December 1, 2002

Is Male Circumcision A Solution to the African AIDS Crisis?

Is Male Circumcision A Solution to the African AIDS Crisis? The United States Agency for International Development has sponsored some hopeful research suggesting that wider availability of male circumcision could substantially reduce AIDS tranmission in Africa. Contrary to worries that male circumcision would be viewed as a culturally imperialist intrusion into African traditions, public health surveys have found surprising unfulfilled demand for circumcision among African men.
posted by jonp72 at 8:48 PM PST - 7 comments

Missing an Opportunity

Missing an Opportunity: One thing not discussed at the world AIDS conference was the impact Christians, acting in accordance with a biblical worldview, can have on this crisis.
posted by jasontromm at 6:18 PM PST - 13 comments

Some other numbers

Some other numbers "During the period known as the Aids epidemic, 14 million people died of heart disease while 9 million succumbed to cancer, which is 8.5 million more than those counted for AIDS." And Aids is 100% preventable too. So why all the focus on it, to the exclusion of other diseases that pose much more horrible threats to us?
posted by bonaldi at 5:41 PM PST - 11 comments

AIDS deaths in 2002

Some numbers. 3.1 million in 2002 comes out to some 8,500 a day, 354 an hour, and almost 6 a minute. Each minute. Each hour. Each day. Deaths. Of AIDS.
posted by mattpfeff at 5:12 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Feline Immunodeficiency Virus & Animal Lentiviruses

But what about the kitties? Feline Immunodeficiency Virus. FIV has been recognized as a syndrome since 1986, and as with AIDS, has been found in stored blood samples dating back to the 60s. Unlike HIV, however, for FIV there's a vaccine. Not that everyone is excited about it.

Originally, this was to be a post intended to provide something lighter until this appeared:

In addition, over 25 large cat species including, cheetahs, lions, and panthers have their own strain of the virus. Despite similarity among these viruses, transmission among species has never been documented. Scientists think that FIV is an old virus and may be the grandfather of all immunodeficiency viruses. Comparison of its' genetic code point to a virus that is millions of years old.

Googling led to several topics.
posted by y2karl at 3:51 PM PST - 3 comments

AIDS Dissidents

AIDS Dissidents argue AIDS is not really caused by HIV but is a production of medical and pharmaceutical conglomerates. They are willing to argue the point even though some are HIV positive. They use "Seven Deadly Deceptions" such as "The HIV test is unreliable--so don't get tested." to further their cause; and their cause is growing.
posted by Neale at 3:13 PM PST - 3 comments

First mention of AIDS on Usenet

The first mention of AIDS on Usenet was in the net.singles group back on December 20, 1982. In it, seven people grasp for information about the disease -- how it's transmitted, how long it takes to start to show symptoms, and what those symptoms could be. It's a window both into the early days of AIDS knowledge and the early days of the Internet, and a fine example of people using 'net-based community groups to acquire information and ask questions.
posted by delfuego at 12:56 PM PST - 6 comments

Personal stories about HIV/AIDS

Among the plethora of online resources, there exist many personal stories of how the disease has touched the lives of online authors. I'm listing the ones I've found today (by all means post others you find as a comment here).
- Ultrasparky thinks about it twice a day
- Mermaniac remembers Ronnie
- PozBoy's story of getting tested
- Q's story from the hospital
- Piggyhawk's scare
- Thinkdkink's jr high assembly
- The Fray remembers Robert
posted by mathowie at 12:37 PM PST - 9 comments

I Wear A Red Ribbon

I Wear A Red Ribbon "Why do I wear the Red Ribbon? I wear it because I CAN. I am still alive, still able to carry the message about the reality and urgency of AIDS and how HIV can be prevented. I carry this message for those whose voices can no longer be heard but whose presence can still be felt. What message is that? I carry the message-- to all who will hear AND listen-- that HIV/AIDS is, at this point, 100% FATAL... but it is also 100% PREVENTABLE." She died in 1995 in a car accident.
posted by ashbury at 11:21 AM PST - 6 comments

Britain's rising HIV

"Immigration has overtaken gay sex as the main form of HIV into Britain" - that I never knew.
posted by robself at 10:36 AM PST - 8 comments

AIDS Timeline

An AIDS timeline from 1981-2001. As part of an exhibition by the Museum of the City of New York on Gay Men's Health Crisis, one of the first service organizations created to help fight the disease, a very simple interactive timeline was created--just pick a year or browse through them all...from a "Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals." (NYT-1981) to "15,000 new HIV infections a day in 1999".
posted by amberglow at 10:22 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Anatomy of sexual risk

In the Trenches with Love and AIDS. An HIV-negative gay man shares why he sleeps with seropositive men and how he deals with the danger :
"When his health finally collapses, you clean his diarrhea off the sheets and floor and swaddle him in diapers against his will. When he falls into a coma, you lie next to him every night and jerk off amid the scent of looming death. Your orgasms are great. You hold his hand as his last breath slips away and then his mouth drops open and foam bubbles out. They take him away but you can't let him go yet, so you don't change the sheets for two days, and you masturbate some more."
posted by The Jesse Helms at 10:02 AM PST - 31 comments

The story of River Huston

Do you know River Huston? She's the poet laureate of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She is a sometimes controversial HIV/AIDS educator, columnist for POZ, a magazine "founded primarily to get information to HIV positive persons", she authored A Positive Life; a photo documentary book about women living with HIV. Yes, she is HIV positive, but it changed her life in ways she didn't expect: "It took getting an HIV-positive diagnosis for me to realize I was a sex goddess. If there is one thing that will improve a girl's sex life it is finding out she has AIDS."
posted by ?! at 9:58 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Can Poetry Matter ? - Part 3

Can Poetry Matter ? - Part 3 "...As long as I can see, hear, feel and think, I own the tools to survive..." The Last Word, I Own All of Me by David Kearney - Body Positive, Dec 2001, Volume XIV, Number 12.
posted by Voyageman at 9:56 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Stopping this scourge

Dr. Donald Francis He was portrayed by Mathew Modine in the classic HBO film And the Band Played On, which told the story of how he discovered the AIDS virus 20 years ago. Earlier in his career he was a key member of the team that wiped out Smallpox (although he couldn't argue a few governments from keeping samples on ice just in case) and the team that figured out how to contain outbreaks of the flesh eating Ebola virus--that was essentially him, though not his personality, that Dustin Hoffman played in Outbreak. Now he's the president and chief scientist of Vaxgen, a company that expects to receive positive result from its Phase III human clinical trials of AIDSVAX shortly after New Year's. If the results are as expected, AIDSVAX will be the first AIDS vaccine to go into production.

Like any other major issue in our age of delusions and self-deceptions, there are doubters and paranoids and conspiracy theorists too. Here is a neat little example of all three bundled up in one, from a publication titled The Aids Mirage: Donald Francis invents a viral epidemic. All the stop energy embodied by such efforts are really sad.
posted by billsaysthis at 9:45 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Cure for AIDS

Cure for AIDS is a song by Dan Bern, whose voice and songwriting have labelled him The New Bob Dylan. Read the lyrics, listen to the clip...it may be a bit optimistic and utopian, but it's heartwarming nonetheless.
posted by Robot Johnny at 9:41 AM PST - 1 comments

Albert Schweitzer and SIV

The Hunt for the Origin of AIDS "The notion that AIDS arose from a polio vaccine made with contaminated chimpanzee cells is far from the only theory about how the epidemic started, and it is hotly disputed. The quest for the source of the epidemic is intensifying, as researchers scour the jungle for clues and try to "walk back" the disease genetically with the help of the world's most powerful computers."
posted by the fire you left me at 9:12 AM PST - 2 comments

HIV/AIDS information portal in OK

CHAIN: Oklahoma's Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Information Network. A prototype web portal, designed to provide one-stop access to AIDS information for a state with a lower HIV infection rate. Funded by the National Library of Medicine. The concept is that people in small towns or rural areas can access information and contacts without leaving home. Web designers and MetaFiltrans - does the concept work? Seen anything similar in your community?
posted by sheauga at 9:04 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Living With Aids

Steve Schalchlin, a singer-songwriter, writes about living with AIDS in his online journal. Students at Marshall High School put themselves in the shoes of an HIV-positive girl, in the project My name is Kerry and I have AIDS (Now I'm dead!). Journalist Eric Foss keeps a diary about his visits to AIDS victims in Zambia, with pictures, video and interview transcripts. Adam Solomon writes at length about training for and participating in several AIDS rides for vaccine and cure charities. Five years old, but still affecting, there's AIDS worker Paul Gallotta's AIDS diary. Supporting group efforts of AIDS victims and other interested parties is the journal Being Alive. There's a vast catalog of compelling first-person perspective at HIV/AIDS Positive Stories, at Avert.org, and at Breaking the Silence... Rompiendo El Silencio from the AIDS Project Los Angeles.
posted by Mo Nickels at 8:50 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Pandemic: Facing Aids

Coming Soon on film and in print. Pandemic: Facing Aids - an ambitious project from filmmaker/activist Rory Kennedy and the AOL Time Warner Foundation.
posted by subpixel at 8:28 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Educate. Prevent. Practice Safer Sex. Demand Needle Exchange Programs. End HIV/AIDS Discrimination.

Educate. Prevent. Practice Safer Sex. Insist On Needle Exchange Programs. End HIV/AIDS Discrimination. Demand Adequate Treatment for Low Income HIV+ Persons. (And fight like hell against those who drag their feet on public health issues for the sake of ideology.)
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 8:25 AM PST - 2 comments

Know the enemy

Know your enemy. AIDS Pathology. The HIV Life Cycle. Images of HIV.
posted by wobh at 8:07 AM PST - 29 comments

USG PR

US Government Support for the Fight Against HIV/AIDS is an overview from the State Department of funding and programs directed towards international AIDS prevention and treatment. World AIDS Day was proclaimed by the President. The special CDC site focuses on the stigma and discrimination of AIDS that creates impediments to fighting the disease. The National Institutes of Health launch AIDSInfo on December 2, combining prior resources. USAID notes its own programs and accomplishments. The US Surgeon General notes the impact on persons of color. Housing and Urban Development looks at housing opportunities. And the Department of Veterans Affairs provides more AIDS care than any other single agency. The NIH Drug Abuse office has its own information site, including notes on the perhaps ineptly, perhaps tellingly PSA spot series titled "Jack and Jill".
posted by dhartung at 7:58 AM PST - 1 comments

AIDS in Africa photojournalism

AIDS in Africa by photojournalists Gideon Mendel and James Nachtwey (flash required)
posted by gravelshoes at 7:17 AM PST - 3 comments

Health care and intellectual property

Intellectual property laws and the fight against disease Lots of news, data and commentary at the "Health Care and Intellectual Property" page from the Consumer Project on Technology. Conflicts of Interest in Biomedical Research is also worth a look.
posted by mediareport at 7:17 AM PST - 1 comments

The Access to Essential Medicines Campaign

The Access to Essential Medicines Campaign is an initiative by Medecins Sans Frontieres that seeks to "lower the prices of existing medicines in developing countries, to bring abandoned drugs back into production, to stimulate research and development for neglected diseases that primarily affect the poor, and to overcome other barriers to access." HIV is one target disease. The Campaign's press releases, press clips and reports on HIV give a good picture of recent developments. In light of this evidence, does anyone care to step up and defend "big pharma" and the governments of the wealthy North? Have we/they "done enough"? What would "doing enough" look like, given the scope of the crisis?
posted by stonerose at 6:27 AM PST - 5 comments

Artists and AIDS

Artists and AIDS - in 1986, Mesami Teraoka began his series of AIDS themed watercolors and they have been exhibited widely since. The art community has been an important force in raising both public awareness and funds for the AIDS epidemic. Visual AIDS has been in the forefront of mobilizing the art community. The site contains a rich archive of work since 1999, with special exhibits on art for Africa and the women of Visual Aids. Another international effort, Artists for AIDS, was started by Canadian artists to raise money for African children with AIDS. Some earlier group art projects include Ten Years, Ten Artists, Making Art & Raising Hell and Art Against AIDS, a Ukrainian collection of posters and prints. Some art contains adult themes & Teraoka's site has a warning.
posted by madamjujujive at 6:11 AM PST - 1 comments

Thabo Mbeki's AIDS policies

"35,000". The South African president Thabo Mbeki is failing to deal with his nation's unbelievable AIDS epidemic. Here are the opinions of his chief advisor on the disease. For balance, here is the opinion of the UK government. Do you agree with me that Mbeki is a dangerous man, and is a terrible choice to follow his predecessor?
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:35 AM PST - 6 comments

Larry Kramer, HIV & Organ Transplants

"Right now there are hundreds of thousands of people in this country waiting for organs. Most of them will die before they get them. Many of them will die after they have been put on a waiting list."
- Larry Kramer, actor/writer/producer/author & veteran esteemed activist, has survived nearly 12 months since his liver transplant last December. [BTW, that's how long he said he needed to finish his mighty tome-in-progress, 'The American People']. The founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis, ACT-UP and other community action groups needed the operation due to a co-infection with Hepatitis B Virus, a situation which is becoming increasingly common now that long-term survival rates for HIV+ folks improve, and other viruses have more deadly effects. Naturally, the coming crisis in organ transplants leads the ultra-activist to a new, personal but less formal protest: a campaign for presumed consent.
"In a previous interview Kramer also remarked that he did not feel welcomed or wanted at Mt Sinai. Other issues such as homophobia, AIDS-phobia and ethical concerns about "wasting good organs on HIV positive patients," or the fear that donors might stop giving organs if they find out PWAs are receiving them, have all influenced and slowed HIV positive transplant progress." In a recent New York Times interview, Dr. Fung (Kramer's surgeon)stated that "homophobia has been one of the problems in moving HIV positive organ transplants forward. Such homophobia is veiled, and never openly admitted." Kramer's liver transplant "has cost Medicare, so far, over $500,000 and Empire Blue Cross, so far, over $100,000 for the continuing medications I must take, including a monthly pop of some $10,000 for something called Hepatitis B Immune Globulin, which I believe I must receive for the rest of my life. And you need to get your blood tested every few weeks. That costs a lot too." How many HIV+ folks in the US - let alone globally - can afford that?
posted by dash_slot- at 1:29 AM PST - 3 comments

Time to think about the Bush Administration's stance on HIV

Time to think about the Bush Administration's stance on HIV. Thinking about it allows you to go on and on thinking about it. You know what they were writing about Bush in 2000 (compliments of first Google hit)?
Riddled with AIDS, burdened by poverty and plagued by wars, Africa will present significant foreign policy challenges to the administration of President-elect George W. Bush, analysts on the continent say.

Though many fear Bush will pay little attention to Africa, its problems may be too great to ignore.


What ever are we going to do now?
posted by crasspastor at 1:17 AM PST - 6 comments

AIDS in China

"China's catastrophic mismanagement of its AIDS crisis has come to this: Xie Yan is trying to give away her son. Ms. Xie's husband died last year of AIDS, and she has the virus as well. They are the victims of government-backed blood-selling schemes that have left about one million people infected here in Henan Province in central China. Multiply Ms. Xie's heartache a millionfold, and you understand the cost of the Chinese government's cover-up of its AIDS crisis. If China continues to be more concerned with hiding the tragedy than confronting it, then today's Chinese leaders could kill millions of people over the next two decades. We in the West must exert strong pressure on China to act quickly to address the AIDS challenge."
posted by homunculus at 12:47 AM PST - 1 comments

Did the government create AIDS?

According to the international agency UNAIDS, an estimated 42 million people are living with HIV today. Five million people were newly infected and 3.1 million people were killed by the disease in 2002. This civil rights lawyer has brought a case in federal court alleging that the US government created AIDS under the "US Special Virus" program between 1948 and 1978. Here is the flowchart upon which he is basing his case.
posted by dejah420 at 12:36 AM PST - 16 comments

AIDS a century from now

"More than we can bear." The impact of the AIDS pandemic over the next 100 years may have effects even more far-reaching than many of us have considered. Joseph Riverson has some thoughts on what it will take to prevent a "Black Death" reality.
posted by litlnemo at 12:18 AM PST - 1 comments

Link and Think kickoff

To celebrate World AIDS Day, MetaFilter is going to focus solely on HIV and AIDS related posts for the next 24 hours. Like last year's observation on MetaFilter, this year's Link and Think project asks everyone to think about the issues surrounding this disease, how it has affected you, others, and the world. Feel free to share information on prevention, research, or anything else related to the topic at hand.
posted by mathowie at 12:01 AM PST - 7 comments

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