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...
About 40 children in New Zealand have HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), statistics from Dunedin School of Medicine's Aids Epidemiology Group show.
Between 2005 and 2010, 978 adults were diagnosed with HIV, which can lie dormant for years and develops into Aids when the virus attacks the immune system. HIV is most commonly contracted through sexual intercourse. It can also be passed to children through childbirth or blood transfusions.
The story of Eve van Grafhorst, whose family moved to Hastings after she was victimised in Australia, helped shed light on the stigma around the virus.
Eve contracted Aids through a contaminated blood transfusion, the final one of 11 that were used to save her life after a premature birth.
But parents are still choosing not to speak out about their child's illness out of fear of others' reactions.
The situation was highlighted last month when the family of a 4-year-old boy with HIV said he was not welcome at Mokopuna Early Childhood Education and Care Centre in Whangarei. Centre management denied staff told his family he was not welcome, and his mother has since chosen to place him in another preschool.
Just two children with HIV are of preschool age in New Zealand, and like many parents of children with HIV, they like to keep their situation private.
The parents of a 9-year-old boy with HIV who spoke with the Sunday Star-Times had a better experience at their childcare centre.
They were hesitant to talk to anyone about their son's condition, and told only three staff members, family and best friends.
"They didn't have a problem at all, they helped me pass a difficult time."
Their son was diagnosed at 15 months after becoming ill. Unbeknown to his parents, who knew little about HIV, he had contracted the virus from his mother at birth.
They said that the way Mokopuna Childcare Centre treated the family of the four-year-old in the latest case was unnecessary.
"They have so many ways to say if they don't want the boy to be there. I can't understand why they had to let other families know."
There is no cure for HIV but patients are prescribed antiretrovirals that suppress the virus to low levels.
Their son's virus levels are kept low through daily medication, reducing the risk of infection to other people. He takes part in school sports, events, camps and extra-curricular activities and there have been no issues.
The 4-year-old in the Whangarei case also had viral loads which were undetectable. His levels were lower than 50 parts per million of blood, meaning there was a minimal chance of risk of infection, NZ Aids Foundation spokeswoman Dawn O'Connor said.
"Children with anaphylactic peanut allergies would require significantly more work than a kid with HIV," O'Connor said.
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.