Posts tagged hiv

By: Chuck Colbert/TRT Reporter–

The number of new HIV infections the United States remains relatively stable, standing at about 50,000 people annually.

But HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is on the rise among younger Americans under the age of 25.

In fact, too many youth in the United States continue to become infected with HIV. And few are tested.

Those are two key take away points from a new report out by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose release was timed for World AIDS Day.

Specifically, young people between the ages of 13 and 24 in the U.S. account for more than a quarter of new HIV infections each year (26 percent) while 60 percent of these youth living with HIV are unaware they are infected, according to the CDC’s Vital Signs report, released on Tuesday, November 27. (More)

By: Rebecca Haag*–

The AIDS epidemic has raged for 30 years. But the prospect of ending it has never looked brighter. Science is driving toward better treatments. Health care reform is being implemented around the country. And President Obama has set concrete goals and a timeline to reduce new infections by half in the United States through his National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

That is one of the reasons why the theme of this year’s World AIDS Day, which takes place Saturday, Dec. 1, is “Getting To Zero.”

Today, we see less than 650 new HIV diagnoses annually in Massachusetts. In fact, new diagnoses of HIV have been reduced by 54 percent since 1999, which means that nearly 6,000 people who might otherwise have become HIV positive have remained negative.

How did we do this? (More)

In a dramatic move with significant political and economic implications, a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday (June 28) voted to uphold President Obama’s landmark health care reform law. The vote, at least in regard to the key conflict, was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the opinion and joining the four justices on the liberal wing.

The decision is a big relief to people with costly illnesses, including people with HIV or breast cancer. It is an enormous political victory for the Obama administration, because health care reform was Obama’s signature achievement thus far in his first term. And it creates an awkward issue for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to negotiate. Romney worked for a similar plan for Massachusetts, when he was governor, but has since joined the majority of Republicans in arguing vigorously against requiring citizens to buy coverage or pay a “tax” for not doing so. (More)

BOSTON, Mass. —The United States Supreme Court today just released its decision about SB1070, the 2010 Arizona Immigration Law. In such a decision, according to MassEquality, the Court “struck down three key provisions” of the immigration law but upheld the key provision that allows “police to arrest immigrants without a warrant if there was a belief that they had committed an offense that warranted deportation; making it illegal for immigrants to be caught without registration papers; and preventing immigrants who are not authorized to work legally in the United States from seeking employment.”

Reactions over the Internet are strong to the High Court decision. Metroweekly reports that more than “30 LGBT, HIV/AIDS organizations” are calling for National Immigration Reform in the wake of the ruling. (More)