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.
MSM
Bisexual Men Face Unique Challenges to Their Sexual Health
Bisexual men have many unmet public health needs, which leave them vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and other health problems. This new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) illuminates the behavioral, interpersonal, and social realities of men who have sex with men and women (MSMW), and it explores possible interventions to better serve their needs. The findings are published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Pressure to Be Macho Puts Black Gay Men at Risk for HIV Transmission
Social and cultural pressures to adopt masculine norms -- to act, to walk, to talk and to be as masculine as possible -- cause young, black gay men extreme psychological distress and isolation, which can cause them to engage in "high-risk" behavior that can result in HIV transmission, according to research led by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and newly published in the American Journal of Public Health. Often, these behaviors occur because young, black gay men are seeking approval and acceptance. However, these high-risk behaviors have resulted in young, black gay and bisexual men accounting for 4,800 new HIV infections in 2010 -- about 10% of all the infections in the U.S., and more than twice that of either young white or young Hispanic/Latino gay and bisexual men, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Substance Abuse & Mental Health Problems in MSM Interfere with HIV Medication Adherence
Men who have sex with men (MSM) account for more than 60% of HIV infections in the U.S. and 78% of new infections in men. Antiretroviral therapy can control HIV infection and suppress viral load, but mental health and substance abuse problems common among MSM can interfere with medication adherence. How conditions such as depression and alcohol and drug abuse can affect anti-HIV therapy and the success of various interventions are explored in an article published in LGBT Health, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the LGBT Health website.
Prevention
Medicare & Medicaid Will Pay to Screen At-Risk Groups for Hep C
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the two government insurance programs will pay for hepatitis C virus (HCV) tests for those at high risk for infection, including baby boomers. This move puts CMS in line with the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's recommendations for hep C screening.
Science
New Monkey Model for AIDS Offers Promise for Medical Research
HIV-1, the virus responsible for most cases of AIDS, is a very selective virus and does not readily infect species other than its usual hosts -- humans and chimpanzees -- making the search for effective treatments and vaccines for AIDS that much more difficult. In new scientific work, researchers have coaxed a slightly modified form of the HIV-1 virus to not only infect pigtailed macaques, a species of monkey, but to cause full blown AIDS in the primates, a first.
Miscellaneous
Aging with HIV and AIDS: A Growing Social Issue
As the first people with HIV grow old, a new study from St. Michael's Hospital questions whether the health care system and other government policies are prepared to meet their complex medical and social needs.
'Gay Pride Is For White People'
"Pride" season is upon us, and it's no secret, except perhaps to white people, that gay pride parades are very white, hollow things. They usually take place in "gayborhoods," which are usually affluent communities predominated by white gay men. Communities that usually contain bars that mostly white gay men frequent, and if you choose to be black and attend these establishments, it is not long before you feel sexualized, objectified, or ignored altogether if not outright discriminated against. And if these neighborhoods are anything like Boystown in Chicago, you might find yourself policed. Therefore, these neighborhoods are usually clear about their message: be gay but don't be black, or trans*, or disabled, or Other. The living proof of this phenomenon is that mainstream pride parades are often accompanied by smaller prides that create space for other salient marginalized identities. Other prides like "Black pride," or "trans* pride," for instance.
Here's How Much People Are Actually Paying For Obamacare
In his days as a salesman pitching his healthcare law to the American public, President Barack Obama often said it would not cost much more than a monthly cell-phone bill.
For many people, that has turned out to be true, according to new data released by the Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday. The report found people receiving subsidized health insurance plans are paying $82 a month, on average, for their premiums.
HIV on Trial: An Attempt to Cure the World's Smallest Patients
New global clinical trial aims to replicate the mysterious "Mississippi baby" success
Many ER Patients Test Positive for HIV While in Most Infectious Stage
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) screening for emergency patients at an institution with a large number of ethnic minority, underinsured and uninsured people reveals few are HIV positive, but of those who are, nearly one-quarter are in the acute phase and more than one-quarter have infections that have already advanced to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The results of the study were reported online yesterday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Identification of Acute HIV Infection Using Fourth Generation Testing in an Opt-Out Emergency Department Screening Program").
Conservatives spent years predicting Obamacare would collapse in all manner of gloomy scenarios. But those predictions all occurred in the run-up to the law coming on-line, on the basis of sketchy, preliminary data or pure conjecture. But in the months since the law has come into effect, a steady stream of far more solid data has come in, and the doomsaying predictions are being hunted to extinction. The right's ideological objections to Obamacare remain, but I can't think of a single practical analytic claim they made that still looks correct.
Transgender Priest Preaches at Washington's National Cathedral
The Reverend Dr. Cameron Partridge, one of seven openly transgender clergy in the Episcopal Church, spoke from the Canterbury Pulpit in honor of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community's Pride Month, the Cathedral said.
When F*g Hags Become the Norm, We All Lose
The ladies of reality TV are a special brand of marketing magic that isn't going anywhere soon. The main component of that formula is turning run-of-the-mill women into amped up fag hags that fight each other on camera in pumps like drag queens scrapping over stolen prize money.
Why D.C.'s AIDS Walk Is Becoming the Walk to End HIV
When D.C. native Waldon Adams was diagnosed with HIV in 2004, he kept using drugs, and he skipped his medication, assuming he would just die like the other people he knew and had heard about with the disease. In 2008, he was on that very path; his illness progressed to full-blown AIDS, or what's commonly known as the final stage of HIV, when the patient's number of cells that fight infections dips to fatal levels.
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