So Black Men In Atlanta Have A 60% Chance Of Contracting HIV Before 30?

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New Study Claims Black Men In Atlanta Have A 60% Chance Of Contracting HIV Before Age 30

A nonprofit organization in metro-Atlanta is making sure that men in the area who are in danger of developing poor health and/or contracting illnesses are provided with the support they need.

The Health Institute for Men (HIM) was founded in 2012 but became a nonprofit in 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia. The grassroots service vows to assist men (many of whom are African-American) in the city whose health may be at risk, which may include men who have been incarcerated, are homeless, or are in situations that may expose them to viruses such as HIV, according to Atlanta Blackstar.

“The reaction has been positive to what we’re doing, and because the need for men’s supportive health services is significant, I think it hasn’t taken a lot of convincing,” said Executive Director of HIM Walker Tisdale III.

In an interview with Atlanta Blackstar’s S.C. Rhyne, Tisdale further explains the work of HIM. “The focus of our work is to support all men and service providers working with vulnerable men to better provide culturally relevant mental health service, appropriate infectious disease care and other evidence-based health interventions, said Tisdale. “As an institute, we are up to this challenge because in 2014, we must.”

And, according to health statistics, the attention that HIM is providing to adult males really is needed. In March 2014, Aidsmed.com concluded that based on the amount of black Atlanta men who are contracting HIV, a se×ually active black man who starts to sleep with other people at 18-years-old has a 60% chance of contracting HIV before he turns 30.

The study doesn’t indicate the difference between heterosexual and homosexual men, so this may be a determining factor.

IN HIV NEWS: There is a Foot Cream that May Kill HIV?

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HIV NEWS: A Foot Cream May Kill HIV?

A common drug that dermatologists prescribe to treat nail fungus appears to come with a not-so-tiny side effect: eradicating HIV.

In a study performed at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, not only does the drug Ciclopirox completely eradicate infectious HIV from cell cultures, but unlike today’s most cutting-edge antiviral treatments, the virus doesn’t bounce back when the drug is withheld. This means it may not require a lifetime of use to keep HIV at bay.

he same group of researchers had previously shown that Ciclopirox — approved by the FDA and Europe’s EMA as safe for human use to treat foot fungus – inhibits the expression of HIV genes in culture.

Now they have found that it also blocks the essential function of the mitochondria, which results in the reactivation of the cell’s suicide pathway, all while sparing the healthy cells.

The researchers said that one aspect of HIV that makes it particularly persistent, even in the face of strong antiviral treatments, is its ability to disable a cell’s altruistic suicide pathway — which is typically activated when a cell is damaged or infected. In other words, infected cells that would normally commit suicide to spare healthy cells no longer pull any altruistic kamikaze missions. Ciclopirox tricks these cells back into their old ways with a double negative, disabling the disabling of the suicide pathway.

I’m sure you know, it’s still going to take clinical trials on humans to study the safety and efficacy of Ciclopirox as a potential topical HIV treatment, but the fact that it’s already deemed safe for one type of human use could make the regulatory process faster than usual.

Well lets see what will The FDA say about this! Stay Tuned!

Janet Jackson Honored by AmFAR! Looking FABULOUs!

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JANET JACKSON HONORED BY AmFAR! LOOKING BEAUTIFUL IN BLACK!!!

At Cipriani Wall Street, Janet donned a sleek black open side/open back dress for the amfAR Gala.  It was a black tie affair where she, along with people like Heidi Klum, were honored for the work they have done in contributing to the fight against AIDS.

After hosting last year's gala in Cannes and putting out a World AIDS Day PSA this past December, Janet was the honoree at tonight's event.

She also wrote a piece for CNN about focusing our prevention efforts on those communities that are disproportionately affected by HIV, such as black women.

Check out her PSA:

LUVS JANET!

HEALTH NEWS: New home HIV Testing Kit!

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Rapid H.I.V. Home Test Wins Federal Approval!

After decades of controversy, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new H.I.V. test on Tuesday that for the first time makes it possible for Americans to learn in the privacy of their homes whether they are infected. 
The OraQuick test, by OraSure Technologies, uses a mouth swab and gives results in 20 to 40 minutes. A previous test sold over the counter required a user to prick a finger and mail a drop of dried blood to a lab. 
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the longtime AIDS researcher and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the new test a “positive step forward” and one that could help bring the 30-year-old epidemic under control. 
Getting an infected person onto antiretroviral drugs lowers by as much as 96 percent the chance that he or she will transmit the virus to someone else, so testing and treatment have become crucial to prevention. About 20 percent of the 1.2 million infected Americans do not know they have the disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, and about 50,000 more get infected each year. 
Dr. Robert Gallo, who headed the National Institutes of Health lab that developed the first American blood test for the virus in 1984, called the F.D.A. approval “wonderful because it will get more people into care.” 
The idea of a home test has long been mired in controversy. The first application for one was made in 1987, and the F.D.A. has been considering OraSure’s simple mouth-swab test since 2005.

But the history of AIDS and the human immunodeficiency virus that causes it are unique. AIDS emerged in the 1980s wrapped in a shroud of stigma. It was spread by sex, drug injections and blood transfusions. Along with hemophiliacs, heroin users and Haitians, the most vocal group of early victims was gay men, who were then in the throes of a loud and defiant liberation movement. 
Because merely being tested for H.I.V. was seen as tantamount to being publicly revealed as gay or addicted to drugs, and because an H.I.V.-positive result was a death sentence, groups like the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and newspapers like The New York Native advised their members and readers to shun testing until ironclad guarantees of anonymity were put in place. 
Alarmists predicted a wave of suicides if home tests were made available. At hearings, advocates for AIDS patients handed out copies of an obituary of a San Francisco man who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge after learning he was infected. C.D.C. officials warned their F.D.A. counterparts that home testing could lead to a surge of new patients that would swamp overburdened health clinics, according to an F.D.A. document. 
So, even as tests for other stigmatized diseases like syphilis were once part of getting a marriage license and home pregnancy kits became available at every corner pharmacy, H.I.V. tests lived in a special limbo, usually requiring a counseling session and the signing of a consent form, adding to the air of dread. 
Even when antiretroviral drugs emerged in the mid-1990s, states were slow to rewrite laws governing testing.

Mark Harrington, the executive director of the Treatment Action Group, an AIDS advocacy organization, said in an interview that he thought such fears were “a thing of the past” now that it is clear that early treatment saves lives. “Any tool that speeds up diagnosis is really needed,” he said. 
The new test has some drawbacks. While it is extremely accurate when administered by medical professionals, it is less so when used by consumers. Researchers found the home test accurate 99.98 percent of the time for people who do not have the virus. By comparison, they found it to be accurate 92 percent of the time in detecting people who do. One concern is the “window period” between the time someone gets the virus and begins to develop the antibodies to it, which the test detects. That can take up to three months. 
So, while only about one person in 5,000 would get a false positive test, about one person in 12 could get a false negative. 
Any positive test needs confirmation in a doctor’s office, the F.D.A. said, and people engaged in high-risk sex should test themselves regularly.

The agency does not intend for the home test to replace medical testing, but instead to provide another way for people to find out their H.I.V. status, said Dr. Karen Midthun, director of the F.D.A.’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. 
The home test should be available in 30,000 pharmacies, grocery stores and online retailers by October, said Douglas Michels, OraSure’s chief executive. The price has not yet been set. But he said it would be higher than the $17.50 now charged to medical professionals because the company will do more complicated packaging for the home kit, open a 24-hour question line, and advertise to high-risk groups, including gay men, blacks and Hispanics, and sexually active adults. Still, he said, it will be kept inexpensive enough to appeal to people who might want to buy several a year. 
Because the F.D.A. approved the home test only for people 17 and older, retail stores may ask customers to show ID, he said. The restriction is not for medical reasons, but because only a few subjects age 14 to 16 were tested, he said, “so that was the deal we worked out with the F.D.A.”

Whether having to show identification would deter teenagers or young-looking people from buying a test is unclear. Mr. Harrington said he thought it might. 
In contrast, teenage girls are not legally required to show identification to buy pregnancy tests. This is GREAT news!