http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/aids/ en-us Thu, 3 Jul 2008 20:30:42 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040407/posts The creation of UNAIDS, the joint United Nations programme on HIV and AIDS, was justified by the proposition that HIV is exceptional. The foundations of exceptionalism were laid when the "rights" arguments of gay men succeeded in making HIV a special case that demanded confidentiality and informed consent and discouraged routine testing and tracing of contacts, contrary to proved experience in public health.1 But exceptionalism grew—to encompass HIV as a disease of poverty, a developmental catastrophe, and an emergency demanding special measures, requiring multisectoral interventions beyond the leadership of the World Health Organization. The exceptionality argument was used to raise... The British Medical Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040407/posts#comment Thu, 3 Jul 2008 20:30:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040143/posts KAMPALA, Uganda -- The President's Emergency Plan for HIV-AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been mired in the Senate for months. Last week finally brought signs that a vote, and passage, could be near. The program would cost $50 billion -- that's $165 from each American to fight AIDS, or $1.3 billion from New York City alone. But will the money allocated for AIDS stop the spread of the virus in sub-Saharan Africa, where 76 percent of the world's HIV-AIDS deaths occurred last year? Not if the dark dealings I've witnessed in Africa continue unchecked. In the fight against AIDS, profiteering has... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040143/posts#comment Thu, 3 Jul 2008 10:18:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040142/posts THE Senate is near to pass ing a massive $50 billion Emergency Plan for HIV/ AIDS Relief - a bill whose priorities are based on myth, just like virtually all anti-AIDS efforts worldwide. The world's top AIDS bureaucrat recently admitted the truth: "It is very unlikely that there will be a heterosexual epidemic" outside Africa, Kevin de Cock, director of the World Health Organization, told London's Independent newspaper. His bosses at the United Nations issued an official denial - but couldn't truly challenge his science. New York Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040142/posts#comment Thu, 3 Jul 2008 09:45:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2039510/posts When I became a gay activist in 1990, HIV/AIDS was one of the key priorities of the movement I joined. Fighting AIDS was promoted as an important reason for gays and lesbians to help elect President Bill Clinton in 1992. Yet now that the gay white men in American cities who are the main funders of the LGBT movement are no longer dying quite so often from AIDS, the lesbian and gay community has moved on to other issues, such as marriage, while millions of people, many of them men of color who have sex with men, are still suffering... Minneapolis Star Tribune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2039510/posts#comment Wed, 2 Jul 2008 01:26:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037673/posts MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA--The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) responsible for most of the AIDS cases in the world infected people approximately 100 years ago, more than 20 years earlier than previously believed, according to findings presented here this week at the Evolution 2008 meeting. Its lesser known cousin, HIV-2, jumped into humans decades later, from a monkey species that carried the virus for just a couple of hundred years, not the millions of years researchers had assumed, according to other research presented at the meeting. Researchers are trying to pin down the origins of both HIVs to understand how often new human... ScienceNOW Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037673/posts#comment Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:10:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037395/posts In a move that wasn't entirely unexpected, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain endorsed Thursday the controversial California Marriage Protection Act initiative expected to go before the state's voters this November. In an e-mail received by the ProtectMarriage.com campaign McCain issued the following statement: "I support the efforts of the people of California to recognize marriage as a unique institution between a man and a woman, just as we did in my home state of Arizona," McCain said in a message widely distributed via PRNewswire. "I do not believe judges should be making these decisions." Commenting on the endorsement,... PolitickerCA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037395/posts#comment Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:23:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037363/posts Diagnoses of H.I.V. and AIDS in men who have sex with men rose significantly between 2001 and 2006 while declining in other demographic groups, the federal Centers for Disease Control reported Thursday. The increase in diagnoses was especially high among males between the ages of 13 and 24, with an annual increase of 12.4 percent, compared to 1.5 percent for men overall. The annual increase was still higher among young African-American men who have sex with men, nearly 15 percent. Among African-American men of all ages who have sex with men, the annual increase in diagnoses was 1.9 percent. Experts... New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037363/posts#comment Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:15:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037151/posts The number of young homosexual men being newly diagnosed with HIV infection is rising by 12 percent a year, with the steepest upward trend in young black men, according to a new report. The double-digit increase in young gay men is about 10 times higher than in the homosexual community overall, where the number of new infections is going up about 1.5 percent a year. The report, released yesterday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, appears to confirm impressions that a "second-wave" AIDS epidemic is underway in gay America. Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037151/posts#comment Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:20:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037006/posts WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Members of the Senate sought on Thursday to pass bipartisan legislation to more than triple funds to fight AIDS in Africa and other countries, but some Republican foes vowed to block it because of its cost. President George W. Bush had called for a doubling of U.S. funding to help fight a global battle against AIDS. There are indications his administration would go along with more aggressive spending, according to congressional aides. But he has had difficulty convincing some fellow Republicans in Congress to go along. Supporters of the proposed $50 billion in U.S. funds over five... Reuters on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037006/posts#comment Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:23:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2036990/posts A new analysis of HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men points to a troubling increase in new cases among young men, U.S. health officials reported Thursday. Public health experts use the term "men who have sex with men," or MSM, because many of these men are not strictly homosexual or even bisexual. Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2036990/posts#comment Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:33:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036701/posts (The Politico) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Wednesday night that lawmakers from both parties had agreed “in principal” on a deal to move a massive international AIDS relief package. The $50 billion program to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria abroad had been stalled in the Senate for months after clearing the House earlier this year. Several Republican senators, led by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) had objected to the manner in which some of the AIDS funding was to be distributed in the bill. Reid announced the breakthrough in a statement Wednesday night, however he did not offer any... CBSNEWS http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036701/posts#comment Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:00:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036580/posts The New York City health department plans to announce on Thursday an ambitious three-year effort to give an H.I.V. test to every adult living in the Bronx, which has a far higher death rate from AIDS than any other borough. The campaign will begin with a push to make the voluntary testing routine in emergency rooms and storefront clinics, where city officials say that cumbersome consent procedures required by state law have deterred doctors from offering the tests. “Routine would mean if you came into the emergency room for asthma or a broken leg, we test everyone for H.I.V., if... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036580/posts#comment Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:03:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035145/posts A coalition of atheists and Christians will protest during World Youth Day against the Pope's visit to Sydney. With slogans including “Gay is great” and “Condoms save lives“, the NoToPope Coalition is planning a peaceful rally and march on July 19, the day Pope Benedict XVI travels to Randwick racecourse in Sydney's east.    “The Pope is homophobic,” coalition spokeswoman Rachel Evans said in a statement today.    “Pope Benedict also condemns millions of people to AIDS via his world-wide anti-condom policy.”    Members of the NoToPope Coalition include The Metropolitan Community Church, Atheists Sydney, The Socialist Alliance, Resistance, and Community Action Against... The West http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2035145/posts#comment Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:58:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2034956/posts The United Nations High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS took place at UN headquarters in New York this week to review progress made in fighting the global AIDS pandemic. The two-day meeting, which brought together members of government and civil society, was punctuated throughout by calls to end stigmatization and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS by expanding rights for "sexual minorities" and "commercial sex workers," including decriminalization of sodomy and prostitution. At the opening panel discussion, a representative from UNAIDS, a joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, asserted that the international community "must move beyond the classical understanding" to include sexual... Life Site News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2034956/posts#comment Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:19:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2034357/posts How should society deal with a behavior -– a lifestyle choice -- that places those who engage in the behavior at a high risk for poor health and grave disease? If the behavior in question is smoking, American society does everything in its power to discourage the behavior to the point of passing laws that make it illegal to puff in public places, even if the public venue is privately owned. However, if the behavior that results in probable poor health and potentially fatal disease is promiscuous sex, particularly homosexual sex, society only encourages those who engage in the behavior... Baptist Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2034357/posts#comment Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:04:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033710/posts "We must now do better at delivering prevention: less than 20 percent of those at risk of HIV infection are currently receiving such help." --Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Nature, May 15, 2008) World AIDS Day has come and gone. The theme for World AIDS Day 2007 was "leadership." The commentary on the World AIDS Day webpage (http://www.worldaidscampaign.info) noted that this theme can be "as flexible as possible to accommodate a range of campaigning needs." Isn't this type of "flexible" attitude around HIV part of the problem -- and the reason that... The Body http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033710/posts#comment Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:41:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032538/posts Daily News & Analysis Monday, June 09, Does HIV cause AIDS Mayank Tewari The recently reported pessimism among researchers over the failure of an AIDS vaccine has reignited a spectacular science controversy. Is HIV the cause of AIDS?...(click link for remainder) DNA (India) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032538/posts#comment Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:02:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2031259/posts OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT SEMMELWEIS SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL 80 12th STREET, SUITE #307 WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA 26003 www.semmelweis.org 724-678-2648 “Supporting Fair and Proper Due Process in Medical Peer Review without Compromising Medical Ethics or Patient Care” PRESS RELEASE In 1847, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis pioneered the prevention of transmission of disease by washing hands (Prophylaxis), reducing the mortality rate due to Puerperal Fever from 12% to almost ZERO by enforcing the washing of hands with chlorinated lime. At the time, Dr. Semmelweis' hypothesis was considered extreme and was widely rejected and ridiculed. When he refused to compromise his beliefs, the hospital that... Semmelweis Society International http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2031259/posts#comment Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:31:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2031024/posts The Aids scare was one of the most distorted, duplicitous and cynical public health panics of the last 30 yearsFinally we have a high-level admission that there is no threat of a global Aids pandemic among heterosexuals. After 25 years of official scaremongering about western societies being ravaged by the disease – with salacious, tombstone-illustrated government propaganda warning people to wear a condom or "die of ignorance" – the head of the World Health Organisation's HIV/Aids department says there is no need for heterosexuals to fret. Kevin de Cock, who has headed the global battle against Aids, said at the... Guardian UK http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2031024/posts#comment Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:37:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2030091/posts Middle School Pregnancy Test by: Deborah Lambert, June 12, 2008 An irate father in Jackson, Mississippi is demanding that his daughter’s sixth grade teacher at the Chastain Middle School be fired, said pcblogspot.com. According to Curtis Lyons, the teacher handed out a survey asking students to select which one of their classmates was most likely to contract AIDS, get pregnant or die before they graduated. When she learned that her fellow students thought she would be the first one to get pregnant, his daughter—an honor student—was humiliated, said Lyons. “Where was the lesson in that?” asked Lyons, who said that... Campus Report http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2030091/posts#comment Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:41:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2028479/posts Remember, we just TRIPLED our funding for fighting the global AIDS epidemic, to $50 billion over 5 years. Fifty billion dollars we don’t have, for what experts are now calling a myth: The threat of a global AIDS epidemic is over, the World Health Organisation’s top HIV expert has admitted. Kevin De Cock, who has spent most of his career leading the battle against the disease, said the understanding of the threat posed by the virus had changed. Rather than being a risk to populations anywhere, the threat is largely confined to gay men, drug addicts and prostitutes and their... All American Blogger http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2028479/posts#comment Mon, 9 Jun 2008 20:50:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028466/posts "A quarter of a century after the outbreak of Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted that the threat of a global heterosexual pandemic has disappeared," reports the Independent, a leftist London daily: In the first official admission that the universal prevention strategy promoted by the major Aids organisations may have been misdirected, Kevin de Cock, the head of the WHO's department of HIV/Aids said there will be no generalised epidemic of Aids in the heterosexual population outside Africa. [Snip] Oh, well, never mind! Anyone old enough to remember the 1980s will recall that America was subjected to a... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028466/posts#comment Mon, 9 Jun 2008 20:19:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028329/posts ... But the second charge, concerning prevention, is harder to excuse. It has been known for years that HIV is hard to pass on during normal heterosexual intercourse. Only one copulation in 500-1,000 with an infected individual will do so. The risk comes with certain behaviour (anal intercourse, which risks tearing the lining of the gut; and injecting drugs using dirty needles), certain professions (prostitutes of both sexes) and certain ways of life (multiple, simultaneous lovers, rather than serial polygamy). Aiming propaganda at heterosexual teenagers is (outside the special case of Africa) a waste of money. It is, however, often... The Economist http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028329/posts#comment Mon, 9 Jun 2008 15:47:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028179/posts Global AIDS epidemic is a myth admit world experts By Fiona Macrae Last updated at 9:12 PM on 08th June 2008 Comments (0) Add to My Stories The threat of a global AIDS epidemic is over, the World Health Organisation's top HIV expert has admitted. Kevin De Cock, who has spent most of his career leading the battle against the disease, said the understanding of the threat posed by the virus had changed. Rather than being a risk to populations anywhere, the threat is largely confined to gay men, drug addicts and prostitutes and their clients. Myth revealed: A 25-year... The Daily Mail (UK) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028179/posts#comment Mon, 9 Jun 2008 04:56:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027884/posts The head of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS department has officially admitted for the first time that there will be no global epidemic of the disease among the heterosexual population outside Africa, The Independent reported.Kevin de Cock said global prevention strategies to address AIDS as a risk to all populations, among the WHO and major AIDS organizations, may have been misdirected. It is now recognized that, with the exception of sub-Saharan African, it is confined to high-risk groups.These groups include men who have sex with other men, drug users who inject with needles, and sex workers and their clients,... Fox News / The Independent (U.K.) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027884/posts#comment Sun, 8 Jun 2008 15:08:28 GMT