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Counting the lies, the reasons NOT to celebrate. Please feel free to contribute. 1. Anyone can contract HIV/AIDS. Anyone can die from ingesting a deadly poison, but the vast majority of people will never choose to ingest deadly poison. Everyone knows who the people who are getting infected are. 2. The only way to know for sure if you are "HIV negative" is to get tested. It's actually possible to know your HIV status without an HIV test. Hundreds of millions of people know this with absolute certaintly. Again, we ALL know who the people getting infected are. 3. Everyone...

Lab was reportedly on congressman's radar months before it was 'discovered' by a local code enforcement officerO’Keefe Media Group founder James O’Keefe recently confronted a congressional staffer for a California Democrat congressman and revealed he’d been caught on hidden camera making shocking remarks about a controversial Chinese biolab in The Golden State.O’Keefe Media Group founder James O’Keefe recently confronted a congressional staffer for a California Democrat congressman and revealed he’d been caught on hidden camera making shocking remarks about a controversial Chinese biolab in The Golden State.The lab, owned by a shady Chinese company, housed 900 genetically engineered mice designed...

Thousands of vials of biological substances — including some labeled “HIV” — and a freezer marked “Ebola” were found inside a secret Chinese-owned biolab in California which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FBI initially refused to investigate, according to a House committee report released Wednesday. The illegal lab was operated in the city of Reedley, Calif., and the potential public safety risk it posed only came to light in December 2022 when Jesalyn Harper, an observant code enforcement officer, noticed a green garden hose sticking out of a hole in the side of a warehouse that was...

Salem Hospital in Massachusetts says hundreds of patients were potentially exposed to infection of HIV and hepatitis due to the administration of intravenous medication in a manner that was not consistent with its best practice. A spokesperson for Mass General Brigham, which owns Salem Hospital, said nearly 450 patients were impacted over a period of roughly two years. In a statement released Wednesday, the hospital said it was made aware of the isolated practice involving endoscopy patients earlier this year. Examples of endoscopic procedures include colonoscopies and gastrointestinal ultrasounds. The hospital said the practice was immediately corrected once it was...

HIV came from a type of virus in chimpanzees called the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). It likely spread to humans after they came into contact with the blood carrying the infection after hunting chimpanzees for food.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Transgender Law Center (TLC) filed a federal lawsuit last week to challenge Tennessee’s harsh laws against sex workers, according to The Associated Press (AP).Advocates argue such laws stem from historical discrimination against people living with HIV and constitute HIV criminalizaton. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Memphis on behalf of four plaintiffs, all referred to as Jane Doe, and OUTMemphis, a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ people. The complaint states that Tennessee is the only state that registers individuals as lifelong violent sex offenders if they are convicted of...

10 December 1981: Cases of a virus that weakens the body’s disease-fighting system have been reported across the US

Monday, October 23, to Sunday, October 29, marks PrEP Aware Week 2023, a public health campaign to boost awareness of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV. “The theme for PrEP Aware Week 2023 is ‘PrEP is for Every Body,’ which references two social movements: sex positivity acknowledging that all consensual sexual activities are fundamentally healthy; and body positivity, celebrating all bodies, regardless of size, shape, skin tone, gender, and physical abilities,” explain the campaign’s organizers on PrEP Aware’s website PrEPforSex.org.

The discovery of a black market Chinese biolab operating in California, and the subsequent investigation into it, has exposed a tangled web of shell companies obscuring ownership and loopholes that caused delays in cleanup and informing the public. The public found out in March about a secret biolab operating in a warehouse in Reedley, California, about 25 miles southeast of Fresno. But the warehouse and its biological hazards were discovered months earlier, on Dec. 19, 2022, by Jesalyn Harper, a code enforcement officer with the City of Reedley Fire Department. Responding to an anonymous tip about the supposedly vacant warehouse,...

In recent weeks, we have seen a troubling trend develop. Five million Americans have been removed from Medicaid rolls, and many millions more are on the verge of losing coverage as a result of the Medicaid enrollment cuts. This represents the single greatest threat to our progress toward ending the HIV epidemic in years. During the pandemic, Medicaid enrollment grew by an estimated 20 million people, contributing to the uninsured rate dropping to the lowest level on record in early 2022. But, after a three-year period during which states provided continuous enrollment in exchange for enhanced federal funding, some states...

For two decades, the dominant idea in HIV research has been that antiretroviral therapy effectively wipes out active viruses that cause devastating infections but leaves behind a reservoir of infected cells seemingly invisible to the immune system — until treatment is stopped. Then the virus comes roaring back. Now two new studies reveal that the virus continues to put the immune system through a workout. Some infected cells churn out bits of viral RNA and protein that elicit an immune response, researchers report in the Sept. 13 Cell Host & Microbe. While not infectious, those damaged viral particles appear to...

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....

In a win for HIV prevention and an Air Force LGBTQ group, the Department of the Air Force recently announced that it will ease flight restrictions for pilots and air crew taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention, according to an Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) news release. Under previous guidelines, pilots and air crew starting PrEP were grounded for 30 days in case they experienced side effects acclimating to the medications, reports Air Force Times. That wait period has now been shaved down to 14 days.

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.

As rates of sexually transmitted infections continue to skyrocket across the United States, a growing number of physicians are prescribing a commonly used antibiotic as a way to prevent chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis infections in gay and bisexual men and transgender women. Doxycycline is a class of medications traditionally used to treat bacterial STIs after someone has been infected. Yet recent research suggests that one 200mg dose of the drug can be effective in preventing such infections among men who have sex with men if taken within 72 hours after unprotected sex.

Although Georgia sees some of the worst HIV rates in the nation, many Georgians living with HIV are unable to access health care through Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income and disabled people. That’s because, unlike in other states, Georgia’s Medicaid doesn’t cover people with HIV. Not only does this lack of coverage translate to worse health outcomes for people with HIV in Georgia, but it is also fueling HIV rates, reports Vice News.

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,...