HIV & AIDS

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FDA Approves 1st Long-acting HIV Drug Combo, Monthly Shots

U.S. regulators have approved the first long-acting drug combo for HIV, monthly shots that can replace the daily pills now used to control infection with the AIDS virus. Thursday’s approval of the two-shot combo called Cabenuva is expected to make it easier for people to stay on track with their HIV medicines and to do so with more privacy. It’s a huge change from not long ago, when patients had to take multiple pills several times a day, carefully timed around meals. “That will enhance quality of life” to need treatment just once a month, said Dr. Steven Deeks, an […]

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Inside the Fight to Include HIV-positive People in Covid-19 Vaccine Trials

When Jeff Taylor, a longtime AIDS advocate and survivor, learned about clinical trials for the new Covid-19 vaccine in his hometown, Palm Springs, California, he leapt at the opportunity to participate. “I always want to be the first person to try something,” he said. But Taylor’s enthusiasm was short-lived. As soon as he told a recruiter over the phone that he was HIV-positive, Taylor was informed that he was ineligible to join. “I argued with him, but he said: ‘I don’t make the rules. This is what our sponsor told us to do,’” Taylor, 58, said. Taylor understood, in a […]

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FDA Considers Lifting Restrictions on Blood Donations by Gay and Bi Men

A new pilot study funded by the Food and Drug Administration could be the first step toward lifting restrictions on blood donations by gay and bisexual men. The program, called Assessing Donor Variability and New Concepts in Eligibility (Advance), has been launched by three of the nation’s largest blood centers — the American Red Cross, Vitalant and OneBlood. Approximately 2,000 men who have sex with men (MSM) will be recruited at community health centers in San Francisco; Los Angeles; Memphis, Tennessee; Atlanta; Orlando, Florida; Miami; Washington, D.C.; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Participants must be 18 to 30, have had at […]

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Brits Living with HIV to Receive Coronavirus Vaccine alongside Cancer Patients, Diabetics

Public Health England has finally confirmed where people living with HIV land on the coronavirus vaccine priority list. On Tuesday (8 December) the UK became the first country in the world to start administering the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after it was approved my regulators last week. The government has now released the order of priority in which the vaccine will be given out, and those who are HIV-positive will be in the sixth group, along with other “adults aged 18 to 65 years in an at-risk group”. “At-risk” adults also include those undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy, people diagnosed with a blood cancer like leukaemia, and […]

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HIV Prevention Drugs Illustrate just How Bad Pharmaceutical Patents Are for our Health

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The United States is the only major economy on the planet where health care is a for-profit industry instead of a free public service; it’s also the only place where the government allows health care not just to be run as an industry, but allows that industry to be run as a cartel. What this means in practice is that pharmacology — the study and development of pharmaceuticals — has become more a branch of industry than of science, and it is therefore controlled by lobbying interests rather than either science or the public good. The only better example of this than […]

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Fauci Gets Lifetime Achievement Award From Elton John Foundation For His Historic Efforts On HIV/AIDS Crisis

CNN reports: Dr. Anthony Fauci’s effort to educate the public on the coronavirus pandemic has earned him scores of admirers, but his work on the global HIV/AIDS crisis saw him cheered on Tuesday by one star-studded fan — Elton John. “What a wonderful and fitting way to mark World AIDS Day, by honoring one of the biggest champions in the history of the AIDS epidemic,” John said in remarks at the US Global Leadership Coalition’s virtual tribute celebration, where Fauci was presented with the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award. “There are very few people on this planet who have dedicated themselves to […]

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With Instagram Memorial, AIDS Victims’ Stories Reach New Generation

Nearly two decades after Bruce Bozzi Jr. lost his first love to AIDS, he revisited their love story in a social media post shared with tens of thousands of strangers. “On a super hot day in July, we decided to meet on the corner of 14th Street and 5th Avenue,” Bozzi, 54, a restaurateur, wrote in the caption, paired with photos of a striking man in his 20s. “Tommy stood there with his jet black hair, his eyes brilliant with shades of green and blue and that smile you can see in this photograph. Being gay back then was hard, […]

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World AIDS Day Arrives Amid Another Pandemic

With COVID-19 cases continuing to spike around the world, most events for World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 have been moved to virtual formats to continue bringing awareness to the AIDS epidemic.  The World AIDS Day organization has scheduled a virtual panel discussion for 9 a.m. on Tuesday with professionals in the field of HIV prevention and treatment to share how communities can reduce the stigma and impact of the disease. On the panel will be Assistant Professor at the University of Florida Richelle Joe, Community Liaison for Janssen Scientific Affairs Samuel Quintero, and Adam Troy, prevention manager at an […]

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Drug Imports Endanger Patients Like Me

I was diagnosed with HIV just shy of my 30th birthday. That day, everything changed. I was apprehensive about my prognosis, my treatment plan, and my ability to live a normal life.  Fortunately, medical advances have turned HIV from a certain death sentence into a manageable condition. Still, like all Americans who depend on complex medications to stay healthy, I worry about high drug prices, and this concern has only intensified amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Especially since some of the proposed “solutions” to high drug prices would put patients’ health at risk.  Just recently, the Trump administration announced that it […]

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From HIV to Covid-19: Fauci on his ‘Complicated Relationship’ with Larry Kramer

When Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the most visible members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, learned about the impact the virus could have on patients with underlying medical conditions, among his concerns was the health of a man he had grown to love and admire while battling a prior public health crisis. “As soon as Covid-19 came, I immediately thought about my dear friend Larry,” Fauci, 79, said of the longtime AIDS activist and gay rights titan Larry Kramer. When the coronavirus swept through New York City earlier this year, Kramer, who resided in Manhattan, was 84, HIV-positive and the […]

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