News (Updated August
7 2011)
[Home]
[Previous
news]
Wed, Aug 3 2011
By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The
number of Americans newly infected with HIV remained stable between 2006 and
2009, but infections rose nearly 50 percent among young black gay and bisexual
men,
New data from the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal progress since the peak of the
HIV epidemic in the 1980s. But the sharp increases in infection rates among
young black men who have sex with men show there is much more work to do, they
said.
"We're very concerned
about these increases among young gay men," Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of
the CDC's
"We can't allow the
health to a new generation to be lost to what is essentially a completely
preventable disease."
According to the
estimates, published in the journal PLoS ONE, there were 48,600 new HIV
infections in the
But communities of color,
and especially blacks, were disproportionately affected.
While blacks represent 14
percent of the
Hispanics, who represent
about 16 percent of the population, accounted for 20 percent of new HIV
infections in 2009 - a rate that was nearly three times as high as that of
whites.
HARDEST HIT
Men who have sex with men
- which includes openly gay and bisexual men and those who do not identify
themselves as gay or bisexual - remain most heavily affected.
While this group
represents 2 percent of the overall
And young men who have sex
with men - those aged 13 to 29 - are the hardest hit, accounting for more than
one quarter of all new HIV infections nationally.
New HIV infections
affected young men who have sex with men of all races, but the CDC saw very
sharp increases among young black men who have sex with men.
"We saw increases of
up to 48 percent - nearly a 50 percent increase between 2006 and 2009,"
Fenton said.
The reasons for this are
not yet clear, he said, but the CDC said several factors are influencing this
trend.
They said young black men
who have sex with men are less aware of their infection status. They may
encounter more homophobia than other groups, which could keep them from getting
tested. They may have less access to treatment, and they have higher rates of
other sexually transmitted diseases, which increases the risk of HIV
transmission.
"HIV remains one of
the most glaring health disparities in this country," Fenton said in a
statement.
"While we all have
individual responsibility to protect ourselves from HIV infection, the research
clearly shows that individual risk behavior alone doesn't account for the
significant racial disparities in HIV," he said.
"It is essential to
understand the underlying factors that contribute to these disparities, such as
poverty, discrimination and lack of access to health care."
To fight these increases,
Fenton said the CDC will focus on areas where HIV infection is most heavily
concentrated - among gay and bisexual men of all races, blacks and Hispanics, as
outlined in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy introduced by the White House last
summer.
The plan calls for better
methods to gather data among affected populations and increased use of
prevention tools, including earlier testing and treatment with drug cocktails
that have been shown to reduce HIV transmission.
SOURCE: bit.ly/oOSezp PLoS
ONE, August 2, 2011.
Jul 22 2011
By Kerry Grens
"They can have almost
a normal life expectancy, and live approximately two thirds as long as if they
had not had HIV," said Edward Mills, a professor of global health at the
University of Ottawa in Canada and lead author of the study. "This is very
good news."
In the
Mills and his colleagues
looked at the health records of more than 20,000 people who received medications
from The AIDS Support Organization in
The total cost of an
individual's AIDS treatment in
About 1,500 of the
patients died between 2000 and 2009.
From the data, the
researchers predicted that patients in their 20s and 30s who are on the drugs
would be expected to live an additional 27 years.
The normal life expectancy
in
"One of the reasons
this study is important is it looks at the most simple therapy available,"
Mills said, referring to the lack of laboratory testing and treatments for other
diseases that are available to HIV patients in the U.S. "Given that, we
still demonstrate excellent outcomes."
"We were
heartened" by the results, said Dr. Deborah Cotton, deputy editor of the
Annals of Internal Medicine, where the study was published.
"Even in a country
like
The results do reveal some
weaknesses in the HIV initiatives.
Children do not achieve
life spans as long as adults do, and men do not fare as well as women.
Mills said children with
HIV don't live as long as adults because many of them were born with the disease
and did not get early treatment.
A teenager starting
therapy, for instance, can expect to live an additional 26 years, falling short
of the average life span in the country.
As for men, there are no
clinics or public health campaigns geared toward men, Mills told Reuters Health.
"We need to figure out how to deal with men."
At 35 years of age, a man
with HIV on antiretroviral therapy can expect to live 22 additional years,
compared to 32 extra years for a woman, for instance.
Though the drugs may work,
only a minority of people eligible to receive them actually do.
In
"The difficult and
ironic part is we are seeing an advance at a time when economics are
constrained," Cotton told Reuters Health.
Mills said his findings
can make an economic argument for investing in access to HIV drugs, because it
means those most affected -- the young adults in Africa, the workforce -- will
be healthier.
"I remember the days
when someone would come to the clinic and we'd tell them to start preparing for
their death," Mills said. "Now what we're able to tell people is you
can live a very long life, and that means going back to work as well."
SOURCE: bit.ly/pxk958
Annals of Internal Medicine, online July 19, 2011.
15 Jul 2011
Source: Content partner //
IRIN
NAIROBI, 14 July 2011 - A
new global survey of more than 5,000 men who have sex with men (MSM) reveals a
marginalized group of people with little access to basic HIV prevention tools
such as condoms and few means to learn about HIV.
Conducted by the Global
Forum on MSM & HIV [ http://www.msmgf.org/files/msmgf//Publications/GlobalSurveyReport.pdf
] between 24 June and 17 August 2010, the survey sought to highlight key gaps in
global efforts to provide MSM with evidence-informed HIV prevention services.
More than 1,000 of the study participants - drawn from all over the world - were
health workers; 22 percent reported being HIV-positive.
The authors recommend
expanding access to HIV prevention services for MSM across the globe, more focus
on promoting awareness of emerging HIV prevention interventions and more robust
and sustained stigma-reduction efforts. Some of the major findings of the survey
include:
Access to health services
- Fifty-three percent of participants said they could easily access testing for
sexually transmitted infections, while 51 percent said they had easy access to
HIV counselling; 47 percent found STI treatment easily accessible.
Just 36 percent of MSM
surveyed reported having easy access to HIV treatment, while 27 percent said it
was available but difficult to access, was not available or had never heard of
HIV treatment.
Access to HIV prevention -
Free condoms were easily accessible only to 44 percent of participants, while
just 29 percent could obtain lubricant.
Just 30 percent of
participants reported easy access to each of the basic HIV prevention services,
including behavioural HIV/AIDS interventions, HIV education materials, mental
health services, free or low-cost medical care, media campaigns focused on
reducing HIV, and laws/policies to ensure access to HIV prevention.
Just 25 percent said they
had access to sex education.
Stigma - Africa reported
the highest levels of stigma and external homophobia, followed by the Middle
East, Asia-Pacific, Central/South America and the Caribbean, which all reported
similar levels of stigma.
MSM from
MSM-specific services -
Some 52 percent of respondents reported that MSM health facilities were not
available or unknown.
Media campaigns to reduce
homophobia were rare, with 30 percent of the survey's participants reporting
that anti-homophobia campaigns were not available and another 20 percent saying
they were "unheard of".
Knowledge of and access to
emerging HIV prevention strategies - Fifty percent of respondents said medical
male circumcision was easily accessible and just 10 percent had not heard of
circumcision as a biomedical strategy for HIV prevention.
Post-exposure prophylaxis
(PEP) was described as easily accessible by only 18 percent of respondents, with
35 percent reporting that they had never heard of PEP.
Thirty-nine percent of
participants had never heard of pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention,
while 44 percent of MSM had never heard of topical microbicides.
(AFP) – 3 August, 2011
MONTREAL — A Canadian
man convicted of murder in 2009 for knowingly transmitting HIV to women was
sentenced to life in prison Tuesday and may not be eligible for parole due to
the risk he could commit the same crime.
Johnson Aziga, a
50-something man of Ugandan descent, was found guilty in April 2009 of two
counts of premeditated murder --- a first in Canada -- and 10 counts of
aggravated sexual assault for spreading the AIDS virus to his lovers.
A life sentence in
Aziga -- who learned of
his condition in 1996 -- had unprotected sex with 11 women, none of whom were
told of his HIV-positive status.
Seven women were infected,
and two have since died of AIDS-related complications.
Aziga, a former employee
of the provincial justice ministry, told the court he never intended to transmit
the virus to the women, and that he had not revealed his status due to cultural
and religious taboos in his homeland.
He said he wished to
renounce his Canadian citizenship and serve out his sentence in
Prosecutors argued Aziga
was at heightened risk of infecting other women if eventually released.
But his defense lawyers
countered that during the eight years in prison since his 2003 arrest, Aziga had
changed, learned of the health risks posed by his condition and would not repeat
the same behavior.
Copyright © 2011 AFP.
By Kerry Sheridan (AFP)
– 1 August, 2011
The
Women's advocates hailed
the move as a major advance but expressed disappointment over a clause that
exempts religious groups, while conservatives blasted the plan for including
free access to emergency contraceptives.
"These historic
guidelines are based on science and existing literature and will help ensure
women get the preventive health benefits they need," said Department of
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the rules, which take
effect in August 2012.
The changes are part of
President Barack Obama's health care reform initiative, the Affordable Care Act,
signed into law last year.
"The end of co-pays
for birth control is the biggest victory for women?s health in a
generation," said Nancy Keenan of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
"It will allow a
woman to choose the birth-control method that she and her doctor agree works
best for her, whether that's a pill, patch, IUD, or something else."
Among the services to be
covered are "FDA-approved contraception methods and contraceptive
counseling; breast-feeding support, supplies, and counseling; and domestic
violence screening and counseling," HHS said.
Also included are annual
office check-ups, or well-woman visits, screening for gestational diabetes,
human papillomavirus (HPV) testing for women 30 and older, sexually transmitted
infection counseling and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening and
counseling.
An amendment was added to
the rules to allow religious institutions that provide health insurance for
their employees to decide "whether or not to cover contraception
services," HHS said.
The National Organization
for Women joined a host of women's advocacy groups in applauding the changes,
but took issue with the religious loophole.
"Forcing insurance
companies to cover contraception is one of the most important things you can do
for women's health," NOW president Terry O'Neill told AFP.
"The fanatics who
want to withhold birth control from women should not be coddled by the secretary
of health and human services, so we are deeply disappointed that she would do
this."
Catholics for Choice
president Jon O'Brien said Obama's administration "has once again sided
with the Catholic bishops over the needs of women and their families."
But the conservative
Family Research Council's Jeanne Monahan said the religious exemption did not go
far enough, describing it as a "fig leaf of conscience protection for
certain churches that fulfill very specific criteria."
She also highlighted the
group's concerns over coverage of two emergency contraceptive options, which can
be taken up to 72 hours after unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy.
"This administration
is promoting mandates that will violate the consciences of millions," she
said.
The recommendations were
made by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in a July 19 report that urged that the
health services be covered in order to improve the state of women's health.
Women in the
The IOM said that DNA
tests for HPV could cut back on cervical cancer rates, and free access to
lactation counseling and equipment could boost rates of breastfeeding by new
moms, a practice that is considered beneficial to babies' health.
Free access to
contraception could also cut back on the rate of unintended pregnancies in the
The
According to the
Guttmacher Institute, 98 percent of American women have used contraception at
some point in their lives.
A 2010 study in the
journal Contraception said that average out-of-pocket expenses for contraception
were about $168 per year, making up 29 percent of a woman's annual self-paid
costs for health care.
Copyright © 2011 AFP.