Happy Condom Day!! Might as well Celebrate it in a "fitting" way

Research Triangle Park, NC - February 14th is National Condom Day, and the American Social Health Association (ASHA) urges Americans to Get Passionate About Prevention! "Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) remain one of nation's biggest public health threats, and it is high time that we as a nation we get serious, get passionate about addressing the problem," says James R. Allen, MD, MPH, ASHA's President & CEO.

Here are the facts:

• Every year, there are approximately 15 million new cases of STDs

• More than 65 million people in the US are living with a chronic STD such as herpes or HPV.

• Two-thirds of all STDs occur in people 25 years of age or younger.

• One in four new STD infections occur in teenagers.

• At least one in four Americans will contract an STD at some point in their lives.

• At least 15 percent of all infertile American women are infertile because of tubal damage resulting from an untreated STD.

• Each year it costs more than $8 billion to diagnose and treat STDs and their complications.

"Research continues to demonstrate that condoms, used consistently and correctly, are one of the best tools in the prevention of STDs, including HIV," asserts Allen.  Despite this fact, many suggest that abstinence and monogamy are the only responsible messages. "Too often, arguments of morality get in the way of sound public health practice.  With more than 15 million new cases of STD infections each year, we must access every available option to stem the tide of this epidemic.  Humans are sexual beings.  Abstinence and monogamy are important public health messages, but to think that messages of abstinence and monogamy alone will fix the problem is shortsighted at best, and dangerous at worst," states Allen.

Much of the debate centers on whether condoms are protective against genital human papillomavirus (HPV), an infection that in some cases can lead to cervical cancer.  ASHA and several leading public health organizations recently joined forces in support of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that called for reducing cervical cancer incidence and deaths by increasing Pap test screening among women.  The report suggested that there is sound evidence that condom use may actually reduce the risk of cervical cancer.

Get Passionate About Prevention! reflects ASHA's commitment to continued education and health policy efforts. On National Condom Day ASHA encourages everyone to learn more about their risk of STD infection and to get the facts on condom use.  Information about condoms and their role in reducing the risk of STDs (including HIV), preventing pregnancy, and the facts about STDs are available on several web sites, including those of the ASHA,  and www.iwannaknow.org (for teens); the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, , and the National Coalition of STD Directors.

ASHA has been dedicated to improving the health of individuals, families, and communities, with a focus on preventing sexually transmitted diseases and their harmful consequences for 90 years.  ASHA delivers accurate, reliable health information to millions of people worldwide via hotlines, state-of-the-art web sites, responsive e-mail services and a variety of education programs.

What is the price of HIV prevention?

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A US citizen cured of HIV?

Seems too good to be true.  I've been flooded with emails at work and on Facebook the last few days about this story, how the cure for HIV has been found.  Well sort of.

I first heard this story 2 years ago when it first happened.  There was some discussion on HIV activists blogs and even then Scientists were skeptical on whether the virus actually was eradicated from this person's body, or was it hiding somewhere just waiting to start replicating again.  So they held off for 2 years before publishing the study this year, and now becoming one of the top medical research stories of the year.  And that's how I found out that this topic is becoming headline news now.

Timothy Ray Brown is a 44 year old American citizen who was living in Berlin, Germany when he had his surgery.  Besides being diagnosed with HIV, Mr. Brown also was fighting acute myeloid leukemia.  The leukemia was of more concern, and he was told he needed to get a bone marrow transplant immediately.  German doctors knowing that they would have to kill off his current bone marrow and replace it with a donor's, and that he had HIV, they knew his body would be severly susceptible to all infections without an immune system to fight them off.  In a fortunate, but very rare situation, they were able to find a Bone Marrow donor who also had a genetic mutation that made the donor resistant in getting HIV.  This genetic mutation has only been found in caucasian men and less then 1% of the total caucasian population has this mutation.  Taking into consideration the amount of bone marrow donors there are and the rarity of this mutation, you can see how this was similar to winning not only the lottery, but winning the lottery in every state.

So after getting this transplant, is Mr. Brown now cured of HIV?  Doctors are still hesitant to say, but after 2 years of yet showing any HIV in his system, the answer is quite possibly yes.  Does this mean that we now have a cure for HIV?  No.  Why?

CNN gives 3 good reasons why this procedure cannot be used to cure the over 30 million people who are living with HIV.

1. The chances of finding a bone marrow donor with two copies of this genetic mutation for every one of the 33 million people worldwide living with HIV or AIDS is not realistic because only one percent of Caucasians and zero percent of African Americans or Asians have this particular genetic mutation.


2. Bone marrow transplants are dangerous for patients. Before they can get the donated stem cells that will replace their own, they have to take strong chemotherapy to destroy their own bone marrow – leaving them without an immune system to fight off any disease – until the transplanted bone marrow can make new blood cells. Plus patients run the risk of rejecting the new cells, which means they have to take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of their life.

3. Bone marrow transplants are very expensive and not an option for many people living with this disease around the world.

Just how dangerous are bone marrow transplants? About one-third of patients die during them, Dr. Jay Levy told Health.com last year.

Bottom line: It's exciting news, but not likely to cure the global AIDS pandemic.

Controversy around HIV photo exhibit at Overture Center

via Channel 27

MADISON (WKOW) -- There's a blank spot on the wall amid a striking collection of photos at the Overture Center's latest exhibit, "Living with HIV/AIDS: Perspectives Through the Lens."


The gallery, which runs through Sunday, features work done by people who have HIV/AIDS. These photos are their stories.

Project coordinators hope to bring about awareness of the disease and lessen the stigma surrounding it. But on the day before the exhibit opened, one photo was pulled from the wall, with a small card in its place explaining the photo removed "may not be suitable for all viewing audiences."

The photo depicts a naked man sitting with several pill bottles hiding his genitals. Titled "Stripped," it was meant to send the message that while everything else can be stripped away, the fatal HIV/AIDS virus remains.

The Overture Center says the picture is too graphic to be featured in the main rotunda entrance to the building, through which hundreds of young children pass every day on field trips and family outings.

"If a little kid sees medicine on the genitals, it's going to cause some confusion, without question," said Overture spokesperson Robert Chappell.

Chappell says it's not so much the photo as it is the location.

"If this exhibit were in a location anywhere else in the building, where a kid might see it but 7,500 kids aren't going to see it, it would probably still be there. If it was in a spot where we could put up a sign saying 'for mature audiences,' it would probably still be there. It's all about appropriateness and a certain amount of discretion," said Chappell.

But Heidi Nass, who coordinated the gallery and also took part as a woman living with HIV, says Overture's decision further stigmatizes and silences the HIV/AIDS community.

"The further you squash the story, the more silence you create. That's my big concern. And for those of us living with HIV, it doesn't get any easier when an art center chooses not to defend art. They didn't give the community a chance to applaud the art, to criticize the art, or to see the art. They - and I don't know who 'they' are - just decided that it wasn't okay," said Nass.

The Overture Center did give the artist a chance to replace the photo with a different one, but Heidi Nass says it's not that easy, because these photos are really a part of each artist's intimate story and they were chosen carefully.

There are two other photos by the same artist that also include naked men, but Overture officials did not find those to be inappropriate.

When asked whether Overture could simply relocate the gallery, Chappell said that was not an option, given the fact that other exhibits currently inhabit the rest of the space.

This is the first time in its six-year history that the arts center has removed a piece of art

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day happens every year on December 1st.  On this day, the entire world makes a large effort to remind everyone on this planet that there is still a preventable disease infecting large numbers of people.  That this disease has further been spread through ignorance, discrimination, stigma, poverty, incarceration, alcohol and drugs and many other social and psychological issues.  That HIV/AIDS activism still is needed today because every year, individuals on the national, state and local level have to explain to politicians newly elected why providing funding for HIV medication will help stop the spread of HIV and keep thousands of people healthy.  Every year, small organizations have to fight for the small amount of money they get each year to provide the necessary services for their community.  And every year, individuals living with HIV/AIDS know that another year has passed and because of them and other individuals, are healthier now then they were 10 years ago.  And all of us come together and take a moment to remember those who have left us this year.  and in years pass.   We take a moment and light a candle, wear a ribbon, or approach one of our friends and say " Let me tell you about a friend/partner/family member I had who taught me a lot about not only HIV but about loving life."

So please join AIDS Network, UW Clinics, Madison/Dane County Public Health and the University of Wisconsin as we recognize World AIDS Day.

I am HIV Positive and I Don't Blame Anyone - including myself

This is a reposting of an amazing article done by Kirk Grisham.
To view the original post, please go HERE.

 I am HIV positive, and I don’t blame anybody for it—not myself or anybody else.




He didn’t rape me and he did not trick me. It was through our unprotected sex that I became HIV positive. Since seroconverting, I have been very conscious of the language I use to discuss transmission, particularly my own. To say “he gave me HIV” obscures the truth, it was through a mutual act, consensual sex, that I became HIV positive. When speaking to him a couple months after my diagnosis I gathered that he knew he was positive when we had sex. But that is beside the point; my sexual health is mine to control, not his.

We are encouraged to think about prevention and transmission in terms of responsibility. Someone must be at fault. Culturally, we hunt for secret villains. Today’s “down low” black man is but the latest boogeyman at which we’ve pointed our fingers—the latest of the so-often racialized monsters at which we can direct HIV blame rather than have honest conversations about sex and relationships.

In recent weeks, another recurring villain has re-emerged: the HIV-positive criminal who callously infects others. Last month, long-standing accusations that baseball legend Roberto Alomar hid an alleged HIV infection from his wife and girlfriends returned to the news. This summer, German pop star Nadja Benaissa made international headlines as she was tried for failing to disclose her HIV status to sex partners. These stories rarely fail to steal the news spotlight, and often throw local communities into HIV panics.


There must be a reason they are so resonant, right? They are evidence that HIV transmission from knowingly positive persons is rampant, right? Wrong. The reality is that the vast majority of HIV infections occur between two consenting people who believe they are doing nothing more risky than making love—or, at least getting laid.

People who know their HIV status are actually more likely to use condoms than not. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports one snapshot study that found 95 percent of those living with HIV infection in 2006 did not transmit the virus to others that year. Another CDC study, released in September, found that while one in five “men who have sex with men”—public health jargon for gay and bisexual men—in 21 major cities has HIV, nearly half of those men (44 percent) don’t know it. The agency estimates that the majority of new infections each year result from sexual contact in which the positive person does not know he or she has HIV.

HIV disproportionately affects African Americans, regardless of sexuality. They account for half of the people living with HIV/AIDS, but just 13 percent of the overall U.S. population. Studies also suggest African Americans are least likely to know their HIV status, with the younger being less aware. Similar patterns exist among men who have sex with men, of all races. No talking and no testing, just finger pointing.


The communication problems that help drive these trends don’t stop with finding monsters to blame. People I love and talk to about my status do not always have the language or tools to express their grief and worry. They ask things like, “How could you be so irresponsible?” Or, “How could you fuck up like this?”

This language hurts, but more importantly it shifts the discussion from meaningful conversation about risk and vulnerability to simplistic directives: if only people used condoms, transmission would cease. But this idea relies on a complicated array of misconceptions and idealistic assumptions of equality, equal access to information, and how to use that information to stay HIV negative.


It is irresponsible to just tell people to use condoms without acknowledging that conditions like poverty, patriarchy and homophobia play roles in the so-called risks we all take. Even with people who have seemingly escaped these broader contexts—say, a working-middle class white man such as myself—stigma can prevail. Stigma that is produced by homophobia and general ignorance, yes, but also by American society’s desperate need to discipline and punish, to affix blame on individuals rather than confront the systems in which individuals live. So the AIDS epidemic becomes a challenge of personal responsibility rather than a damning indictment of global public health. That personal responsibility, however, is tricky: I bore no responsibility for the epidemic, until I had HIV, when it became entirely my problem.


When I used to get tested at the city clinic, they would tell me that people stay negative by disclosing their negative status. Having a conversation is paramount—negotiating whether and how you want to use protection, talking about the last time you were tested and asking the same of your partner. This dialogue cannot be taken for granted, but for many, before these conversations can happen, we need the tools to do so. So here, we lead by example. Three people of varying HIV status offer their own testimonies on how they think about their sexual health, and what it means.

Project Inform creates booklets for those newly diagnosed with HIV

Source: Project Inform

Project Inform created this series of three publications to address commonly asked questions and issues that people face as they come to terms with their diagnosis of HIV or AIDS and begin to address their health needs, including making decisions about starting HIV meds.

After you’ve tested positive

(booklet 1 of 3)

This booklet helps guide individuals on basic things to do after finding out they’re HIV-positive, with an emphasis on understanding HIV infection, getting into care, and finding a support network.

Considering treatment & your health care

(booklet 2 of 3)

This booklet explores decision making about HIV health, from considering treatment to talking things out with a support network and doctors to thinking more broadly about personal health needs.

What you should know about when to start & what to use

(booklet 3 of 3)

This booklet focuses on the issues related to taking HIV medications, including deciding when to start and what to use, planning ahead, considering how treatment may affect one's life, and finding an HIV-experienced doctor.