A cross-section of articles we've read this week about HIV/AIDS, STIs and a wide cross-section of structural and systemic factors impacting HIV/AIDS in Black communities.

Prevention

Gasping for Change 

On Tuesday, December 3rd, a 29-year-old HIV-positive man died on a New York City bus while on his way home from a doctor's appointment. As word of Lamont Valentin's death made its way through the community and HIV activism circles, heartbreak and anger quickly set in. The death of a young person is always difficult for anyone to wrap his or her head around. But when the death is likely the result of an injustice, the demand for answers -- and, indeed, solutions -- quickly turns grief into action.

Mother-Daughter Team Preaches the Gospel of HIV Prevention 

(HealthDay)-Fortunata Kasege was just 22 years old and several months pregnant when she and her husband came to the United States from Tanzania in 1997. She was hoping to earn a college degree in journalism before returning home.

Proportion of Opioid Treatment Programs Offering On-Site Testing for HIV, STIs Declines 

Dec. 24, 2013 - A survey of opioid treatment programs finds that the proportion offering on-site testing for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) declined substantially between 2000 and 2011, despite guidelines recommending routine opt-out HIV testing in all health care settings, according to a study appearing in the December 25 issue of JAMA.

A Resisted Pill to Prevent H.I.V. 

SAN FRANCISCO - Over a cup of tea at a downtown Starbucks, Michael Rubio recalled how four friends became H.I.V. positive through unprotected sex, all within a year. The news shocked Mr. Rubio, a 28-year-old gay man, into trying a controversial new form of H.I.V. prevention: a daily pill that studies show is highly effective in protecting people from infection.

Science

Gladstone Scientists Discover How Immune Cells Die During HIV Infection; Identify Potential Drug to Block AIDS 

Research led by scientists at the Gladstone Institutes has identified the precise chain of molecular events in the human body that drives the death of most of the immune system's CD4 T cells as an HIV infection leads to AIDS. Further, they have identified an existing anti-inflammatory drug that in laboratory tests blocks the death of these cells - and now are planning a Phase 2 clinical trial to determine if this drug or a similar drug can prevent HIV-infected people from developing AIDS and related conditions.

Life Expectancy of Treated HIV-Positive Individuals Approaches That of General Population 

A 20-year-old HIV-positive adult on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in the U.S. or Canada may be expected to live into their early 70's, a life expectancy approaching that of the general population, according to results published in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Hasina Samji and colleagues from the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) and the North American AIDS Cohort Collaboration on Research and Design (NA-ACCORD).

Miscellaneous

HIV Patients Asked to Pay More Under Obamacare 

Advocates say insurers are finding new ways to squeeze patients with HIV.

ISU Researcher Quits Amid Allegations of AIDS-Research Fraud Involving Millions of Federal Dollars 

An Iowa State University professor has resigned after being accused of spiking rabbit blood to make it appear that an AIDS vaccine was working better in the research animals than it really was.

The Long Lurid Tradition of Public Health Propoganda 

How the scare tactics of the past shape the Affordable Care Act debate today.

Millions Gaining Health Coverage Under Law 

WASHINGTON - Millions of Americans will begin receiving health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday after years of contention and a rollout hobbled by delays and technical problems. The decisively new moment in the effort to overhaul the country's health care system will test the law's central premise: that extending coverage to far more Americans will improve the nation's health and help many avoid crippling medical bills.

Pennsylvania Isn't Serious About Expanding Medicaid. How Do We Know? 

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has lately been getting credit in the political press for being one of those Republican governors coming around on the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Advocates for the underprivileged can't understand why.