Free Republic

Largely banished since the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, gay bathhouses could return to San Francisco under new legislation introduced to the Board of Supervisors. District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro neighborhood, introduced an ordinance Tuesday calling for the Department of Public Health to amend city standards established in the 1980s for adult sex venues that effectively shut down gay bathhouses. Mandelman said bathhouses were once the focal point of the gay community and health care advancements to help prevent the transmission of HIV has made the standards outdated. “In many ways they symbolized...

... Harsh measures horrify civil libertarians, but they often save lives, especially when they are imposed in the early days. The best-known modern example is Cuba’s AIDS epidemic. In the 1980s, Cuba and the United States were both hit hard by the AIDS epidemic. In Cuba, the virus first infected thousands of soldiers, doctors and nurses who had served in Africa. The Castro regime’s response — roundly condemned by other countries — was to make H.I.V. tests mandatory, and to force everyone infected into quarantine camps. The camps were not hellholes: they had bungalows, gardens, theater troupes, medical care, more...

The state Department of Health has proposed legislation that would make such exposure a misdemeanor, asserting the state’s HIV laws aren’t reflective of current treatments and perpetuate a stigma against people living with the virus. The proposal also calls for more intervention from local and state health officers, allowing them to recommend options ranging from testing to counseling, and even mandate treatment for an individual determined to be placing others at risk. Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center and a member of the committee, said she supports efforts to de-stigmatize HIV but said reducing the penalty for intentional transmission diminishes the...

Despite similar rates of enrollment into medical care, youth with HIV have much lower rates of viral suppression — reducing HIV to undetectable levels — compared to adults, according to an analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health. Among more than 1,000 youth, most of whom were newly enrolled in care at treatment centers throughout the United States, 12% had attained viral suppression, far lower than the 32% to 63% observed in studies of adults over age 24. The findings suggest that after they enroll in an HIV treatment program, a low proportion of youth adhere to care regimens....

Aliya Feroe recalls the flustered OB-GYN who referred her to another physician after learning she identified as queer. For Rhi Ledgerwood, who was designated female at birth, identifies as trans and doesn’t have sex with men, it was a doctor advising about condoms and pregnancy prevention. For Tim Keyes, who came out as gay at age 17, it’s when doctors automatically assumed he sleeps with women. Ask any LGBTQ patient about awkward doctor visits and chances are they’ll have a story to tell. When being heterosexual is presumed even in doctors’ offices, those who identify otherwise can feel marginalized and...

Over a quarter of a sample of HIV-positive gay and bisexual men in a relationship with an HIV-negative partner did not have an accurate understanding of their current viral load, investigators from the United States report in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. Laboratory viral load results showed that a fifth of men who believed that they were undetectable currently had a detectable viral load, and that 7.5% were virally suppressed when they thought their viral load was detectable. Perhaps significantly, the participants were initially recruited to take part in an adherence intervention and 48%...

Oh my god. Indian scientists have just found HIV (AIDS) virus-like insertions in the 2019-nCov virus that are not found in any other coronavirus. They hint at the possibility that this Chinese virus was designed ["not fortuitous']. Scary if true. https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.30.927871v1.full.pdf

INTRODUCTION Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are infections acquired from another person mainly through the pathway of sexual activity. STDs are very common and are responsible of a heavy burden to public health in many countries. Luckily, these diseases are treatable. Some of them are curable, and most importantly, all of them are preventable. In the United States, about 20 million new sexually transmitted infections occur every year. That means that the average American has a 6% annual probability of getting an STD. Of course, this probability varies widely depending on many factors, and homosexual intercourse tends to be highly placed...

For many people who have hearing problems it is noisy environments, such as busy restaurants, that are their main problem. Hearing aids help somewhat, but even the most advanced ones can’t amplify only single individuals that the user is talking to when there are other speakers nearby. At CES 2020 we ran into OrCam, an Israeli company that has developed technology that combines computer vision with audio modulation to know who the intended speaker the user is trying to listen to and to only amplify that person’s speech. This is a smart reworking of a similar technology in OrCam’s other...

More than one-quarter of HIV-negative millennials report that they avoid hugging, talking, or being friends with someone who is HIV-positive, according to a new study from the Prevention Access Campaign and the phamaceutical company Merck. The study uncovered widespread ignorance and stigma from young people when it comes to HIV. Thirty percent of HIV-negative millennials (people between the ages of 23 and 36) said they would prefer not to interact socially with someone with HIV. One in three Black and Latinx millennials reported avoiding even shaking hands or sharing drinks or utensils with someone with HIV. In reality, the disease...

The world's first sperm bank has launched for HIV-positive people in an effort to reduce the disease stigma. Sperm Positive has begun with three male donors from across New Zealand who are living with HIV but cannot pass the virus on.

Scientists using advanced DNA sequencing technology have documented a previously unidentified strain of HIV under the group that is responsible for the vast majority of human infections. The previous strain in that group was documented in 2000. The latest strain was found in just three people, but the findings by Abbott Laboratories —a maker of HIV tests—are expected to strike up a broader conversation about how to classify new viral strains that could surface. The company described its findings on Wednesday in an academic journal. Strains from Group M are the most common in humans and are responsible for the...

Health officials initially said a single pediatrician who was accused of reusing syringes was to blame, according to The [NY] Times. Ghanghro was ultimately arrested and charged with negligence, manslaughter and causing unintentional harm. He has yet to be convicted and has maintained his innocence, saying he never reuses syringes. Health officials say that Ghanghro is not likely to be the sole cause of the outbreak, noting that visiting health workers saw many other doctors reuse syringes, barbers use the same razors to shave customers, and roadside dentists use unsterilized tools.

....Elton John has come to the defense of his friend Ellen DeGeneres after the talk show host was swarmed with left-wing criticism.... The “Rocket Man” singer piggybacked off DeGeneres’ message of tolerance and even offered praise for Mr. Bush and President Donald Trump for humanitarian efforts addressing HIV/AIDS globally.

As poor as CNN’s ratings are in the United States, a rational person would conclude that, at some point, the executives who run the place would figure out what they’re doing wrong and fix it so that they could attract more viewers. But CNN isn’t run by rational people. In fact, we believe everyone who works there is certifiably out of their minds. They’d have to be in order to come up with some of the dumbest, tone-deaf, inappropriate, uninteresting, and pointless BS they put on the air. Like holding a “town hall” meeting with a gay man, hosted by...

MANILA—HIV is spreading faster in the Philippines than anywhere in the world. The estimated number of new infections in this Southeast Asian nation has more than doubled from 2013 through 2018, reaching epidemic proportions among young men, according to the United Nations’ AIDS agency. The surge in the virus that causes AIDS stands out against the decline in estimated world-wide infections. Determining the cause can be difficult and inevitably involves some guesswork among epidemiologists seeking answers. But health advocates think a major driver has been dating apps, which have encouraged promiscuity in a country where traditional social norms have kept...

Has anyone seen the new commercial for the HIV drug Truvada? The commercial states they are doing it for prep. However it later goes on to say it helps lower the risk of contracting HIV in high risk people. So basically it is a drug for people who cannot control their sex drive and have dozens of sex partners per year.

A surge in "chemsex" parties, where people spend days getting high on drugs and having sex with scores of partners, is re-fueling epidemics of HIV among gay men in European towns and cities, doctors say. Despite much higher risks of contracting the virus that causes AIDS, as well as other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), users search online "hook-up" apps like Grindr for tags such as "high and horny" or "party and play" to find others wanting drug-heightened and often anonymous and unprotected sex. The result, AIDS experts say, is that in cities across Europe, HIV is spreading rapidly among men...

Health authorities have uncovered an alarming surge in resistance to crucial HIV drugs. Surveys by the World Health Organization (WHO) reveal that, in the past 4 years, 12 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas have surpassed acceptable levels of drug resistance against two drugs that constitute the backbone of HIV treatment: efavirenz and nevirapine. People living with HIV are routinely treated with a cocktail of drugs, known as antiretroviral therapy, but the virus can mutate into a resistant form.

Only in Clown World is it possible for big corporations to label heterosexuality as “gross”. Yes, the very thing that allowed them to type out those words in an e-mail, and gave them an opportunity at living a life in the waking world is “gross” for some people, but that’s just the way it is in an era of insanity. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m talking about Netflix’s response to the Straight Pride Parade group known as Super Happy Fun America. Recently the company posted up a tweet on July 26th, 2019 with an image revealing...