World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day was December 1st. Maybe its just me but I heard very little about it this year-even less than last year. Have we become too complacent about HIV/AIDS? Or is it because it has become a condition that disproportionately affects people of color. I understand that the election and our struggling economy has taken the spotlight lately, but we can't spend one day to acknowledge perhaps the greatest health crisis of modern times?

Dumb and Dumberer

Just when you thought that we had turned the corner about understanding HIV/AIDS in this country, two Minneapolis radio station talk hosts accused Magic Johnson of faking AIDS. Of course, the one question that they could not answer is: what would he gain faking AIDS and giving up a lucrative NBA career, exposing himself to the (inappropriate) ridicule of millions, not to mention the "he must be gay whispers." Ludicrous!

CDC Needs More $$$ to Fight HIV

CDC officials on Tuesday at a House Government Reform and Oversight Committee hearing said they would need an additional $4.8 billion dollars over the next five years to reduce the annual number of new HIV infections in the U.S. As many of you may know, the CDC released a study last month that found that about 56,300 new HIV infections occur annually in the U.S.

Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, told the committee that although the additional amount of money requested is high, it could reduce the HIV transmission rate by 50% over 12 years. Although the $4.8 billion request is a significant amount of money, it would be more expensive not to treat HIV, Fauci said. Each HIV infection costs more than $1 million in treatment and lost productivity and that if CDC can prevent 4,800 new infections over five years, the programs established with increased funding would be "cost saving to society."

Now, how much is that Wall Street bailout again?

More on Conspiracy Theories

Recently, I met what appeared to be an educated, older African American gentleman at presentation that I was giving. After exchanging contact information, he literally tracked me down to communicate what he claimed was "very important information" that would be valuable to my (BEBASHI'S) clients. The 'information' pertained to a book and a website both claiming to dispute that HIV causes AIDS as well a virtually every other scientific fact about HIV/AIDS. He also gave me information about a product that supposedly cures HIV.

I understand that many of us are skeptical about what the federal government and big business, (such as pharmaceutical companies) tell us. Therefore, I looked into this information. I read excerpts from the book; looked at the credentials of of the person who wrote it as well as the other 1500 or so members of his group; and read the so-called study that described the "experiment" testing the drug. I came away with the following question:

Why are we so quick to believe people with these alternative theories about HIV/AIDS who lack infectious disease research/treatment experience, credentials and any real standing in the scientific community, when there are mountains of reputable research and decades of practical experience to the contrary. How could one so-called study, or one book diminish all of the other evidence?

The Risk of STI'S with Other Sexual Activities

A new article by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists published in the Journal: Obstetrics and Gynecology, reports that despite what many believe, "noncoital" sexual activities -- such as oral sex, mutual masturbation and anal sex still come with varying degrees of STI (sexually transmitted infection) risk.

Many people, especially adolescents, engage in oral, anal or mutual masterbation to reduce pregnancy risk, avoid using condoms thereby placing them at risk for acquiring an STI. In terms of HIV transmission, receptive anal sex carries the highest risk, followed by receptive vaginal sex. Therefore it is important to remember that anyone with whom one has sex, could potentially infect you with and STI, including HIV. Some of the ways to protect oneself are: Knowing one's partner-staying in a monogamous relationship and both of you getting tested for STI's before commencing sex; consistent and correct use of condoms for any kind of sex and; of course, abstinence.

Remember, not all STI's are curable and some are asymptomatic (meaning they do not have noticeable symptoms) So you might be infected and not even know it. Look before you leap!

Guess I can't complain too much, but...

Barack Obama's speech last night to accept the Democratic nomination for President of the United States and to lay out his goals for his administration was almost everything that I could have expected. It was inspiring, emotional, challenging, historic, and I can go on and on. So should I be concerned that the greatest killer of people of African descent in history wasn't mentioned? Am I being nick-picky? Just because George Bush has made it a priority, should I have expected Barack to follow suit? After all, there are many other important issues that we face, as a country. Maybe I am biased, but I just feel that HIV/AIDS is one of them. I hope and pray that he makes it a priority of his administration after he gets elected.

Time for Barack to step up!

With all of the hoopla surrounding Barack Obama's historic acceptance speech and taking into consideration how many troubling issues are plaguing this country, I can't help wondering: Will HIV make the cut? I recently read an article in Newsweek about "What Bush Got Right." One of the (few) things that he has received almost universal accolades for has been his leadership in funding HIV treatment in other countries. Bush made HIV one of his priorities in his administration. Can we expect Barack to do less? Stay tuned.

Where are we now?

With the release of new statistics by the CDC revealing that the HIV epidemic in this country is worse than we thought, it seems like a good time to take a look at where are. The mood at the International HIV/AIDS conference was "much more sober compared with previous meetings. There were no "major breakthroughs" announced, and "cutting-edge research findings were rare."

Therefore, it doesn't seem as if the calvary is coming. We have to continue to fight HIV/AIDS the old fashioned way: Prevention. There is an old saying: everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die to get there. Everyone wants HIV/AIDS to just go away, but are we willing to change our behavior?

Homophobia and HIV

In addition to my work at BEBASHI, I am also a psychotherapist. Recently, I treated a male African American adolescent who accepted that he was gay, but struggled with a lack of support from his family, who made him feel that Christianity was incompatible with homosexuality. In my career, I have spoken with many LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Questioning) individuals, the majority of whom having experienced similar rejection, mistrust and even outright hostility from so-called "straight" people, many of who use religion as their justification. The recent International HIV Conference held in Mexico provided many examples of how our homophobia is harming our efforts to fight HIV. "Homophobia – whether propagated by government leaders, enforced by outdated laws, or perpetuated through stigma and discrimination – continues to fuel this epidemic, and should therefore be the number one enemy of those who are serious about ending this global tragedy," said Dr. Pedro Cahn, IAS President, AIDS 2008 Co-Chair and President of Fundación Huésped in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I am often asked whether I am uncomfortable being around LGBTQ individuals. The answer is no-because, I am comfortable with myself. The Bible teaches us to love thy neighbor as thyself. How many people have to die from HIV/AIDS or from hate crimes; how many young men and women have to be scarred for life, sometimes literally kicked out of their homes, before we realize that hate of any kind, for any reason, is just wrong.

Why Not Female Condoms?

Studies have repeatedly shown that although female condoms are widely accepted and that many women prefer them to male condoms, policy makers often fail to promote and invest in their use. The result has been the limited us of a powerful weapon to help fight HIV, other sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancy. According to an Oxfam report presented Thursday at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, titled "Failing Women, Withholding Protection," there are about three billion male condoms sold worldwide annually, compared with about 26 million female condoms.

Part of the problem is that female condoms are much more expensive than male condoms. However, why couldn't governments or businesses get together to develop a lower cost version. Or, what about governments using there considerable economic and political power to force manufacturers to lower their prices by offering to buy large quantities in bulk. Either way, this is another area crying out for real leadership.

Teens and HIV

HIV/AIDS is impacting our youth at an alarming rate. Although African Americans represent only 16 percent of U.S. teens, they represented 69 percent of all new AIDS cases reported among teens in 2005. Dr. Helen Gayle, president of CARE, said, "There is a lack of youth tailored prevention programs that relate to the youth culture." More teens are sexually active than even their parents want to admit. According to the 2007 CDC'S Youth Risk Behavioral Survey 66.5 percent of high school students have engaged in sexual intercourse. The survey also reports that 16.3 percent of teens had sex before the age of 13.

The United States has received a fair amount of criticism for pushing its abstinence-only program, even though most studies question its effectiveness. What many fail to realize is that all HIV prevention education programs includes abstinence information. While I agree that sexual health education should start at home, unfortunately, and especially with for the kids most at risk, it ain't happening. Many of the children most at risk live in chaotic situations where survival takes precedence. It's time that we stop pontificating and start demanding more funding for youth-oriented sexual health prevention programs.

Presidential Candidates Respond to the New HIV Statistics

Not sure if you noticed that the two major presidential candidates have now weighed in on the CDC'S recent release of revised HIV statistics. As one might imagine, their responses reflects the considerable differences in their policy positions. John McCain's response seemed to be textbook political-speak. Basically he pledged to work with different "stakeholders" to continue the fight about HIV/AIDS. No specifics. His reference to it as a "dreaded disease" sounds very 20th century. To his credit, Obama on the other hand, pledges to develop a "national strategy." He speaks of confronting the stigma associated with HIV that is "too often tied to homophobia." Clearly either he, or his policy people are much better versed in HIV policy.

Stay tuned

CDC Releases New HIV Data

On Saturday August 2, 2008, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) finally acknowledged that it has been underreporting its data on HIV infections. This comes as no surprise to most HIV/AIDS advocates who have expressed concern about their annual estimates of approximately 40,000 new infections. The data shows that in 2006, an estimated 56,300 new HIV infections occurred – a number that is substantially higher than the previous estimate of 40,000 annual new infections, with estimates ranging between 55,000 and 58,500 during the three most recent time periods analyzed. The new estimates show that gay and bisexual men of all races and ethnicities and African American men and women are the groups most affected by HIV. African Americans, while comprising 13% of the US population, accounted for 45% of the new HIV infections in 2006. Other key statistics in the report state:

• That new infections among blacks are at a higher level than any other racial or ethnic group, with a rate that is seven (7) times the rate of whites.
• More infections incurred among people under the age of 30 (34%) than any other age group.
• One quarter (25%) of HIV-infected persons are unaware of their HIV infection. These individuals account for one-half (50%) of all new infections.
• Male to male sexual contact (MSM) accounted for 53% of the new infections.

Unfortunately the report does not go into detail about the impact on women of color, even though it is clear that minority, especially young minority, women have been severely impacted.

Still a long way to go...

Even with the signing of the new PEPFAR legislation, George Bush's signature program to provide funding to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria around the world, the United States still lacks a detailed policy to fight HIV here in this country. Nevertheless, most people living with HIV in the U.S. are more fortunate than those in other countries where the vast majority of people living with HIV/AIDS do not receive life prolonging medication. In reality, it is estimated that access to antiretroviral treatment is below 10% in every region except the Americas. So, with the greatest health crisis in modern history facing us and a clearly checkered national and international response: where is the outrage?

CBS Evening News Report of African Americans and HIV

The CBS' "Evening News"on Thursday examined HIV/AIDS among blacks living in the U.S. According to CDC, blacks accounted for 49% of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in 2006, despite making up only 13% of the population. In addition, 69% of AIDS cases among those ages 13 to 19 and 56% among those ages 20 to 24 are black, the "Evening News" reports." According to the "Evening News," many advocates are saying that presidential candidates Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are not doing enough to address HIV/AIDS. In addition, many advocates are upset that the candidates have said more about addressing HIV/AIDS in Africa, rather than in the black community in the U.S. Is HIV/AIDS in the US too controversial for our presidential candidates to address. Or is it the 'Dick Cheney phenomenon' -remember during the vice presidential debates where he actually said that he was unaware of the rates of HIV in Black women! What is clear to me is that, if we don't put pressure on not just the presidential candidates, but all politicians to address HIV/AIDS, it will never be a political priority.


Visit: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=4291857n

New Data on HIV is coming!

On or around August 3, 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will release new HIV incidence estimates for the United States. These new incidence estimates will provide the clearest picture to date of incidence (or the number of new HIV infections in a given year). Many in the HIV/AIDS field have felt for some time that the CDC estimates have been much higher than what has been reported. Soon we will have a better picture. Stay tuned!

Does charity begin at home?

Many American HIV/AIDS advocates have lamented about how it seems that the major focus of HIV/AIDS funding, especially charitable giving, seems to be concentrated on Africa. While there is no question that the epidemic has infected and killed more people in Sub Saharan Africa than any other place in the world, it seems as if many people don't seem to realize that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is also here. Even the federal government's response has been inadequate. For example:

• In areas such as Detroit, Washington D.C. and the Deep South, HIV rates among segments of the Black community approach those of several countries in Africa.
• If Black America were its own country, it would rank 16th in people living with HIV; 105th in life expectancy and 88th in infant mortality worldwide.

If prevention is the key, than shouldn't we all be doing everything we can to prevent HIV from getting worse in this country, while we still can.

HIV Down South

"The Southern U.S. is not receiving enough federal funding to provide adequate HIV prevention, treatment and support programs,according to a report scheduled to be released on Monday by the Southern AIDS Coalition, the Birmingham News reports. An increasing number of new HIV cases in the South -- combined with"inadequate funding, resources and infrastructure" -- have"resulted in a catastrophic situation in our public health care systems in the South," the report says. Although health officials for years knew that HIV was increasingly affecting the South, they believed the increase in new HIV cases was coming from large cities in Florida, according to Hiers. However, experts concentrated on the Deep South --Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina -- and found HIV cases spreading in rural areaswith large black populations with financial, health and social issues. " Total deaths from AIDS-related causes increased to 190,000 in the South in 2001 through 2005, while the number of such deaths decreased in the rest of the nation during that time period, the report says.

So what are we to do? So far the federal government's response has been to hold down the total amount of HIV prevention and care dollars and slowly begin to redistribute it. At the same time, they have been aggressively pushing more testing. So let me ask you this: what happens if we test more people, find more positives, but don't significantly increase the money available to treat and assist people living with HIV? Well, I think that you know the answer: more rationing of care.

What do you think?

AIDS Conspiracy

Ask a person, like myself, who works in the HIV/AIDS field about "Conspiracy Theories" and you will get an earful. Frankly, they remain one of the greatest obstacles that we face in fighting HIV/AIDS. I know that may be an unbelievable statement, but so many people believe them and hold on to these conspiracies, that they often won't listen or believe the true information. The article below summarizes the origins of some of the major conspiracy theories. Tell me what you think?

Gary

The AIDS Conspiracy Handbook Jeremiah Wright's paranoia, in context. By Juliet Lapidos Posted Wednesday, March 19, 2008, at 5:51 PM ET Barack Obama rebuked his former pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Tuesday for giving sermons in which he blamed the government for creating a racist state and "inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color." Wright isn't the first to say that AIDS originated in the White House. Others have attributed the epidemic to a laboratory accident, malnutrition, or even God's divine will. Here's a field guide to the most prevalent conspiracy theories: Government Involvement The belief cited by Wright—that the government invented HIV—seems to have originated during the early years of the epidemic. In 1986, crackpot East German biologist Jakob Segal published "AIDS: USA Home-Made Evil." According to the pamphlet, scientists at a Fort Detrick, Md., military lab manufactured the disease by synthesizing HTLV-1 (a retrovirus that causes T-cell leukemia) with Visna (a sheep virus). The scientists administered their lethal concoction to prison inmates, who then introduced the disease into the general population. In case you're wondering, Segal has since been accused of being a Soviet disinformation agent. Similarly, the aptly named Boyd E. Graves (who calls himself a doctor although he has only a law degree) has postulated that scientists in the employ of the U.S. Special Virus Program modified Visna to create HIV during the 1970s. The government, with help from pharmaceutical company Merck, added the virus to an experimental hepatitis B vaccine, which was given to gay men and blacks in New York and San Francisco. And then there's Gary Glum, author of Full Disclosure, who fronts the theory that scientists at the Cold Spring Harbor lab in New York engineered HIV, and that the World Health Organization spread the virus under cover of the smallpox eradication program. Glum believes the virus was created to wipe out, or at least control, the black population. (According to a study released in 2005 by the Rand Corp., more than one-quarter of African-Americans believe the disease was engineered in a government lab, and 16 percent think it was created to control the black population.) Laboratory Accident Edward Hooper, a British journalist, argued in his 1999 book, The River, that Dr. Hilary Koprowski of the Wistar Research Institute unintentionally caused the AIDS epidemic by using chimp kidneys to produce an oral polio vaccine. The chimps, says Hooper, were infected with SIV (the simian precursor to AIDS). Then, via an experimental mass-vaccination program in the Belgian Congo, SIV made the jump from monkey to man. Hooper's contaminated polio vaccine thesis sounds less wacky than most conspiracy theories and has attracted support from a few notable academics—including late Oxford professor W.D. Hamilton. But it's definitely wrong. Hooper says Koprowski got his kidney samples from chimps in the Congo. The problem is that the SIV strain endemic to chimps from that region is phylogenetically distinct from HIV. The offending chimps probably came from Cameroon. It's Not a Virus Among the most popular, and pernicious, conspiracy theories is that AIDS isn't caused by a virus at all. Peter Duesberg, a biology professor at University of California-Berkeley, has argued that drugs and promiscuity are the principal causes of the disease in the United States. He attributes AIDS in Africa to malnutrition. South African President Thabo Mbeki has voiced support for the so-called Duesberg hypothesis, and his health minister, Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang, has recommended treating AIDS with foodstuffs, like garlic, rather than pharmaceuticals. God's Punishment The Rev. Jerry Falwell famously argued that AIDS is a plague sent by God to punish homosexuals and American society for tolerating homosexuality. Jerry Thacker, the publisher of Today's Christian Teen and other Christian magazines, has also called AIDS a "gay plague" and referred to homosexuality as "the death style." In 2003, the Bush administration nominated Thacker to serve on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS. He withdrew his name under pressure from gay rights groups and Democrats.

A Child is born!

Today, my blog was born. I still am a complete novice about this stuff. But, no guts, no glory, huh. I plan to spend a lot of my blogging, intially, focusing on the issue of HIV and sexual health. In time, well we will just see where it goes. So I encourage everyone to visit and weigh in on the issues. Look forward to seeing you here!