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...
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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...
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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...
People living with HIV represented in all key decision forums.
Cuba has broad spectrum of activities focusing on the promotion of human rights and the respect of sexual diversity.
At the end of April this year, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a diagnostic review of the Global Fund grants to the Republic of Cuba. The purpose of the review was to identify and share good practices; and to identify key risks to grant programmes and make recommendations on how these risks can be reduced.
The fieldwork for the diagnostic review was conducted from 31 October to 16 November 2011. The review covered all three grants to Cuba totalling $76 million, of which $68 million had been disbursed. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was the principal recipient (PR) for all three grants.
As reported in an article in GFO 182, the OIG found strong evidence of successful national responses to HIV and effective TB control in Cuba. The OIG identified many good practices during the course of the diagnostic review. Cuba is a low disease burden country and has been classified as a middle income country, which makes it ineligible to submit further proposals to the Global Fund under current eligibility rules. Despite this, however, the OIG said the good practices it spotted may serve as lessons for other countries receiving Global Fund support.
Some of the good practices the OIG identified in Cuba are as follows:
All Global Fund-supported programmes rely on existing government staff and volunteers; so the only additional salary costs that were included in the programme funded by the grants was salaries for the PR (UNDP).
Among the volunteers associated with the HIV and TB programmes, people living with HIV play an important role at the national, provincial and municipal level. They are represented in all important decision forums related to the country's response to the diseases.
The national programme for HIV testing and counselling is carefully designed to maximise reliability and quality. It also has wide coverage, with over two million people tested in the first 10 months of 2011.
Cuba has an HIV prevention programme supported by the Global Fund which focuses on sexual rights, gender equality, respect of sexual diversity and prevention of sexual violence. It is a programme of the National Centre for Sexual Education (CENESEX) and the Ministry of Education, targeting youth aged 12-19. The programme addresses the main social drivers of HIV vulnerability. The OIG said that this focus on social vulnerability is highly appropriate.
The country also has Global Fund-supported programmes for men who have sex with men (MSM). They include a broad spectrum of activities focusing on the promotion of human rights and the respect of sexual diversity. "The programme has significantly decreased the stigmatisation of homosexuality in Cuban society and has stimulated a social and political dialogue on sexual rights that is unprecedented in Latin America," the OIG report says.
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 ...
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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...
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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.