Free Republic

He continues to battle a nicotine addiction and has spent a small fortune keeping his records private – including his medical history. Though viewed as the picture of health in 2008, Barack Obama appeared more gaunt the following year and since then weight fluctuations became more numerous and more dramatic as a chameleon-like cycle of a man who shows up looking drastically different than he did just weeks prior. Rumors of heavy makeup for public appearances to mask “skin discoloration issues” have persisted for a number of years, as has the ongoing speculation of what was the true nature of...

Gripe as we might, consumers understand that price increases do happen. What’s not as easily understood is how the price for something can go from $13.50 one day to $750 the next — especially when it’s a generic drug used to save lives. For decades, Daraprim (pyrimethamine), an anti-parasitic used to treat malaria and toxoplasmosis, had been made by GlaxoSmithKline and sold for as little as $1/tablet until not that long ago. Then in 2010 GSK sold the drug to CorePharma, which began to raise the price. Within a year, revenue from Daraprim jumped nearly ten times even though the...

Scientists in Israel have announced a breakthrough in HIV research, a development that will leave Israel boycotters with their latest ethical dilemma. The team from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev say their finding will result in a “revolutionary diagnosis and the key to the clinical solution that will prevent infection with HIV and will destroy the deadly virus.” i24News reports that Dr Ran Taube of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Genetics at the southern Israeli university said his team has discovered similarities between HIV (the virus that leads to AIDS) and leukemia. Conducted in collaboration with Dr. Uri Rubio...

(CNSNews.com) - A group of government researchers working for a National Institutes of Health laboratory in Montana made “humanized mice” by implanting the mice with tissues cut from human livers and thymuses taken from babies at 17 to 22 weeks gestational age. The researchers then published a paper describing how they constructed this particular type of “humanized” mouse, saying they hoped their description of the process would help other researchers seeking to make such mice in the future. The same government researchers had collaborated on another journal article about the “humanized” mouse with an NIH-funded researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital--which...

She's the woman who co-discovered HIV in 1983, and won a Nobel Prize for her work. But next month, French scientist Francoise Barre-Sinoussi will retire from her lab. She spoke with CNN at this week's International AIDS Society Conference, in Vancouver, about activism, the future of HIV and why there's still no cure -- as well as answering questions submitted by our readers on Twitter. Q: At the beginning, the epidemic was in San Francisco in the gay community. How have you seen this change over time? A: The epidemic changed in the gay population, for example, because they were...

In 2009, Washington, D.C., officials announced that the district's HIV rate, hovering around 3 percent of the population, was higher than that of West Africa.

ST. CHARLES • A former Lindenwood University wrestler was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison for recklessly infecting one sex partner with HIV and risking the infection of four others. Jurors in May had found Michael L. Johnson, 23, guilty of five felony charges after testimony that included experts in infectious diseases and the men who had unprotected sex with him. One of the men contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The case of Dong-Pyou Han illustrates the uneven nature of penalties for scientific misconduct.Rare is the scientist who goes to prison on research misconduct charges. But on 1 July, Dong-Pyou Han, a former biomedical scientist at Iowa State University in Ames, was sentenced to 57 months for fabricating and falsifying data in HIV vaccine trials. Han has also been fined US$7.2 million and will be subject to three years of supervised release after he leaves prison. His case had a higher profile than most, attracting interest from a powerful US senator. Han’s harsh sentence raises questions about how alleged...

(From Video Transcript:) The World Health Organization says Cuba has reached one of the greatest public health milestones possible. It has ended the mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. At a news conference in Havana, WHO representative Jose Luis di Fabio praised Cuba’s health system. […] UNICEF Representative Anna Lucia d’Emilio says Cuba’s achievement shows that ending the AIDS epidemic is possible. …

<p>TAMPA — Health officials in Hillsborough County are keeping a close watch on the rising number of HIV/AIDS cases in the area.</p> <p>The Florida Department of Health reported 272 new cases of the human immunodeficiency virus in Hillsborough County in 2012. In 2013, that number jumped to 347, and in 2014 it jumped again to 445.</p>

(CNSNews.com) -- The American University Museum in Washington, D.C. will host an art exhibition this fall that protests the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) current ban on blood donations from men who have had sex with other men (MSM).The museum says the exhibit, entitled “Blood Mirror", will feature a “powerful sculpture created from the blood of 9 gay men." Viewers of the sculpture will be able to see themselves reflected on the surface of the encased blood.​Gay artist Jordan Eagles said in a press release that he preserved the blood within a seven-foot-tall monolith to show “that this blood could have been used...

Patton Couch shook his head and clenched his teeth, recounting the night four years ago when he plucked a dirty needle from a pile at a flophouse and jabbed it into his scarred arm. He knew the odds; most of the addicts in the room probably had hepatitis C. "All I cared about was how soon and how fast I could get it in," he says. "I hated myself, it was misery. But when you're in the grips of it, the only way I thought I could escape it was one more time." Couch, 25 years old and one month...

Rhode Island health officials are blaming dating apps, such as Tinder and Grindr, for a spike in syphilis, gonorrhea and HIV cases in the state. Syphilis cases have spiked 79%, while gonorrhea has risen 30%, according to data from 2013 and 2014. New cases of HIV increased by 32%. "These data send a clear signal that despite the progress we have made in reducing STDs and HIV over the years, there is more work to do," state health director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott said in a statement. Officials say the spike there follows a national trend. "High-risk behaviours include using social...

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind [Homosexuals], Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9,10 (KJV) Laodicean church pastor Rick Warren appeared in Congress with pop icon and outspoken homosexual Elton John on Wednesday to ask for more money for AIDS research. They were clearly having such a good time that they started holding hands as you see in the photo. Did Rick ever...

The number of confirmed and presumed HIV cases stemming from abuse of intravenous prescription drugs has increased to 142 in a rural part of southeastern Indiana and more cases are being identified every day, a state health official said on Friday. The HIV outbreak, the biggest in state history, is centered on Scott County near the Kentucky border and now includes at least five cases in neighboring Jackson County, officials said. "We likely haven't reached the peak of this outbreak, but we hope to soon through the continued comprehensive response made possible by the joint efforts of so many people...

Indiana Governor Mike Pence is extending an executive order allowing a needle exchange program in southern Indiana’s Scott County. So far, there have been 128 confirmed cases of HIV connected to Scott County and intravenous drug use. Last month, Pence signed a 30 day order to suspend state law and allow the needle exchange program. With that order due to expire on April 24, the governor signed Monday a new order extending the exchange program into May. Pence says he got the recommendation to do so from the Indiana State Department of Health, the CDC, and Scott County health officials....

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.

More than 100 people in southeastern Indiana have tested positive for HIV in an outbreak linked to the sharing of intravenous needles, and officials said Friday they’re trying to combat unfounded fears among drug users that they could be arrested if they take part in a needle-exchange program created to stem the spread of the virus. The state’s Joint Information Center said there had been 95 confirmed HIV cases and 11 preliminary positive cases tied to the outbreak as of Thursday. That’s up from last week’s 84 confirmed HIV cases and five preliminary positive cases. […] Indiana’s largest-ever HIV outbreak...

Study suggests adults infected with the virus can develop age-related diseases a decade earlier than their uninfected peers. People undergoing treatment for HIV-1 have an increased risk for earlier onset of age-related illnesses such as some cancers, renal and kidney disease, frailty, osteoporosis and neurocognitive disease. But is it because of the virus that causes AIDS or the treatment?

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...