Tag: HIV/AIDS

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Arizona Pastor Steve Anderson: Cure AIDS By Executing The ‘Homos’

Arizona Pastor Steve Anderson, preaching this past Sunday at the Faithful Word Baptist Church:

“Turn to Leviticus 20:13 because I actually discovered the cure for AIDS.

‘If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.’

And that, my friend, is the cure for AIDS. It was right there in the Bible all along — and they’re out spending billions of dollars in research and testing. It’s curable — right there. Because if you executed the homos like God recommends, you wouldn’t have all this AIDS running rampant.”

Watch the sermon below where he calls for the execution of all “homos” as the cure for AIDS.

(via Raw Story)

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Hugh Jackman Sells The Shirt Off His Back For Charity

Hugh Jackman counts the pushups to raise funds on Broadway for BC/EFA

It looks like the fund-raising after-show at Broadway’s The River starring Hugh Jackman is as entertaining as the performance itself.

From my friend Tom Viola’s Facebook page:

Last night at THE RIVER, in addition to Hugh Jackman auctioning his shirt (for $6,000 twice), posing for photos backstage (5 x $2,000) and leading his delightful company in raising a few more thousand in $100 poster sales and red bucket donations – as if that is wonderful in itself, something else occurred.

Inviting two of his gym buddies – aka “the Dog Pound” up-onstage, he challenged them to doing push-ups on his count, pledging to donate $50 to BC/EFA for each one. 50 push-ups later, Hugh is making a personal $2,500 donation to Broadway Cares and about 700 folks at Circle in the Square had the time of their lives. Thank you, Hugh! Thanks to all at THE RIVER!! (And I’m thinking the gentleman who quickly removed his shirt is a shoe-in for BROADWAY BARES.

All of this is for the annual Gypsy of the Year fund raising campaign happening on Broadway right now. Tom Viola and the entire team at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS do amazing work. If you make charitable donations during the holidays, please consider BC/EFA. I’ve spent decades helping them raise funds for those affected by HIV/AIDS.

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20 Years Ago Today: MTV’s The Real World Star Pedro Zamora Died

20 years ago today, Pedro Zamora (star of MTV’s The Real World San Francisco) died.

Zamora broke new ground as the first openly HIV positive person on television. Zamora also shared his commitment ceremony to boyfriend Sean Sasser with the world, a television history first.

He died of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, a rare brain disease that affected many with AIDS.

Gone too soon; his impact on the world still felt today.

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New French Study Indicates Taking PrEP Just Before Sex Could Reduce HIV Infection By 80%

For months now, medical research studies have indicated that taking Truvada, an anti-HIV medication, on a regular basis could effectively deter infection of HIV by over 90%.

Those studies showed that taking the drup at least four days a week on a regular basis could provide effective protection.

Now a new study in France indicates that taking two pills of Truvada just two hours before sex and two single doses within the following 24 hours could reduce the rate of being infected by 80%.

Researchers closed the study early due to the high effectiveness of the drug.

Via AIDS Map:

In an extraordinary development, a second European scientific trial of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has had its randomised phase closed early due to high effectiveness, just two weeks after the UK PROUD trial did exactly the same thing. The investigators of the IPERGAY trial, which has six sites in France and one in Canada, announced today a “Significant breakthrough in the fight against HIV and AIDS” because IPERGAY had successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of its PrEP regimen.

IPERGAY’s early closure is significant not only because it adds confirmation that PrEP can be highly effective, but because it was testing an innovative, intermittent (“on-demand”) PrEP regimen. In this study, participants did not take PrEP daily, but only when they anticipated having sex. The regimen involved taking two pills of Truvada (tenofovir + emtricitabine) twelve hours before anticipated sex and then, if sex happened, two separate one-pill doses the following day. This extends the versatility of PrEP and provides an alternative regimen to daily dosing.

As this is still in research, folks on Truvada daily doses should NOT change their regimen without discussing with their doctors.

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Anderson Cooper Takes Down Pat Robertson Over “You Can Get AIDS From Towels” Comments

I recently wrote about the incredibly stupid warning Pat Robertson made about traveling “overseas” because you might get AIDS from towels.

Pause for a moment because – like ice cream “brain freeze” – the stupid just plain hurts.)

Well, I wasn’t the only one to think Pat’s idiocy stood out.

Well, Anderson Cooper took Robertson to task for the comments as he included the sad episode on last night’s “Ridiculist.”

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Pat Robertson: You Can Get AIDS From Towels

On today’s edition of The 700 Club, a viewer wrote to Robertson saying that God had called them to go on a mission trip to Kenya, but friends and family said it is too dangerous because of the recent Ebola outbreak. The writer wondered if the trip might be too dangerous due to disease like Ebola.

Robertson remarked that while there was not currently an outbreak of Ebola in Kenya, you could get AIDS.

From towels.

SRSLY.

“You might get AIDS in Kenya, people have AIDS, you’ve got to be careful,” he explained. “I mean, the towels could have AIDS.”

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New York City Launches PrEP Campaign Via Dating Apps

The New York City Health Department has begun a campaign for anti-HIV medication Truvada via social media to promote the use of the drug in order to lower risk of infections.

Originally intended to treat HIV+ folks, in 2012 the drug was approved as a preventative option for gay men who may be more at risk for infection due to inconsistent use of condoms. Studies have shown the drug to be 90% effective against new infections when used on a daily basis.

However, not everyone is thrilled with the preventative use of the medication.

Some AIDS activists, including an older generation that saw the disease’s devastating toll before lifesaving drugs were introduced, are among PrEP’s most ardent foes.

Larry Kramer, the playwright and a hero of the movement, caused a stir in May when he called PrEP users “cowardly” and questioned why anyone would choose to “poison” oneself with antivirals like PrEP instead of simply using condoms.

A stigma persists that Truvada is a “party pill” — an attitude shared by some doctors who scold patients about their sexual practices and won’t prescribe it, said Anthony Hayes, a spokesman for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, which backs PrEP. The journal Clinical Infectious Diseases found that 74 percent of surveyed clinicians back PrEP, yet only 9 percent had prescribed it.

The city’s PrEP push is misguided, said Michael Weinstein, head of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which serves 200,000 patients globally.

“The first order of business in medical ethics is ‘do no harm,’ and what the New York City Health Department’s doing is doing harm, because there are people who are going to take this drug intermittently, who are going to think they’re protected, who are going to not be protected,” Weinstein said.

PrEP critics say users who fail to take the pill daily could still risk HIV infection. Weinstein fears the therapy encourages condomless sex and thus the danger of other sexually transmitted infections. Potential side effects include kidney and bone problems.

NYC is spending $500,000 promoting the medication with outreach to physicians and ad campaigns through social media and dating apps like Grindr and Scruff.

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New study indicates PrEP could offer 100% protection

At the International AIDS Conference, currently taking place in Melbourne, Australia, the results of a study showing the efficacy of Truvada to prevent new infections of HIV were released.

The news appears to be very good.  Apparently, a dosage of at least 4 times a week can offer 100% protection against new infections.

Tested on more than 1 600 HIV-negative men, including gay men, bisexuals, transgender women and men-sleeping-with men (MSM) at 11 research sites on four different continents, the latest study found that PrEP provided 100 percent protection among participants who took the pill four times or more every week. Those who took the pill two or three times a week registered a protection rate of about 84 percent. Those who took fewer than two tablets in the same period had no protection at all.

Carried out by the US-based National Institute of Health over an 18-month period in Chicago, San Fransisco, Boston, Thailand, Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town, among other sites, researchers are convinced that using pre-exposure prophylaxis could save lives of high-risk populations. ay men are regarded as the key population or at highest risk of HIV infection and transmission. At the conference it also emerged that while the HIV/Aids burden was declining in parts of the world, HIV infection among gay men was increasing.

Taking Truvada on a daily basis as a preventative against HIV infection (a practice known as PrEP) has been around since 2010. But there have been questions about long-term side-effects from taking the drug.