TresSugar

HIV Is the Top Killer of Women Worldwide

TresSugar — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0800

According to the World Health Organization, HIV is the number one killer of women age 15-49. Heart disease kills older women, especially in rich countries, but of the 30.8 million HIV-positive adults in 2007, 15.5 million were women.

A staggering 26.1 percent of the population in Swaziland are infected with HIV - and half of women age 25-29 there are HIV positive.

Women are especially vulnerable to HIV, WHO says, because of biology and gender inequality. WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan said, "It's time to pay girls and women back, to make sure that they get the care and support they need to enjoy a fundamental human right at every moment of their lives, that is their right to health."

US Lifts HIV/AIDS Travel Ban

TresSugar — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:00:00 -0700

For the last 22 years, foreign citizens living with HIV or AIDS have been forbidden to legally enter the US. As of Monday, that ban will be a thing of the past. On Friday, President Obama announced the decision to overturn the policy he called "rooted in fear rather than fact." He said:

"We talk about reducing the stigma of this disease - yet we've treated a visitor living with it as a threat. We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS pandemic - yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people from HIV from entering our own country. If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it."

Before this decision, the US joined a less-than-impressive list of countries that banned HIV-positive outsiders. The list still includes: Armenia, Colombia, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sudan, and Yemen. Considering there are already Americans living with HIV/AIDS, it served little purpose to "quarantine" the country. I'm happy to see that our HIV/AIDS prevention strategies will no longer include an ineffective and discriminatory ban.

South Africa Weighs Legalizing Prostitution For World Cup

TresSugar — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:00:00 -0700

Fans heading to South Africa for the World Cup 2010 are interested in more than soccer. Anticipating that sport tourists will frequent prostitutes while they're in town, health experts are calling on the South African government to legalize prostitution for the tournament. The hope is that testing and registering legal sex workers will reduce HIV infections among visiting fans and South Africans alike.

In South Africa, approximately 50 percent of sex workers are HIV-positive. While this figure might be enough to dissuade cautious would-be customers, experts figure that the party atmosphere, fueled by alcohol, will lead to much promiscuity. In fact, South Africa has been anticipating a surge in prostitution demand for some time now. More than a year ago, police unveiled plans to legalize sex services for the 2010 games, arguing that Germany opened safe and easy "adult entertainment centers" during the 2006 World Cup. These plans have been rejected so far, for reasons including concerns about greater transmission of HIV, but if legalization means screening sex workers for HIV, it could make things safer.

No matter what happens, let's hope South Africa can use the World Cup to raise awareness about HIV testing. If that happens, everybody will walk away from the tournament a winner.

Obama Still Bans Needle Exchange Funding

TresSugar — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:00:00 -0700

Why were 26 anti-AIDS activists arrested yesterday at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington DC? Because the protesters chained themselves together at the landmark in protest of President Obama's ban on funding needle exchange programs as a part of federal HIV/AIDS prevention.

Despite promises made on the campaign trail that AIDS prevention funds should go to needle-exchange programs that help reduce infection among drug users (and the people who have sex with them), the Obama administration kept a previous ban on such programs in this year's budget. A spokesperson explained that the White House did not want a debate about the controversial program to slow down the budget process, so they left a ban in. In the meantime, support of needle exchange programs has been removed from the White House website.

Do you find needle exchange programs controversial?

Source: Flickr User Todd Huffman

Progress Made Against South Africa's Still Dire HIV Crisis

TresSugar — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:30:00 -0700

I could hardly believe it when I read that 33 percent of women between the ages of 20 and 34 are infected with HIV in South Africa. Thankfully, in the country with a total of 5.5 million people living with HIV, some progress is being made.

According to a new report, the overall infection rate has leveled off to 10.9 percent for those aged two or older, in part thanks to increased condom use. In 2002, only 57 percent of men aged 15-24 used condoms, compared to 87 percent today.

After the country's previous president, Thabo Mbeki, long denied the link between HIV and AIDS (instead blaming deaths on malnutrition), it's reassuring to see prevention and education saving lives.

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Should Young Kids Be Taught About the Risk of HIV/AIDS?

TresSugar — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:00:00 -0700

Elton John's AIDS Foundation spreads the message of AIDS prevention with the hope of stopping the spread of the disease. In a new interview with CNN, Elton says that the US has something to learn from Africa when it comes to preventative education. If schools systematically taught American kids about the risk of HIV at a young age, a majority of citizens would know how to protect themselves by the time they became sexually active. Elton explains:

"We find that if we could get into the schools at a grass-roots levels, which we do in places like Africa where we get to kids at a young age and we tell them about preventive measures for not getting HIV, we find the success rate is tremendous."

Not everyone supports AIDS education in schools, however. Some believe it should be up to parents to teach children about sex or that the subject matter is inappropriate for innocent youth. What do you think?

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Early Testing Could Halt the Spread of HIV

TresSugar — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:00:00 -0700

It's estimated that about 250,000 Americans have HIV, but don't know it. Recently infected people could be the source of 10 to 50 percent of all new HIV transmissions.

A change in testing procedure might be needed to address the problem. According to public health officials, standard HIV tests do not identify an infection that has occurred in the last month, but a genetic test known as RNA can. Unfortunately, these early detection tests aren't widely adopted. If they were, lives could be saved.

This story is a reminder of how important it is to keep up on your sexual health. Do you make it a priority to get a routine HIV test?

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German Girl Band Star Faces Jail For Infecting a Man With HIV

CitizenSugar — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:30:22 -0700

Nadja Benaissa, pictured here on the far right, may find herself off of center stage and in jail. The German pop star has been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm by infecting a man with HIV. This does not sound like something you want to go through in the media spotlight.

Nadja is 26 and a mom. She rose to fame when she and four other women won the first series of Germany's Popstars in 2000. They went on to sell millions of records and top the charts as the band No Angels.

Now Nadja faces charges of having unprotected sex with three people between 2004 and 2006, without telling them she had HIV. She could face 10 years in prison.

Thirty-two US states criminalized passing HIV, and in some countries intentional transmission leads to life in prison.

Do you think Nadja should go to jail, or was it her partners' obligations to protect themselves?

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HIV/AIDS Crisis in US Capital - Three Percent Infected

CitizenSugar — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:00:35 -0700

Three percent of residents in Washington, DC, are infected with HIV or AIDS, a number that officially makes the illness a "severe epidemic." The rate, highest in the US, mirrors infection rates in Uganda and parts of Kenya, and it's higher than West Africa's.

The District's mayor and health officials are discussing a marketing campaign to push prevention and testing. I think we can agree that it's time to stop discussing and start acting. But, the mayor told the Washington Post that it's not that easy. He said, "You have this problem affecting us, and you tell people how serious it is and it literally goes in one ear and out the other."

The number of DC residents living with the disease has jumped 22 percent since 2006, indicating that if people don't act fast, the crisis can escalate quickly.

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What's the Deal With the HIV Prevention Pill?

DearSugar — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:00:00 -0800

I talk a lot about STIs and how important it is to take measures to prevent contracting or spreading them. Not only can they cause discomfort and infertility, but some, such as HIV, can even result in death. Good news, though - it looks like scientists are working on a pill that can prevent HIV, the STI that causes AIDS. At first, this seems like an amazing idea, but it's actually causing some controversy. The drug is being tested on three continents, and its purpose is to boost a person's immune system so if they are exposed to HIV, they won't contract the virus. So far, the drug is working, reducing the risk of HIV infection by 80 percent. But public health officials are worried that if people start using this HIV prevention pill, they'll feel invincible, which will make them less inclined to use condoms. This could be extremely detrimental since the drug doesn't provide 100 percent protection against HIV, and it definitely doesn't protect against other STIs.

Right now, statistics show that 1.1 million people have HIV in the US, and 33 million are infected worldwide. Anything that could stop those numbers from increasing would be great, but do you think this HIV prevention pill is the answer?

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