Free Republic

New York City resident Sabri Ben-Achour, 39, began to feel ill on March 12 and experienced roughly 36 hours of intense symptoms: fever, aches, fatigue, cough and headache. But by March 14, Ben-Achour felt back to normal, except for one thing: Both his sense of smell and taste were gone. "I couldn't smell anything," he said. "I could literally not smell s---." He ordered from an Indian restaurant: "I asked them to make it extra salty and extra spicy, and it tasted like water." By March 16, he was fairly certain he had contracted and recuperated from COVID-19, the disease...

Strains of HIV are becoming resistant to an antiretroviral drug commonly used to prevent and fight the virus, research has suggested. HIV was resistant to the drug Tenofovir in 60% of selected cases in some African countries, according to the study, which covered a 17-year period. The research, led by University College London, looked at 1,920 HIV patients worldwide who had treatment failure. Lead author Dr Ravi Gupta said the results were "extremely concerning".

Has anyone seen the new commercial for the HIV drug Truvada? The commercial states they are doing it for prep. However it later goes on to say it helps lower the risk of contracting HIV in high risk people. So basically it is a drug for people who cannot control their sex drive and have dozens of sex partners per year.

SEATTLE, June 26, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A public library in Washington state was the platform for a drag show and "pride celebration designed by teens for teens" that featured a man dressed in drag who roared incoherently while on all fours. One parent called it “demonic.” “This is what demonic possession looks like. (Watch to the end.) I know a lot of y’all don’t believe in the spiritual realm, but thanks for bearing with me anyway. In my opinion, this is it. On all fours. Growling. At the teen pride event at the public library,” wrote one parent about the...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attempted to make a case for universal health care on Thursday after a tense confrontation over the HIV prevention drug known as PrEP. During a congressional hearing, Ocasio-Cortez pressed Gilead Sciences CEO Daniel O'Day on why his company's drug -- Truvada for PrEP -- cost so much more in the United States than in Australia. She later answered her own question on Twitter, saying that the U.S. health care system was to blame. "Spoiler: Because Australia has universal health care," she tweeted. During the hearing, O'Day responded to Ocasio-Cortez by noting how the drug was under...

Out Pennsylvania representative Brian Sims opened up on Instagram about his own use of PrEP, the highly effective prescription that prevents HIV. Alongside a picture of a Truvada pill, the state lawmaker wrote about pre-exposure prophylaxis, but made clear he had no interest in discussing why he personally uses the treatment. “Starting this day off smart, proactive, and in control!” Sims wrote in his social media post. “Think this is an invite to talk about my sex life? It’s not. Think it’s an invite to shame me or anyone else? Grow up.”

Settling allegations of discrimination filed by the Massachusetts attorney general’s office, Mutual of Omaha has agreed not to deny insurance to people who use medications to prevent H.I.V. infection. The insurer also has settled a lawsuit brought by an unidentified gay man in Massachusetts who was turned down for long-term-care insurance after acknowledging that he took an H.I.V.-prevention drug called Truvada. “Consumers looking to protect themselves from H.I.V. transmission should not be excluded from buying insurance,” Maura Healey, the attorney general of Massachusetts, said in a prepared statement. The company admitted no wrongdoing in the settlements and will make a...

Earlier this month, health officials reported the sixth confirmed failure of PrEP globally. The latest instance involved a San Francisco man who was consistently taking the HIV-prevention medicine during the time he contracted the virus. PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, involves taking a Truvada pill once daily to stop HIV infection, and it is estimated to be nearly 100 percent effective. Despite these six failures since Truvada was first approved as an HIV-prevention medication back in 2012, Dr. Stephanie Cohen, the medical director at the San Francisco City Clinic, said — unequivocally — that PreP is working as expected. "Nothing is...

The rollout of a drug that prevents H.I.V. infection was followed by a reduction in condom use among gay and bisexual men in Australia, according to a study published in the journal Lancet H.I.V. But so effective was the drug that H.I.V. infection rates in the study region declined anyway, the researchers concluded. During the rapid distribution of a drug that prevents infection — a strategy called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP — among gay and bisexual men in Australia, researchers found that unprotected sex increased even among those not on PrEP, suggesting that perceptions of risk had declined in communities...

A study published Tuesday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases showed the controversial daily pill preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) prevented HIV infection in all 657 patients who took it for two and a half years. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2012 approved a fixed-dose treatment of emtricitabine and tenofovir for people who do not have HIV but may be at risk of contracting it. Those antiviral drugs comprise PrEP, sold under the brand name Truvada, which can keep HIV infection at bay when an individual is exposed from injection drug use or unprotected sex. “Our study is the first...

For the first time, a study shows that a drug used to treat HIV infection also can help prevent it when taken before and after risky sex by gay men. The results offer hope of a more appealing way to help prevent the disease beyond taking daily pills and using condoms, although those methods are still considered best. The study, done in France and Canada, is the first to test “on demand” use of Truvada, a pill combining two AIDS drugs, by people planning to have risky sex. The uninfected men who took it were 86 percent less likely to...

The largest U.S. gay-rights organization Saturday endorsed efforts to promote the use of a once-a-day pill to prevent HIV infection and called on insurers to provide more generous coverage of the drug. Some doctors have been reluctant to prescribe the drug, Truvada, on the premise that it might encourage high-risk, unprotected sexual behavior. However, its preventive use has been endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and many HIV/AIDS advocacy groups.The Human Rights Campaign, which recently has been focusing its gay-rights advocacy on same-sex marriage and anti-discrimination issues, joined those ranks with the release...

Pretend it’s 1960, and the Food and Drug Administration has just done something startling. It has taken a drug it had previously approved for infertility — brand name Enovid — and approved it for the opposite use: birth control. That pill — soon simply the Pill — triggered the sexual revolution. But not overnight. Doctors at first resisted giving it to unmarried women. Women were shy about carrying evidence that they actually planned to have sex. Feminists like Margaret Sanger and Katharine D. McCormick braved vilification to champion it. Madison Avenue chimed in: Ads featured Andromeda, the princess of Greek...

Federal health officials recommended Wednesday that hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk for AIDS take a daily pill that has been shown to prevent infection with the virus that causes it. If broadly followed, the advice could transform AIDS prevention in the United States — from reliance on condoms, which are effective but unpopular with many men, to a regimen that relies on an antiretroviral drug. It would mean a 50-fold increase in the number of prescriptions for the drug, Truvada — to 500,000 a year from fewer than 10,000. The drug costs $13,000 a year, and most insurers...

It’s the Truvada conundrum: A drug hailed as a lifesaver for many people infected by HIV is at the heart of a rancorous debate among gay men, AIDS activists and health professionals over its potential for protecting uninfected men who engage in gay sex without using condoms. Many doctors and activists see immense promise for such preventive use of Truvada, and are campaigning hard to raise awareness of it as a crucial step toward reducing new HIV infections, which now total about 50,000 a year in the U.S. Recent efforts range from think-tank forums and informational websites to a festive...

... Many health experts hoped that the medication — Truvada, a combination of two antiviral drugs that has been used to treat H.I.V. since 2004 — would be exuberantly embraced by H.I.V.-negative gay men. Instead, Truvada has been slow to catch on as an H.I.V. preventive in the 18 months since the strategy’s approval by the Food and Drug Administration. In some quarters, the idea that healthy gay men should take a medication to prevent infection — an approach called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP — has met with hostility or indifference. “It’s gotten tons of attention at H.I.V. meetings as...

A breakthrough in the fight against HIV infections. The FDA has approved a pill that can reduce a person’s risk of getting the virus. Dr.Shawn Hassler said he had been prescribing Truvada to patients prior to this week. “I know for a fact that I am preventing HIV infections in high-risk individuals by putting them on Truvada,” Dr. Hassler said. For the first time in the 30-year history of fighting AIDS, the FDA approved Truvada for use by healthy, HIV negative people who engage in risky sexual behavior or who have a partner with HIV.