hiv

Ok, I’m back…that wasn’t too long--was it?

Now—of course, the feminista in me always comes out, especially at a conference where there are so many opportunities to learn about what experts are doing at the policy and programmatic level to address gender inequities.   read more »

Length: 2:21 In case you are tired of reading and want to listen to something: Activists Ms. Starr, Samanta, Lek and Susan speak on why sex workers are at the International AIDS Conference - a piece I put together for Free Speech Radio News, a national news network in the United States.

Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of attending the press conference of the Black AIDS Institute, where they spoke about their most recent publication release entitled "Left Behind".

It is a perfectly ironic title for how I felt sitting in the audience as a gay black man living with HIV. While I am honestly extremely happy about "my people" coming together and issuing a call for; "a national AIDS strategy equivalent of PEPFAR", "An investment of 1.3 Billion in National Prevention programs", "Needle Exchange Programs", "Testing 1 Million people" and "support for traditional Black Institutions". While there are many issues I have with the "Left Behind," and the press conference itself it is the last that I will focus on in this blog.

I deeply agree that federal support for Black Institutions must be increased in order to have an impact on the devastation that is happening in the Black community. An issue that was not covered yesterday, however, is the work that Black Institutions must do.

In both the press conference yesterday, and in many of the institutions I come into contact with, the conversation around GAY Black Men is limited and in some cases none exsitent.  read more »

I'm in the media center here at the conference, listening to a couple of U.S. reporters sitting very close to me banter about the conference and Mexico City in general. One woman was talking about writing a "quirky condoms story" about condoms being given out with tequila shots somewhere in Mexico City.

Isn't that so quaint?

In another attempt at humor I suppose, she says, half-giggling, "Wouldn't it be ironic if someone contracted HIV at the International AIDS Conference?"

And is it any wonder why the U.S. reporting on the HIV epidemic is shallow at best, and damaging to the cause at worst?

The July 23, 2008 Washington Post front page expresses what many of us working in the HIV/AIDS community, particularly those involved with the Latino/Hispanic community, have been saying for some time. We are grateful that the Post has again put the issue of HIV/AIDS at the front line of the alarming healthcare disparities that impact the Latino/Hispanic community.

However, this should not be a surprise to anyone familiar with the data.

This article highlights what grassroots HIV/AIDS advocates have previously expressed to the Centers for Disease Control in trying to cajole them into more accurately and rightfully report HIV/AIDS surveillance data in our community

This article details, perhaps for the first time at a national level, a minor reporting discrepancy that has plagued the CDC’s surveillance data – namely that the CDC has historically understated (albeit, not intentionally) the number of Latinos/Hispanics infected with HIV/AIDS by not including in the overall numbers the HIV/AIDS cases for ALL Latino/Hispanic communities, especially Puerto Rico, where the incidence rates are among the highest in the nation.  read more »

 

According to a press release issued by the Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico "There are currently six "new" medications that have been proven effective in treating these types of patients (HIV/AIDS patients) but are not currently covered under the Government Health Insurance Plan (GHIP, commonly referred to as Reforma), because the committees that evaluate and select new medications have not met since the year 2000." These review committees are part of the Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration (PR-HIA, known by its Spanish acronym ASES) that manages the "Reforma" public health plan.

ASES is a public corporation that was created in 1993 to manage Puerto Rico's Public Health Insurance system. The Secretary of Health of Puerto Rico, Dr. Rosa Perez Perdomo is a member of the Board of Directors of ASES which has oversight for the evaluation committee. http://www.gobierno.pr/ASES/BaseLegal/
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At the International AIDS Women's Caucus Challenges for Women and Girls and HIV/AIDS. 5 minutes to the hour, the audience starts shuffling in. Women wearing Blue Jeans, dresses, suits and saris fill in the audience.
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The Pre-conference symposium organized by OSI, Strategies for Change: Breaking barriers to HIV Prevention, treatment and Care for Women provided much food for thought and insightful panelists who spoke with true candor on important issues such as empowerment strategies, how lawmaking can be used to their benefit, how to make, track and spend money in these grassroots organizations and how to advance health Care for Women.

The panels were well rounded and I particularly enjoyed the diversity of the panelists: they had different takes on certain issues and this made the conversation flow and expand. It felt more like a conversation in someone's living room than a conference where you sit and hear people drone: it was quite lively and engaging.

One of the greatest things has been that there is quite enough time for each panelist to speak out about their experience: each session is 1.5 hours long and I think that this is enough time for panelists to relax and know that they'll have more than enough time to speak out, so conversation flows equally with participation from all the different women. The full program can be seen here.  read more »

There was a flurry of press activity yesterday due to the release of the long-awaited revision of HIV incidence estimates for the United States...

This morning, CHAMP put out a release calling for a national AIDS strategy that would bridge race and sexuality. Here's some of the key quotes; the full release is available in the AIDS2008.com press room:

Walt Senterfitt, CHAMP board co-chair and an epidemiologist living with HIV who served as a Visiting Scientist at CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention:

“The new estimates confirm that a vast majority of new infections in the U.S. occur in gay and bisexual men, and that Blacks are significantly more heavily impacted than other racial/ethnic categories. However, the data fail to clearly link the two, perpetuating a longstanding, damaging polarization. We need CDC to clearly show the HIV incidence numbers in gay men and other MSM of color.

A substantial number of Black people infected every year are gay or bisexual, and a substantial proportion of gay and bisexual men infected are Black. In fact, the heaviest impact is at the nexus of the two – being both black and a man who has sex with men. Yet this population is significantly marginalized, even stigmatized within both larger populations of which it is an integral part. A national AIDS strategy must tackle this fundamental challenge."

Jim Pickett, Director of Advocacy at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago:  read more »

Click for Video Meet David Jenkins. Watch his testimony in church.

Faith-based involvement in the HIV epidemic continues to be critical. The courageous acts of people living with HIV/AIDS, like David, that speak truth to power where it counts need to be supported.

What do these support structure look like? Are they reports? Are they policies? How do you get people to tell the truth?

These are the questions I am thinking about as I prepare to meet the world in Mexico. I am a physician/filmmaker that is using media as a movement-building tool to bridge the silos of HIV prevention work. The questions posed are about the culture work that falls in between silos of HIV prevention and treatment. This missing dialogue and language is an obstacle to action and support.

Support is about solidarity and bridging pieces together. Media can serve as this congealing force in our interconnected cyber-world. This requires two things: listening and creating new forums for the resulting lessons to grow. I film community-based participant driven narratives on the frontlines of HIV prevention work in hopes of uniting a fragmented movement towards human rights.

As a physician, I have taken care of HIV infected and affected communities in the South Bronx, Ethiopia, and South Africa. Listening to the patients in all these settings has been a humbling lesson in solidarity and the profound obligation that comes with listening.

Those on the frontlines have been telling it like it is for a long time.
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