HIV & AIDS

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The infuriating experience of PrEP discrimination

Did you know that you could be discriminated against by insurance companies for taking PrEP?  I didn’t.  Recently, I have been searching for long-term disability insurance options while living in California. Long-term disability insurance could offer some peace of mind if some tragic, unforeseeable event left me unable to work. I chatted with an insurance broker, who scanned providers nationwide, and reported back to me that because I took PrEP daily, most insurers wouldn’t allow me to participate in their program. Drugs prescribed for PrEP such as Truvada, Descovy, and Apretude are on a list of “unaccepted” medications. I received what […]

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Is an HIV Catastrophe Coming to Europe?

Europe has seen a rise in undiagnosed HIV infections — the World Health Organization (WHO) and European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reported that between at least 2018 to 2021, there have been more HIV infections than diagnoses. The full report showed that testing rates fell during the COVID-19 pandemic and has hindered progress toward eliminating new HIV transmissions by 2030. “We should all be deeply concerned by the data on HIV testing, treatment and care in Europe and Central Asia,” said Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe. “Continuing, widespread stigma around HIV is deterring […]

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World AIDS Day is a Day to Heal our Grief

World AIDS Day. For most, it is a global event where we honor, memorialize, and celebrate the lives of those we have lost to HIV and AIDS since the pandemic began in 1981. For me it is so much more. During those early years of the AIDS pandemic, many of us long-term survivors experienced nothing short of a catastrophic loss of life–losing friend, after lover, after friend, after lover, after friend within a very short period of time. At the height of the AIDS pandemic, there were many  of us who were attending an average of four memorials a week, […]

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On World AIDS Day Remember Those We Lost and Help Those in Need By ‘Dining Out For Life’ at local Restaurants

Today is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. Since 1983 Face to Face has been on the forefront of the AIDS crisis in Sonoma County. As we head into our 40th year we are reminded not only of those that we lost to HIV/AIDS but to all those living with HIV in our community. It is our mission to end new cases of HIV while supporting the health and well-being of those living with HIV/AIDS. Our Prevention […]

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A New Way to Tackle HIV Symptoms Like Pain, Negative Body Image

Treating HIV symptoms in “clusters” could help improve a patient’s overall quality of life, according to a study presented at the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care 2022 annual meeting. The evidence, according to Medscape, showed that the four main symptom clusters for HIV include pain, body psychological, gastrointestinal, and body image. These symptoms were also more common in HIV-positive people older than 45. Natalie Wilson, PhD, assistant professor of community health systems at the UCSF School of Nursing, and a group of colleagues performed a study that also suggested that the elderly population experienced more distress from their symptoms, with the […]

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Pentagon and Army sued over decades-old policy barring recruits with HIV 

After a successful effort earlier this year to ease longstanding restrictions on service members living with HIV, LGBTQ rights advocates are now pushing for more change. They want to end the U.S. military’s decades-old policy of barring people with HIV from enlisting. LGBTQ advocacy group Lambda Legal filed a federal lawsuitThursday on behalf of three individuals living with HIV: Isaiah Wilkins, a gay police officer in Georgia; a transgender lesbian woman who left the military in 2013 to transition and a straight woman who had dreams of becoming a parachute rigger. (The women are identified in the lawsuit with pseudonyms because they fear further […]

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Democratic governor signs law punishing HIV transmission with up to 10 years in prison

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Pennsylvania’s Gov. Tom Wolf (D) just signed a new law that makes it a felony to pass on a communicable disease when they “should have known” that they had it, the HIV Justice Network reported. Opponents of the law worry it will be used to punish people with HIV or other STDs who unknowingly transmit it to sexual partners. Such HIV criminalization laws have disproportionately been used to target Black men and other men of color. While the offense, a third-degree felony, has to be “intentional,” one could see an arrestee being charged with it if they accidentally spit onto an […]

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Men with HIV and STIs may be at greater risk for monkeypox

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A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that monkeypox disproportionately affects people with HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The study looked at HIV and STI rates among 1,969 people with monkeypox in eight U.S. jurisdictions. Of that sample, 38 percent of people with monkeypox had also contracted HIV in the last year. About 41 percent of people with monkeypox also had an STI in the preceding year. About 61 percent of the sample had contracted either an STI or HIV in the previous year. Researchers said this correlation doesn’t necessarily mean that […]

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A 5th person is likely cured of HIV, and another is in long-term remission

Two new cases presented Wednesday at the International AIDS Conference in Montreal have advanced the field of HIV cure science, demonstrating yet again that ridding the body of all copies of viable virus is indeed possible, and that prompting lasting viral remission also might be attainable.  In one case, scientists reported that a 66-year-old American man with HIV has possibly been cured of the virus through a stem cell transplant to treat blood cancer. The approach — which has demonstrated success or apparent success in four other cases — uses stem cells from a donor with a specific rare genetic […]

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UCLA, Charles R. Drew University Receive $11M Grant to Address Inequities in HIV Care, Prevention

The UCLA–Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science Center for AIDS Research has received a five-year, $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. A priority of the award is to fund research addressing health inequities that have fueled the spread of HIV in marginalized communities.   The Center for AIDS Research will strengthen and amplify the impact of ongoing research at both UCLA and Charles R. Drew University, as well as forming new partnerships with community groups across Los Angeles and in nations that are severely affected by HIV. Its aim is to prevent new HIV infections, reduce […]

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