Despite being homeless and having battled kidney cancer and sickle cell anemia, Kengi Carr, now 41, got the kind of reassurance one could scarcely expect when he was diagnosed with HIV in 2008.
“HIV would be a blessing,” Carr recalls being told at the clinic where he had been tested. Testing positive, they told him, meant eligibility for a whole range of social services. Finally, he was told, “My homelessness would be over. I would have access to medical care,…
An article published this month in AIDS and Behavior strongly rebuts claims that HIV does not cause AIDS, and argues that the AIDS denialist movement has been “disastrous,” costing “hundreds of thousands of lives” due to its influence on public policy.
The authors state that these deaths are a “crime against humanity,” and that there is a “need for accountability” for those responsible, possibly in the International Criminal Court.
Members of the AIDS denialist movement do not believe that HIV…
Among new laws enacted at the start of 2010, Texas now requires testing pregnant women multiple times for HIV, and New York may provide more affordable housing for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Put into effect January 1, Texas legislation mandates physicians to administer HIV tests, with informed consent, to all pregnant women during their third trimester.
Prior to this law, standard procedures involved testing soon-to-be mothers for HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B during their first prenatal visit as well as…
State lawmakers in New Jersey will likely pass a bill to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, allowing HIV-infected patients to use the drug to relieve pain.
The latest version of the bill (S119) would also allow individuals with cancer, multiple sclerosis, seizure disorder, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and “any other medical condition” approved by the state Health Department to be eligible to receive medical marijuana.
If the legislation passes, New Jersey will become the 14th state in the country to legalize…
Two articles published by American researchers in the January issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS) showed that HIV-infected adults and children are living longer than they did in the mid-1990s.
One study monitored mortality rates and causes of death in HIV-infected children from 1993 to 2006, a period of time when highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) was introduced.
The other study estimated life expectancy and average years of life lost in adults following HIV diagnosis.
Researchers…