Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
WORLD AIDS DAY DECEMBER 1
December 1, 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS DAY. The day is also an apportunity to highlight the need for continued development of education and prevention initiavtives.
STOP AIDS, KEEP THE PROMISE!!
ENJOY LIFE, TAKE CONTROL. STOP HIV/AIDS
WORLD AIDS DAY QUIZ
THE WHITE HOUSE/ WORLD AIDS DAY, 2008
So today is a good day to decide to get smart.
Make sure your children understand the risks — in 2004, the CDC estimated that more than 5 percent of new HIV infections are found in young people.
Make appointments for HIV testing for your child who is sexually active and for yourself and your partner if you're in a new relationship — or a longer term one in which neither has been tested.
KNOW HOW HIV TRANSMITTED
WHO MESSAGE FOR WORLD AIDS DAY
CONTROL YOUR LIFE
GLOBAL VOICES/ WORLD AIDS DAY: BLOGGING POSITIVELY
IMPORTANT HIV/AIDS AWARENESS DAYS
KEEP YOUR BODY HEALTHY
WORLD AIDS DAY-BE CONCERNED
DONATE TO OUR "CHILDREN AFFECTED BY HIV/AIDS
Show Others You Support the Room By Joining The groupe of Abesha Care at Paltalk.
To share ideas and meet Habesha people living HIV/AIDS visit www.abeshacare.com Love connection site.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Vote For CNN Heroes Ato Yohannes Gebregeorgis
Ethiopia Reads' Founder Yohannes Gebregeorgis is A CNN Hero! Story Available Online Now.
www.cnn.com/heroes and Please vote for him!
Please visit his site for more information
http://www.ethiopiareads.org/
Monday, November 10, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Watch the Video "HIV/AIDS AWARENESS in ETHIOPIA"
HIV/AIDS AWARENESS in ETHIOPIA: Approaches to Prevention (2006)
WHOSE CHILDREN ARE THEY NOW? AIDS Orphans in Ethiopia (Amharic version) (2006)
From RISK to ACTION: Women and HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia (Amharic version) (2006)
WHOSE CHILDREN ARE THEY NOW? AIDS Orphans in Ethiopia (Amharic version) (2006)
From RISK to ACTION: Women and HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia (Amharic version) (2006)
Friday, October 17, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Pathologists Believe They Have Pinpointed Achilles Heel Of HIV
ScienceDaily (July 16, 2008) — Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) researchers at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston believe they have uncovered the Achilles heel in the armor of the virus that continues to kill millions.
The weak spot is hidden in the HIV envelope protein gp120. This protein is essential for HIV attachment to host cells, which initiate infection and eventually lead to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS. Normally the body’s immune defenses can ward off viruses by making proteins called antibodies that bind the virus. However, HIV is a constantly changing and mutating virus, and the antibodies produced after infection do not control disease progression to AIDS. For the same reason, no HIV preventative vaccine that stimulates production of protective antibodies is available.
The Achilles heel, a tiny stretch of amino acids numbered 421-433 on gp120, is now under study as a target for therapeutic intervention. Sudhir Paul, Ph.D., pathology professor in the UT Medical School, said, “Unlike the changeable regions of its envelope, HIV needs at least one region that must remain constant to attach to cells. If this region changes, HIV cannot infect cells. Equally important, HIV does not want this constant region to provoke the body’s defense system. So, HIV uses the same constant cellular attachment site to silence B lymphocytes - the antibody producing cells. The result is that the body is fooled into making abundant antibodies to the changeable regions of HIV but not to its cellular attachment site. Immunologists call such regions superantigens. HIV’s cleverness is unmatched. No other virus uses this trick to evade the body’s defenses.”
Paul is the senior author on a paper about this theory in a June issue of the journal Autoimmunity Reviews. Additional data supporting the theory are to be presented at the XVII International AIDS Conference Aug. 3-8 in Mexico City in two studies titled “Survivors of HIV infection produce potent, broadly neutralizing IgAs directed to the superantigenic region of the gp120 CD4 binding site” and “Prospective clinical utility and evolutionary implication of broadly neutralizing antibody fragments to HIV gp120 superantigenic epitope.”
First reported in the early 1980s, HIV has spread across the world, particularly in developing countries. In 2007, 33 million people were living with AIDS, according to a report by the World Health Organization and the United Nations.
Paul’s group has engineered antibodies with enzymatic activity, also known as abzymes, which can attack the Achilles heel of the virus in a precise way. “The abzymes recognize essentially all of the diverse HIV forms found across the world. This solves the problem of HIV changeability. The next step is to confirm our theory in human clinical trials," Paul said.
Unlike regular antibodies, abzymes degrade the virus permanently. A single abzyme molecule inactivates thousands of virus particles. Regular antibodies inactivate only one virus particle, and their anti-viral HIV effect is weaker.
“The work of Dr. Paul’s group is highly innovative. They have identified antibodies that, instead of passively binding to the target molecule, are able to fragment it and destroy its function. Their recent work indicates that naturally occurring catalytic antibodies, particularly those of the IgA subtype, may be useful in the treatment and prevention of HIV infection,” said Steven J. Norris, Ph.D., holder of the Robert Greer Professorship in the Biomedical Sciences and vice chair for research in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the UT Medical School at Houston.
The abzymes are derived from HIV negative people with the autoimmune disease lupus and a small number of HIV positive people who do not require treatment and do not get AIDS. Stephanie Planque, lead author and UT Medical School at Houston graduate student, said, “We discovered that disturbed immunological events in lupus patients can generate abzymes to the Achilles heel of HIV. The human genome has accumulated over millions of years of evolution a lot of viral fragments called endogenous retroviral sequences. These endogenous retroviral sequences are overproduced in people with lupus, and an immune response to such a sequence that resembles the Achilles heel can explain the production of abzymes in lupus. A small minority of HIV positive people also start producing the abzymes after decades of the infection. The immune system in some people can cope with HIV after all.”
Carl Hanson, Ph.D., who heads the Retrovirus Diagnostic Section of the Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory of the California Department of Public Health, has shown that the abzymes neutralize infection of human blood cells by diverse strains of HIV from various parts of the world. Human blood cells are the only cells that HIV infects.
“This is an entirely new finding. It is a novel antibody that appears to be very effective in killing the HIV virus. The main question now is if this can be applied to developing vaccine and possibly used as a microbicide to prevent sexual transmission,” said David C. Montefiori, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine Research & Development at Duke University Medical Center. The abzymes are now under development for HIV immunotherapy by infusion into blood. They could also be used to guard against sexual HIV transmission as topical vaginal or rectal formulations.
“HIV is an international priority because we have no defense against it,” Paul said. “Left unchecked, it will likely evolve into even more virulent forms. We have learned a lot from this research about how to induce the production of the protective abzymes on demand. This is the Holy Grail of HIV research -- development of a preventative HIV vaccine.”
Major contributors to the research from the UT Medical School include Yasuhiro Nishiyama, Ph.D., and Hiroaki Taguchi, Ph.D., both with the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Miguel Escobar, M.D., of the Department of Pediatrics. Maria Salas and Hanson, both with the Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory, contributed.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating
The weak spot is hidden in the HIV envelope protein gp120. This protein is essential for HIV attachment to host cells, which initiate infection and eventually lead to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS. Normally the body’s immune defenses can ward off viruses by making proteins called antibodies that bind the virus. However, HIV is a constantly changing and mutating virus, and the antibodies produced after infection do not control disease progression to AIDS. For the same reason, no HIV preventative vaccine that stimulates production of protective antibodies is available.
The Achilles heel, a tiny stretch of amino acids numbered 421-433 on gp120, is now under study as a target for therapeutic intervention. Sudhir Paul, Ph.D., pathology professor in the UT Medical School, said, “Unlike the changeable regions of its envelope, HIV needs at least one region that must remain constant to attach to cells. If this region changes, HIV cannot infect cells. Equally important, HIV does not want this constant region to provoke the body’s defense system. So, HIV uses the same constant cellular attachment site to silence B lymphocytes - the antibody producing cells. The result is that the body is fooled into making abundant antibodies to the changeable regions of HIV but not to its cellular attachment site. Immunologists call such regions superantigens. HIV’s cleverness is unmatched. No other virus uses this trick to evade the body’s defenses.”
Paul is the senior author on a paper about this theory in a June issue of the journal Autoimmunity Reviews. Additional data supporting the theory are to be presented at the XVII International AIDS Conference Aug. 3-8 in Mexico City in two studies titled “Survivors of HIV infection produce potent, broadly neutralizing IgAs directed to the superantigenic region of the gp120 CD4 binding site” and “Prospective clinical utility and evolutionary implication of broadly neutralizing antibody fragments to HIV gp120 superantigenic epitope.”
First reported in the early 1980s, HIV has spread across the world, particularly in developing countries. In 2007, 33 million people were living with AIDS, according to a report by the World Health Organization and the United Nations.
Paul’s group has engineered antibodies with enzymatic activity, also known as abzymes, which can attack the Achilles heel of the virus in a precise way. “The abzymes recognize essentially all of the diverse HIV forms found across the world. This solves the problem of HIV changeability. The next step is to confirm our theory in human clinical trials," Paul said.
Unlike regular antibodies, abzymes degrade the virus permanently. A single abzyme molecule inactivates thousands of virus particles. Regular antibodies inactivate only one virus particle, and their anti-viral HIV effect is weaker.
“The work of Dr. Paul’s group is highly innovative. They have identified antibodies that, instead of passively binding to the target molecule, are able to fragment it and destroy its function. Their recent work indicates that naturally occurring catalytic antibodies, particularly those of the IgA subtype, may be useful in the treatment and prevention of HIV infection,” said Steven J. Norris, Ph.D., holder of the Robert Greer Professorship in the Biomedical Sciences and vice chair for research in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the UT Medical School at Houston.
The abzymes are derived from HIV negative people with the autoimmune disease lupus and a small number of HIV positive people who do not require treatment and do not get AIDS. Stephanie Planque, lead author and UT Medical School at Houston graduate student, said, “We discovered that disturbed immunological events in lupus patients can generate abzymes to the Achilles heel of HIV. The human genome has accumulated over millions of years of evolution a lot of viral fragments called endogenous retroviral sequences. These endogenous retroviral sequences are overproduced in people with lupus, and an immune response to such a sequence that resembles the Achilles heel can explain the production of abzymes in lupus. A small minority of HIV positive people also start producing the abzymes after decades of the infection. The immune system in some people can cope with HIV after all.”
Carl Hanson, Ph.D., who heads the Retrovirus Diagnostic Section of the Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory of the California Department of Public Health, has shown that the abzymes neutralize infection of human blood cells by diverse strains of HIV from various parts of the world. Human blood cells are the only cells that HIV infects.
“This is an entirely new finding. It is a novel antibody that appears to be very effective in killing the HIV virus. The main question now is if this can be applied to developing vaccine and possibly used as a microbicide to prevent sexual transmission,” said David C. Montefiori, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine Research & Development at Duke University Medical Center. The abzymes are now under development for HIV immunotherapy by infusion into blood. They could also be used to guard against sexual HIV transmission as topical vaginal or rectal formulations.
“HIV is an international priority because we have no defense against it,” Paul said. “Left unchecked, it will likely evolve into even more virulent forms. We have learned a lot from this research about how to induce the production of the protective abzymes on demand. This is the Holy Grail of HIV research -- development of a preventative HIV vaccine.”
Major contributors to the research from the UT Medical School include Yasuhiro Nishiyama, Ph.D., and Hiroaki Taguchi, Ph.D., both with the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Miguel Escobar, M.D., of the Department of Pediatrics. Maria Salas and Hanson, both with the Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory, contributed.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Jolie-Pitt Foundation Funds Ethiopian AIDS and TB Center
September 15, 2008 poz.com
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt donated $2 million through their Jolie-Pitt Foundation to the Global Health Committee, which will establish a center for children in Ethiopia affected by HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, MSNBC.com/Access Hollywood reports.
The center will be an expansion of the Cambodian Health Committee, which has fought both life-threatening diseases in that country since 1994.
“Our goal is to transfer the success we have had in Cambodia to Ethiopia where people are needlessly dying of tuberculosis, a curable disease, and HIV/AIDS, a treatable disease,” Jolie told Access Hollywood.
The couple’s oldest son, Maddox, was born in Cambodia, while Zahara, their adopted daughter, hails from Ethiopia.
“It is our hope when Zahara is older she will take responsibility of the clinic and continue its mission,” Pitt said in a statement.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt donated $2 million through their Jolie-Pitt Foundation to the Global Health Committee, which will establish a center for children in Ethiopia affected by HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, MSNBC.com/Access Hollywood reports.
The center will be an expansion of the Cambodian Health Committee, which has fought both life-threatening diseases in that country since 1994.
“Our goal is to transfer the success we have had in Cambodia to Ethiopia where people are needlessly dying of tuberculosis, a curable disease, and HIV/AIDS, a treatable disease,” Jolie told Access Hollywood.
The couple’s oldest son, Maddox, was born in Cambodia, while Zahara, their adopted daughter, hails from Ethiopia.
“It is our hope when Zahara is older she will take responsibility of the clinic and continue its mission,” Pitt said in a statement.
Positive Man Gets 5 Years in Prison for Unprotected Sex
Sept 10, 2008
An HIV-positive man in London, Ontario, in Canada has been sentenced to five years in prison for having unprotected sex with a female partner without disclosing his HIV status, The London Free Press reports. The woman remains HIV negative.
The man, Edward Kelly, had already served a three-year prison term for not disclosing his HIV status to four women with whom he had sex. None of those women tested positive.
“I realize the severity of the crime I have done, and I realize what I did was wrong,” Kelly told Justice Johanne Morissette. “Hopefully, it will never happen again,” he said before correcting himself. “No, it will never happen again.”
poz.com
An HIV-positive man in London, Ontario, in Canada has been sentenced to five years in prison for having unprotected sex with a female partner without disclosing his HIV status, The London Free Press reports. The woman remains HIV negative.
The man, Edward Kelly, had already served a three-year prison term for not disclosing his HIV status to four women with whom he had sex. None of those women tested positive.
“I realize the severity of the crime I have done, and I realize what I did was wrong,” Kelly told Justice Johanne Morissette. “Hopefully, it will never happen again,” he said before correcting himself. “No, it will never happen again.”
poz.com
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Scientists Unmask Key HIV Protein, Open Door For New AIDS Drugs
Latest Medical News For: HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 27 Sep 2008 - 0:00 PDT
University of Michigan scientists have provided the most detailed picture yet of a key HIV accessory protein that foils the body's normal immune response. Based on the findings, which appear online in the journal PLoS Pathogens, the team is searching for new drugs that may someday allow infected people to be cured and no longer need today's AIDS drugs for a lifetime.
"There's a big hole in current therapies, in that all of them prevent new infection, but none attack the cells that are already infected and hidden from the immune response," says Kathleen L. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., the study's senior author and a U-M associate professor in both internal medicine and microbiology and immunology.
In people infected with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), the virus that causes AIDS, there's an unsolved problem with current anti-viral drugs. Though life-saving, they cannot root the virus out of the body. Infected cells are able to live on, undetected by the immune system, and provide the machinery for the virus to reproduce and spread.
"People have to be on the existing drugs, and when they're not, the virus rebounds. If we can develop drugs that seek out and eradicate the remaining factories for the virus, then maybe we could eradicate the disease in that person," Collins says.
Research details:
The new research details the complex actions of a protein, HIV-1 Nef, that is known to keep immune system cells from doing their normal jobs of detecting and killing infected cells.
Collins and her team show how Nef disables two key immune system players inside an infected cell. These are molecules called major histocompatability complex 1 proteins (MHC-1) that present HIV antigens to the immune system, and CD4, the cell-surface receptor that normally locks onto a virus and allows it to enter the cell.
Collins likens MHC-1 to motion detectors on a house, which send the first signal to a monitoring station if an invader breaks in.
"The immune system, especially the cytotoxic T lymphocytes, are like the monitors who get the signal that there's a foreign invader inside the cell, and send out police cars," she says. "The 'police' are toxic chemicals produced by T lymphocyte cells, which kill the cell that harbors the invader."
By in effect pushing the MHC-I proteins into an infected cell's "trash bin" so they fail to alert the T lymphocytes, Nef's actions allow active virus to hide undetected and reproduce. Also, once a cell has been infected, Nef destroys CD4. The result is that this encourages new virus to spread to uninfected cells.
Nef's activities are variable and complex. But the research team's findings suggest that the many pathways involved may end in a final common step. That could make it possible to find a drug that could block several Nef functions.
Implications:
Collins' lab is now screening drug candidates to find promising Nef inhibitors. Such drugs, which are at least 10 years away from use in people, would supplement, not replace, existing anti-viral drugs given to HIV-infected people. The new drugs would target the reservoirs where the virus hides.
In developing countries, the new drugs could have a huge impact, Collins says. Today, children born with HIV infection start taking the existing anti-HIV drugs at birth. It's very hard to continue costly treatments for a lifetime. But if children could be cured within a few years, global HIV treatment efforts could spread their dollars further and be much more successful, she says.
Additional U-M authors are first author Malinda R. Schaefer, Ph.D.; Elizabeth R. Wonderlich, Jeremiah F. Roeth and Jolie A. Leonard.
Funding for the research came from the National Institutes of Health and U-M.
Citation: PLoS Pathogens, doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1000131
University of Michigan Health System
2901 Hubbard St., Ste. 2400
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2435
United States
http://www.med.umich.edu
Article Date: 27 Sep 2008 - 0:00 PDT
University of Michigan scientists have provided the most detailed picture yet of a key HIV accessory protein that foils the body's normal immune response. Based on the findings, which appear online in the journal PLoS Pathogens, the team is searching for new drugs that may someday allow infected people to be cured and no longer need today's AIDS drugs for a lifetime.
"There's a big hole in current therapies, in that all of them prevent new infection, but none attack the cells that are already infected and hidden from the immune response," says Kathleen L. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., the study's senior author and a U-M associate professor in both internal medicine and microbiology and immunology.
In people infected with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), the virus that causes AIDS, there's an unsolved problem with current anti-viral drugs. Though life-saving, they cannot root the virus out of the body. Infected cells are able to live on, undetected by the immune system, and provide the machinery for the virus to reproduce and spread.
"People have to be on the existing drugs, and when they're not, the virus rebounds. If we can develop drugs that seek out and eradicate the remaining factories for the virus, then maybe we could eradicate the disease in that person," Collins says.
Research details:
The new research details the complex actions of a protein, HIV-1 Nef, that is known to keep immune system cells from doing their normal jobs of detecting and killing infected cells.
Collins and her team show how Nef disables two key immune system players inside an infected cell. These are molecules called major histocompatability complex 1 proteins (MHC-1) that present HIV antigens to the immune system, and CD4, the cell-surface receptor that normally locks onto a virus and allows it to enter the cell.
Collins likens MHC-1 to motion detectors on a house, which send the first signal to a monitoring station if an invader breaks in.
"The immune system, especially the cytotoxic T lymphocytes, are like the monitors who get the signal that there's a foreign invader inside the cell, and send out police cars," she says. "The 'police' are toxic chemicals produced by T lymphocyte cells, which kill the cell that harbors the invader."
By in effect pushing the MHC-I proteins into an infected cell's "trash bin" so they fail to alert the T lymphocytes, Nef's actions allow active virus to hide undetected and reproduce. Also, once a cell has been infected, Nef destroys CD4. The result is that this encourages new virus to spread to uninfected cells.
Nef's activities are variable and complex. But the research team's findings suggest that the many pathways involved may end in a final common step. That could make it possible to find a drug that could block several Nef functions.
Implications:
Collins' lab is now screening drug candidates to find promising Nef inhibitors. Such drugs, which are at least 10 years away from use in people, would supplement, not replace, existing anti-viral drugs given to HIV-infected people. The new drugs would target the reservoirs where the virus hides.
In developing countries, the new drugs could have a huge impact, Collins says. Today, children born with HIV infection start taking the existing anti-HIV drugs at birth. It's very hard to continue costly treatments for a lifetime. But if children could be cured within a few years, global HIV treatment efforts could spread their dollars further and be much more successful, she says.
Additional U-M authors are first author Malinda R. Schaefer, Ph.D.; Elizabeth R. Wonderlich, Jeremiah F. Roeth and Jolie A. Leonard.
Funding for the research came from the National Institutes of Health and U-M.
Citation: PLoS Pathogens, doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1000131
University of Michigan Health System
2901 Hubbard St., Ste. 2400
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2435
United States
http://www.med.umich.edu
Friday, September 26, 2008
What Time Is The Presidential Debate?
The first debate between Barack Obama and John McCain is at 9 p.m. EST tonight (26 Sep 08). The reason I post this is because, when I typed this question into google I couldn’t find the time anywhere. I guess now it can help others if they google it they can get their answer. Thanks and Feel free to leave a message.
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
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Thursday, September 25, 2008
PLAY THE GAME
Play the game
If you are having trouble connecting to the game through these links, visit www.posornot.com
If you are having trouble connecting to the game through these links, visit www.posornot.com
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
AIDS 2008 | Antibodies Could Prevent HIV Transmission, Research Indicates
Antibodies that prevent some HIV-positive people from progressing to AIDS could be used to develop microbicides or a vaccine to prevent HIV-negative people from contracting the virus, according to research presented Thursday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, the Washington Post reports.
Read more...
Read more...
HIV+ with undetectable virus are ‘non-infectious’: Swiss experts
HIV+ with undetectable virus are ‘non-infectious’: Swiss experts
Posted in virus on 31 January 2008 at 18:04.
A panel of Swiss HIV experts have declared that HIV-positive people with undetectable viral load are sexually non-infectious. This is the first time that medical experts anywhere have agreed that well-suppressed blood viral levels are a reliable measure of sexual infectivity. This will be controversial, but it’s a fascinating development.
The statement’s headline statement says that “after review of the medical literature and extensive discussion,†the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS resolves that, “An HIV-infected person on antiretroviral therapy with completely suppressed viraemia (“effective ARTâ€) is not sexually infectious, i.e. cannot transmit HIV through sexual contact.â€
It goes on to say that this statement is valid as long as:
the person adheres to antiretroviral therapy, the effects of which must be evaluated regularly by the treating physician, and
the viral load has been suppressed (< 40 copies/ml) for at least six months, and
there are no other sexually transmitted infections.
The experts noted the essential conundrum of proving the negative hypothesis (i.e. proving that something can never happen) but said “The situation is analogous to 1986, when the statement ‘HIV cannot be transmitted by kissing’ was publicised. This statement has not been proven, but after 20 years’ experience its accuracy appears highly plausible.”
A report on Aidsmap.com canvasses the implications of the announcement for medical practitioners, people with HIV, HIV prevention and the legal system.
As one colleague observed today, “I guess we know now what they’ll be fighting about at this year’s International AIDS Conference.”
Posted in virus on 31 January 2008 at 18:04.
A panel of Swiss HIV experts have declared that HIV-positive people with undetectable viral load are sexually non-infectious. This is the first time that medical experts anywhere have agreed that well-suppressed blood viral levels are a reliable measure of sexual infectivity. This will be controversial, but it’s a fascinating development.
The statement’s headline statement says that “after review of the medical literature and extensive discussion,†the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV / AIDS resolves that, “An HIV-infected person on antiretroviral therapy with completely suppressed viraemia (“effective ARTâ€) is not sexually infectious, i.e. cannot transmit HIV through sexual contact.â€
It goes on to say that this statement is valid as long as:
the person adheres to antiretroviral therapy, the effects of which must be evaluated regularly by the treating physician, and
the viral load has been suppressed (< 40 copies/ml) for at least six months, and
there are no other sexually transmitted infections.
The experts noted the essential conundrum of proving the negative hypothesis (i.e. proving that something can never happen) but said “The situation is analogous to 1986, when the statement ‘HIV cannot be transmitted by kissing’ was publicised. This statement has not been proven, but after 20 years’ experience its accuracy appears highly plausible.”
A report on Aidsmap.com canvasses the implications of the announcement for medical practitioners, people with HIV, HIV prevention and the legal system.
As one colleague observed today, “I guess we know now what they’ll be fighting about at this year’s International AIDS Conference.”
Lose Myself
Lauryn Hill Lose Myself Lyrics
Songwriters: N/A I used to do it for the love a long time ago
And all I ever wanted was love
I used to love without fear a long time ago
And all I ever wanted was love
Then somebody came around and tried to hurt me
Tried to make me feel like I was unworthy
Took a pure love and tried to make it dirty
Truth was they never did deserve me
No!
Chorus:
I had to lose myself so I could love you better
I had to lose myself, had to lose myself so I could
love you better
Had to lose myself, had to lose myself
So I could love you better
Had to lose myself in love
And that’s just the way it is…
Couldn’t tell me I was love when I needed it
When, all I ever wanted was love.
Should a told me just me because!
I’m worth receiving it
But all I ever wanted was love
There’s is something awkward about the selflessness it
takes to
Give love and the good that it makes you!
True love can never really forsake you
But it took a little while just for me to see!
Chorus:
I had to lose myself so I could love you better
I had to lose myself, had to lose myself so I could
love you better
Had to lose myself, had to lose myself
So I could love you better
Had to lose myself in love
And that’s just the way it is…
I had a paralyzing fear of facing failure
And I couldn’t love you perfectly with fear in my head
So I peerlessly had to face the danger
So I could come back and love you whole instead
All of your soul I said!
So I could make it better
Chorus:
I had to lose myself so I could love you better
I had to lose myself, had to lose myself so I could
love you better
Had to lose myself, had to lose myself
So I could love you better
Had to lose myself in love
And that’s just the way it is…
B-Sec:
And so it goes that I never meant to hurt you
Couldn’t stay but I never meant to desert you
Whole lot a things I just had to work thru
Time to heal and restore myself worth too
Confrontation of my fears and anxiety
Cried a whole lot years I suffered quietly
And though it may have taken years I can finally!
Tell you that you were always on my mind!
Chorus:
I had to lose myself so I could make it better
I had to lose myself, had to lose myself so I could
make it better
Had to lose myself, had to lose myself
So I could make it better
Had to lose myself in love
And that was just the way!
Bridge:
Takes strength to absorb all the abuse I did
Great love to absorb all the misuse I did
Hey baby it’s not an excuse I give.
And I’d do it all again because for you I live
Takes strength to absorb all the abuse I did
Great love to absorb all the abuse I did
Hey baby it’s not an excuse I give.
And I’d do it all again because for you I live
Chorus:
I had to lose myself so I could make it better
I had to lose myself, had to lose myself so I could
make it better
Had to lose myself, had to lose myself
So I could make it better
Had to lose myself in love
And that was just the way!
And that was just the way it is…
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Bush signs sweeping AIDS bill
Landmark measure repeals longtime ban on HIV-positive immigrants, visitors
LOU CHIBBARO JR
Friday, August 01, 2008
President Bush signed a sweeping global AIDS relief bill at a White House ceremony Wednesday afternoon that includes language repealing the U.S. ban on HIV-positive foreign visitors and immigrants.
The bill-signing ceremony took place less than a week after the House of Representatives voted 303 to 115 to approve a Senate-passed version of the legislation, which reauthorizes the highly popular U.S. foreign aid program known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
The Senate passed the bill one week earlier by a vote of 80 to 16.
First Lady Laura Bush and Mark Dybul, director of the U.S. global AIDS office, accompanied the president at the bill signing ceremony.
The president, along with a large, bipartisan majority in the House and Senate, agreed to include a provision in the PEPFAR bill that repeals a 1993 U.S. immigration law prohibiting HIV-positive visitors from entering the country. The 1993 law to be repealed by the PEPFAR bill also bars most foreign nationals with HIV from being eligible for legal immigrant status.
However, as the president prepared for Wednesday’s bill signing ceremony, the White House had yet to disclose whether he and his Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, would approve one more administrative action needed to end the U.S. ban on HIV-positive visitors and immigrants.
In 1987, HHS used its existing legal authority to add HIV to a list of communicable diseases that disqualifies HIV-positive visitors from entering the country as well as foreigners with HIV from being eligible for immigrant status.
The PEPFAR bill that Bush signed allows the 1987 administrative policy to remain in place unless HHS or one of its component agencies, such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, reverses the policy.
An HHS spokesperson last week agreed to make inquiries into Leavitt’s position on the issue of repealing the HIV ban, but the spokesperson did not get back with additional information by press time.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for the president’s position on the HHS administrative ban.
“The legislation Congress has passed will move us from the emergency phase to the sustainability phase in fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,” said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), after the House voted to approve the PEPFAR bill.
“It will authorize $48 billion over five years to provide life-saving HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention for men, women and children in the poorest countries of the world,” she said.
Pelosi also noted that the bill would eliminate the HIV travel and immigrant ban, a policy that Pelosi and Democratic leaders, along with many Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate, have long opposed.
“Congressional backing for the repeal of this unjust and sweeping policy that deems HIV-positive individuals inadmissible to the United States is a huge step forward for equality,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “The HIV travel and immigration ban performs no public health service, is unnecessary and ineffective.”
The 1993 immigration law and the HHS policy directive putting the HIV visitor and immigrant ban into place allow for some exceptions. But groups like Immigration Equality, which advocates for immigrants who are gay or who have HIV, have said the exceptions are limited and have helped only a small number of HIV-positive foreign nationals seeking access to the U.S.
Under the 1993 law and the HHS policy, foreign nationals seeking to visit the U.S. can obtain a temporary waiver from the ban, which allows short-term visits for tourism or business purposes. Foreign nationals seeking a waiver must register their names and HIV status with U.S. consular offices in their home countries in a process that immigration activists say could violate privacy rights. Waivers also place certain limitations on HIV-positive visitors.
The law and policy allows foreigners with HIV to be eligible for immigrant status if they can demonstrate that an immediate family member, such as a spouse, parent or child, who already has legal U.S. immigrant status or citizenship, is dependent upon them for care and support. Activists say U.S. immigration officials rarely grant this exemption and that it is off limits to same-sex partners whose relationships are not recognized under U.S. law.
Some Capitol Hill insiders have speculated that the Bush administration might decide to leave the HHS policy in place, preferring to let the next president decide whether to repeal it. That would leave the ban in place until at least late January.
A spokesperson for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said Obama opposes the ban and would take action to end it if he’s elected president.
A spokesperson for the campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, did not return a call seeking McCain’s position on the issue.
LOU CHIBBARO JR
Friday, August 01, 2008
President Bush signed a sweeping global AIDS relief bill at a White House ceremony Wednesday afternoon that includes language repealing the U.S. ban on HIV-positive foreign visitors and immigrants.
The bill-signing ceremony took place less than a week after the House of Representatives voted 303 to 115 to approve a Senate-passed version of the legislation, which reauthorizes the highly popular U.S. foreign aid program known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
The Senate passed the bill one week earlier by a vote of 80 to 16.
First Lady Laura Bush and Mark Dybul, director of the U.S. global AIDS office, accompanied the president at the bill signing ceremony.
The president, along with a large, bipartisan majority in the House and Senate, agreed to include a provision in the PEPFAR bill that repeals a 1993 U.S. immigration law prohibiting HIV-positive visitors from entering the country. The 1993 law to be repealed by the PEPFAR bill also bars most foreign nationals with HIV from being eligible for legal immigrant status.
However, as the president prepared for Wednesday’s bill signing ceremony, the White House had yet to disclose whether he and his Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, would approve one more administrative action needed to end the U.S. ban on HIV-positive visitors and immigrants.
In 1987, HHS used its existing legal authority to add HIV to a list of communicable diseases that disqualifies HIV-positive visitors from entering the country as well as foreigners with HIV from being eligible for immigrant status.
The PEPFAR bill that Bush signed allows the 1987 administrative policy to remain in place unless HHS or one of its component agencies, such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, reverses the policy.
An HHS spokesperson last week agreed to make inquiries into Leavitt’s position on the issue of repealing the HIV ban, but the spokesperson did not get back with additional information by press time.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for the president’s position on the HHS administrative ban.
“The legislation Congress has passed will move us from the emergency phase to the sustainability phase in fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,” said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), after the House voted to approve the PEPFAR bill.
“It will authorize $48 billion over five years to provide life-saving HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention for men, women and children in the poorest countries of the world,” she said.
Pelosi also noted that the bill would eliminate the HIV travel and immigrant ban, a policy that Pelosi and Democratic leaders, along with many Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate, have long opposed.
“Congressional backing for the repeal of this unjust and sweeping policy that deems HIV-positive individuals inadmissible to the United States is a huge step forward for equality,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “The HIV travel and immigration ban performs no public health service, is unnecessary and ineffective.”
The 1993 immigration law and the HHS policy directive putting the HIV visitor and immigrant ban into place allow for some exceptions. But groups like Immigration Equality, which advocates for immigrants who are gay or who have HIV, have said the exceptions are limited and have helped only a small number of HIV-positive foreign nationals seeking access to the U.S.
Under the 1993 law and the HHS policy, foreign nationals seeking to visit the U.S. can obtain a temporary waiver from the ban, which allows short-term visits for tourism or business purposes. Foreign nationals seeking a waiver must register their names and HIV status with U.S. consular offices in their home countries in a process that immigration activists say could violate privacy rights. Waivers also place certain limitations on HIV-positive visitors.
The law and policy allows foreigners with HIV to be eligible for immigrant status if they can demonstrate that an immediate family member, such as a spouse, parent or child, who already has legal U.S. immigrant status or citizenship, is dependent upon them for care and support. Activists say U.S. immigration officials rarely grant this exemption and that it is off limits to same-sex partners whose relationships are not recognized under U.S. law.
Some Capitol Hill insiders have speculated that the Bush administration might decide to leave the HHS policy in place, preferring to let the next president decide whether to repeal it. That would leave the ban in place until at least late January.
A spokesperson for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said Obama opposes the ban and would take action to end it if he’s elected president.
A spokesperson for the campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, did not return a call seeking McCain’s position on the issue.
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