A Declaration of Sexual Rights

From the 1999 World Association of Sexology meeting in Hong Kong. "In order to assure that human beings and societies develop healthy sexuality," the Declaration stated, "the following sexual rights must be recognized, promoted, respected and defended":

• The right to sexual freedom, excluding all forms of sexual coercion, exploitation and abuse;
• The right to sexual autonomy and safety of the sexual body;
• The right to sexual pleasure, which is a source of physical, psychological, intellectual and spiritual well-being;
• The right to sexual information...generated through unencumbered yet scientifically ethical inquiry;
• The right to comprehensive sexuality education;
• The right to sexual health care, which should be available for prevention and treatment of all sexual concerns, problems and disorders.

And I think that about says it all.
-H

START (Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Treatment)

One of the items that was up for discussion at the HIV Research Catalyst Forum was some new recommendations that is coming out of the U.S. HIV Treatment Guidelines Panel.  There is a suggestion from this panel that HIV Retroviral Medication should be started as soon as a person is diagnosed with HIV.  Here is exactly what they said in the latest Guidelines booklet that can be found HERE. 

Initiation of Antiretroviral Therapy


In this updated version of the guidelines, the Panel recommends earlier initiation of antiretroviral therapy with the following specific recommendations:


• Antiretroviral therapy should be initiated in all patients with a history of an AIDS-defining illness or with CD4 count < 350 cells/mm3 (AI).


• Antiretroviral therapy should also be initiated, regardless of CD4 count, in patients with the following conditions: pregnancy (AI), HIV-associated nephropathy (AII), and hepatitis B virus (HBV) coinfection when treatment of HBV is indicated (AIII).


• Antiretroviral therapy is recommended for patients with CD4 counts between 350 and 500 cells/mm3. The Panel was divided on the strength of this recommendation: 55% of Panel members for strong recommendation (A) and 45% for moderate recommendation (B) (A/B-II).


• For patients with CD4 counts >500 cells/mm3, 50% of Panel members favor starting antiretroviral therapy (B); the other 50% of members view treatment as optional (C) in this setting (B/C-III).
 
As you can see, this isn't something that was unanimously approved of.  A main reason for this hesitancy is that there really hasn't been any data or studies conducted that would link early HIV treatment to eliminating health complications later in life.  These recommendations were made because of a report that stated that there is a link between HIV and complications with heart, kidney, lung and even the brain.  They found that the lower a person's CD4 count reaches, the greater the chance in experiencing these health issues.  Hence, let's get people on medications as soon as they are diagnosed.   
 
But some advocates are against these recommendations.  There isn't any scientific study that is linking early treatment when CD4 count is above 500 to decreasing health problems.   There is a pilot program in the works now called S.T.A.R.T (Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Treatment).  You can gather more information on it HERE. 
 
The START trial includes antiretroviral-naive HIV-positive people with CD4 counts greater than 500 cells/mm3. It is taking place at about 90 sites in nearly 30 countries. Participants are randomized to either receive antiretroviral treatment immediately or to defer treatment until their first CD4 count less than 350 cells/mm3 or they have clinical signs of AIDS. Eventually, START will recruit 4,000 people
 
What do you think about the new guidelines for HIV medication?

HIV Research Catalyst Forum: The Denver Principles

Remember the Denver Principles

   I just got back from a 4 day conference in Baltimore, MD called The HIV Research Catalyst Forum.  This Forum was created by volunteers who have been passionate about HIV Activism, Education and Advocacy since the beginning of this epidemic.  I was really lucky to be accepted by the organizers to go to this conference on a scholarship.  I was equally lucky enough to meet with some amazing activists from around the country who are continuing the fight for HIV/AIDS justice that was started in the early 1980's.  I also got to hear some truly astounding personal stories from people who had to go through the ignorance and intolerance that the government (City, State and Federal) has and continues to do towards people living with HIV/AIDS.  For the next couple of posts, I want to write up what I learned and experienced at the forum and hopefully connect people here in South Central Wisconsin to some amazing advocacy groups in the country.

At the opening dinner to this forum, we got to hear some passionate addresses from current HIV advocates.  I will probably take a part or a whole post to comment on each of them and what they are doing.  The first one I want to mention though is an amazing woman from Philadelphia, PA.

Waheedah Shabazz-El

 I'm going to just post a little bit of her bio from the CHAMP website. 

"Waheedah Shabazz-El, a 55-year-old African American Muslim woman, is a Community Organizer and Trainer with the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP). Waheedah is a retired Postal Worker who was diagnosed with AIDS in 2003. Since her diagnosis, she has become a fervent member of the social justice movement and an AIDS activist, advocate, educator and community organizer. Certified in HIV prevention, she is also an organizer and spokesperson for ACT-UP Philadelphia. Waheedah is a graduate of Project TEACH Outside and Project TEACH, educational advocacy programs at Philadelphia FIGHT. She is employed by Philadelphia FIGHT as an HIV counselor and tester and volunteers as a peer educator. She is an organizer for the Philadelphia County Coalition for Prison Health-Care, an editor of Prison Health newsletter, and a member of the PRHCN (Prison Re-Entry Health-Care Network). She is also a member of the Ryan White Positive Committee for Philadelphia’s Office of HIV Planning."

She talked about how she did not know anything when she went to meetings surrounding clinical trials of HIV treatment.  And she was asked many times from the scientists and researchers who were there if she knew what meetings she was attending and if she really should be there.  She kept coming back anyway and soon began understanding what was being discussed, and in a way accepted as a part of the discussion about these treatment trials.  Her advice was to not let scientists or researchers intimidate you with their language or their degrees.  That HIV clinical trials were affecting people living with HIV and they had every right to be at that table talking about it.  She also brought up something called the Denver Principals.  For those who don't know, in 1983 members of ACTUP got together and came up with these Rights of patients living with HIV.  Here they are:

We condemn attempts to label us as ‘victims,’ a term that implies defeat, and we are only occasionally ‘patients,’ a term that implies passivity, helplessness, and dependence upon the care of others. We are ‘People With AIDS.’.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ALL PEOPLE.

1. Support us in our struggle against those who would fire us from our jobs, evict us from our homes, refuse to touch us or separate us from our loved ones, our community or our peers, since available evidence does not support the view that AIDS can be spread by casual, social contact.

2. Not scapegoat people with AIDS, blame us for the epidemic or generalize about our lifestyles.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH AIDS.

1. Form caucuses to choose their own representatives, to deal with the media, to choose their own agenda and to plan their own strategies.

2. Be involved at every level of decision-making and specifically serve on the boards of directors of provider organizations.

3. Be included in all AIDS forums with equal credibility as other participants, to share their own experiences and knowledge.

4. Substitute low-risk sexual behaviors for those that could endanger themselves or their partners; we feel people with AIDS have an ethical responsibility to inform their potential sexual partners of their health status.

RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH AIDS.

1. To as full and satisfying sexual and emotional lives as anyone else.

2. To quality medical treatment and quality social service provision without discrimination of any form including sexual orientation, gender, diagnosis, economic status or race.

3. To full explanations of all medical procedures and risks, to choose or refuse their treatment modalities, to refuse to participate in research without jeopardizing their treatment and to make informed decisions about their lives.

4. To privacy, to confidentiality of medical records, to human respect and to choose who their significant others are.

5. To die--and to LIVE--in dignity.

How'd you do? I see you've met my...

faithful prevention man
He's just a little brought down
because when you knocked
he thought you were the condom man.
Don't get strung out
by the way I look
don't judge a book by it's cover
I may be a nerd by the light of day
but trust me, I'm one hell of a harm reduction educator...
(All apologies to Rocky Horror Picture Show)

Hi! I'm Heidi! I consider myself a harm reduction educator, as opposed to a prevention specialist, because I don't feel I personally actually prevent anything. Trust me, you will never find me in your bedroom screaming "Put a condom on!" or "Use a new syringe!" (and probably you wouldn't want me there anyway). Instead, I educate people about the many "tools"at their disposal to allow them to protect themselves from infection in nearly every given sexual and drug using situation.

I've been doing this for 11 years now and I focus my outreach and education to people with drug and alcohol issues. Sometimes I'm providing education and testing to people in recovery at drug treatment centers, other times I'm providing such services to people incarcerated in our correctional system. Most often, I'm providing education and supplies to active drug users through our needle exchange program. I feel every person has worth, and is worthy of being allowed the opportunity to live their lives in the healthiest way possible for them, no matter what they are doing or what their situation is.

The main principals that drive what I do, and how I do it are the "Harm Reduction Principals":

• everyone has the right to make choices for themselves-I will not judge anyone regarding the choices they make for themselves
• any reduction in harm is a move in the right direction
• everyone engages in risky behavior for reasons that make, or that have made, sense to them - I will not judge reasoning, but will listen and support them in exploring the things in their lives that lead to them taking risks(i.e. emotional/physical pain, seeking perceived normalcy, etc.)
• there are as many harm reduction plans as there are people
  
• we are all here to improve the quality of our lives and well being, success is not measured by abstinence, but by improved health, improved relationships, job satisfaction and performance, better self esteem, improved legal status, decrease in crime, etc.
• you are the only one that is responsible for making (or not making) positive changes in your life
• you are the expert in the knowledge of what you need to change and the direction that change takes
• concentrating on strengths rather than shortcomings will breed more success
• I can assist a peer at looking at options - however I respect the fact that each person has to decide what works best for them in any given situation
• change happens in small steps - we will celebrate every positive "baby step" towards change
  

Keep coming back to find out what's happening with the AIDS Network prevention team, what's happening in the prevention world in general AND to get your questions answered!!!

Sexual Health Awareness Week April 12-17

We are already half way into Sexual Health Awareness Week on the UW campus. I was sad to realize that I missed the Pole Dancing classes that happen this past Monday.  But hey, I"m in luck.  They are offering two more classes this afternoon.  Though most of these activities are geared to the student body, there will be a public Sexual Health Fair on the Library Mall this Friday from 10am to 2pm.  I remember some of the stuff they had at previous fairs and wonder if they will be as daring this year.  From Bondage How-to tables to lots of free condoms and lubrication.  If anything, it will make for a great activity during your lunch break.

Also for you adventurous sort, they are bringing a former Porn Star now a "Sex Guru" to campus this Saturday.  Her name is Annie Sprinkle.  She seems like she would be an interesting speaker.  It was hard to find a picture where she wasn't naked in it, but I did find this one. 

For a listing of the rest of the events that are taking place, check out Sex Out Louds website linked HERE.

HIV Vaccine Awareness Day - May 18th

From the Huffington Post

"This much we do know: No major viral epidemic has been defeated without a vaccine. That was one of the reasons President Bill Clinton challenged the nation to develop an AIDS vaccine within 10 years back on May 18, 1997, the first HIV Vaccine Awareness Day

Right here in Chicago, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), in partnership with Project WISH (We're Invested in Stopping HIV) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has launched HVTN 505, a national effort taking place in 14 sites across the country to test a new HIV vaccine among gay and bisexual men of color, a population severely impacted by HIV/AIDS.

Nearly 30 years into the HIV/AIDS pandemic, I feel there is a prevention burnout among older individuals in the LGBT community and among some of our allies," Gaylord said. "Some of the younger individuals that I engage for the study did not witness the devastation of AIDS that I did in the early 1980's. I think their concerns may be on issues other than HIV. I have to remind them that if it weren't for study participants, we wouldn't have AZT - the first drug to combat HIV - or the nearly 30 different kinds of antiretroviral therapy that exist today."

Sentenced to Stigma - Segregation of HIV-Positive Prisoners in Alabama and South Carolina

ACLU Link


These are some of the harsh consequences of HIV policies in Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi, the only three states in the nation that have continued to segregate prisoners living with HIV. In March 2010, after reviewing the findings in this report, the Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections decided to terminate the segregation policy. The segregation and discrimination against HIV-positive prisoners continues to this day in Alabama and South Carolina, and constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of international law.

Ryan White

In the HIV/AIDS battle, there are many people who were on the frontlines when it came to fighting for equal rights and proper education. Larry Kramer and the Gay Men’s Health Coalition (GMHC). ACT UP and Broadway Cares. Many of these organizations and individuals felt that it was necessary to take a stand because in their eyes, America was not concerned about the epidemic as it was spreading. Why? Because HIV wasn’t touching on the common heterosexual family. Those who followed the status quo in America and were heterosexuals who got married and had kids didn’t need to concern themselves with this virus. The media was calling it GRIDS (Gay-related Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and everyone knew that only gay men, injection drug users or those people who were coming from Haiti were infected by it. It says a lot too that the mass populace didn’t care that those coming from Haiti were heterosexual.


But then news broke out that there was an Indiana kid who was banned from attending the public school system because he was diagnosed with this mysterious illness. Wait a minute. How did a 13 yr old boy become infected with HIV? He wasn’t gay (as far as people knew) and he didn’t inject drugs. But he was a hemophiliac, and as was discussed in the book “And the Band Played On”, the blood banks knew about the possible contamination of their blood supply but didn’t do anything about it. They claimed that there wasn’t a test available that was accurate in detecting HIV in the blood supply and also that it was too expensive for them to test all of the blood they have received using the test that was recommended (which was similar to a Hepatitis B test). So how did this end up? Hundred of people who had to have blood transfusions were infected with HIV. And then, America found many people like them getting infected with this virus as well.

One of these cases was Ryan White. During a procedure in 1984, it was discovered that he had contracted HIV. This was before any medication was discovered and it was barely after the time that the virus itself was thought to be causing people to become sick. Ryan White’s status was leaked out all over the town. When he finally was able to return to school, half the student body took the day off. The school superintendent decided that for the public’s safety Ryan White was not allowed to attend school. 117 parents and 50 teachers, according to Wikipedia, signed a petition to keep Ryan White out. I understand the fear that many of these people were having, especially since little was known at the time about HIV. Actually, the Indiana State Health Commissioner told the school that HIV can not be spread through casual contact. His statements were ignored. It saddens me that there wasn’t more sympathy for Ryan.

Although he was allowed back in school, he was harassed every day. Boys would call him queer. The school made him use his own bathroom and tried to isolate him as much as possible. It wasn’t until his house was shot at that his mother decided that there had to be a better place to live. When they moved to Cicero, Indiana, Ryan White was greeted at the public school there by the principal and a few students who after being educated on HIV, were willing to shake his hand. After going through this debacle and with a more comfortable living situation, he decided to start fighting back.

Ryan White became friends with many celebrities at the time who were fighting for HIV/AIDS education and treatment. Michael Jackson, Liz Taylor and Elton John to name a few. He spoke up to Ronald and Nancy Regan stating that not enough was being done by the national government to curb the epidemic that was becoming world wide. He became a spokesperson and a public figure for HIV and AIDS. And even up to the end of his life, he would talk about his plans for college and how excited he was for his Senior Prom.

Ryan White became sick and passed away on April 8, 1990. He never was able to graduate High School. He never made it to his senior prom. But in those six years after he was diagnosed with HIV, he did incredible things to progress the fight against HIV.

Four months after his death, Congress passed the first Ryan White Care act in August. The Ryan White Care Act is the largest federally funded program for people living with HIV/AIDS. It was just reauthorized again in September of 2009 by President Obama.

There is a place in the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis that honors the work that Ryan White had done as a child pioneer. On April 9th, there will be a large event at Indiana University featuring Elton John to remember the 20th anniversary of Ryan White’s passing. His mother expressed how happy she was that the University of Indiana was doing this event, especially because it was the school he wanted to go to after high school.