AIDS

By Ed Flanagan, NBC News

JOHANNESBURG – With the World Cup kick-off just days away, HIV/AIDS prevention groups in South Africa have been ramping up their public protests against FIFA, the world body of soccer.

The activists claim that that the tournament’s organizers have hindered HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaigns by blocking condom and safe-sex information distribution at official game venues. ...read more

I know this is kind of late, I wanted to post this awhile ago but I couldnt edit it in time and than I had finals and it just got way messy and busy the last two weeks after Forum.. But I finally got this thing edited and I hope you all enjoy.

My name is Christopher Ervin. I am the Director of Development for Aniz, Inc. Aniz is a community-based organization located in Atlanta whose mission is to provide prevention, education, advocacy, and directed services to multi-cultural children, women and seniors infected/affected with HIV/AIDS.

This has been a most auspicious week for me. I have the privilege of participating in two events that speaks to why I work in the community. It should be noted that as we discuss HIV/AIDS, I will be in two of the cities that have been significantly impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  As I write this piece, I am in Washington, DC participating in the National Minority Quality Forum/Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in cooperation with the Congressional Black Caucus 7^th Annual Leadership Summit. The focus of this summit is to bring community leaders, health providers and policy makers together to address health disparities in the country and improving health equity. During the time here, there has been much discussion of how to not only increase participation of disparate communities in clinical trials, but how to make such clinical trials more patient and community-centered. In addition, there was a panel discussion that discuss the issues of how HIV/AIDS, including ADAP is funded, the importance of health provider training and importance of increased diversity in HIV vaccine trials. If you interested in some of the proceedings of the summit, you can follow my twitter as @cprdoc or my organization as @Aniz_Inc  read more »

GRAND RAPIDS — West Michigan’s largest health system wants to repeal a state mandate requiring patients to sign a separate consent form to be tested for HIV, saying it creates barriers to treatment.

But some advocates for HIV/AIDS patients fear a slippery slope.

“The goal is to remove the testing barrier because the earlier we can diagnose the easier it is to treat the disease and the less likely people unknowingly transmit the virus to other people,” said Dr. Mimi Emig, an infectious disease physician for Spectrum Health Medical Group. read more...

What is your opinion? Consent for HIV testing in medical facilities...