“Greater Than AIDS” Initiative Announced
New Orleans Sees Alarming Number of New HIV Infections
Obama Administration Supports HIV Testing
Center for AIDS Prevention Investigated
Alcohol Consumption May Interfere with HAART
“Greater Than AIDS” Initiative Announced
On June 25, the Kaiser Family Foundation, in conjunction with the Black AIDS Media Partnership (BAMP), announced the creation of "Greater Than AIDS," a nationwide campaign that seeks to address HIV/AIDS in the black community. The new campaign is being produced in collaboration with the CDC’s “Act Against AIDS” initiative. BAMP, a coalition of leading black media companies, is developing and distributing the various messages that will reach the black community through public service announcements, integrated media content and community outreach.
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New Orleans Sees Alarming Number of New HIV Infections
In the June 29 Kaiser Family Foundation HIV/AIDS Report, new statistics reported by the New Orleans Times Picayune revealed that from 2007 to 2008 among black men in New Orleans, new HIV infections have increased 23% for men age 20 – 24 and 30% for those age 45 – 54. Risky sexual behavior, a "declining sense of concern among young people about AIDS and the stubborn cultural stigma of homosexuality in the black community are all believed to be factors," the Times Picayune reports.
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Obama Administration Supports HIV Testing
In a June 25 press release, The AIDS Institute applauded the Obama Administration for encouraging states to cover voluntary HIV testing under their Medicaid programs. Carl Schmid, Director of Federal Affairs for the AIDS Institute, said that the move could dramatically increase HIV testing in the U.S. “The benefits of HIV testing are well known in terms of both prevention and healthcare outcomes. People who know they are HIV-positive are less apt to infect others, and early diagnosis significantly improves an individual’s health outcome,” said Schmid.
According to the release, in 2006 the CDC issued recommendations stating that voluntary, routine, opt-out HIV testing should be offered in health care settings for all people ages 13 to 64. State Medicaid programs, for the most part, have only covered HIV testing when there are clinical indications of infection or when there are known risk factors present. The official letter released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) encourages states to cover voluntary, routine testing, as recommended by the CDC.
Sending the letter to all state Medicaid directors was one of the top recommendations of the HIV/AIDS community in proposals by the AIDS in America group to the Obama transition team. The announcement was made in conjunction with National HIV Testing Day, which was June 27th.
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Center for AIDS Prevention Investigated
In a June 24 post for ProPublica.org, Chris Weaver follows up on his report of March 2009 about the investigation of a Beverly Hills-based charity, the Center for AIDS Prevention. The organization engages in aggressive fundraising, including Internet-run ads that have appeared on the web pages of such major newspapers as the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today.
According to Weaver, despite heavy solicitation efforts, the charity’s financial records show neither revenue from donations nor expenses for the questionable services it offers, which seem to consist of a website that formerly featured inaccurate information (the suggestion that birth control pills prevent the spread of HIV) and the promotion of an “herbal cure for AIDS,” marketed by a company with ties to the Center’s director, Steve Neely.
During the course of his investigation, Weaver spoke to officials in the Charitable Trust Bureaus of both California’s and Illinois’ Attorney Generals’ offices, as well as the Internal Revenue Service. The California Attorney General’s office has said that its policy is “not to comment on whether or not an investigation has been initiated.”
Weaver goes on to report that Natalie Bauer, a spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said, “The ad raises particular concerns regarding this organization's fundraising efforts.” The Illinois Secretary of State has stripped the center of its good-standing status since ProPublica's initial report in March and the Attorney General’s office has begun an investigation into the center in “the last couple of months.”
To read the whole story, go to www.propublica.org/article/authorities-pose-no-obstacle-to-aids-charitys-aggressive-fundraising-624/.
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Alcohol Consumption May Interfere with HAART
In her June 23 coverage of the Digestive Disease Week annual meeting, Liz Highleyman of HIVandHepatitis.com reports on a study of differences in HAART effectiveness according to amount and type of alcohol consumed.
Maria José Míguez-Burbano and colleagues from the Department of Public Health, Florida International University, and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine conducted a study of 110 HIV-positive participants who drank only beer and wine and 55 who drank only hard liquor. The researchers tracked changes in HIV viral load, CD4 T-cell count, naïve lymphocyte count, and size of the thymus, a gland where T-cells mature.
24 weeks into HAART, both CD4 count and thymus size increased in the beer/wine group while both decreased in the liquor group. Women in the liquor group had significantly lower CD4 and lymphocyte counts than did the men in the group.
The study authors concluded, “Liquor was associated with thymus deterioration and, thus, with poorer viro-immune outcomes after HAART. Subtyping participants by alcohol consumption patterns seems to be clinically relevant and needs to be accounted for in future studies.”
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