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How many times have you started to have a conversation with someone about Hepatitis C only to have it blow up in your face? Have you ever heard someone say something about Hep C that didn't seem quite right to you? You were probably right something was amiss. A discussion about Hepatitis C can...
As per Wikipedia, the definition of a stigma is as follows: "Stigma is a word that originally means a "sign", "point", or "branding mark"." Wikipedia goes on to call stigma "A badge of shame, a physical mark of infamy or disgrace." Damn that w...
Recently, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) issued a statement that all Baby Boomers should be tested for Hepatitis C. The question often comes up as to why this particular segment of people is so vulnerable. What does being born between 1945 and 1965 have to do with Hepatitis C? What was di...
Buyer Beware! There are several snake oil salesmen out there who are claiming to have cured their own Hepatitis C with herbs, supplements and parking lot gravel. Okay, maybe not the parking lot gravel but it might as well be. What you need to remember is that there are two different types of...
Most every adult woman (and an occasional man) has enjoyed a manicure and a pedicure at a nail salon or spa. That 30 minute pedicure can be so relaxing but are you aware of the danger lurking in that nail salon? Although few individuals recognize the medical risks associated with this common pr...
More than 100 million condoms will be distributed annually to sex workers, men who have sex with men and other groups vulnerable to HIV as part of a new five-year programme to be run by the Ethiopian government and the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Dubbed MULU, the Amharic word for comprehensive, the US$70 million programme - implemented by the NGOs Population Services International and World Learning - will also target day labourers in the booming construction industry, migrant workers and their partners.
"Over the five-year life of MULU prevention, 100 million free condoms per year will be distributed, 2 million counselling and testing sessions will be conducted, and half a million sexually transmitted infection cases will be treated," said Donald Booth, US Ambassador to Ethiopia, launching the programme on 31 May 2012 in the capital, Addis Ababa.
"This programme is going to focus on… getting services for people who practice high-risk behaviours such as having multiple sex partners concurrently," Renee DeMarco, a senior technical advisor to HIV/AIDS Prevention and Social Services at the US Agency for International Development (USAID)-Ethiopia, told IRIN/PlusNews.
Ethiopia has a relatively low national HIV prevalence of 1.5 percent, but a 2011 Demographic and Health Survey puts the rate in urban areas at 5.2 percent, significantly higher than the 0.8 percent generally found in rural areas.
Residents of Addis Ababa say the number of sex workers has gone up in recent years, as the city has grown. One its poorest areas, Autobis Tera, hosts a large number of commercial sex workers, who stand at the gates of their tiny houses every evening waiting for clients.
"It's a life - a hard one," said Betty*, who struggles to pay her 400 birr (about $23) rent each month. "On good days I make 20-30 birr [$1.10-$1.70], but those days are very few."
Every cent is precious, and Betty says even the cost of a condom factors into her negotiations with clients. "Some clients come with their own condoms, which is good, but most don't," she said. "Some demand a certain type of condom. I tell them, 'Go buy and bring it yourself'. It is two or three birr for a condom... that buys a breakfast."
The new programme aims to ensure people like Betty use a condom with all their clients. It will also facilitate HIV prevention services for men who have sex with men, who have until now been left out of the country's HIV prevention plans.
"We know anal intercourse is the most dangerous way in which you can contract HIV, or spread HIV... persons who are engaging in that behaviour, we want to make sure they get services," said USAID's DeMarco.
"We are very much committed to working with healthcare providers so that they are sensitive to this issue. When their clients come and they have complaints, we want the healthcare providers equipped to provide the services in a way that is responsive to the clients."
The Ethiopian government says the new programme will contribute to its goal to halve the number of new HIV infections and quadruple the distribution of condoms by 2015.
Please sign the ATC Salvage Therapy Petition Join us in asking Congressman Alcee Hastings and Congresswomen Maxine Waters to send a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter to Anthony Fauci, Director of NIAID, asking for the federal facilitation of apricitabine (ATC). ATC is a phase III nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) that has been shown to be safe and effective in treating people with HIV. It works against viruses that are resistant to several other nukes and could ...
Researchers from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts Medical School announced today at CROI2013 the discovery of the first infant functionally cured of HIV. The baby, a female now two and a half years old, received 3 HIV medications when brought to the hospital at 30 hours old. Viral load tests were performed during the first few weeks that showed a rapidly decreasing viral load which reached ...
At the 19th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington D.C., the CDC reported that only 1 out of 4 HIV patients in the U.S. have HIV under control, which is defined as complete viral suppression. Warning bells should be ringing in the scientific and HIV advocacy communities. While much progress has been made in the last three decades in the treatment of HIV, tens of thousands of people living with HIV (PLWH) are currently struggling to construct viable treat...
Paige Rawl is 17 and HIV positive, but while her life has been shaped by HIV it isn't ruled by it. When Paige Rawl starts her senior year at Indianapolis’s Herron High School next month, she'll be cheer captain and a member of the student government and prom committee. This summer, the 17-year-old held down a part-time job at Hollister, hawking the popular Southern California-inspired clothing brand. The all-American girl — who happens to be HIV positive. Paige was in...
The HIV community has been abuzz with the August FDA approval of what had been termed “the Quad”, the second one-pill-once-a-day combination antiretroviral drug. Marketed by Gilead under the name Stribild, the drug contains two NRTIs (tenofovir and emtricitabine), an integrase inhibitor (elvitegravir) and an integrase booster (cobicistat) and is approved for use in treatment naïve patients with either drug resistant or wild type virus. In comparison to Atripla, the first...
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) for SUSTIVA® (efavirenz), including dosing recommendations for...
California and other states would be pressured to amend or repeal criminal laws that single out HIV-positive people under a bipartisan bill co-authored and introduced this week by Rep. Barbara...
Mission Statement
At HIV Haven we wish to provide our readers with vital cutting edge information to help expand HIV knowledge and promote activism, particularly that which works towards an end to the HIV pandemic. It is our desire to bring to you the scientific, medical and social advances that given the appropriate attention and support, could change the course of the HIV pandemic, lessen the devastating effects of HIV and AIDS, better the quality and quantity of life for people living with HIV and even yield an eventual end to the HIV pandemic. We also provide the basics of HIV transmission and treatment.
We will focus on issues such as innovative drug development, strategic activist campaigns, HIV relationships and novel HIV and HIV cure research. We also will bring you advances in Hepatitis C (HCV), a common HIV co-infection. Whether you are living with HIV/AIDS, HIV and HCV, love someone who is, are an activist, advocate, researcher, physician or just an interested party, we hope here at HIV Haven we can help you find what you are looking for.
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There was no fanfare on May 20, 1983 when Science published what is undoubtedly among the most important medical papers of the 20th century. In the usual dry prose, researchers from the Institut...
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