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Chattanooga, Tenn. - Thousands of military veterans across the South are waiting to find out if they were exposed to infectious diseases by government clinics that performed colonoscopies and other procedures with equipment that wasn't properly sterilized. Veterans Affairs officials won't say if mistakes that may have exposed patients to infections at medical centers in Tennessee and Florida and a clinic in Georgia have been discovered elsewhere. The VA recently warned veterans who had colonoscopies as far back as five years ago at its hospitals in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Miami that they may have been exposed to the body fluids...

Thursday March 19, 2009 Harvard AIDS Expert Says Pope is Correct on Condom Distribution Making AIDS Worse By John-Henry Westen   March 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, has said that the evidence confirms that the Pope is correct in his assessment that condom distribution exacerbates the problem of AIDS.  "The pope is correct," Green told National Review Online Wednesday, "or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope's comments."  "There is," Green added, "a consistent association...

Some people worry that Nebraska’s gay community is unfairly targeted by a bill meant to punish those who knowingly spread a deadly disease like AIDS. The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee heard public testimony Friday afternoon on a measure (LB625) that would make it illegal to intentionally or knowingly spread a deadly disease through sex. It would also be illegal to sell or donate organs, blood, semen and other bodily fluids, or share hypodermic needles with the same purpose. “I’m concerned that this will be a witch hunt against the gay community of Nebraska,” Lucas Peterson of Lincoln said after the hearing....

<p>Men having sex with men has remained the disease's leading mode of transmission.</p> <p>Heterosexual sex was the principal mode of transmission for blacks with the disease, 33 percent. Men having sex with men was the chief mode of transmission for white residents, 78 percent; and Latinos, 49 percent. Black women represent more than a quarter of HIV cases in the District, and most, about 58 percent, were infected through heterosexual sex. About a quarter of black women were infected through drug use.</p>

HIV prevalence is higher among non-religious Kenyans compared to faith practitioners, the first ever large study to interrogate the relationship between religion and the disease in the country has found out. The government-sponsored Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey (KAIS) whose final findings will be released in a couple of weeks, indicates that prevalence levels among non-believers stands at 7.7 per cent against the national average of 7.1 per cent. When preliminary findings of the survey were released in 2008, they did not include the new findings. The prevalence levels are even different among various faiths, with the highest being among Protestants...

WEDNESDAY, March 4 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists report that a common germ-killing compound prevented transmission of an HIV-like virus in five female monkeys, an encouraging sign that it might also work in humans. The research is still in its early stages. However, the researchers said the compound could eventually make its way into sexual lubricants that women could use to avoid infection with the virus that causes AIDS. "It's a promising lead that we're on to something that's a different way to approach the problem of prevention," said study co-author Dr. Ashley T. Haase, head of the Department of Microbiology...

Scientists have created a strain of the human AIDS virus able to infect and multiply in monkeys in a step toward testing future vaccines in monkeys before trying them in people, according to a new study. This strain of HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, was developed by altering a single gene in the human version to allow it to infect a type of monkey called a pig-tailed macaque, the researchers said on Monday. The genetically engineered virus, once injected into this monkey, proliferates almost as much as it does in people, but the animal ultimately suppresses it and the virus...

Doctors are failing to diagnose HIV in older patients, who are exposed to greater risk of infection as erectile dysfunction drugs extend their sex lives, a study published by the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. The report in the WHO Bulletin found that increasing numbers of sexually active people aged 50 and upwards -- who are more likely to risk unprotected sex than younger people -- are contracting the AIDS virus.Snip

Politics Home » First100Days Chicago Man Arrested for Allegedly Targeting Obama With HIV-Infected Blood It's only the second time ever that HIV-infected blood has been sent with malicious intent through the U.S. mail system, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said. By Mike Levine FOXNews.com Friday, February 27, 2009 0 x in order to recommend a story, you must login or register. 6 Comments | Add Comment ShareThisA man from President Obama's hometown of Chicago has been arrested for allegedly sending Obama and his staff envelopes containing HIV-infected blood, in the hopes of killing or harming them. It's...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Selects-Health-Policy-Expert-to-Head-Office-of-National-AIDS-Policy/ THE BRIEFING ROOM Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 9:26 am President Obama Selects Health Policy Expert to Head Office of National AIDS Policy THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary __________________________ For Immediate Release February 26, 2009 Jeffrey S. Crowley will join Domestic Policy Council as Top Advisor on HIV/AIDS issues President Barack Obama today announced the appointment of one of the nation’s leading public health policy experts as the Director of Office of National AIDS Policy. Jeffrey S. Crowley, MPH, Senior Research Scholar at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute will...

SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. – In recognition of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, the Snohomish Health District is giving free HIV testing to at-risk African-Americans next Monday, Feb. 23. Health officials say AIDS remains the leading cause of death among Black Americans, accounting for nearly 50 percent of all new HIV infections. The testing will be done from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Rucker Building, 3020 Rucker Avenue, Suite 106. Each walk-in appointment is free to those who qualify.

But the treatment is too risky to help most who are infected with the virus. A man may have been cured of both HIV and leukaemia after receiving a stem-cell transplant from a donor who is genetically resistant to HIV. A man may have been cured of both HIV and leukaemia after receiving a stem-cell transplant from a donor who is genetically resistant to HIV. About two years after the procedure, there is still no sign of the virus, even though the patient no longer takes antiretroviral drugs. Nature News takes a look at the promises and limitations of the...

In the United States, African American men and women continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases noted in a statement issued to coincide with the 9th annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on February 7. According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, African Americans make up 12 percent of the U.S. population but account for nearly half of all new HIV infections and almost half of all Americans living with HIV. According to federal health officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),...

Although African Americans make up 12 percent of the US population, African Americans also make up almost one-half of all new HIV-AIDS infections, about 25,000 a year. Dr. Kevin Fenton, Director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS at the Centers for Disease Control says, for a long time, silence and ignorance were killing black people as much as the epidemic: “Now we're seeing faith leaders who realize that focusing on HIV is part of their mission, part of their role in tackling and promoting social justice.”

">snip<" Michael Neal, 50, of Coburg, was found guilty by a county court jury on 15 counts, including two of rape and eight of trying to infect another person with HIV. The court heard Neal arranged "conversion parties'' and had unprotected sex without revealing he had HIV. ">snip<"

Footage of Obama on the driving range during a well-earned holiday in Hawaii reveals the Democrat’s mantra of change ought to be applied to his swing. Obama appears nervy as he addresses the ball and then lifts his head before the shot is completed, as he finishes with limp shoulders at odds with his impressive, unshakeable stance behind a podium. As a left-hander, Obama would do well to study the form and poise of Phil Mickelson, though having won a ‘major’ at the first time of asking, Obama has one trait he need not exchange with the 2004 and 2006...

Barack Obama may have an impossible burden of expectation on his shoulders, but one fervent wish of many US scientists should be easy enough to fulfil: simply lead the nation back into the "reality-based community".

A transgender, Shawn Shannon “Nicole” Quinnones assaulted, harassed guard. By Sheena Delazio sdelazio@timesleader.com Staff Writer WILKES-BARRE – A former inmate at the State Correctional Institution at Dallas was sentenced to up to eight years in prison on Tuesday for spitting on a corrections officer. Shawn Shannon “Nicole” Quinnones, 34, who was found guilty by a Luzerne County jury in September, was sentenced to four years and three months to eight years and six months in state prison by Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Chester Muroski. Quinnones, who is transgender and infected with HIV, was found guilty of assault...

Today is the 20th anniversary of World Aids Day. The President and Mrs. Bush went to the Newseum to participate in the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health chaired by Dr. Rick Warren. Dr. Warren presented President Bush with International Medal of Peace Award. President and Mrs. Bush Participate in Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health The President discussed World Aids day in front of the WH which was adorned with a giant red ribbon. President Bush Discusses World AIDS Day The President’s mother, Mrs. Barbara Bush, is in good condition and recovering from ulcer surgery as expected. Barbara...

LONDON – LONDON – As World AIDS Day is marked on Monday, some experts are growing more outspoken in complaining that AIDS is eating up funding at the expense of more pressing health needs. They argue that the world has entered a post-AIDS era in which the disease's spread has largely been curbed in much of the world, Africa excepted. "AIDS is a terrible humanitarian tragedy, but it's just one of many terrible humanitarian tragedies," said Jeremy Shiffman, who studies health spending at Syracuse University. Roger England of Health Systems Workshop, a think tank based in the Caribbean island of...

ON WORLD AIDS DAY: President to Receive First ‘International Medal of PEACE’ for Humanitarian Initiatives WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 24, 2008 – Dr. Rick Warren will present President George W. Bush with the first “International Medal of PEACE” from the Global PEACE Coalition in recognition of his unprecedented contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS and other diseases during the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health, to be held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1. At the Forum, Warren will engage both President Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush in candid conversation regarding past accomplishments and priorities...

BOSTON - Gay and bisexual men in Massachusetts continue to be the hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic with a significant percentage of new cases appearing among minority men. That’s according to a new report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health that found while the state has had success battling the disease among injection drug users and heterosexual men and women, it has had less success among gay and bisexual men. More than half of HIV infections between 2004 and 2006 were among gay and bisexual men even though they make up less than 10 percent of the population.

CDC Wants Testing For Nearly Everyone WASHINGTON -- Two years after the government urged making HIV tests as common as cholesterol checks, there are small gains but still one in five people infected with the AIDS virus doesn't know it, scientists said Thursday. Eleven states that once required special consent for HIV testing have changed their laws, a key step to making an HIV test part of the standard battery that patients expect. But HIV specialists meeting Thursday said other barriers include physician confusion about the ease of today's rapid tests, which can cost as little as $15, although many...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A Dutch court convicted two men Wednesday for attempting to infect 14 victims with HIV in a bizarre sex case. The Groningen District Court found the two guilty of severe assault for injecting semiconscious men with HIV-infected blood at sex parties between January 2006 and May 2007. Peter M., 49, who was also convicted of rape, was sentenced to nine years in prison and Hans J., 39, received a five-year sentence. Under Dutch privacy laws, the surnames of convicted criminals are not released. Prosecutors said they would appeal for higher sentences. "By committing these acts, (Peter M.)...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Genetically engineered immune cells can spot the AIDS virus even when it tries to disguise itself, offering a potential new way to treat the incurable infection, researchers reported on Sunday.

Judge Clears Way For Same-Sex Marriages BY DANIELA ALTIMARI | The Hartford Courant 9:54 AM EST, November 12, 2008 NEW HAVEN - A 4-year legal battle for same-sex marriage came to an end this morning in a New Haven courtroom when Superior Copurt Judge Jonathan E. Silbert signed an order. The state Supreme Court last month, in a 4-3 decision, ruled that preventing gay and lesbian couples from marrying violates the state constitution. Today's brief hearing was a formality that was needed before gay couples could start receiving marriage licenses. Immediately after the court proceeding, one of the plaintiff couples,...

Gay couple living American dream They fear Prop. 8 threatens their civil rights By Brian Charles The Galluccio family doesn’t look much different than most American families — except two dads head the household. “We sit down for dinner. We even say grace,” said Jon Galluccio, 45. Jon and Michael Galluccio are a gay couple and the parents of three adopted children. A recent Yes on Prop. 8 rally left the Galluccio’s steaming. “Why is my life, liberty and my pursuit of happiness a threat to anyone?” said Michael Galluccio, 46. The No on 8 sign stands in their front...

NORMANDY, Mo. — Students at a suburban St. Louis high school headed to the gymnasium for HIV testing this week after an infected person told health officials as many as 50 teenagers might have been exposed to the virus that causes AIDS. Officials refused to give details on who the person was or how the students at Normandy High School might have been exposed, but the district is consulting with national AIDS organizations as it tries to minimize the fallout and prevent the infection — and misinformation — from spreading.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A Swedish government agency is refusing to assist police trying to discover who infected a woman with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, in a reversal of policy, refused to aid prosecutors in the case, the Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyra reported Wednesday. Under current law, a person with HIV can be sentenced to 10 years in prison on assault charges if they knowingly have unprotected sex with another person. "It is now our view that spreading HIV should not be classified as an offense," Jan Albert,...

Possible HIV Exposure At Normandy High School Last Edited: Wednesday, 15 Oct 2008, 11:15 PM CDT Created: Wednesday, 15 Oct 2008, 1:48 PM CDT SideBar Related Items Links Read Letter To Parents Stories Normandy High School Students May Have Been Exposed To HIV By Chris Regnier (KTVI - myFOXstl.com) -- Several students at Normandy Senior High School may have been exposed to the potentially deadly HIV virus. That word coming from the St. Louis County Health Department. Wednesday night, officials met with parents and students at the high school to try and answer the many questions that are coming up....

A city-based doctor has demanded a ban on all such government-run AIDS awareness advertisements, which highlight that using condoms are the only way to prevent the menace. He alleged that the government was not focusing enough on other reasons of the HIV infection, which include deep kissing as highlighted by some researches. Dr Manohar Bhandari said he had already sent a letter to Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry and National AIDS Control Organisation in this regard. In the notices sent on September 26, the Doctor claimed that deep kissing can also spread HIV. The training module for health workers,...

Data sources: 30 electronic databases without linguistic or geographical restrictions to February 2007, contacts with experts, hand searching, and cross referencing. Conclusion: Programmes that exclusively encourage abstinence from sex do not seem to affect the risk of HIV infection in high income countries...

In the Tenderloin, corner stores sell more alcohol than food, drug-addled pan handlers shake paper cups at passers-by and churches vie for real estate with strip clubs. Now, the federal government is on the verge of crowning this neighborhood a place of national historic significance. Each of the area's 410 historic buildings -- flophouses, parking garages, delis and theaters -- now awaits a gold-colored placard, proudly stating its vintage and history. This month the neighborhood's bid for historic district status will be submitted to the National Park Service, following state approval of the designation in July. The Tenderloin will join...

An unusually detailed study of people newly infected with H.I.V. in the United States has confirmed that the majority of new cases occur among gay and bisexual men and that blacks are most at risk. But the data show that whites and blacks tend to be infected at different times in their lives with the virus that causes AIDS. Most new infections of white gay and bisexual men occur when the men are in their 30s and 40s, the study found, while black gay and bisexual men are more likely to be infected in their teens and 20s. The results...

Two former Philadelphia funeral directors on Tuesday admitted to selling cadavers to a ring that cut them up and sold the body parts to hospitals for implants. Gerald Garzone and his brother Louis Garzone pleaded guilty to charges that they conspired with others to take bones, skin and organs from 244 bodies in their funeral homes between February 2004 and September 2005. They were part of a scheme that plundered 1,077 bodies in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania without the permission of relatives in an operation that netted the conspirators $3.8 million. One of the bodies belonged to Alistair...

The virus that causes AIDS is spreading in New York City at three times the national rate — an incidence of 72 new infections for every 100,000 people, compared with 23 per 100,000 nationally — according to a study released on Wednesday by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The findings, based on a new formula developed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimated that 4,762 New Yorkers contracted H.I.V. in 2006, the most precise estimate the city had ever offered. But the city stressed that because the method of estimating infections was new, it...

Scientists may one day be able to destroy viruses in the same way that opera singers presumably shatter wine glasses. New research mathematically determined the frequencies at which simple viruses could be shaken to death. "The capsid of a virus is something like the shell of a turtle," said physicist Otto Sankey of Arizona State University. "If the shell can be compromised [by mechanical vibrations], the virus can be inactivated." Recent experimental evidence has shown that laser pulses tuned to the right frequency can kill certain viruses. However, locating these so-called resonant frequencies is a bit of trial and error....

Like an infant upstart religion with imperial designs, the HIV-AIDS paradigm calls for a vigorous rebellion against long-established models of understanding. Woe betide any conservative scientists reluctant to become conversos to the rude new creed, who point out that the new theory is absurd on its face, that the link between AIDS and sex is no stronger than its link with sleeping... ... The AIDS phenomenon at root is a vast pumping aggregation of interests with enormous political and economic power. Doctors and scientists who challenge its sacred tenets risk attracting the wrath of the revolution’s red guards. They won’t...

WASHINGTON - A woman who has never shown symptoms of infection with the AIDS virus may hold the secret to defeating the virus, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. Infected at least 10 years ago by her husband, the woman is able somehow to naturally control the deadly and incurable virus -- even though her husband must take cocktails of strong HIV drugs to control his. She is a so-called "elite suppressor," and studies of her immune cells have begun to offer clues to how her body does it, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said. "This is the...

A study that interviewed HIV-infected crack users at Grady Memorial Hospital highlighted the risky behavior and lack of care among this population. Researchers interviewed 190 HIV-infected crack-using patients at Grady and Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami over 14 months half had not seen an HIV specialist in the last six months, and more than three-fourths were not getting important medical treatments.

Throwing money at HIV has left many men at grave risk August 6, 2008 AS GOVERNMENTS around the world directed billions of dollars at programs that aimed to prevent HIV among general populations, a giant wave of infections moved like a tsunami through communities of gay men in Asia, Africa and Latin America, new figures show. Men who have sex with men are now nearly 20 times more likely to be infected with HIV than the general population, yet they often receive as little as 1 per cent of global funding...

After more than two decades on the books, a little-known yet strictly enforced federal law barring foreigners with HIV or AIDS from entering the country is on its way out. Tucked in a bill pledging $48 billion to combat the disease, signed into law by President Bush last week, was language stripping the provision from federal immigration law. But that change didn't fully lift the entry ban on visitors with HIV or AIDS, which applies whether they're on tourist jaunts or seeking longer stays. The secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services still needs to delete HIV from...

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- When French scientist Bertran Auvert was studying male circumcision in South Africa, he made a curious discovery: About 85 percent of the young men who believed they had been circumcised in tribal rituals were not. They just had just gone through painful ceremonies. However, after he offered the young men real circumcision, he made a second find, with much wider implications. The circumcised men were 60 percent less likely to contract HIV when having sex with women. While some scientists had speculated about such an effect, it had never been proven, and the results were one...

Bill Clinton made a plea yesterday for a new emphasis on monogamy as a key element in the battle against Aids. The former US president, not noted for his ability to keep his own marriage vows, said it was very important to change people's attitudes to sex. In an interview with the BBC recorded in Africa, Mr Clinton said that increasing support for monogamy was not just a problem for the continent worst hit by Aids but for the world. "To pretend we can ever get hold of this without dealing with that – the idea of unprotected sexual relations...

Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality is calling on church and political leaders to confront the unhealthy lifestyle choices contributing to the majority of the country's HIV infections. The 17th International AIDS Conference will wrap up in Mexico City on Friday (August 8). In attendance is California mega-church pastor Rick Warren who says HIV-AIDS is a "global pandemic" that the church can help solve by "show[ing] compassion, kindness and the love of Christ." However, Peter LaBarbera says while he commends the idea of a church-based effort to fight AIDS in Africa, he is troubled that many church and...

Who is Planned Parenthood’s newest spokesman? Mr. Molester stars in Planned Parenthood’s latest disgusting attempt to indoctrinate kids. Be sure to watch the latest ALL Report on what your tax dollars have made possible! copy and paste this link http://allreport.blip.tv/#1128425 your url, and please ... FORWARD THE VIDEO TO YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

MEXICO CITY — While the world awaits findings from new AIDS prevention trials, millions of people are becoming infected because governments are overlooking studies showing that behavior modification works, AIDS experts said Tuesday. Among the behavior modifications the experts cited: promoting safer sex through delayed intercourse and the use of condoms, decreasing drug abuse, providing access to needle exchange programs and promoting male circumcision. But none of the measures alone offer a simple solution to preventing infection with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, the experts said in a number of reports and news conferences at the 17th International AIDS...

MEXICO CITY — Can a pill a day help prevent infection from H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS? No one knows. But researchers in a number of countries are conducting trials and planning others to test the unproven strategy that a daily pill, or a combination of drugs, can prevent H.I.V. By mid-2009, more people will be enrolled in such trials than in all of those for H.I.V. vaccines and microbicides, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition said in a report issued here on Sunday at the start of the 17th International AIDS Conference. Initial findings of the safety and effectiveness...

Updated federal estimates of the annual number of new HIV infections in the United States, released today, reveal that while the AIDS epidemic here is worse than previously thought, prevention efforts appear to be having some effect. Even though the number of Americans living with HIV has risen by more than a quarter million people since 1998 -- largely the result of life-extending antiretroviral drugs -- the number of new cases each year has declined slightly over that period. That suggests that a person's likelihood of transmitting the virus to someone else is substantially lower now than it was a...