. New research shows that individuals living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) — an estimated 38 million worldwide, according to the World Health Organization — have an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and fatal outcomes from COVID-19.
NATIONAL COALITION COMPRISED OF PEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS AND DRUG POLICY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS DECRY SERIOUS FLAWS IN “VANCOUVER MODEL” AND CALL FOR CHANGE
Vancouver, B.C. - May 11, 2021—A system designed ‘by’ police is ‘for’ police, not the people it was intended to help.
A broad-based Canada-wide coalition of human rights, drug policy, community, and drug user organizations are raising serious concerns about a proposed model for drug decriminalization that will be submitted to the federal government for approval. If adopted, the flawed “Vancouver Model,” as proposed by the City of Vancouver, could be a precedent-setting policy change—the first of its kind in Canada—that could pave the way for other cities to follow suit, including communities in Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec among others. It is therefore critical that this initial model gets decriminalization right by centering the health and rights of people who use drugs, as well as the needs of their loved ones and communities.
Bob Bowers HIV/AIDS Activist, Long-Term SURVIVOR, n’ Educator
May 11, 2021 - Bob Bowers, also known as “Da Pirate,” or “One Tough Pirate,” is a 38-year thriving survivor of HIV/AIDS. To broaden his message of survival, youth prevention through education, hope and compassion, he founded HIVictorious, Inc. ® in 2005. As an HIV positive speaker, Bob knows first-hand the importance of putting a face to the disease in hopes of reducing AIDS stigma.
How ACT UP Shook the Straight Power Structure
MAY 11, 2021 - BY JEFFREY MASTERS - The accomplishments of the direct-action HIV organization, ACT UP, are staggering.
Over the course of six years, from 1987 to 1993, ACT UP designed a fast-track system where those who were sick could access unapproved experimental drugs, ran a four-year campaign to force the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change its definition of those at risk for AIDS to include women, made needle exchange legal in New York City, started Housing Works, a service for homeless people with HIV that exists to this day, ended insurance exclusion for people with AIDS, reconceptualized what effective treatment looks like, and in the process redefined how the world thought about people with HIV and the larger LGBTQ+ community.
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Elton John and Years & Years – It’s a Sin (BRIT Awards 2021 Performance)
May 11, 2021 - Elton John and Years & Years BRIT Awards 2021 performance of the Pet Shop Boys classic single ‘It’s a Sin’.
A very special new version of the song has been released in support of Elton John AIDS Foundation.
There’s a Precedent for Overriding Patents on Vital Medications
May 11, 2021 - More than 20 years ago, South Africa, frustrated with the high cost of AIDS drugs, passed a law giving the state the right to import cheap generic versions without permission from patent holders.
The AIDS Walk is this weekend.
The idea of voiding patents on Covid-19 vaccines so poorer countries can have access to them—which President Joe Biden has proposed—sounds radical, but it’s been done before.
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AIDS Walk: Medical Experts Concerned About Long-Term Impact Of COVID-19 Pandemic On Battle Against HIV/AIDS
May 11, 2021 - By Hazel Sanchez - NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - The AIDS Walk is this weekend.
The world’s focus on fighting the coronavirus pandemic may have derailed progress in the battle to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
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Therapeutic Vaccines May Help Control HIV Off Treatment
May 10, 2021 - By Liz Highleyman - HTI vaccines could become the backbone of a combination approach for achieving a functional cure.
A set of therapeutic vaccines that help the immune system control HIV may contribute to prolonged viral suppression after interrupting antiretroviral treatment, researchers reported at the recent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). Although this work is still in its early stages, HTI vaccines might one day become part of a combination strategy for achieving a functional cure.
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David Zwirner Plans Exhibition Series to Mark AIDS Pandemic’s Beginning
May 10, 2021 - BY MAXIMILÍANO DURÓN - To mark 40th anniversary of the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, when the CDC published the first scientific acknowledgement of what we know now as HIV/AIDS in 1981, David Zwirner gallery will host a series of exhibitions over the next few months. Under the title “More Life,” it will spotlight the work of artists who died of AIDS-related causes. Many of these artists have rarely been the subject of major surveys.
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Rita Moreno, Billy Porter And More Join AIDS Walk: Live At Home Streaming Event May 16th
May 10, 2021 - by Stephen Mosher - Just recently a legendary show business talent joined the lineup of the special event.
Broadway World Cabaret has learned of a virtual event taking place on May 16th that will benefit a cause that has, long, been at the heart of every person working in show business, whether their chosen venue is the theatrical stage, the nightclub stage, or the soundstage - the ongoing fight against AIDS. Though medical advancements and charitable organizations have made a great deal of change in the lives of people living with AIDS and HIV, the ongoing quest to help those in need is unending. Thanks to events like AIDS WALK: LIVE AT HOME and many others, that quest continues to help those families.
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Gables Museum exhibit traces 40 years of living with AIDS
May 10, 2021 - In April, the Clear Health Alliance, a specialized Medicaid plan that supports better health for people living with HIV/AIDS in Florida, opened a three-month long exhibition, “A Matter of Time: Examining Forty Years of AIDS While Living through a Pandemic,” at the Coral Gables Museum.
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Insignia and Partners Support CDC Demonstration Project for Uptake of Self-test Kits for HIV
FALLS CHURCH, Va., May 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Free At-Home HIV Testing Kits
Insignia Federal Group, LLC, along with partners Building Healthy Online Communities (BHOC), Emory University, Keymind (a Division of Axiom Resource Management), and OraSure Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSUR), was selected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to distribute 100,000 HIV self-test kits -- mailed in discreet packaging, at no charge, to individuals who request them.
Beyond the Headlines: How Covid-19 mRNA research could cure HIV and cancer
May 10, 2021 - Within months of the emergence of coronavirus in late 2019 drug companies around the world were racing for a vaccine.
Within a year, shots were being delivered into people’s arms.
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Let’s drop the term ‘patient zero’, for history’s sake
May 9, 2021 - By Joshua Badge and Emil Cañita - “Patient zero was misappropriated by a journalist who created this story of a ‘vile homosexual’ who was out there to infect everyone,” explains Phil Carswell, a founding member of the Victorian AIDS Council (now Thorne Harbour Health).
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Gay man faced ‘probable death’ after positive HIV test in 1991. 30 years on, he’s thriving – and saving lives
May 9, 2021 - PATRICK KELLEHER - Derek Frost was filled with “terrible dread” when he received a phone call from his partner, Jeremy Norman, in April 1991.
Jeremy phoned from Miami to tell Derek that he was feeling unwell. He had a pain in his throat and he had developed sores around his mouth that just wouldn’t go away. Both men knew what these symptoms meant: after years of dodging HIV, the virus had come knocking at their door. Jeremy ultimately tested positive for HIV, while Derek – by some stroke of luck – tested negative.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci Among Recipients of 2021 Dan David Prize Honoring Laureates in Public Health & Medicine
May 9, 2021 - The Dan David Prize was awarded today, Sunday (May 9, 2021), to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci. He will share the prestigious award along with fellow distinguished health and medical scholars and researchers, reflecting the global focus on the COVID-19 crisis and the immense efforts the scientific community continues to undertake for the betterment of global health.
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Hero of the other pandemic
May 9, 2021 - Medical professionals on the frontlines of the COVID-19 battle in this country should today pause just long enough to draw inspiration from a national hero whose pioneering work during another pandemic earned international acclaim.
Professor Courtenay Felix Bartholomew, a physician and medical researcher died yesterday at age 89, leaving behind a body of work that contributed significantly to advances in the diagnosis and treatment of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (Aids).
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AIDS and COVID: A tale of two pandemics and the role of statisticians
May 8, 2021 - The world has experienced three global pandemics over the last half-century: HIV/AIDS, H1N1, and COVID-19. HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 are still with us and have wrought extensive havoc worldwide.
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AIDS Walk San Francisco is in its 35th year
May 7, 2021 - ABC7 News anchor Reggie Aqui talked with Robert Mansfield, Foundation Board Member, AIDS Walk San Francisco, and Monica Gandhi, M.D., Infectious Disease Specialist, UCSF.
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As overdose deaths climb, new supervised consumption site still months away
LONDON, ONT. - May 7, 2021 - Daryl Newcombe - The severity of the opioid crisis is no surprise to those who have lost friends and family to overdoses.
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Memorial for Timothy Brown, first person cured of HIV, planned in Palm Springs
May 6, 2021 - Maria Sestito
- Timothy Ray Brown, the first known person to be cured of HIV, will be memorialized in Palm Springs on Friday.
Brown died of cancer in his Palm Springs home on Sept. 29, 2020. He was 54 years old.
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HIV Cases are up in NC, even as testing is down amid the pandemic
May 6, 2021 - by Hannah Critchfield - “There are a lot of other diagnoses out there waiting to happen.”
Even as vaccines temper the spread of the novel coronavirus in the United States, North Carolina advocates gathered to remind lawmakers that the country remains in the middle of another pandemic.
The South is ground zero for new HIV cases within the United States, and the Tar Heel state is no exception.
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Scrapping gay sex bans key to fighting HIV, says UNAIDS ambassador
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - May 6, 2021 - By Hugo Greenhalgh - Scrapping gay sex bans around the world is vital to fighting the spread of HIV because it would encourage more people to get tested, Britain’s former health minister during the 1980s AIDS crisis said on Thursday.
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Rethinking Power and Who Holds It: An Interview With Positive Women’s Network Co-Director Venita Ray
May 5, 2021 - Terri Wilder, M.S.W .- No longer tied to the traditional single-executive-director model, nonprofit organizations are starting to rethink the idea that one person has to lead. For many, that means questioning whether their single leader–led organization is upholding some outdated practices that participate in and reinforce oppression. Some are finding that top-down leadership is a contradiction to the work that they do as community-based organizations working to elevate the voices of marginalized people and communities, while others are thoughtfully centering Black and Brown people and other people of color (POC) in leadership positions.
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Renowned infectious diseases expert Dr Rajendra Kapila, 81, dies of Covid-19
Ghaziabad: May 5, 2021 - By Ashni Dhaor - Dr Kapila worked extensively on HIV-AIDS, trained many people in the field and practised at Rutgers University for 50 years.
Renowned infectious disease specialist and Rutgers University professor Dr Rajendra Kapila passed away in Delhi on April 28 after having tested positive for Covid-19 on April 8. He was 81.
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HIV status does not affect immune responses to Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, two studies show
5 May 2021 - Keith Alcorn - Two studies of immune responses to the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine show that the vaccine produced similar immune responses in people with or without HIV. People with HIV did not experience more side effects from the vaccine.
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Providing parents with HIV testing kits to screen children ‘feasible and accurate’
05 May 2021 - Research with around 400 parents and caregivers in Zimbabwe found the majority performed HIV tests accurately, even without a demonstration.
A study in Zimbabwe that gave parents and caregivers HIV testing kits to use on their children found most used the kits correctly. Having the test demonstrated beforehand slightly improved performance, but most caregivers used the kits accurately without support.
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Statement from the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima on the decision by the United States of America to support the TRIPS waiver for COVID-19 vaccines
5 May 2021 - I applaud the announcement from United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai supporting the waiving of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines.
This is the kind of global leadership the world desperately needs as we witness horrific scenes in countries like India, where only nine in 100 people have been vaccinated. To date, more than 1.1 billion doses of vaccine have been administered globally, but more than 80% of those have been administered in high- and upper-middle income countries, while just 0.3% have been administered in low-income countries.
Activists concerned over removal of D.C. AIDS office executive
May 5, 2021 - By Lou Chibbaro Jr. - Dept. of Health declines to explain abrupt replacement of Kharfen
Patrick O’Connell, who as the founding director of Visual AIDS, an advocacy group that supports artists living with the disease, helped shatter the stigma surrounding AIDS in the 1990s with awareness campaigns including the ubiquitous red ribbon, died on March 23 at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 67.
His brother, Barry, confirmed the death, from AIDS-related causes. Mr. O’Connell lived with AIDS for almost 40 years.
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'We Were ACT UP': New Book Celebrates Unsung Heroes of AIDS Crisis
MAY 04 2021 - BY MARCIE BIANCO - Sarah Schulman's Let the Record Show is a meticulously crafted history of the activist movement that rose out of the AIDS epidemic.
Let the Record Show is a stunning achievement. In this meticulously crafted history of ACT UP New York, Sarah Schulman invites readers “to imagine ourselves as potentially effective activists and supporters no matter who we are.” Offering this history to activists today as a handbook of lessons learned from ACT UP’s successes and failures, Schulman illustrates how social movements of the past inform those of the present and how we all have the power to move beyond bearing witness to acting up to help those in need.
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Mobile gaming app enhances HIV care
4-MAY-2021 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University promote better health through gamification
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University improved HIV care by gamifying it with a mobile gaming application.
Gaming features - like those used to drive airline loyalty and track daily steps --- helped young men living with HIV achieve viral suppression and doubled their chances for reaching near perfect adherence to medication plans, according to a study in AIDS and Behavior.
A trait of the rare few whose bodies naturally control HIV: "trained" immune cells
Boston - 4-MAY-2021 - Scientists at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard discover that "elite controllers" have myeloid dendritic cells that display characteristics of trained innate immune cells.
Immunity often calls to mind the adaptive immune response, made up of antibodies and T cells that learn to fight specific pathogens after infection or vaccination. But the immune system also has an innate immune response, which uses a set number of techniques to provide a swift, non-specialized response against pathogens or support the adaptive immune response.
Forty years of nursing science in HIV/AIDS: JANAC marks progress and challenges
May 4, 2021 - Cabenuva (cabotegravir/rilpivrine), the first and only From the very beginning of the AIDS epidemic in 1981, nurses have been at the forefront of patient care, advocacy, and research. But even in the age of antiretroviral therapy and pre-exposure prophylaxis, many challenges remain in reducing the impact of HIV and AIDS, according to the special May/June issue of The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (JANAC). The official journal of the , JANAC is published in the Lippincott portfolio by .
HIV Medicines Among Latest Hard-to-Find Drugs Available Through AllianceRx Walgreens Prime
ORLANDO, Fla. – May 4, 2021 - Cabenuva (cabotegravir/rilpivrine), the first and only once-monthly complete injectable treatment is available through AllianceRx Walgreens Prime for adults living with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Manufactured for ViiV Healthcare by GlaxoSmithKline, Cabenuva provides an alternative to patients who relied on a daily oral treatment regimen.
What’s Happening With New HIV Treatments? Three Big Areas to Watch
May 3, 2021 - Michael Broder - The present-day HIV treatment toolbox is well stocked. More than 30 antiretroviral therapies (ARTs) available in an ever-growing array of drug classes means people living with HIV (PLWH) can manage the virus with just one pill once a day. Treatments are not only safe and effective, but tolerable and convenient, with minimal side effects or dietary requirements. Nevertheless, there are many PLWH whose virus is resistant to most if not all available treatments and who need access to new drugs in existing classes, or drugs in completely novel classes, in order to continue living a healthy life with HIV.
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Mom and Son Are Both LGBTQ Ministers Honored for Their HIV Work
May 3, 2021 - By Trenton Straube - The duo runs Relationships Unleashed, a Black-led LGBTQ group in Tennessee that helps folks living with HIV.
Gwendolyn Clemens lost a transgender sister to AIDS in 1991. She didn’t want to see another family endure that ordeal, so in 2014, she and her son, Davin, founded Relationships Unleased, a Black-led nonprofit in Memphis that focuses on helping people living with HIV/AIDS. This spring, the 32nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards, which honor fair and accurate LGBTQ representations in the media, shined a spotlight on Gwendolyn and Davin, both of whom are ministers and identify as LGBTQ.
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The four-decade quest for an HIV vaccine yields new hope
MAY 3, 2021 - While the reality is far more nuanced than recent hype suggests, a breakthrough strategy is finally offering fresh tools for battling this devastating virus.
When virologist José Esparza began working with the World Health Organization to combat the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, he and many of his colleagues were convinced that a vaccine would be the solution—and that it would come quickly.
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Patrick O’Connell, 67, Dies; Raised Awareness of AIDS With Art
May 3, 2021 - By Alex Vadukul - As the founding director of Visual AIDS, he helped develop campaigns including “Day Without Art” and, most notably, the ubiquitous red ribbon.
Patrick O’Connell, who as the founding director of Visual AIDS, an advocacy group that supports artists living with the disease, helped shatter the stigma surrounding AIDS in the 1990s with awareness campaigns including the ubiquitous red ribbon, died on March 23 at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 67.
His brother, Barry, confirmed the death, from AIDS-related causes. Mr. O’Connell lived with AIDS for almost 40 years.
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Long-Term Survivors Of HIV/AIDS Reflect: ‘We’re On The Fast Lane Of Getting Old’
Mar 2, 2020 - By Grace Birnstengel - (Editor’s note: This story is part of Still Here, Still Positive: A series on the first generation of Americans aging with HIV/AIDS, with support from The John A. Hartford Foundation.)
More than 500,000 people over 50 in the U.S. are growing older with the human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) that, if untreated, cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS.
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CytoDyn HIV Indication Update: Leronlimab HIV Extension Arm Nearing 7 Years with Continued Excellent Safety Results
VANCOUVER, Washington, May 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Following the successful conclusion of three clinical trials, approximately 120 patients continue treatment with leronlimab in extension arms
CytoDyn Inc. (OTC.QB: CYDY), (“CytoDyn” or the “Company"), a late-stage biotechnology company developing leronlimab (Vyrologix™ or PRO 140), a CCR5 antagonist with the potential for multiple therapeutic indications, announced today a comprehensive update on three continuing extension studies with leronlimab as a treatment for HIV.
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