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...

Uganda’s HIV/AIDS prevalence is likely to worsen due to the high rate at which employers resolutely pursue helpless student interns for sex, the ministry of gender, labour and social development has warned.
Bernard Mujuni, the assistant commissioner for labour inspectorate, called for legislation to protect interns at workplaces, saying many had become prey to their supervisors who infect them with HIV.
“There is a lot of sexual harassment going at workplaces and interns from universities are not always protected,” said Mujuni.
“Even if they work hard, interns are not paid yet they have financial needs. Bosses end up take advantage of their being broke and in need of a good internship report to sleep with them. This has got to stop.”
Mujuni made the remarks during a breakfast meeting in Kampala.
The gender ministry organised the meeting to orient legislators and judicial officials on the recent International Labour Organisation (ILO) recommendation concerning HIV/AIDS and the workplace.
Codenamed R200, the recommendation requires ILO member countries to streamline HIV/AIDs prevention, treatment, care and support at the workplace.
It asserts that HIV testing should remain voluntary and expects employers to put in place occupational safety and health measures to prevent workers’ exposure to HIV.
Uganda’s HIV prevalence currently stands at 7.3%, having increased from 6.4% in 2010. Over 13,000 new infections are recorded in the country each year.
The ILO estimates that of the approximately 38 million people living with HIV globally today, at least 26 million are workers.
Disability and elderly state minister, Sulaiman Madada, noted that high prevalence of HIV among workers was thwarting the Government’s poverty eradication efforts.
“It is unfortunate that the effects of HIV are concentrated among the productive labour force which poses huge costs on economic enterprises through falling productivity, increased labour costs and loss of skills and experience,” stated Madada, who also doubles as acting state minister for labour and employment.
The minister decried the fact that many workers continue to be discriminated against on suspicion of being HIV positive.
“Some are denied promotion, training and access to medical and sickness benefits. Some are forced to test for HIV and the results are communicated to others without regard to their right to confidentiality. This should stop.”
Madada urged the judiciary to save HIV infected workers against segregation, saying that anti-discrimination policies and laws would achieve little unless strenuously enforced in court.
Workers’ MP Theopista Nabulya called for the setting up of an industrial court where aggrieved workers, including those discriminated for being HIV positive, can get justice.
The gender ministry permanent secretary, Christine Guwatudde, urged employers to stop work patterns that increase the risk of workers contracting HIV.
She cited long hours at work, mobility and postings that separate spouses, sexual exploitation, rape and favours, poor and exploitative working conditions, and limited coverage of HIV/AIDS workplace interventions as some of the risky patterns.
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.