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According to the latest report by the Department of Health (DOH) last February, 20 new cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are diagnosed every day. This is almost 50 percent higher from the number of cases reported daily in 2012.

By signing a religious freedom bill that provoked a hail of criticism, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence did a brilliant job of diverting attention from something deserving of commendation. That same day, he took a wise step to contain an outbreak of HIV infections in southern Scott County. Since December, more than 80 new cases have been identified in the county. That's up from five in a normal year and the worst epidemic the state has ever seen. Pence was advised by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that stopping the epidemic would require opening a needle exchange --...

There is growing concern among scientists that inflammation caused by HIV and the side effects of some antiretroviral drugs, especially protease inhibitors, are increasing cardiovascular risk among people living with HIV. This was revealed during the fifth annual East African health and scientific conference held in Kampala last week. It was held under the theme; ‘Investing in health through strengthening regional health systems and institutions towards the prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases.’ Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are heart and blood-vessel-related conditions, including hypertension, stroke, heart attacks and heart failure, among others and these account for nine per cent...

Atlanta is ranked number one among US cities when it comes to the rate of new diagnoses of HIV. Experts say that's because routine HIV testing is not offered in the places where most people get their health care. By the time patients are diagnosed in Atlanta, almost one third have advanced to clinical AIDS. Since starting a routine testing program in 2013, Grady Hospital has diagnosed an average of two or three patients with HIV every single day.

For the first time, a study shows that a drug used to treat HIV infection also can help prevent it when taken before and after risky sex by gay men. The results offer hope of a more appealing way to help prevent the disease beyond taking daily pills and using condoms, although those methods are still considered best. The study, done in France and Canada, is the first to test “on demand” use of Truvada, a pill combining two AIDS drugs, by people planning to have risky sex. The uninfected men who took it were 86 percent less likely to...

In Randy Shilts’ history of AIDS, “And the Band Played On,” he tells the story of an Air Canada steward named Gaëtan Dugas, who suffered from what Dugas called “gay cancer” and infected 40 people or more with HIV. He was, Shilts wrote, “Patient Zero.” Modal TriggerDugas, through his extensive travels and unrepentant, unprotected sex even after he was diagnosed, undoubtedly helped spread AIDS. But was he the man who brought the disease to America? In the new book, “The Chimp and the River: How AIDS Emerged from an African Rain Forest” (W.W. Norton), author David Quammen says no.

CRF-19, a fast acting HIV variant found recently in Cuba.

The strain, CRF19, can transform from an infection to full-blown AIDS within just three years. That is considerably faster than the average conversion time of around 10 years - and can be so quick that a person may not even realise they are infected. Scientists were prompted to investigate amid a rising number of patients in Cuba suffering rapid progression to AIDS within three years of infection.

A strain of HIV that could develop into AIDS before patients realize they are infected has been identified in Cuba. This HIV strain if not treated develops into full-blown AIDS within three years, according to a new study.

A new HIV strain in some patients in Cuba appears to be much more aggressive and can develop into AIDS within three years of infection. Researchers said the progression happens so fast that treatment with antiretroviral drugs may come too late. Without treatment, HIV infection usually takes 5 to 10 years to turn into AIDS, according to Anne-Mieke Vandamme, a medical professor at Belgium's University of Leuvan. According to the study, published in the journal EBioMedicine, Vandamme was alerted to the new aggressive strain of HIV by Cuban health officials who wanted to find out what was happening.

Sober Scriptural Wisdom on Avoiding the Whirlwind of Lust By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere is a marvelous chapter in the Book of Proverbs that ought to be studied by every young person who must live in this lustful world. Its sets forth plainly the stance that any son or daughter of God should have regarding the lust so often celebrated by this age.Many preachers and teachers wince at the Book of Proverbs on this topic since it tends to portray seduction and lust as coming from women.However it must be recalled that Proverbs features a father speaking to his son....

A fungus called Cryptococcus gattii can cause life-threatening infections, especially in people with compromised immune systems. One-third of AIDS-related deaths are thought to be caused by the fungus. But though people in Southern California have been getting sick from C. gatti for years, nobody knew how.... C. gattii from three trees, Canary Island pine, New Zealand pohutukawa and American sweet gum, matched almost exactly with C. gattii from infected patients. And the tree samples matched not just those from recent patients but from people who were sick 10 to 12 years ago. Thus this strain of C. gattii has been...

The Food and Drug Administration has announced that it's easing restrictions on gay men donating blood, reversing a policy enacted during the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic decades earlier. In a statement released Tuesday, the FDA said easing the ban came after several years of research into the matter. "Following this review, and taking into account the recommendations of advisory committees to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA, the agency will take the necessary steps to recommend a change to the blood donor deferral period for men who have sex with men from indefinite deferral...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) took to Twitter on Tuesday to criticize the FDA’s proposed new policy on blood donations from gay men, saying that while the recommendation is a “step forward” it is still “discriminatory.” The liberal legislator and potential 2016 presidential candidate tweeted that the FDA must “have courage to set policies based on science” in order to “commit to building a bigger, safer blood supply through risk-based screenings.” The policy, introduced Tuesday by FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, would replace a 30-year-old ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men with a new rule permitting donations from men...

... Currently, the FDA bans men who have had sex with other men “at any time since 1977 (the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the United States)” from giving blood based on their heightened risk for HIV. Because it still takes about two weeks after exposure to detect HIV—and up to several months in rare cases—the HHS recommends the one-year deferral period to be safe, following in the footsteps of the U.K., Sweden, Australia, and Japan. The new rule would be a step in the right direction from a government that has long clung to outdated conceptions of HIV...

The Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday that it would scrap a decades-old lifetime prohibition on blood donation by gay and bisexual men, a change that experts said was long overdue and could lift the annual blood supply by as much as 4 percent. The F.D.A. enacted the ban in 1983, early in the AIDS epidemic. At the time, little was known about the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes the disease, and there was no quick test to determine whether somebody had it. But science — and the understanding of H.I.V. in particular — has advanced in the intervening...

A FDA panel has declined to support lifting the lifetime ban on men who have sex with men (MSM) from donating blood.The ban, which has been in place for over 30 years, has grown increasingly controversial in light of groups such as the American Red Cross and the American Medical Association joining homosexual activists in saying the ban is based upon unscientific discrimination. However, supporters of the policy say keeping it in place is based on sound science and risk assessment, given that a majority of HIV/AIDS carriers are MSM, and the number of MSM who use condoms to prevent...

Government health advisers have concerns about lifting a nationwide ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, despite growing pressure against the policy from gay rights advocates, medical experts and blood banks. The ban dates from the first years of the AIDS epidemic and was intended to protect the U.S. blood supply from exposure to the little-understood disease. …

December 1st, is World AIDS Day. In the 35-years of the epidemic, about 80-million people have become infected with HIV and nearly 40-million have died. But great progress has been made in recent years in preventing and treating the disease. UNAIDS – the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS – has set a goal of ending the epidemic by 2030. An advocacy group says a strategic plan and much funding are needed to achieve that goal.

Again, this is another move under the Obama administration to put the American public in danger while promoting what is clearly an unhealthy lifestyle. The Food and Drug Administration advisors will be meeting the first week in December to talk about lifting a thirty year old prohibition on sodomites donating blood. ------------- Let me ask you America, would you be willing to run that risk of a sodomite donating blood with the slim chance that he may just give you HIV? Wouldn't that be like me offering you a coke with the possibility that it contained only 1% poison? Would...