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Residents of Palm Springs, California, are a bit butt-hurt over a proposed AIDS memorial sculpture looks suspiciously like a human anus. The design, which is meant to honor individuals who have lost their lives to HIV and AIDS, is facing backlash for its “inappropriate connotations,” according to KESQ. Palm Springs residents are not fully convinced that this should be the artistic representation of these deadly diseases, according to the outlet. Mock-ups of how the Downtown Park installation might look show a nine-foot-tall wheel of limestone with striations converging on a hole in the center. The donut-shaped sculpture by Phillip K....

A proposed AIDS memorial sculpture in Palm Springs is at the center of a heated debate with its design sparking concerns in the community. The controversial sculpture, meant to honor those who lost their lives to HIV and AIDS, is facing scrutiny for its abstract design and perceived inappropriate connotations. The sculpture, standing at nine feet tall, features a round limestone structure with concentric carved circles, symbolizing the diverse impact of AIDS on the community. Its design is intended to evoke feelings of connection, reflection, and hope. However, not everyone is on board with this artistic vision. "It's really strained....

More than four years ago, then-President Donald Trump declared an ambitious goal that had bipartisan support: ending the HIV epidemic in the United States. Now, that Trump program is one of several health initiatives targeted for substantial cuts by members of his own party as they eye next year’s elections. Pushing a slate of conservative political priorities that also takes aim at sex education for teens, health worker vaccine mandates, and more, Republicans in the House of Representatives have proposed a spending bill that would cut $1.6 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — one-sixth of the...

A group of protesters stormed Kevin McCarthy's office on Capitol Hill on Monday, demanding he reauthorize PEPFAR, the HIV/AIDS relief program. 'McCarthy - pass PEPFAR now,' they shouted and chanted as they seated themselves on the floor.

Other screening questions will remain the same -- for everyone. Potential donors will be asked about risk factors including sexual activity -- whether they have had sexual contact with a new partner in the past three months or had anal sex, which would require them to wait three months before donating. The Red Cross said the decision is supported by decades of data collection and assessments, including the ADVANCE study, which was funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA approved new rules for blood donation in May that eliminated waiting periods on the basis of sexual orientation...

People living with HIV are not more likely to be hospitalized with severe mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) unless they have advanced immune suppression, underscoring the importance of prompt antiretroviral treatment, according to study findings presented at the International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science (#IAS2023). To that end, experts recommend that people who present for mpox vaccination, testing or treatment should be tested for HIV if they do not already know their status and linked to care if they are not on antiretroviral therapy. “For individuals with unknown HIV status, mpox testing can be an opportunity for HIV testing,...

Rock Hudson died of AIDS on October 2, 1985, and my fate came 10 days later on October 12, 1985. My life changed forever that day—a gorgeous fall day with a brilliant blue sky. As I drove to the health department to get my results, I remember thinking, Oh, my test will come back negative, and I’ll be fine. After all, this is North Carolina and AIDS is only hitting big cities like New York and San Francisco.” As I pulled into the parking lot, I became nauseous, feeling like I couldn’t breathe. I sat in the car for what...

People with HIV who use effective modern antiretroviral therapy (ART) and maintain a high CD4 T-cell count can expect to live nearly as long as HIV-negative people in the general population, according to study results published in The Lancet HIV. But those with a low CD4 count do not fare as well, underscoring the need to start treatment before serious immune system damage occurs. “For people with HIV on ART and with high CD4 cell counts who survived to 2015 or started ART after 2015, life expectancy was only a few years lower than that in the general population, irrespective...

A Temecula mother has complained that her 15-year-old daughter was made to read a sexually explicit play in drama class and is calling for a policy to prevent such instances in the future. Tracy Nolasco said her daughter, a Temecula Valley High School sophomore, had to read “Angels in America,” a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tony Kushner. The play, set in New York City in 1985, explores the AIDS epidemic as well as religion, race, politics, and homosexuality. Nolasco on Tuesday night, May 16, told the Temecula Valley school board that the drama describes sexual activity, sexual...

Jan. 27 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Friday proposed loosening restrictions based on gender and sexual orientation for blood donors in the United States. Under the proposal, current time-based deferrals for men who have sex with men and women who have sex with them would be eliminated and replaced with a "gender-inclusive, individual risk-based" screening to cut the risk of transfusion-transmitted HIV, the FDA said. All prospective donors would answer a revised questionnaire about new or multiple sex partners in the past three months and a prospective donor who does not report new or multiple sex partners...

Gay and bisexual men will soon no longer have to abstain from sex in order to donate blood in the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday. The move comes after widespread calls from members of Congress, the American Red Cross and LGBT organizations to drop the ban put in place during the 1980s AIDS epidemic. Men who had sex with another man (MSM) in the past three months, or women who had sex with one of those men, are not allowed to donate blood under current rules. This is because those men were struck hardest by America's...

The only HIV vaccine in a late-stage trial has failed, researchers announced Wednesday, dealing a significant blow to the effort to control the global HIV epidemic and adding to a decadeslong roster of failed attempts. Known as Mosaico, the trial was the product of a public-private partnership including the U.S. government and the pharmaceutical giant Janssen. It was run out of eight nations in Europe and the Americas, including the U.S., starting in 2019. Researchers enrolled nearly 3,900 men who have sex with men and transgender people, all deemed at substantial risk of HIV. The leaders of the study decided...

Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, is the number one form of HIV prevention, but marketing efforts for the medication are historically targeted towards men who have sex with men. While this community is largely at a higher risk for HIV, this has left an open gap in messaging for the heterosexual community. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that heterosexual people made up 22 percent of the 30,635 new HIV diagnoses that year. … Perceptions that HIV is a “gay disease” play a part in the struggle to broaden the message for HIV care.

For the past 40 years, the LGBTQ+ blood ban has prevented members of the community from donating blood in what can only be deemed a simultaneously discriminatory and damaging policy, particularly in the face of a serious national blood shortage. ... And so in protest of this hateful and harmful ban, artist Zain Curtis has released a new tee shirt featuring the real blood of gay men in order to create an actual "statement piece." As Curtis explained in an announcement post on Instagram, the limited edition shirt is screen printed using a special red ink created by Mother Goods...

These results are a step forward in finding a vaccine against HIV and many other pathogens.Researchers report the positive results from a Phase 1 clinical trial focused on a vaccine against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The pathogen does not usually produce an immune response large enough to stop it, which has made it a dangerous and deadly virus. One of the goals in the creation of a vaccine is to find a formula that would indue the so-called broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAb), an immune response that can step up to the challenge. And the trial shows that this vaccine...

Gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships would be allowed to donate blood without abstaining from sex under guidelines being drafted by the Food and Drug Administration, people familiar with the plans said. The change would be a departure from U.S. policy that for many years barred men who have sex with men from donating blood at all. The FDA policy originated in the 1980s during the AIDS epidemic when tests for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, weren’t considered sensitive enough to protect the blood supply. The FDA lifted the ban in 2015 but said gay and bisexual men...

An LGBTQ advocacy group sued the Department of Defense and the Army on Thursday over a policy barring HIV-positive individuals from enlisting in the military. Lambda Legal, a civil rights organization that focuses on the LGBTQ community and those living with HIV/AIDS, filed the lawsuit on behalf of several individuals it says either were denied entry into the Army over their HIV-positive status or left the Army following their diagnosis and are seeking to return. The case follows a landmark ruling in April that ordered the Pentagon to end its practice of blocking enlisted service members from deploying outside the...

'Arafat was poisoned by a person who served him coffee or tea'Documents leaked to social media reveal some testimonies given to PA committee probing 2004 death of former chairman. Hundreds of documents have been leaked to social media in recent days including testimonies by senior Palestinian Authority (PA) officials to the commission of inquiry established in 2010 to probe the death of former PA chairman Yasser Arafat, Kan 11 News reported Friday... ... Arafat's former advisor said in his testimony that he believes that "Arafat was killed and did not die a natural death" and mentioned that he met with...

Monkeypox is causing devastating outcomes for people with severely weakened immune systems, even as new cases continue to decline in the United States, according to a federal report released Wednesday. At least 10 people hospitalized with monkeypox have died. More than 28,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported since the U.S. outbreak began in May. While the vast majority recover within weeks, some patients with untreated HIV experienced especially dire consequences, such as losing function of their brain or spinal cord, eyes and lungs despite being given antiviral medication.

Six people who tested positive for monkeypox – two in New York City, two in Chicago, one in Nevada and one in Maryland – have died, local health departments have confirmed. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said it was “deeply saddened by the two reported deaths, and our hearts go out to the individuals’ loved ones and community.” “Every effort will be made to prevent additional suffering from this virus through continued community engagement, information-sharing and vaccination,” the NYC DOH said. The two Chicagoans who died after testing positive for monkeypox had multiple other health...