Archives For hiv

respect and protect

December 1, 2008 — 1 Comment

2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Since 1988, the face and response to AIDS has greatly changed. While many of these changes are positive, this anniversary offers us an opportunity to highlight how much more still needs to be done.
For example:
Leaders in most countries from around the world now acknowledge the threat of AIDS, and many have committed to do something about it. As of 2007, nearly all countries have national policies on HIV. However, despite these policies, most have not been fully implemented and many lack funding allocations.
While treatment for HIV and AIDS has improved and become more widespread since 1988, many still do not have access to it – in 2007 only 31% of those in low- to middle-income countries who need treatment received it.
Despite HIV awareness now reaching nearly all areas of the globe, infection rates are still happening 2.7 times faster than the increase in number of people receiving treatment.
While the number of countries protecting people living with HIV continue to increase, one third of countries still lack legal protections and stigma and discrimination continues to be a major threat to universal access.
More broadly, real action on HIV and AIDS and human rights remains lacking. Legal barriers to HIV services still exist for groups such as women, adolescents, sex workers, people who use drugs, and men having sex with men, and programmatic responses promoting HIV-related human rights have yet to be prioritised.

for more information visit World Aids Campaign

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wake up and smell the epidemic

October 5, 2004 — Leave a comment

HIV/AIDS and sexual education are huge issues for me. i`m not HIV positive, but i could have been. my sexual practices as a young man can be summed up in a word; careless. but i was lucky, so now i get tested twice a year for the gamut, it`s pricey but it`s worth my piece of mind. up until the early 90s i was blissfully unaware, then i read that Color`s magazine AIDS issue and got a sobering wake up call. i think people need to get out of the “it can`t happen to me mindset”

the figures are staggering.



Caribbean

“Three Caribbean countries have national HIV prevalence rates of at least 3%: the Bahamas, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago. Around 430 000 people in the region are living with HIV.The Caribbean epidemic is mainly heterosexual, and in many places it is concentrated among sex workers. But it is also spreading in the general population. The worst-affected country is Haiti where national prevalence is around 5.6%, the highest outside Africa.”

High-income countries

An estimated 1.6 million people are living with HIV in these countries. Unlike the situation in other regions, the great majority of people living with HIV in high-income countries who need antiretroviral therapy have access to it, so they are staying healthy and surviving longer than infected people elsewhere. The report finds that infections are on the rise in the United States and Western Europe. In the US, an estimated 950 000 people are living with HIV – up from 900 000 in 2001. Half of all new infections in recent years have been among African Americans. In Western Europe, 580 000 people are living with HIV compared to 540 000 in 2001.

2004 Report on the global AIDS epidemic: Executive Summary

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there’s nothing funny down that road

April 16, 2004 — Leave a comment

this week news broke that two male porn stars and at least one female had tested positive for HIV and i`m sure there are people who would say they deserved it, for their wicked lives. they are idiots, who deserve nothing but contempt and something equally communicable. but this is not about them, this about the reaction of the industry. they shut down. voluntarily. everyone is getting tested, people are being quarantined and for the next two months productions will cease. this is amazing. there are countries; hell even the US; that have not approached an HIV outbreak in a clear and effective manner.

yes, i understand it`s in the best interest of their business. but they didn`t hide and say, well it`s not happening. they approached it head on and are dealing with it. which is more than can be said for most corporations these days.

i`m sure the porno industry has its share of problems, but in terms of current business models, especially in light of volumes of corporate malfeasance and irresponsibility, maybe mainstream business can learn something from them.

hopefully the industry can withstand this debacle and the upcoming rounds of the obscenity witch hunt.

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