Iranian drug addicts are provided with clean needles as they are weaned off heroine. (courtesy of tpchd.org)

Iran may become a model society in the ongoing fight against AIDS.

While Iran is quite near to Afghanistan’s opium fields, drug addiction is an issue. AIDS affected heroine uses first when the virus reached Iran. Now, leaders are taking strides to prevent this virus from spilling over to the general population.

“They began to understand it was better to have a (drug) addiction problem than an addiction problem with HIV,” said Dr. Seyed Ramin Radfar to On Top Magazine., an executive manager at an Iranian non-governmental organization that runs methadone clinics and needle exchange projects throughout the country.

Drug addicts, while being weaned off heroine with methadone, are provided with clean needles. America had refused to partake in such behavior until recently.

“Iran is absolutely a model for the world in certain respects,” said Susie McLean to On Top Magazine, a senior adviser in HIV and drug abuse at the International AIDS Alliance. “No one ever would have thought they would make delivering services to junkies a priority.”

To read more on this story, visit On Top Magazine.

(courtesy of Getty images)

Fourteen percent of the gay male population in the nation’s capital are HIV positive, according to a study released from the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration. This is five times higher than Washington D.C.’s overall population, according to the group.

The D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration surveyed 500 gay men throughout the district and found that 40 percent of the men questioned were not aware of their HIV infection.

“This is a wake-up call,” openly gay D.C. Council member David A. Catania (D-At Large) told The Washington Post. “It’s time for my generation to assume greater responsibility for themselves and their partners. Just because we escaped the epidemic of the 1980s doesn’t mean we are immune.”

To learn more about this story, visit The Washington Post.

Janice Clements, Ph.D., one of the researchers in a new study suggesting acne medication blocks the spread of HIV. (Courtesy of Physorg.com)

A new study released Friday suggests acne medication could slow the spread of HIV in infected persons’ bodies, according to Physorg.com.

Minocycline, an antibiotic used to treat pimples, was shown to block T cells in the body, dampening the ability of HIV to spread and contract into AIDS, the report states.

John Hopkins scientists said the treatment doesn’t hinder the body’s ability to fight off other infections.

For the original article, including its implications, click here.

HIV/AIDS solidarity ribbons. Circumcision is said to play less of a role in HIV prevention than originally thought. (Courtesy of Reuters)

New research suggests circumcision does little in preventing the spread of HIV, an article on the Advocate.com Web site states.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers found cut and uncut men in the Western world have equal opportunities to contract the virus, the article reports.

Former studies in Africa suggested circumcised men are at a lower risk do to foreskin tissue being a susceptible breeding ground for the virus.

Researchers suggest this is due more to the strong HIV medication potential distributors of the virus are on as opposed to any lack of foreskin.

For the original Advocate.com article, click here.

The click of a mouse could help save people from AIDS and other diseases. (courtesy of venturebeat.com)

Certain travel agencies will offer travelers the option to donate $2 or more to fight AIDS in developing countries.

This effort, headed by Bill Clinton and the United Nations, will help supply low-cost medication for countries to fight HIV, AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, as well as improve general health, according to an Associated Press report.

“I think this will catch on all over the world. And this is basically an institutionalized version of what we saw happen after the Haiti earthquake, where people were texting in $10, or $5 in Canada, in the automatic systems,” Clinton told the Associated Press. “These systems, I predict, will empower ordinary people to change the future of the world in ways that we can only begin to imagine.”

The option to donate money will appear much like other options to buy a hotel room or rental car along with a flight.

To read more on this story, visit 365gay.com.

Openly gay Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin says the proposal is a step in the right direction. (Photo by Keen News Service)

President Obama’s new health care proposal released today eliminates the LGBTQ and HIV treatment provisions of the original House bill, according to the Keen News Service.

The original proposal included an elimination of a same-sex couple tax on health insurance plans covering a spouse and the expedited Medicare issuance during the early stages of illness for HIV and low income people, Keen News Service reported. Currently, same-sex couples whose plans cover a spouse must count the coverage as additional income to the IRS, something straight couples aren’t required to do.

LGBTQ and HIV advocacy groups, according to the report, are still optimistic and consider the President’s proposal as “an important step forward,” Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), openly gay Congresswoman, said.

First found on Towleroad, the original Keen News Service report can be found here.

Photo credit gaurdian.co.uk

New antiretroviral drugs are promising an end to HIV transmission after five years of their use, according to professor of epidemiology at the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis in Stellenbosch, Brian Williams.

Scientists throughout the world are reconsidering the approach to fighting the global AIDS epidemic, saying that everyone with HIV and AIDS would be put on a lifetime plan of drugs if they test positive. This course of action is predicted to completely stop the transmission of the virus that causes AIDS within the next 40 years.

“Over the past 25 years we have saved the lives of probably two to three million people using antiretroviral drugs, but almost nothing we have done has had any impact on transmission of the disease,” Professor Williams said. “We have stopped people dying but we haven’t stopped the epidemic.”

But how much it would cost to provide a lifetime supply of drugs to 30 million people affected with HIV worldwide? Although scientists estimate 3 billion will be spent in South Africa alone, they feel this number and the consideration of the impact on society with two million people dying annually, outweighs the near 30 billion spent on AIDS research each year.

“If you factor in all of the costs, in my opinion, doing this would be cost saving from day one, because the cost of the drugs would be more than balanced by the cost of treating people for all of these other diseases and then letting them die,” Williams said.

For more on this story visit www.gaurdian.co.uk.

Olivia Stephens

Photo Credit http://www.scientistlive.com

A team of scientists at San Diego’s Center for AID Research has studies, focused around the discovery of the origin of HIV being among men who have sex with men, that may be key in developing new prevention methods for the deadly virus.

“If we want to stop the HIV epidemic, then we must know the mechanisms by which HIV uses human sex to spread,” said principal investigator Davey Smith, MD, MAS, associate professor of medicine in UCSD’s Division of Infectious Diseases and in the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, and director of the CFAR Viral Pathogenesis Core.

Scientists studied a group of men who had sexually transmitted the virus to other men and then compared their genetic characteristics to determine when the various groups of viruses were created, as to find out the source of the HIV viruses.

“The findings from this study will help direct prevention strategies to address the virus in the seminal plasma,” Smith said. “By knowing the origin of the transmitted virus, scientists may be able to develop new vaccines, vaginal microbicides and drugs to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted HIV.”

Because the research only focused on gay men, the findings do not apply to the study of how HIV may be sexually transmitted in women. HIV RNA in the seminal plasma of semen may be the cause of its transmission, but more research needs to be conducted.

Olivia Stephens

During the spring of 2009, Lambda Legal circulated a survey across the country to many LGBT people and also people living with HIV, with the help of over a hundred partner organizations. The survey included some of the following: patients being refused care, medical professionals refusing to touch patients or using extra precautions, medical professionals using harsh or abusive language and professionals being rough or psychically abusive.

Based on the responses of over 5,000 participants, 56 percent of LGB participants in the survey claimed they have had one of these experiences, as well as 70 percent of transgender and gender nonconforming participants. Almost 63 percent of participants living with HIV also experienced one or more of these forms of discrimination.
From looking at the results, it was found that transgender or gender nonconforming participants dealt with two- to three-times more discrimination than LGB participants.

Beverly Tillery, Director of Community Education and Advocacy, finds the results unacceptable.

“The results of this survey should shock the conscience of this nation,” Tillery said, ”and make it clear that the system is broke when it comes many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, and people living with HIV. No one should be turned away or face discrimination when they are sick or seeking medical care.”

To read the full article click here.

The United Nations' Join Program on HIV/AIDS called for nations to stop criminalizing LGBT people. Photo courtesy of Advocate.com

UNAIDS announced in a statement nations need to focus their efforts on the rights of their people and also criticized countries like Uganda with their proposal of an “Anti-Homosexuality” bill.

“The human rights of people living with HIV, men who have sex with men, lesbians and transgender people must be fully respected,” UNAIDS said in a press release statement on its Web site. “Where they have been able to access HIV information, prevention and treatment and avoid discrimination, these populations have become a force for health and community empowerment.”

The organization did praise efforts like Delhi’s high court striking down India’s antisodomy laws. UNAIDS reports 33 million people are living with HIV with 2.7 new infections in 2008 and 2 million deaths.

Read the full article here.

-Kim Brown