AIDS

[princess 1,712]

Ted C. of E!To find out the latest horrifying statistics of how we are all still very much beset by AIDS and then some, click on over to unaids.org. Truly chilling stuff--particularly how many young people are still voluntarily signing up to get infected.

[princess 1,712]

Stat reports from above site found here.

[princess 1,712]

TEd C. of E!Dear Ted:I think there is a dangerous assumption made by supposedly educated human beings that AIDS affects only the poor, gay men and intravenous-drug users. My sister-in-law was recently diagnosed with an STD that will likely leave her infertile. She had been using birth control with her partner, but he refused to wear a condom. I realize your column is not a sex-education forum for the masses, but I hope this will be a wake-up call for others. SusanDear Susan:Sorry to hear about your sis-in-law. Somebody needs to say to her man (and others like him)--very Beyoncé-esque--"No glove, no love."

[princess 1,712]

Aniston and Pitt Visit Ethiopia

Tue, Nov 09, 2004, 07:11 AM PT

 

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt are using their celebrity to raise funds to fight AIDS in Africa.

 

The superstar couple visited Ethiopia Friday, Nov. 5 for a four-day trip to learn more about the effects of the autoimmune disease in Africa, reports the AP.

 

While there, they stopped by local projects combating HIV and met Ethiopian singers who have spread the word about HIV and raised money for programs.

 

Tsedenia Gebremarkos, one of the many Ethiopian singers relying on Hollywood star power to raise awareness about AIDS, reveals that Pitt was "very humble and really interested in the situation here."

 

The couple traveled to the Horn of Africa country on behalf of DATA, a Washington-based lobby group co-founded by U2 frontman Bono, which campaigns on third world trade, debt and HIV/AIDS. They left Ethiopia late Monday night.

 

HIV has inflicted 29.4 million people in Africa, with 6,000 dying from AIDS daily, leaving 25 million children orphaned. Life-saving drugs are still needed by 4 million people who can't afford medication.

 

Pitt, 40, recently starred as Achilles in "Troy" and will appear in the ensemble heist film "Ocean's 12," which will open nationwide Friday, Dec. 10. Aniston, 35, last starred in "Along Came Polly" and is currently filming the Rob Reiner-directed comedy "Rumor Has It."

[princess 1,712]

Brad Pitt and Nelson Mandela

CREDIT: EPA/LANDOV

 

people.com

 

...."AIDS is a tragedy that affects us all," Pitt said afterward. "The world cannot be allowed to stand by any longer and just watch this disaster... unfold."

 

The trip was Pitt's first to Ethiopia, where he visited local projects fighting the spread of HIV. He also met with eight Ethiopian entertainers who have collaborated on songs to spread awareness of HIV and to raise money for AIDS programs.

 

"He was very humble and really interested in the situation here," said Tsedenia Gebremarkos, who has just released a hit album in Ethiopia. "We hope his popularity can raise awareness in the same way we are trying to. We need the support of people like him."

 

In Africa, 29.4 million people are living with HIV, which has left 25 million children orphaned, according to United Nations statistics. In a message he has carried around the world, Bono notes that more than 6,500 Africans die every day from AIDS, and 8,000 new people are infected daily.

[princess 1,712]

people.comSOUGHT: Alicia Keys, 23, is calling on fellow music stars to raise their voices to help those suffering from AIDS in Africa. "Just for a moment imagine the media hysteria and global outrage if 25 million Americans, many of them children, died from a treatable disease because the medicine was too costly," Keys writes in a commentary for Billboard magazine. "Imagine if another 42 million people were infected and had no hope of paying for life-saving treatment. ... This is exactly what is happening throughout sub-Saharan Africa." Keys encourages support of Keep a Child Alive, which has established treatment programs in Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Rwanda. Other recording stars affiliated with the group include Avril Lavigne, Rod Stewart, Good Charlotte, Cher, Nelly and Josh Groban.

[princess 1,712]

people.comWARNED: As celebrities gather around the globe to help mark World AIDS Day on Wednesday, Dr. Peter Piot, the head of the United Nations' AIDS program warns that India, China and Russia are "perilously close to a tipping point" that could turn their small, localized AIDS epidemics into gigantic ones capable of disrupting the world's response to the disease," The Washington Post reports. The situation "bears alarming similarities to the situation we faced 20 years ago in Africa" and could transform "from a series of concentrated outbreaks and hot spots into a generalized explosion across the entire population ? spreading like a wildfire from there."

[princess 1,712]

people.com

 

Also at the event, Alicia Keys drew raves for her work in the fight against AIDS, including a recent letter in Billboard encouraging her peers to join in the battle. "Alicia is great. We need more Alicias," said amfAR chairman Kenneth Cole of the singer, who is nominated for eight Grammys, including album and song of the year. "That is what it takes. Those are our role models. Those are the people that define standards and create benchmarks. Those are the people we aspire to want to be. So I applaud what she's doing and I hope that many of us will stay on that path, or get on it."

[princess 1,712]

EOnline.comLENDING A HAND: Alicia Keys, Hoobastank, Kelly Clarkson, Simple Plan and Good Charlotte performing at the MTV Asia Aid benefit to take place Feb. 3 in Bangkok. Jennifer Lopez was set to contribute a prerecorded performance and Sting, 50 Cent and Nelly, among other artists, were expected to offer taped messages of support.

[princess 1,712]

 

Richard Gere is all business as he heads to his hotel Friday after the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he delivered a speech on the AIDS crisis in India. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, U2's Bono and Bill Gates also attended the annual meeting.

[princess 1,712]

Will Smith Hosts AIDS ConcertFri, Feb 18, 2005, 09:02 AM PTLOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - "Hitch" star Will Smith is sharing the love with South Africa.The 36-year-old actor will host Nelson Mandela's concert on Saturday, March 19 to raise AIDS awareness, reports the AP.The concert, which will take place in George, will feature performances by Annie Lennox, India.arie and Brian May.The event seeks to call attention to the women and girls who become infected with the AIDS virus more often than men in Africa, where more than half of the world's HIV-infected people live."We do not treat our women with enough dignity and respect," Mandela said. "We must mobilize to act, and act soon, before it is too late."Mandela has championed the cause of AIDS victims since stepping down as South Africa's president in 1999. His eldest son recently died of an AIDS-related illness.Smith recently provided the voice of the piscine hero in "Shark Tale." He is also attached to star in rags-to-riches film "Pursuit of Happiness."

[princess 1,712]

Page SIxCOMMON GOAL UNITES RIVALS GEORGE Clooney, having persuaded Fox News Channel star Bill O'Reilly to participate in a star-studded tsunami benefit, has now gotten Pat Robertson to join the fight against AIDS. Die-hard Democrat Clooney talked the ultra-conservative preacher to appear in a public service announcement for "One," a campaign based on the notion that reasonable men can disagree on almost everything, but there's "only one side to fighting AIDS and poverty." The commercial was filmed earlier a few days ago in L.A. with Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Brad Pitt, Bono, Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks.

[princess 1,712]

popbitch.com

 

>> Popbitch looks into the Crystal ball <<

But still waiting for that Hipsway revival...

 

We're only five years into the Noughties but

already it's turning out to be a re-run of

the 80s. We have an unpopular Prime Minister

trying to justify a far-off war to a sceptical

electorate, greed is good in business again,

puffball skirts are all over the catwalks,

Desperate Housewives is the new Dynasty and

the titchy one from McFly has an A Flock Of

Seagulls hairdo.

 

But there is a darker flipside to all this.

There are signs of a second Aids explosion

about to hit gay New York. There's been a

couple of cases of a virulent new strand of

HIV reported which is resistant to drugs.

The gay community is in the grip of a

Crystal Meth epidemic. Crystal has the double

effect of inducing a sense of sexual

liberation and experimentation as well as

exhausting the body and massively depletes

the immune system. So a similar set of

conditions to 1980 is brewing, when the

hedonistic lifestyle and drug culture brought

the gay clubbing community's health so low

that HIV took hold. And with Crystal flooding

into London, it could just as easily happen here.

[princess 1,712]

 

Will Smith shares a moment with former South African President Nelson Mandela in George, South Africa, on Friday. The next day the actor ? an ambassador for the political icon's AIDS fundraising campaign ? hosted the second annual 46664 benefit concert (a nod to Mandela's former prison number). Among the acts who took part: Annie Lennox and Jada Pinkett Smith's band, Wicked Wisdom.

[Rebelgirl 1]

I live in small town USA and I do medical transciption and I used to do the work for the infectious disease doctor but had to quit b/c I just had too much work. You would not believe the AIDS just in this small town area. I actually knew one guy I typed once and it kind of freaked my out b/c he is not much older than me and I was born in the 70's ......scary stuff.

[princess 1,712]

Drug combination prevents HIV infection in monkeys

Mon Feb 6, 2006 6:29 PM ET

reuters.com

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

 

DENVER (Reuters) - An injection of two drugs normally used to treat HIV patients completely protected monkeys from becoming infected with the AIDS virus, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

 

While it is too early to tell whether people can pop a pill and escape infection, the study provides the strongest evidence yet that it might be possible, the researchers said.

 

Dr. Walid Heneine of the Centers for Disease and Prevention studied rhesus monkeys that were injected with a version of Truvada -- Gilead Sciences Inc.'s once-a-day pill that includes its drugs Viread, or tenofovir, and Emtriva, or emtracitibine.

 

The pill is often used in drug cocktails to treat HIV infection, although they cannot cure it.

 

The monkeys were then exposed to a combined human-monkey AIDS virus called SHIV, using a rectal method aimed at simulating male homosexual contact. That happened daily for 14 days and the monkeys also got daily injections.

 

"Treatment continued for four weeks after last challenge," Heneine told the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, a meeting of AIDS researchers being held in Denver.

 

The six monkeys that received the drug combination were all completely protected from infection. By comparison, nine monkeys that took part in a previous experiment all eventually became infected with the SHIV virus.

 

"Study authors believe the findings may be the strongest animal data yet suggesting that potent antiretrovirals given before HIV exposure may prevent sexual HIV transmission," the CDC said in a statement.

 

The researchers cautioned the drug dose was slightly different from that seen in people taking Truvada and said studies under way will answer the question of whether the findings will translate to humans.

 

Either drug taken alone prevents HIV infection for a while, but imperfectly, Heneine said.

 

The CDC noted that Truvada was highly effective in suppressing the AIDS virus in people already infected. It is not a cure but is among the drugs that can help keep HIV patients healthy. Continued ...

 

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

[Jerrica Benton 60]

great news!!!

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12039614/

 

AIDS drugs promise prevention in a bottle

Pricey pill combo could keep at-risk populations from catching the virus

 

 

 

Updated: 6:51 p.m. ET March 27, 2006

ATLANTA - Twenty-five years after the first AIDS cases jolted the world, scientists think they soon may have a pill that people could take to keep from getting the virus that causes the global killer.

 

Two drugs already used to treat HIV infection have shown such promise at preventing it in monkeys that officials last week said they would expand early tests in healthy high-risk men and women around the world.

 

"This is the first thing I've seen at this point that I think really could have a prevention impact," said Thomas Folks, a federal scientist since the earliest days of AIDS. "If it works, it could be distributed quickly and could blunt the epidemic."

 

Condoms and counseling alone have not been enough — HIV spreads to 10 people every minute, 5 million every year. A vaccine remains the best hope but none is in sight.

 

If larger tests show the drugs work, they could be given to people at highest risk of HIV — from gay men in American cities to women in Africa who catch the virus from their partners.

 

Promise of a parachute

People like Matthew Bell, a 32-year-old hotel manager in San Francisco who volunteered for a safety study of one of the drugs.

 

"As much as I want to make the right choices all of the time, that's not the reality of it," he said of practicing safe sex. "If I thought there was a fallback parachute, a preventative, I would definitely want to add that."

 

Some fear that this could make things worse.

 

"I've had people make comments to me, 'Aren't you just making the world safer for unsafe sex?'" said Dr. Lynn Paxton, team leader for the project at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

The drugs would only be given to people along with counseling and condoms, and regular testing to make sure they haven't become infected. Health officials also think the strategy has potential for more people than just gay men, though they don't intend to give it "to housewives in Peoria," as Paxton puts it.

 

Some uninfected gay men already are getting the drugs from friends with AIDS or doctors willing to prescribe them to patients who admit not using condoms. This kind of use could lead to drug resistance and is one reason officials are rushing to expand studies.

 

"We need information about whether this approach is safe and effective" before recommending it, said Dr. Susan Buchbinder, who leads one study in San Francisco.

 

 

Related content

Live Vote: Potential lifesaver or license to take risks?

 

 

 

The drugs are tenofovir (Viread) and emtricitabine, or FTC (Emtriva), sold in combination as Truvada by Gilead Sciences Inc., a California company best known for inventing Tamiflu, a drug showing promise against bird flu.

 

Unlike vaccines, which work through the immune system — the very thing HIV destroys — AIDS drugs simply keep the virus from reproducing. They already are used to prevent infection in health care workers accidentally exposed to HIV, and in babies whose pregnant mothers receive them.

 

Taking them daily or weekly before exposure to the virus — the time frame isn't known yet — may keep it from taking hold, just as taking malaria drugs in advance can prevent that disease when someone is bitten by an infected mosquito, scientists believe.

 

Monkeys suggest they are right.

 

Specifically, six macaques were given the drugs and then challenged with a deadly combination of monkey and human AIDS viruses, administered in rectal doses to imitate how the germ spreads in gay men.

 

Monkeys fully protected

Despite 14 weekly blasts of the virus, none of the monkeys became infected. All but one of another group of monkeys that didn't get the drugs did, typically after two exposures.

 

"This is an approach we've considered for a long, long time," but didn't try sooner because AIDS drugs had side effects and risks unacceptable for uninfected people, said Dr. Mary Fanning, director of prevention research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

 

Tenofovir changed that when it came on the market in 2001. It is potent, safe, stays in the bloodstream long enough that it can be taken just once a day, doesn't interact with other medicines or birth control pills, and spurs less drug resistance than other AIDS medications.

 

The CDC last year launched $19 million worth of studies of it in drug users in Thailand, heterosexual men and women in Botswana, and gay men in Atlanta and San Francisco. A third U.S. city, not yet identified, will be added, CDC announced last week.

 

Because of the exciting new monkey results, the Botswana study now will be switched to the drug combination; the others are well under way with tenofovir alone.

 

Farthest along is a study of 400 heterosexual women in Ghana by Family Health Initiative. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded it and others in Cambodia, Nigeria, Cameroon and Malawi, but the rest were doomed by rumors, including fears that scientists wanted to deliberately expose people to HIV or that study participants who got infected might not have access to treatment. In other cases, activists demanded better health care or clean needles for drug users as a condition for allowing the studies to proceed.

 

Such problems are "part of the HIV prevention landscape" in many foreign countries, said Dr. Helene Gayle, who formerly oversaw AIDS research for the Gates Foundation.

 

Drug combo costs $650 a month

Expense also could limit use of the drugs. Gilead donated them for the studies and sells them in poor countries at cost — 57 cents a pill for tenofovir and 87 cents for Truvada, the combination drug. That's more than the cost of condoms, available for pennies and donated by the truckload in Africa, but often unused.

 

In the United States, wholesale costs are $417 for a month of tenofovir and $650 for Truvada.

 

Still, health officials are hopeful the drugs could fill an important gap.

 

The National Institutes of Health is starting a tenofovir study in 1,400 gay men in Peru. Private and government funders are considering others. Tenofovir also is being tested in microbicide gels that women could use vaginally to try to prevent catching HIV.

 

"If you're in an area where there's a really high HIV incidence, something that's even 40 percent effective could have a huge impact," Paxton said.

 

And in the Atlanta labs where Heneine, Folks and others are still minding the monkeys, "the level of enthusiasm is pretty high," Heneine said. "This is very promising. For us to be involved in a potential solution to the big HIV crisis and pandemic is very exciting."

Edited March 28, 2006 by Jerrica Benton

[Cutielb99 0]

AIDS: Sounding the Alarm

Newsweek, Dec. 25, 2006 - Jan. 1, 2007

 

In an age where the mere threat of tainted spinach can spark a media frenzy, it's hard to imagine the press's barely acknowledging the arrival of a lethal new microbe. But that's what happened when scientists in 1981 first recognized the array of opportunistic infections we now call AIDS, which has killed 25 million-plus people.

 

One of the few journalists paying any attention was Lawrence D. Mass, a doctor who wrote about men's health for the New York Native, a gay paper. "There were rumors of unexplained cases of pneumonia in New York and L.A. in gay men. The bottom line seemed to be some kind of immune problem," Mass told me this past spring, when I was reporting our "AIDS at 25" cover. Mass wrote the very first newspaper piece about the epidemic: published on May 18, 1981, his story came out before the June 5, 1981, CDC report that's routinely cited as the first official mention of AIDS.

 

Mass went on to help establish Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York and kept reporting on AIDS for the Native, landing the first interview with a patient suffering from the disease. "If it's seen as the scourge of God, it's certain to set back, to dismantle the many gains that have been achieved," the anonymous patient told Mass in 1981. But "if we act like adults—if the attitude is that these diseases have hit our community and we must do something about them—then I think the wonderful progress we've made in recent years will continue to evolve." Mass and other gay men rose to the challenge, showing America the dangers of staying silent.

 

—David J. Jefferson

[Cutielb99 0]

Condoms urged in prisons to curb AIDS

Black leaders call for steps to slow HIV's spread in minority populations

Reuters

Updated: 6:25 p.m. CT Nov 16, 2006

 

U.S. prisons should make condoms available to inmates and test for HIV as part of a broader effort to curb the spread of AIDS among blacks, hit disproportionately hard by the incurable disease, experts urged Thursday.

 

The National Minority AIDS Council advocacy group, backed by U.S. black lawmakers and medical leaders, issued a series of recommendations aimed at U.S. policymakers to slow the epidemic among blacks, 10 times more likely than whites to have AIDS.

 

“In 2006, AIDS in America is a black disease,” said Phill Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles.

 

With U.S. black men seven times more likely than whites and three times more likely than Latinos to be imprisoned, the council’s report said incarceration has become “one of the most important drivers of HIV infection among African-Americans.”

 

More than half of new U.S. HIV infections are in blacks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

While blacks make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, more than 40 percent of U.S. prisoners are black. The AIDS rate among prisoners is three times the rate in the general public.

 

HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, most often is spread through sexual contact or intravenous drug use.

 

Behavior like unprotected homosexual sex and injection drug use raises HIV infection risk in prisons, and the problem is compounded when black men infected in prison then transmit the virus to others after their release, the report stated.

 

The report urged prisons and jails to make available condoms, along with HIV prevention education programs.

 

Condoms banned in most prisons

It said condoms are banned or unavailable in 95 percent of U.S. prisons. It said state prisons in Mississippi and Vermont make condoms available, as do county jails in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles.

 

“HIV transmission does indeed occur in prison,” said the report’s author, Robert Fullilove, professor of clinical sociomedical sciences at Columbia University in New York.

 

 

“We certainly need to have each of the prison systems think more thoroughly about the impact that failure to provide condoms can have if there’s significant (HIV) transmission within the walls of their facilities,” Fullilove added.

 

The report stated, “Nonprofit organizations, government and public health agencies must be allowed to discuss the relationship between substance abuse and HIV risk and to distribute condoms in prison facilities.”

 

The report also urged prisons to provide voluntary, routine HIV testing of inmates upon entry and release.

 

Other recommendations

It also recommended that governments expand substance abuse prevention programs, drug treatment services and clean needle exchange programs to cut HIV infections caused by injection drug use.

 

Other recommendations included: expanding HIV prevention education programs, combating discrimination against homosexual and bisexual blacks and supporting more affordable housing to promote stable black communities.

 

CDC estimates that about 1.1 million Americans are infected with HIV, with blacks making up 47 percent of them.

 

The HIV virus attacks the immune system and renders the body vulnerable to numerous life-threatening infections and cancers. About 40 percent of the roughly half million Americans who have died of AIDS were black.

 

The report cited several factors to account for AIDS hitting U.S. blacks hardest, including less access to medical insurance, distrust of the medical establishment and greater homelessness, drug use and levels of incarceration.

[sanlee 49]

Boxer With AIDS:-

 

INTRODUCTION:

 

Tommy David Morrison (born January 2, 1969, Jay, Oklahoma) is a former heavyweight boxing champion. Dubbed "The Duke," he is the grandnephew of Hollywood star John Wayne. Morrison also co-starred with Sylvester Stallone in "Rocky V." Morrison lost a championship bout to Lennox Lewis in 1996, but nevertheless signed a three-fight deal with Don King that was supposed to lead to a Morrison-Mike Tyson showdown. That deal, says Morrison, was to pay him $38 million. Then came the positive test, which Morrison estimates cost him, over the past decade, some $100 million total in potential fight revenues. Morrison tested positive for HIV in 1996. It is still unclear on how he contracted the disease. Morrison's life would take a steep downward spiral, one that included jail time for drug charges and HIV-related discrimination, in which fellow gym members canceled their memberships once his HIV news became public and close friends abandoned him because of his illness. Morrison has made allegations in the past-two other boxers tested positive for HIV but their results were never made public.

 

TOMMY MORRISON: BOXER WITH AIDS

 

In 1991, Morrison, already the receiver of much television exposure, won four fights, against opponents the calibre of former Larry Holmes world title challenger and Tyson opponent James Quick Tillis, and former world champion Pinklon Thomas. He was then given a crack at becoming world Heavyweight champion by WBO champ Ray Mercer in a Pay Per View card held on October 18 1991. Morrison lost what turned out to be a highlight film knockout in round five.

 

 

Morrison had six wins in 1992, including one over former Riddick Bowe opponent Art Tucker, and one over future world title challenger Joe Hipp, who would later become the first Native American to challenge for the world Heavyweight title. After two wins in 1993, including one over two-time former world title challenger Carl Williams, Morrison found himself fighting for the world championship again, this time against Foreman, on June 7. Morrison surprised many critics by outpointing Foreman over 12 rounds, winning the world title. Almost immediately, talks of a fight with WBC world champion Lennox Lewis began.

 

 

Talks of a Morrison-Lewis fight, however, momentarily came to a stop because Morrison was himself upset in his first defense by the virtually unknown Michael Bennett, being knocked out in round one in front of a live HBO Boxing audience.

 

 

He recovered by winning three bouts in a row in 1994, but then subsequently drew in his last fight of the year, against another virtual unknown, Ross Puritty.

 

 

He won three fights in 1995 before meeting Razor Ruddock for the IBC Heavyweight Championship. This fight was named fight of the year by various magazines, as Morrison dropped Ruddock several times, but had to climb off the canvas in round one himself before scoring a sixth round knockout win.

 

 

The fight with Lewis, who had also lost his world championship, finally came off after the fight against Ruddock. Lewis stopped Morrison in six rounds.

 

 

A few days before his next fight, to be shown on Showtime, Morrison had a mandatory HIV test performed by the Nevada Athletic Commission. It was revealed during Showtime's telecast of the boxing undercard that Morrison's HIV test proved positive, automatically retiring him from boxing as a competitor.

 

 

Later in 1996, Morrison announced that he wished to make a comeback with one more bout, the proceeds of which would benefit his newly created KnockOut Aids Foundation. Morrison won what would turn out to be his final fight, a first round knockout of Marcus Rhode in Tokyo. Morrison finished his boxing career with a record of 46 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw, with 40 of his wins by knockout.

 

 

After his retirement, Morrison spent 14 months in prison on drug and weapons charges, and he would later also plead guilty to drunk driving.

 

 

He and his wife have 4 children; they currently live in rural White County, Tennessee, where he is seeking a return to acting, and doesn't rule out the possibility of fighting again. He is currently penning his autobiography and has recently signed a deal that would see a movie produced on his life.

 

Sources: Mike Freeman @ CBS Sportsline & Wikipedia

[sanlee 49]

REBEKKA ARMSTRONG: FORMER PLAYMATE HAS AIDS

 

Rebekka Armstrong recently told a captivated audience, "This is what the face of AIDS looks like," gesturing to herself. "There was a time when you could tell a person with AIDS by the way they looked. Now you simply can't."

Armstrong's lecture was part of ‘AIDS Awareness Week.’

 

 

Playboy's Miss September 1986 was diagnosed with HIV in 1989, when she was 22. The former swimwear and lingerie model believes she contracted the disease at 16 through having unprotected sex at a fraternity party.

Armstrong believed she hadn't long to live so she led a decadent lifestyle after learning her diagnosis. She became homeless and addicted to methamphetamines.

 

 

A suicide attempt left her comatose for several days, after which she was admitted to a mental hospital against her will. She regained control of her life after attending an AIDS support group for women.

 

 

Now an activist, she speaks to college and high school students about the dangers of having unprotected sex and making unwise decisions. "The factors that put me at risk for HIV? No self-esteem at all," said Armstrong, 39. "I was uncomfortable in my own skin. It takes one time to put yourself at risk and catch HIV. If you've made a decision to have sex, you absolutely have to protect yourself."

 

 

Armstrong has also become a competitive bodybuilder and placed first in the middleweight category of the ‘2004 Los Angeles Bodybuilding and Figure Championship.’

 

 

She is currently married to Oliver Luettgenau, a personal trainer who is also HIV positive.

 

 

Source: “The Body.com”

[sanlee 49]

Black men in focus in U.S. HIV drug trial

 

By Matthew Bigg

 

ATLANTA (Reuters) - AIDS research in the United States has often focused on gay white men because the virus was identified early in that group and they developed an effective lobbying voice.

 

But a clinical trial by the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta is focusing on gay black men, who are not as well organized but who have a higher incidence of the disease.

 

The trial aims to determine whether an AIDS drug is safe for people who are negative for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. It has stirred debate among participants and researchers about gay sexuality within the black community and its attitude to safe sex.

 

"The black gay community has become complacent about HIV and STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) as a whole," said Duncan Teague, recruitment coordinator for the project.

 

"A lot of people in the black gay community are looking for love so they have sex because they think that means that that person loves them," Teague said.

 

Blacks make up around 12.8 percent of the U.S. population but comprised 50 percent of new diagnoses of HIV in 2003, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Census Bureau.

 

In Georgia, 78 percent of people diagnosed with AIDS and 81 percent of people diagnosed with HIV in 2005 were black, as were almost all of the women who were newly diagnosed, said Melanie Thompson, the trial's lead investigator.

 

"African-American men are disproportionately affected by HIV and underrepresented in clinical trials. We are testing in order to know whether a drug is safe for the people who will ultimately use the drug," she said.

 

"While the study is open to men of any race, we are working hard to enroll as many men of color as possible," she said.

 

The trial involves giving daily doses of the drug tenofovir, an anti-retroviral drug made by Gilead Sciences Inc. and marketed as Viread, to men.

 

Participants, who could also be given a placebo, complete a computerized questionnaire about their sex lives and get risk-reduction counseling and condoms at every visit.

 

TUSKEGEE EXPERIMENT

 

As a control, half the group don't receive the drug for the first nine months to see if taking a pill that might potentially make them less likely to contract HIV might encourage men to take more risks with sexual health.

 

It's part of a long-term project that includes similar studies in Botswana and Thailand and elsewhere to determine if a drug that suppresses the AIDS virus could one day be used as a prophylactic to prevent people from contracting it.

 

Researchers said one reason for the reluctance of blacks to participate in the study is the legacy of the notorious 40-year-long Tuskegee experiment, which was exposed in 1972 and led to an apology by President Bill Clinton on behalf of the government to the victims.

 

In that experiment, the U.S. Public Health Service starting in 1932 told 400 blacks with syphilis in Alabama they had "bad blood," leaving the syphilis untreated to study its long-term effects on the body.

 

Some 43 percent of men enrolled in the AIDS drug study are black but many others were reluctant to take part because of misunderstandings about what the study entails and fear within the black community about clinical trials, Thompson said.

 

"My first question was 'Wait, are you going to inject me with the HIV virus?,"' said Dorrington Poitier, who is now taking part.

 

Atlanta is considered by some the gay capital of black America and gays organize an annual gay black pride festival on the Labor Day weekend.

 

Despite the large numbers of at-risk men, researchers said lack of organization within the gay black community had made it harder to promote awareness and mobilize against AIDS, which in addition had killed some community leaders.

 

"AIDS has sucked so much energy out of the community. The leaders started dropping dead, started getting sick. And we have been trying to replace them but against the odds," Teague said.

 

Another underlying reason for the prevalence of HIV infection was the stigma still attached to homosexuality within some parts of the black community, which left some gay men vulnerable to a degree of social isolation that made poor choices on safe sex easier.

 

"People within the black community say: 'It's fine to be gay but ... don't wear it on your sleeve. They see black as something you can't really hide but they don't want you to be gay in public," said Anthony McWilliams, a project organizer.

[sanlee 49]

Solo Atlantic row aims to raise black HIV awareness

 

An AIDS activist plans to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean later this year to draw attention to the high rate of HIV in the U.S. black community.

Victor Mooney's first attempt two years ago ended less than two hours after he started from the coast of Senegal when his boat leaked. But he says he is better prepared now and determined to succeed.

 

"It's important that I continue this quest, because this disease is preventable," he said Wednesday, also National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. He has lost a brother to AIDS, and another brother has HIV.

 

Mooney, 41, wants to be the first black person to row solo across the Atlantic. He plans to follow the trans-Atlantic slave trade route that brought blacks to the Americas from Africa and to connect the plight of AIDS in the two continents.

 

His route from Goree Island, Senegal -- once a prison and auction site for slaves bound for the Americas -- to the Caribbean will begin Dec. 1, World AIDS Day.

 

"You're rowing 16 to 18 hours a day -- two hours at a time, with a half-hour break," he said. "Depending on weather conditions, you can anchor and sleep, while going with the current if it's favorable."

 

His new boat will be professionally built and equipped with a satellite telephone, emergency beacons and a tracking service.

 

Solo rows across the Atlantic Ocean are notoriously perilous, with fewer than 50 people having completed the journey, according to the England-based Ocean Rowing Society.

 

"Sometimes you don't make it on the first attempt, but you keep trying," Mooney said.

 

More than half of newly diagnosed infections of HIV in the U.S. have been documented in the black community, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Forty-seven percent of the approximately 1 million HIV-positive Americans are black, according to 2005 CDC statistics. (AP)

 

Copyright 2007 Associated Press.

[sanlee 49]

panachereport.con

 

 

"AIDS MYSTERIES," A SPECIAL REPORT: by Paris & Ashley

 

UNKNOWN CAUSE:

 

In the 80’s, the parents of an 8-year old child appeared on talk shows stating, ‘they didn’t know how their daughter contracted AIDS.’ She had never received a blood transfusion and a medical examination revealed she was still a virgin and no needle marks were found on her arms. [/b] Everyone was baffled. What is known, she was diagnosed with the virus after a hospital stay. She died a short time later.

 

BLACK TEENAGE HUSTLER DIED OF AIDS IN 1969:

 

Evidence that a 15-year old black teenager (reportedly a underage male prostitute) who died of AIDS in 1969 suggests that the virus may have been introduced into the United States several times before touching off the current epidemic, according to experts in disease transmission. The patient, identified only as Robert R., died in 1969 of an illness that baffled his doctors at Washington University in St. Louis. They published a paper in 1984 suggesting that, with hindsight, his symptoms resembled those of AIDS. Molecular biologists at Tulane University in New Orleans examined stored specimens of Robert R.'s tissues for signs of the AIDS virus and found that the 15-year-old was apparently infected with it.

 

The evidence that Robert R. died of AIDS in 1969, nearly a decade before what had been the country's first known AIDS cases, indicates that the virus may have been introduced and re-introduced into the American population on several occasions, but that it may have died out for lack of a large, very sexually active population to transmit it, said Dr. Richard Rothenberg, an epidemiologist at the Federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Robert R.'s former doctors suspected that he had engaged in homosexual intercourse. But none of the experts had any idea where he could have become infected. ''It seems odd to me that it was in St. Louis to begin with,'' said Dr. Harold Jaffe, chief AIDS epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control. He noted that St. Louis was not one of the first cities to be hit by the AIDS epidemic, which was first detected in New York and California.

In 1968 Robert R. appeared at a clinic associated with Washington University suffering from an assortment of illnesses. Most striking, said Dr. William Drake, a St. Louis pathologist who is now retired, were swollen lymph nodes in Robert R.'s neck and ''swelling of the legs, lower torso and genitalia for no apparent reason.'' Dr. Drake said Robert R.'s physicians tried unsuccessfully to treat him by surgically draining his lymph nodes. Although the St. Louis doctors tried for 15 months to help Robert R., his disease followed an unremittingly downhill course.

 

He was exhausted, he lost weight, and he was plagued with a severe infection with chlamydia, a bacteria that frequently infects gay men and that is sexually transmitted. His physicians treated him with a battery of antibiotics, but the youth died in 1969 after a bout with bronchial pneumonia, Dr. Drake said. AIDS-Linked Cancer Found An autopsy showed that the Robert R. had Kaposi's sarcoma, a skin cancer that is almost a hallmark of AIDS infections in gay men. The youth had just one outward sign of the cancer, a tiny purple spot on his thigh, Dr. Drake said. But when Dr. Drake performed an autopsy, he found other Kaposi sarcoma lesions throughout the soft tissues of the youth's body. Dr. Memory Elvin-Lewis, a chlamydia specialist at Washington University, said she was fascinated by Robert R.'s illness and wanted to study his tissues to determine the extent of his chlamydia infection. When the autopsy was done, Dr. Elvin-Lewis requested that tissues from the body be frozen so she could examine them at a later time. Several of Robert R.'s doctors, who had since moved to the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, later suspected that the teenager had AIDS.

 

Robert R. had admitted to being sexually active, although not to being gay, but his doctors said they thought he was homosexual or bisexual because he had certain rectal lesions and chronic hemorrhoids, which are frequently seen in gay men. But Robert R. gave no hint of his sexual contacts, according to Dr. Elvin-Lewis. ''He was not communicative,'' she said. ''He barely said boo. He never told us what he was doing.'' His doctors said they doubted that he had ever left the St. Louis area. Finally, about a year ago, Dr. Witte reached Dr. Elvin-Lewis, who supplied the tissue samples. Last spring, Dr. Garry of Tulane agreed to do the tests. Dr. Garry said he had done Western blot tests on Robert R.'s serum. The procedure is a a highly precise test for AIDS virus antibodies. Dr. Garry has also completed tests for the P24 antigen, a virus protein that gives further evidence of infection. Both tests were positive for the HIV virus, which causes AIDS.

 

Source: Gina Kolata @ The NY Times

SAILOR INFECTED IN 1961:

 

Arvid Noe (1947–1976) was a Norwegian sailor who is notable for being one of the first humans known to have died from AIDS. Noe began his career as a sailor in 1961, when he was 15 years old. He frequently went on sailing trips from Norway to Africa during the 1960s. Based on research conducted after his death, Noe is believed to have contracted HIV in Cameroon probably in 1961, where he was known to have been sexually active with many women, including prostitutes.

 

(Noe was infected with HIV-1 group O, which is known to have been prevalent in Cameroon in the early 1960s.) In 1968, Noe was no longer a sailor and was working as a long haul truck driver throughout Europe (mainly Germany). During his tenure as a trucker (from 1968 to 1972), Noe picked up many prostitutes and almost certainly gave them the AIDS virus; these women almost certainly passed the disease on to other clients.

 

Noe began showing symptoms of HIV/AIDS in 1966; his wife grew ill with similar symptoms in 1967 followed by their daughter in 1969. Noe died of Kaposi's sarcoma in 1976. His wife and 9-year-old daughter suffered the same fate as well; they both died in 1977.

Edited February 20, 2007 by sanlee

[TubaGirl 7]

I would be supremely pissed if this was me.

 

 

http://msn.foxsports.com/boxing/story/6488410?MSNHPHMA

 

 

 

Morrison returning, says he is HIV negative Story Tools:

 

CHESTER, W.Va. (AP) - Former WBO heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison is staging a comeback, saying Tuesday that a positive HIV test that ended his career more than a decade ago was inaccurate.

 

"I'm negative and I've always been negative and that should be the end of it," Morrison said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

 

The 38-year-old will face John Castle in a four-round fight Thursday at Mountaineer Racetrack and Gaming Resort.

 

"The rug was yanked out from under my feet by a misdiagnosis," he said. "All I want to do is fight. ... It's unfinished business."

 

State Athletic Commissioner Steve Allred said Tuesday he approved Morrison's participation in the fight after reviewing medical records and consulting with the Association of Boxing Commissions' medical review committee. Allred said confidentiality laws prevent him from discussing Morrison's medical history or the records he reviewed.

 

West Virginia does not have mandatory blood testing for boxers.

 

"I assure you that West Virginia is doing due diligence to make sure everyone who steps into the ring is healthy," Allred said.

 

Morrison (46-3) and Castle (4-2) square off in one of seven bouts scheduled at Mountaineer.

 

Morrison won the WBO title in 1993 by outpointing George Foreman. He lost it later that year. Morrison, who was featured in the movie "Rocky V," also served a couple of years in an Arkansas prison on drug and weapons charges.

 

He announced he had human immunodeficiency virus in February 1996 and last fought in Japan that November, knocking out Marcus Rhode in the first round.

 

Morrison said Tuesday that he has taken several HIV tests while preparing for his comeback and all have been negative.

 

He has signed a contract with Top Rank promoters for at least eight fights this year.

 

"I have no doubt I'll be a better fighter than I ever was before," he said. "I am more relaxed. Something that comes along with age causes you to simmer a bit."