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What Are My Health Care Options?
The most important thing to know is that if you are diagnosed with HIV and don’t already have health care, you have many options. Connect with a health coverage navigator via your nearest HIV and AIDS service organization or local or state health department. You can also contact your...
What If I Need Help Beyond ADAP?
The AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) program exists to make sure that, even if you already have insurance, you can meet all the expenses related to your plan, such as premiums, deductibles and co-pays—as well as health-related expenses, such as transportation to medical appointments. Thus, it’s unlikely you’ll need assistance beyond ADAP.
Proof-of-Concept Study Shows an HIV Vaccine Can Generate Key Antibody Response in People
An HIV vaccine candidate elicited trace levels of HIV broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) and high levels of other key immune cells in an early-stage clinical trial. This immune response is an important signal that, if antibody levels can be further amplified, the vaccination strategy might be able to prevent HIV. The findings of this NIAID-supported trial were published in the journal Cell.
Psychoactive Drugs Are Having a Moment. The FDA Will Soon Weigh In.
Lori Tipton is among the growing number of people who say that MDMA, also known as ecstasy, saved their lives. Raised in New Orleans by a mother with untreated bipolar disorder who later killed herself and two others, Tipton said she endured layers of trauma that eventually forced her to seek treatment for crippling anxiety and hypervigilance. For 10 years nothing helped, and she began to wonder if she was “unfixable.”
After Grilling an NIH Scientist Over COVID Emails, Congress Turns to Anthony Fauci
Former National Institutes of Health official Anthony Fauci has faced many hostile questions from members of Congress, but when he appears before a House panel on Monday, he’ll have something new to answer for: a trove of incendiary emails written by one of his closest advisers. In the emails,...
Launching the Red Ribbon
In 1991, as the United States was battling the AIDS epidemic, the country was fighting another enemy abroad. Many front-yard trees were decorated with yellow ribbons in recognition of U.S. military members deployed in Iraq during the Gulf War. Struck by the sight of so many ribbons while driving in upstate New York with his partner Harvey Weiss and artist Frank Moore, costume designer Marc Happel wondered whether a ribbon could be used as a symbol to acknowledge the HIV epidemic.
American Cancer Society and ASCO Unite to Create One of the Most Comprehensive Online Sources of Credible Cancer Information
The American Cancer Society (ACS) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) today announced an expanded collaboration to make it simpler for patients to find authoritative cancer information online. The partnership between ASCO, the leading organization for cancer care providers, and ACS, the leading patient education, support, and advocacy organization in cancer, will create one of the largest and most comprehensive online resources for credible cancer information, available for free to the public on cancer.org.
HPV Vaccine Prevents Cancer in Both Women and Men
Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination reduced the risk of cancer for men as well as women, according to study findings presented this week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting (ASCO 2024) in Chicago. Another recent study offers further real-world evidence that the vaccine has dramatically lowered cervical cancer incidence in the United Kingdom. But only a minority of adolescents and young adults in the United States have received the vaccine.
Does Your Doctor Need to Take Stigmavir to Treat HIV Stigma?
HIV stigma in health care is real and harmful. Fortunately, health care providers can now take the antiviral drug Stigmavir to treat their stigma. Unfortunately, the drug is fictitious, but you can watch a real ad for it at the top of this story and on YouTube. Casey House, an...
Celebrities Join Call for Generic Version of “Groundbreaking” HIV Med
More than 300 world leaders, scientists, activists, celebrities and people living with HIV are calling for pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences to allow cheap generic versions of its long-acting HIV med Sunlenca (lenacapavir) to extend its reach to people with multidrug-resistant HIV in developing countries, according to The Guardian. When used...
CDC Urges Mpox Vaccination as Deadlier Strain Spreads in Africa
Mpox (formerly monkeypox) cases have risen in the United States this year, though they remain far below the level seen at the peak of the outbreak in the summer of 2022. But a growing outbreak of a more deadly mpox strain in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) raises concerns about wider international spread.
FDA Urged To Relax Decades-Old Tissue Donation Restrictions for Gay and Bisexual Men
The federal government in 2020 and 2023 changed who it said could safely donate organs and blood, reducing the restrictions on men who have had sex with another man. But the FDA’s restrictions on donated tissue, a catchall term encompassing everything from a person’s eyes to their skin and ligaments, remain in place. Advocates, lawmakers, and groups focused on removing barriers to cornea donations, in particular, said they are frustrated the FDA hasn’t heeded their calls. They want to align the guidelines for tissue donated by gay and bisexual men with those that apply to the rest of the human body.
Do Health Insurers Offer Clear Info on Covering PrEP to Prevent HIV?
Does your health insurance plan cover pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to prevent HIV? What about the related essential services, such as doctor visits, screenings and lab work? If you peruse your insurance plan, you might not find an easy answer. According to a report by The AIDS Institute, many insurance plans do not clearly explain their PrEP coverage.
High H5N1 Influenza Levels Found in Mice Given Raw Milk From Infected Dairy Cows
Mice administered raw milk samples from dairy cows infected with H5N1 influenza experienced high virus levels in their respiratory organs and lower virus levels in other vital organs, according to findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The results suggest that consumption of raw milk by animals poses a risk for H5N1 infection and raises questions about its potential risk in humans.
Proposed 5-Year Program Aims to Put Country on the Path to Eliminating Hepatitis C
The Biden-Harris administration’s proposed National Hepatitis C Elimination Program would be a major breakthrough in access to screening, testing and treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV), according to Joshua Sharfstein, MD, Distinguished Professor of the Practice at Johns Hopkins University. His presentation at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2024 provides an update on the proposal for the National Hepatitis C Elimination Program.
Moms With Undetectable HIV Can Breastfeed
Moms living with HIV can safely breastfeed their babies if they’re on HIV meds and maintain an undetectable viral load, according to new recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published in the journal Pediatrics. “The risk of HIV transmission via breastfeeding from a parent with HIV who...
Clues From Bird Flu’s Ground Zero on Dairy Farms in the Texas Panhandle
In early February, dairy farmers in the Texas Panhandle began to notice sick cattle. The buzz soon reached Darren Turley, executive director of the Texas Association of Dairymen: “They said there is something moving from herd to herd.”. Nearly 60 days passed before veterinarians identified the culprit: a highly...
Should People With Long COVID be Donating Blood?
In the fall of 2009, researchers at a lab in Reno, Nevada, said they detected a potentially transmissible virus in the blood of people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). The study led the American Red Cross to ban blood donations from people with ME. The study was retracted in 2011 and the Red Cross guideline was later reversed, but more than a decade later, there is still a lifetime ban on blood donation from people with ME in the U.K. by the National Health Service (NHS).
CDC Reports Second Human Case of H5 Bird Flu Tied to Dairy Cow Outbreak
A human case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5) (“H5 bird flu”) virus infection in the United States has been identified in the state of Michigan. This is the second case associated with an ongoing multistate outbreak of A(H5N1) in dairy cows.[1]. As with the case in...
New Report Flags Major Increase in STIs, Amidst Challenges in HIV and Hepatitis
Global HIV, viral hepatitis epidemics and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continue to pose significant public health challenges, causing 2.5 million deaths each year, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report - Implementing the global health sector strategies on HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, 2022–2030. New...
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