Posts Tagged ‘AIDS’
VL Follow Up : Puerto Rico and Eight States Cut From System That Tracks Rate of H.I.V.
2:39 pm By Maegan La Mala · Health|Puerto Rico · Comments Off
4 Sep 2008
Following up on a story from a few days ago on the AIDS crisis in Puerto Rico, seems that the crisis is set to get worse with the island cut off from federal money for an advanced H.I.V. monitoring system that worked and showed that the annual infection rate in the nation was 40 percent higher than previously estimated.
Terry Butler, a spokeswoman for the National Center for H.I.V., S.T.D. and TB Prevention at the centers, said that the total money for the system — which is awarded to applicants on a competitive basis — would remain the same, but that the remaining 25 participating states and cities would receive more. Ms. Butler said those participants had the most reliable systems and could help the centers produce the best estimates.
The system uses a new test that distinguishes recent infections from old ones, helping epidemiologists track them in something much closer to real time than was previously possible.
The states that lost funding are Georgia , Illinois , Maryland , Missouri , Ohio , Oklahoma , Pennsylvania , Tennessee.
Via / NYT
AIDS Crisis in Puerto Rico
11:27 am By Maegan La Mala · Health|Magazines|Puerto Rico · Comments Off
2 Sep 2008
Oh no, here comes the Rican with another Puerto Rico related post. This month’s issue of POZ Magazine has an article about the AIDS crisis in Puerto Rico and how it is endangering the lives most in need of critical services.
According to the article, there are 11,000 people living with AIDS on the U.S. colony, and many are being denied access to treatment because they face stereotypes and and massive mismanagement of services. With an AIDS prevalence rate there is almost twice that of the U.S. mainland, people are losing their lives and not enough people seem to care.
The Pope discourages condom use
1:04 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|Religion|sex · 1 Comment
11 May 2007
Earlier this week Maegan told us about Pope Benedict‘s trip to Brazil, where he declared that leftist Mexico City legislators supporting abortion rights would be excommunicated from the church. Perhaps more controversial (and in my own opinion much more damaging) is that on his trip to Brazil — a country that is fighting hard to win a battle against the spread of HIV — he spoke against the use of condoms (like his predecessor, John Paul II), and urged the faithful to opt for abstinence instead.
The Pope met with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is pushing for mass condom distribution throughout Brazil, but according to reports the topic of contraception was avoided, as was the other hot button issue: the legalization of abortion in Brazil, which Lula is advocating for. Then what did they talk about?
Incidentally, the Pope’s appearance in Brazil at a soccer stadium looked like a rock concert — people jamming out, sparks flying — all very un-Catholic. It reminds me of some videos I would watch in my days as an employee of a Christian bookstore (don’t ask). Click on the link to the original article below for video.
Via / 20 Minutos
AIDS becoming a female issue in Mexico
7:04 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health|mexico|Women · 1 Comment
10 May 2007
The number of women infected with HIV or suffering from AIDS has skyrocketed, making the epidemic in Mexico a “women’s issue”, according to the United Nations Population Fund which announced, via press conference, a worldwide HIV conference to be held in Mexico next year:
The UN representative stressed that the increase in the number of cases of women [with HIV] is “worrysome”, as the statistic of 35 percent of women making up the number of infected people around the world in 1995 has gone up to 48 percent.Mauricio Hernández, under secretary of Health, revealed that in Mexico there are 40,000 women infected with the virus, and that the organization is looking to negotiate to procurement of female condoms for less than two dollars each, to be able to distribute 800,000 this year.
According to the UN Joint Programme on AIDS, two thirds of the estimated 1.7 million people living with HIV in Latin America reside in the four largest countries: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina.
Via / La Jornada and UNAIDS
Brazil says no to HIV drug patent
4:45 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|Health · Comments Off
4 May 2007
In an unexpected move, Brazil announced today that would be suspending the patent for an important HIV drug, Efavirenz (commercially known as Sustiva), because of the price at which is producer, Merck wants to sell it to the country:
Brazil wants to import a generic version of the drug which is produced cheaper in India. The Minister of Health, José Gomes Temporao, said that Brazil will buy the generic drug from an Indian laboratory that already produces it, and that it will be distributed in the country starting in September.“We are taking a big step and the decision applies to this drug and to any other when it’s necessary. Today it was this drug, tomorrow it might be another. If we don’t get a fair price, we’ll make that decision, he said.
Brazil says no to circumcision
1:02 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|Health · 5 Comments
3 Apr 2007
A recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that the practice of circumcision could be effective in preventing the transmission of HIV. Reacting to these findings, the technical advisor for the Brazilian Health Ministry says that her country will not begin practicing circumcisions due to what she considers misleading information:
“I find the recommendations of the WHO and U.N. HIV/AIDS program a little surprising and even frightening,” Simao told Agencia Brasil.…This proposal gives a message of “false protection” because men might think that being circumcized means that they can have sex without condoms without any risk, which “is untrue”, she said.
World AIDS Day and Latinos in the US
1 Dec 2006
Today marks World AIDS Day and despite all the commercials, campaigns, and condoms, AIDS remains a dirty big secret in the Latino community. Acoording to the Latino Commission on AIDS, while we rep about 14% of the population in the U.S., we represent 20% of AIDS cases inside the US. Some more scary stats about AIDS in our community:
• Latinas, often the victims of sexism and machismo, now account for 25% of all Latino infections, as compared to only 2% in 1981.
• Latina intravenous drugs users are five times more likely to have AIDS than their White counterparts. Latino men who are intravenous drug users are 10 times more likely than White drug users to have AIDS.
• Latino men who have sex with men are three times more likely to test positive for HIV than White men who have sex with men.
• Heterosexual Latino men are 10 times more likely to test positive than their White counterparts. Latina heterosexuals are 7 times more likely than their White counterparts to be infected with HIV.
• Latino teens in the United States make up 19% of the national teenage population ages 13-19, but account for 20% of the cumulative AIDS cases.
National Latino AIDS Awareness Day is Sunday
4:21 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health · Comments Off
12 Oct 2006
This coming Sunday, October 15, is National Latino AIDS Awareness Day(NLAAD)
Did you know that AIDS was the 6th leading cause
of death for Latinos ages 25-34 in the US? (Kaiser
Policy Fact Sheet 2/06)Did you know that it is the second leading cause
of disease-related death among Latinas ages 24-44?
(National Vital Statistics 3/05)How about the fact that Latinos accounted for
approximately 45% of new AIDS cases in 2002? (HIV
Epidemiological Surveillance, December 2005)Or that the estimated AIDS prevalence among
Latinos increased by 31% between 2000 and 2004,
compared to a 22% increase among whites. (Kaiser
Policy Fact Sheet 2/06)
Nelly Furtado and stars: Get tested
12:48 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Health · 2 Comments
27 Jun 2006
It’s HIV Testing Day and singer Nelly Furtado has a new song called “Promiscuous”, which she hopes will spur talk between parents and kids about sex, and HIV/AIDS:
“When I was a little kid, Salt-N-Pepa’s ‘Let’s Talk About Sex’ came on the radio, and my mom was like, ‘What’s this?’ ” Furtado recalled. “And with my song, ‘Promiscuous,’ certain moms and dads are going to hear it and ask, ‘What’s this?’ And kids are going to ask questions about sex. It can only encourage the conversation.”
Nelly is banding together with other performers to get the word out about the importance of HIV testing. Stars Eve, Avril Lavigne and Pamela Anderson are urging Americans to get tested today by offering their personal take on testing:
“It’s quick and easy and it can make a difference,” said Pamela Anderson. “I have Hepatitis C, and there’s no cure for Hepatitis C or AIDS, so it’s really important to stop the spread of the disease since there is no cure.”“The reality is that people get sick,” Furtado added. “But Magic Johnson showed that it’s not the end of your life, but the beginning of awareness. When Magic contracted HIV, that was a pivotal point in AIDS awareness. It showed that anybody could get this disease.”
Mexican beauty Salma Hayek is also a spokesperson for getting the test on the CDC’s web site hivtest.org.
Via / VH1 News
Salma and Juanes united against AIDS
1:17 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|Celebrities|Guatemala|Health · 1 Comment
4 May 2006
Colombian rocker Juanes and Mexican actress Salma Hayek joined forces with actress Ashley Judd this week to raise awareness about AIDS in Guatemala:
“I know that there is misinformation, that there is a stigma and superstitions that only contribute to the spread of AIDS,” Judd, world ambassador for the Washington-based YouthAIDS group, said while visiting an AIDS clinic run by Maryknoll nuns in the town of Coatepeque, 165 kilometers (100 miles) west of Guatemala City.Fellow actress Salma Hayek and Colombian singer Juanes, who also represent the group, were expected to join Judd later Tuesday. The three planned to stay in Guatemala for several days, during which time they will meet with President Oscar Berger to discuss the AIDS situation in the country. Judd and Hayek will then continue the tour in Honduras and Nicaragua.
Salma had been scheduled to fly out to Guatemala earlier, but postponed her trip in observance of the May 1 boycott on Monday.
Via / Pravda.ru
Photo via TVSquad.com
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