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
 

Preventative Treatment Dramatically Reduces HIV Risk in Gay Men

LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Gay men at high risk of HIV who took a daily dose of a Gilead AIDS drug as a preventative measure cut their risk of infection by 86 percent, according to results of a British trial released on Tuesday.

Science

New Approach to Blocking H.I.V. Raises Hopes for an AIDS Vaccine

A new compound has blocked H.I.V. infection so well in monkeys that it may be able to function as a vaccine against AIDS, the scientists who designed it reported Wednesday.

Miscellaneous

African-American HIV Conspiracy Theories Derive From Mistrust

The significant minority of African Americans who believe conspiracy theories that HIV was created by the government to destroy the black population are motivated by entrenched distrust of the government, aidsmap reports. Jacob Heller, PhD, a sociologist at the State University New York at Old Westbury, published a qualitative study of various forms of media in the American Journal of Public Health, addressing HIV or AIDS conspiracy theories and rumors. He also conducted six focus groups in which the participants were either all white, all black or all Latino.

Anti-Black Racism Has Been Central to the Structuring of HIV Vulnerability in the U.S. and Globally

Most HIV prevention focuses on reducing or altering minority people's behaviors: Getting sex workers to stop working; men who have sex with men to use condoms for anal sex; people who inject drugs to not use drugs or to use clean needles. These strategies have saved lives, though they also shape how we think of populations most impacted and divert attention away from the structures that impact the ongoing crisis.

Early in the epidemic theorist Cindy Patton coined the term queer intimacies, suggesting HIV/AIDS situates those living with, at most risk, and most impacted by HIV in the realm of the queer, the different, those who must be managed. In his new book, Antiblack Racism and the AIDS Epidemic: State Intimacies, Adam M. Geary works to flip the script, arguing that within HIV movements we need to focus on the state and the role it plays in reducing life chances for those most impacted, leading with the fact the state is rooted in antiblack racism. Geary is part of a long legacy of thinkers who work to expose ways in which violent systems govern our lives. In the interview below with Ted Kerr, he discusses his influences, the book, and ways in which we can understand homophobia as fueling current HIV prevention methods.

The CDC Knows What Ails You - And Now, So Do Many Others

Perhaps it will not come as a big surprise to learn that the highly trafficked, for-profit medical information site WebMD keeps track of your search terms and then makes some of the information available to third-party vendors. It's kind of like what the term "for profit" means. But how about one of the other top hits for health-related searches, the Centers for Disease Control? That's a non-profit government agency - they don't provide information to marketing interests, right?

Wrong.

Governors: No Clear Plan if Health Care Subsidies Fall

WASHINGTON (AP) - Millions of people could lose health insurance subsidies in the coming months if the Supreme Court sides with opponents of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

How Did A Celibate 82-Year-Old Buddhist Monk Contract HIV?

An 82-year-old celibate Buddhist abbot from Cambodia has been diagnosed with HIV. His doctor was the cause: He was reusing syringes and infected a reported 272 individuals, including babies and children.

Study: More Health Exchange Plans Put HIV Meds in Priciest Tier

More health insurance exchanges place medicines-notably those for HIV, cancer and multiple sclerosis-in the highest cost-sharing tier, according to an analysis and related press release by Avalere Health. What's more, a growing number of plans put all the drugs in a particular class on the highest tier.

Study Shows LGBT Youths Engage in Survival Sex'

Federally funded study shows networks of homeless and destitute LGBT youths exchange sex for basic necessities.

This Chart Shows Why HIV Is Still Spreading in the U.S.

Each year in the U.S., about 50,000 people contract HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That rate hasn't changed much in the last decade, even though anti-retroviral therapy can effectively control the virus and dramatically lower the risk that people with HIV will transmit it.

What We Know About HIV Transmission Should Influence PrEP Messaging

What if a huge proportion of HIV infections came from people who didn't know their status or who weren't in medical care? How would that change how we view the role of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)? And what would it mean for my fellow activists working at either end of the viral divide between HIV-positive and HIV-negative people, even as we seek to bridge that divide?