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Supreme Court healthcare ruling could hurt Obama either way

Swagga Digital Magazine Summer Issue 2011

AC 360 Thirty Years of Aids

On Friday, January 14 at 9pm ET/PT on CNN, Anderson Cooper will host a special one-hour broadcast Hope Survives: 30 Years of AIDS. Phill Wilson, President and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, will join Sir Elton John, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Mo'Nique and others to provide insight and perspective on HIV/AIDS in the U.S., with a focus on stigma and the disproportionate impact of HIV on Black Americans and men who have sex with men. Phill will highlight pressing challenges and notable accomplishments, including the role of Greater Than AIDS - a new national movement to unite Americans on HIV/AIDS developed with the Kaiser Family Foundation.

As part of the show, CNN has filmed a montage with celebrities sharing personal "Deciding Moments" that changed how they thought about the disease and inspired them to get involved. As part of the Greater Than AIDS movement, hundreds of everyday Americans have already submitted their "Deciding Moments."

Greater Than AIDS is an unprecedented collaboration among a broad coalition of public and private sector partners united in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the United States. It is developed by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Black AIDS Institute together with the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Ford Foundation, MAC AIDS Fund, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and other partners.
For more information, visit: www.greaterthan.org

World Aids Day 2010

TAKE ACTION ON 1 DECEMBER ‘10

Over 90,000 people are living with HIV in the UK and new infections continue every year. World AIDS Day 2010 is all about raising awareness to tackle HIV prejudice and help stop the spread of HIV.

Explore this site to ensure you understand the facts about HIV and find out what you can do to ACT AWARE. Make a pledge and join people all over the world making a difference on 1 December 2010.

 

Benefit of Life "Saving Lives Through Fashion"

SAN FRANCISCO - 08OCT10 - The Beauty of Life Sickle Cell Awareness Charity Fashion Show Benefiting Children's Hospital & Research Oakland California. The event was held at Julian's in the Metreon in San Francisco. The event began with a very poignant video presentation that gave you an outside look at how Sickle Cell Anemia affects the lives of those living with the disease. African-Americans are primarily affected by sickle cell anemia and it awareness is definitely warranted. There were in attendance a mixed group of fashionistas, lawyers, doctors and curiosity seekers. The Master of Ceremonies was Reverend Alvin Herring. There were 4 certificate presentations, to Elliot Vichinsky MD, Director of Hematology/Oncology at Children's Hospital and Research at Oakland, Keith Quirolo MD, Clinical Director Aphaeresis Program, Eileen Murray, Sickle Cell Coordinator Educator Project Coordinator, Talking Drums Project Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland Hematology/Oncology Department, and Marsah Treadwell, Ph.D., Associate Clinical Scientist at Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland (pictured). There were fashion designs by Nancy Deloss Reyes, Anya Zuyeva, Anthony Aleman, Marianne Faulker, R.Shay Miles, and Dao Thabthinkoson, also jewelry by Miz B by Leila Radan. The music was provided by Guen Lotin (G/Mix/SF DJ Winner of the Year). The show was produced by Juanita Scott and the creative director was Stanley K. Russell II.  CHECK OUT THE PICTURES

AIDS in the Black Community: What’s the Hold-Up?

AIDS in the African American community has seemingly lost its luster. Despite the concentration and growth of AIDS among African Americans, improvements have been limp. Discussions have seemingly become more sparse, as many circles have conceded HIV/AIDS to be a “Black person’s disease.”

The Congressional Black Caucus will meet on September 15-18 to elucidate on a national AIDS strategy. Community leaders recognize AIDS as a persistent ill and they do a decent job of keeping the topic on their tongues in public forums. Black publications don’t let it stray too far from their pages and websites either.

Special reports are being conducted on it. Public policy scholars from many universities continue to bilk grants from the government to study it. But yet, the effects are still pervasive. Blacks account for over 50 percent of new cases of HIV/AIDS infections. And this was nine years ago.

Many within liberal and African American circles believe that the government planted AIDS among “certain” people. According to a 2005 Washington Post article, almost half of 500 Black people surveyed believe AIDS is a man-made disease. Even more believe a cure is available, but withheld from the poor. Does embracing this conspiracy encourage nihilism and prevent wholesale improvement? If the cause and spread of this disease is beyond our control, then why take preventative approaches? Why take the extra effort to use prophylactics and sterile needles?

The success of Magic Johnson has led many to believe that AIDS can be usurped with hard work and the right “treatment.” This doesn’t help in the government skepticism department, and it certainly doesn’t help thwart the prevalence of AIDS. Johnson has done a lot to dispel the myth that he is cured. He even warns against infected people thinking that HIV/AIDS is easily beatable.

“You can’t take that attitude that you’re going to be like Magic,” says Johnson. “Since I announced 15 years ago, hundreds of thousands of people have died of HIV/AIDS. There will be more people dying. The virus acts different in all of us. There’s no certainty that if you get the virus, you’re going to be OK.”

Arthur Ashe wasn’t as lucky. Neither was Eazy-E. Neither are countless others whose tales won’t even register on the radar blip of, say, Timothy from the Bronx Academy of Fine Arts.

Robert R., an African American male from Missouri, was the first confirmed case of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. He died in 1969, when he was 16 years old. Doctors estimate almost 20 years passed since the first AIDS symptom and its confirmation, in 1984. His sexuality was questioned, but never proven. From the onset, it appears this disease has been linked to closet behavior. CONTINUE READING...

TEST 1 MILLION...

Test One Million from Greater Than on Vimeo.

Is a signature project of the Black AIDS Institute, in partnership with leading Black organizations and other partners. It is supported by the Black AIDS Media Partnership under the Greater Than AIDS campaign. Join the movement to help end AIDS. Be 1 of the million-plus Black Americans who will get tested before the next National HIV Testing Day - June 27th, 2010.

Obama Takes Charge, Demands Vote on Healthcare

WASHINGTON -- The end game at hand, President Barack Obama took command Wednesday of one final attempt by Democrats to enact bitterly contested health care legislation, calling for an "up or down vote" within weeks under rules denying Republicans the ability to kill the bill with mere talk. Appearing before a White House audience of invited guests, many of them wearing white medical coats, Obama firmly rejected calls from Republicans to draft new legislation from scratch. "I don't see how another year of negotiations would help. Moreover, the insurance companies aren't starting over," the president said, referring to a recent round of announced premium increases affecting millions who purchase individual coverage. While Obama said he wanted action within a few weeks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., seemed to hint a final outcome could take far longer. "We remain committed to this effort and we'll use every option available to deliver meaningful reform this year," he said.

The outcome will affect nearly every American, mandating major changes in the ways they receive and pay for health care or leaving in place current systems that leave tens of millions with no coverage and many others dissatisfied with what they do get. With Republicans united in opposition, there is no certainty about the final result in Congress - or even that Democrats will go along with changes Obama urged on Wednesday in what he described as a bipartisan gesture.

With polls showing voters unhappy and Democrats worried about this fall's elections, Obama also sought to cast the coming showdown in terms larger than health care, which is an enormously ambitious undertaking in its own right. "At stake right now is not just our ability to solve this problem, but our ability to solve any problem," he said.

Republicans dug in for another struggle on an issue that they agreed would echo into the fall campaign.

The Senate GOP leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said a decision by Democrats to invoke rules that bar filibusters would be "met with outrage" by the public. "This is really not an argument between Democrats and Republicans. It's an argument between Democrats and the American people," he said.

At its core, the legislation under discussion still is largely along the lines Obama has long sought and GOP critics attack as a government takeover of health care. It would extend coverage care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans while cracking down on insurance company practices such as denying policies on the basis of a pre-existing medical conditions. CONTINUE READING..

D.C.'s AIDS Dollars Squandered

In a city ravaged by the highest rate of AIDS cases in the nation, the D.C. Health Department paid millions to nonprofit groups that delivered substandard services or failed to account for any work at all, even as sick people searched for care or died waiting. More than $1 million in AIDS money went to a housing group whose ailing boarders sometimes struggled without electricity, gas or food. A supervisor said she was ordered to create records for ghost employees. About $400,000 was paid to a nonprofit organization, launched by a man who once ran one of the District's largest cocaine rings, for a promised job-training center that has never opened. More than $500,000 was earmarked for a housing program whose executive director had a string of convictions for theft, drugs and forgery. After the D.C. Inspector General's Office could find no evidence that he was operating an AIDS nonprofit group, the city terminated the grant but never sought repayment. All told, the Health Department's HIV/AIDS Administration awarded more than $25 million from 2004 to 2008 to nonprofit agencies marked by questionable spending, a lack of clients, or lapses in record-keeping and care, a 10-month Washington Post investigation found. Many of the groups have since closed or are no longer providing AIDS services. Across the city, the sick are suffering. Renee Paige, 50, once threw birthday parties for her two daughters in her apartment in Southeast Washington, where she'd cook beef stew for elderly neighbors and always had bus fare for a friend. But AIDS and two bouts of pneumonia had left her weak, homeless and unable to care for herself. She came to a community meeting in April after spending the night on a park bench in heavy rain, with no place to go."I have AIDS," she told the group, "and I am soaking wet."Weeks later, she died alone, on the bench, one mile from the HIV/AIDS Administration and within two miles of a dozen nonprofit groups that help people with AIDS. "I couldn't understand," said Keena Stewart, who had known Paige for 15 years. "How could she die like that?" More than 15,000 people have HIV or AIDS in the District, 3 percent of the population older than 12. For black men, the rate is more than double, at 6.5 percent -- one of every 15 people. CONTINUE READING...

VA looking into possible contamination at medical facilities

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The Department of Veterans Affairs has launched an investigation into whether there is a connection between improperly sterilized endoscopy equipment and a veteran's positive HIV test.This comes after more than 10,000 veterans were possibly exposed to HIV and hepatitis at three VA facilities while undergoing colonoscopies and other procedures with equipment that had not been properly cleaned. The VA sent letters to those veterans offering free testing for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV."The VA prides itself on being accountable, and we are extremely concerned about this matter, and as a result we have initiated an investigation," Dr. Michael J. Kussman, the VA's undersecretary for health, said in a news release Friday. "We have an obligation to provide those who have served and sacrificed for our Nation the care they deserve."Along with the positive HIV test, the VA says 16 other veterans have tested positive for hepatitis B and hepatitis C at two VA facilities. Of all the 17 positive test results, 11 were at the VA's Murfreesboro, Tennessee, facility, and six were from the VA's Augusta, Georgia, hospital. Thousands of other veterans are being tested at the VA hospital in Miami, and the VA says it is waiting to verify results there.So far, 3,174 veterans have been notified of their test results. VA officials decline to say where the veteran who tested positive for HIV was treated. Watch more on the contamination controversy »Officials stress that the positive results don't necessarily mean the equipment is to blame. The VA is conducting an epidemiological investigation at the facilities to determine if the veterans who have tested positive for hepatitis have similar strains of the virus. SOURCE:CNN.COM

HIV looks like me...AB Dior is an Ambassador for Change

Condoms not answer to AIDS, Pope says

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE – Pope Benedict XVI said on his way to Africa today that condoms were not the answer in the continent's fight against HIV. It was his first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even clergy working with AIDS patients.Benedict had never directly addressed condom use. He has said that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against AIDS. The Vatican encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease."You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms," the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon, where he will begin a seven-day pilgrimage on the continent. "On the contrary, it increases the problem.''Some priests and nuns working with those living with HIV/AIDS question the church's opposition to condoms amid the pandemic ravaging Africa.Benedict's first papal trip to Africa will take him to Cameroon and Angola. Africa is the fastest-growing region for the Roman Catholic Church, though it competes with Islam and evangelical churches.The pope also said today that he intends to make an appeal for "international solidarity" for Africa in the face of the global economic downturn.He said that while the church does not propose specific economic solutions, it can give "spiritual and moral" suggestions.Describing the current crisis as the consequence of "a deficit of ethics in economic structures," the pope said, "It is here that the church can make a contribution."On the plane, Benedict also dismissed the notion that he was facing increasing opposition and isolation within the church, particularly after an outreach to ultraconservatives that led to his lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop."The myth of my solitude makes me laugh," the pope said, adding that he can count on a network of friends and aides whom he sees every day.In a letter to Catholic bishops released last week, the pope made an unusual public acknowledgment of Vatican mistakes and turmoil in his church over the rehabilitation of Bishop Richard Williamson.While acknowledging mistakes were made in handling the affair, Benedict said he was saddened that he was criticized "with open hostility" even by those who should have known better. SOURCE:THE STAR

STANDING-N-TRUTH: BREAKING THE SILENCE

Can a Pill a Day Prevent HIV?

What if those most at risk for HIV could take a pill that would reduce the risk of infection? The American Foundation for AIDS Research’s public policy office brought together a panel of experts to discuss the implications of just such a scenario at a recent Congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., on December 4. “We are fighting an uphill battle, and we must vigorously pursue new strategies,” said Richard Wolitski, acting director of the HIV/AIDS Prevention Division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For every person on antiretroviral therapy, 2.5 people are newly infected with HIV, according to Wolitski. Every day there are 7,400 new infections worldwide; in the United States there is a new HIV infection every 9.5 minutes. “At this point in time, we do not have the resources to bring this epidemic under control,” said panelist Carl Dieffenbach, director of the Division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. “Therefore we must turn to novel prevention strategies,” such as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.The experimental technique involves administering anti-HIV drugs before possible exposure to HIV in the hope that they will lower the chances of infection among those at high risk -- a proposition currently being tested in ongoing clinical trials overseen by Dieffenbach in Botswana, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, South Africa, Thailand, and the United States. Initial results are expected within the next 12 to 18 months. While the viability of PrEP is unclear, the concept is not an unusual one: People use statins to prevent heart disease, tamoxifen to prevent breast cancer in high-risk individuals, and birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancy. And in the field of HIV health care, “antiretrovirals have drastically reduced mother-to-child transmissions. So can these drugs now be used to prevent HIV in high-risk populations?” asked amfAR senior policy and medical adviser Susan J. Blumenthal, MD, the panel moderator. SOURCE:HIVPLUSMAG.COM

Number of HIVers Spreading the Virus Drops

The annual HIV transmission rate in the United States has declined dramatically over the course of the epidemic, according to a newly published study conducted jointly by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Johns Hopkins University.The annual rate of HIV transmission declined from 44 of every 100 people who had HIV in 1984 to 6.6 of every 100 HIV patients in the early 1990s, according to the study. Today, the annual transmission rate is about 5 per 100 HIV patients. The rate declined by 89% from 1984 to 2006, and by 33% from 1997 to 2006.“For every 100 persons living with HIV today, five or fewer will transmit the virus to an uninfected person in a given year,” said study leader David Holtgrave of Johns Hopkins. The findings, based on the CDC’s latest annual data on new HIV infections, “reflect the success of prevention efforts across the nation,” said coauthor Richard Wolitski of the CDC.“I think it’s really the result of the combination -- HIV prevention efforts that include HIV testing, prevention programs for people who are living with HIV and those who are at risk for HIV, as well as the effects of HIV treatment that have prolonged the lives of so many people living with HIV,” Wolitski said. “These data really show that people living with HIV are taking steps to be responsible and protect others.” “However, despite this success, we cannot forget that new HIV infections are increasing among gay and bisexual men and that African-Americans and Hispanics continue to experience disproportionate and unacceptably high rates of HIV and AIDS,” Wolitski said. “The fight against HIV is far from over.”
The research letter, titled “Updated Annual HIV Transmission Rates in the United States, 1977–2006,” was published online ahead of print in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. SOURCE:HIVPLUSMAG.COM

World Aids Day: Current HIV/AIDS Facts You Should Know

Facts about HIV/AIDS

GLOBAL
-33.2 million people now live with HIV or AIDS.
-In 2007, approximately 2.5 million people were infected with HIV.
-Every day, over 6800 people become infected with HIV - almost five people per minute.
-5700 people die from AIDS every day.
-One child dies every minute.
-15 million children around the world have been orphaned by AIDS, losing one or both parents to the disease.
-Every fifteen seconds, another person age 15-24 becomes infected with HIV/AIDS.

US
-Roughly one million people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States.
-Since the start of the AIDS epidemic, 1.5 million Americans have been infected with HIV and more than 524,000 have died of AIDS.
-At least 40,000 people are infected each year.
-African Americans account for 48% of new HIV infections.
-AIDS is the leading cause of death for African American women aged 25 to 34 and HIV rates among Hispanic women are increasing.
-The number of women living with HIV has tripled in the last two decades.
-At least half of all new infections are among people under the age of 25.
-Washington, DC has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the United States - one in 20 people are living with HIV or AIDS.

World AIDS Day: Bad Laws Could Be Pandemic’s Setback

An increasing number of countries worldwide are making spreading HIV a crime, according to a new report from the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Health officials fear the trend could undermine gains made in fighting the AIDS pandemic and provoke a surge in cases. Globally, about 33 million people are thought to have HIV and nearly 3 million people are newly infected every year. "If the law is applied badly, this could set us back and do incredible damage," said Paul de Lay, an AIDS expert at the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, who was not involved in the report. De Lay said the laws could result in forced testing and drive the epidemic underground as people hide their HIV status, allowing the virus to spread unnoticed. According to Planned Parenthood, 58 countries worldwide have laws that criminalize HIV or use existing laws to prosecute people for transmitting the virus. Thirty-three more countries are considering similar legislation. Since 2005 seven countries in West Africa have passed HIV laws. In Benin simply exposing others to HIV is a crime, even if transmission doesn't occur. And in Tanzania intentional transmission of the virus can lead to life imprisonment. Many of the laws in Africa were passed after a meeting in Chad in 2004 sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the world's biggest funder of AIDS programs, and attended by U.N. officials. "The U.N. was definitely remiss to allow this to happen," said Kevin Osborne, a senior HIV adviser at IPPF and one of the report's authors. De Lay said UNAIDS found out about the meeting only after it happened. But poor countries aren't the only ones using these laws. In the United States 32 states have laws criminalizing HIV transmission. Experts estimate that thousands of people have been charged across the country with spreading HIV. Since 2001, 16 people in the United Kingdom have been prosecuted for spreading HIV. In 2005 a woman in Canada was charged with criminal negligence and aggravated assault for passing HIV while pregnant to her baby. She did not tell her doctors that she had the virus and did not receive the medications necessary to prevent it from infecting her child. She was given a six-month conditional sentence followed by three years of probation. In countries like Britain, Canada, and the United States, which are major donors of efforts to fight HIV in Africa, such cases are particularly unfortunate, many experts say. CONTINUE READING...

HIV scare puts Mo. school in uncertain territory

NORMANDY, Mo. – Students at a suburban St. Louis high school headed to the gymnasium for HIV testing this week after an infected person told health officials as many as 50 teenagers might have been exposed to the virus that causes AIDS. Officials refused to give details on who the person was or how the students at Normandy High School might have been exposed, but the district is consulting with national AIDS organizations as it tries to minimize the fallout and prevent the infection — and misinformation — from spreading. "There's potential for stigma for all students regardless of whether they're positive or negative," Normandy School District spokesman Doug Hochstedler said Thursday. "The board wants to be sure all children are fully educated." A teacher in a neighboring district singled out a girl who dates someone at Normandy High and instructed her to get tested, Hochstedler said. A competing school's football team initially balked at playing Normandy's 8-0 team. Jasmine Lane, a 16-year-old sophomore, said her boyfriend from a neighboring high school broke up with her on learning of the news — after she bought them tickets to homecoming. "I cried so hard," she said. Hochstedler said that as far as he knows, no other district has had to handle a similar situation. Students at the school of 1,300 are being tested voluntarily, and the district is getting advice on the best ways to support kids in crisis. Sophomore Tevin Baldwin said that many of his classmates in this working-class city of about 5,000 residents want to transfer out of the district, which encompasses other towns. "Nobody knows what's going on," he said. The district declined to respond to his assertion. Marcus Holman, a 14-year-old freshman, said he never imagined HIV would become such a widespread threat at school. "I'm just trying to pass, get to the next grade, safely," he said. Normandy Superintendent Stanton Lawrence agreed that students remain focused on learning, despite concerns and distraction. There's no hysteria or panic, and school is running routinely, he said. "They recognize this situation is what it is, and doesn't mean school is over," he said. "Their concern is heightened, but we have to face it and do the responsible thing." The St. Louis County Health Department said last week that a positive HIV test raised concern that students at Normandy might have been exposed. The department is not saying whether the infected person was a student or connected with the school, only that the person indicated as many as 50 students may have been exposed. The Health Department also will not say how any exposure might have occurred. Health Department spokesman Craig LeFebvre has said the possibilities include sexual activity, intravenous drug use, piercings and tattoos. Hochstedler said the district doesn't know the person's identity, or even whether he or she is a student. "We do know there was some potential exposure between that person and students," he said. "We don't know the individual or the route of transmission." The district learned Oct. 9 of the potential exposure and within a business day worked out with the Health Department how to release the information and handle testing, he said. "They took a very proactive stance," he said. "There's no precedent for this."Students are being tested at six stations in the high school gymnasium, one class at a time. Only representatives from the Health Department are with the students, who are offered educational materials and a chance to ask questions before they are given an opportunity to be tested with a mouth swab, Hochstedler said. They may decline.CONTINUE READING...