CDC Fails....

The CDC has dropped the ball...

WASHINGTON (June 27, 2010) As health departments, community organizations and AIDS advocates around the country observe National HIV Testing Day today, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) criticized the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) for its failure to implement its own landmark 2006 change it its official HIV testing guidelines that included the recommendation for routine testing of all individuals ages 13-64 for HIV as they visit or encounter routine healthcare settings. Instead, health bureaucrats at the CDC and in the field rely on outdated, ineffectual behavioral interventions as the number of new HIV infections in the US—now, thought to be about 56,000 new cases each year—continues to grow.

 “Having a policy on routine HIV testing is absolutely worthless unless you implement it,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which conducts over 40,000 free HIV and STD tests annually throughout California, Florida and Washington, DC. “With rapid HIV testing technology today, the process have never been easier, yet the CDC still relies on useless behavioral interventions to try to address the growing US epidemic. The CDC and other government bodies do not put enough priority on testing when it comes to funding programs. They are not actively encouraging jurisdictions to implement routine testing, or streamlining the testing process.”  “The CDC pushes HIV National HIV testing Day, but it is not making routine testing happen a full four years after recommending it,” said Whitney Engeran-Cordova, Director of Public Health for AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “How many people have to become infected with HIV before the CDC will take a more assertive posture with states that will not fully implement its recommendations?  How much are we willing to spend on behavioral interventions that are expensive and not effective before we make the choice to prioritize testing and finding HIV positive individuals as a primary and secondary prevention method?”

Engeran-Cordova oversees AHF’s HIV testing program, whose ‘Testing America’ mobile HIV testing van wraps up an ambitious 6-month, 48 state free HIV testing tour in New York City this weekend. The AHF/Magic Johnson ‘Testing America’ tour, which kicked off in Los Angeles in January and has logged over 4,300 tests so far in more that 20,000 miles of travel—is part of a collaborative effort to raise local and national awareness about the importance—and ease—of HIV testing and to challenge attitudes about moving toward a streamlined model of HIV testing and counseling nationwide. This is AHF’s second HIV Testing Tour across the US after the successful completion of its inaugural 14 city AHF/Magic Johnson HIV Testing Caravan in mid-2009.At the time of the CDC’s landmark recommendation for changes in HIV testing back in 2006, a Medscape.com article (September 26, 2006, News Author: Laurie Barclay, MD; CME Author: Charles Vega, MD, FAAFP) reported:

“These recommendations for HIV testing are intended for all healthcare providers in both public and private settings, including hospital emergency departments, urgent care clinics, inpatient services, substance abuse treatment clinics, public health clinics, community clinics, correctional healthcare facilities, and primary care.”

The article also noted “The goals of these recommendations are to increase HIV screening of pregnant women and other patients in healthcare settings, to allow earlier detection of HIV infection, to identify and counsel persons with unrecognized HIV infection and refer them to clinical and prevention services, and to further reduce perinatal transmission of HIV in the United States. These revised guidelines update previous recommendations for HIV testing in healthcare settings and for screening of pregnant women.”

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the largest global AIDS organization.  AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 137,000 individuals in 23 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia Pacific Region and Eastern Europe.

Source: www.aidshealth.org



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National HIV Testing Day

National HIV Testing Day (NHTD) is an annual campaign coordinated by the National Association of People with AIDS to encourage people of all ages to "Take the Test, Take Control."  This year it falls on June 27th.  For more information visit, http://hivtest.org/press_files/default.cfm

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Just $.40 a day...

Director Spike Jonze has an HBO documentary on AIDS in Africa.  Forty cents a day for anti-viral medication will make all the difference in a life.  Check it out and spread the word...


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Something to Call Our Own...

“A Day in the Life” the stage play was born out of a relationship I had in 1999. He learned that he was HIV positive two months after we met…

It was October 1, 1999 to be exact. I’ll never forget because that day also marks my youngest nephew’s birthday. I met him at a time when I was still pretty green about dating (men); nevertheless, my boundaries were set. I was firm with “rules” I lived by. Quite often I spoke in absolutes detailing what I would “never” do and what I “always” did. One of the things I said I would never do was date someone HIV positive. Today, I make every attempt not to speak using absolutes because the very things we say we'll never do we find ourselves wondering "how" or "why" it happened.

I had an idea of what I thought the “life” and being gay were before I actually submerged myself in it. I was clear that I wasn’t interested in just sex or love triangles. He, on the other hand, was pretty seasoned & seemed pretty fearless in the stories he told about his past. Obstensibly he remembered with delight as he recounted the "fun" he had participating in threesomes, sex parties or weekends in some city park, but behind that smile was shame. In that moment, right before my eyes, it was as if it dawned on him the cause & effect of his choices. His past had finally caught up with him. If I knew then to tell him "happiness doesn't just happen, it's a series of good decisions," I would have.

I remember him telling me, “I think all of us know [gay men] it’s gonna happen sooner or later…” I didn’t agree then, and I still don’t today. I’ve never imagined HIV as a part of my own reality.

That December, I flew home to Maryland for Christmas. I was originally going to stay for three days, but decided to stay a week because I needed to escape this new world I had found in Atlanta that I was having difficulty adjusting to. When I arrived in Maryland, I remember my mom asking why I looked so skinny. She had no idea that I had lost a good deal of sleep & my appetite was practically gone for fearing the worst for him. She had no idea of my new life or the battles I was facing in Atlanta, and I definitely wasn’t about to tell her; at least not yet.

When I returned to Atlanta, after the holidays, I was rejuvenated and equipped with a clear head about what I was dealing with. I was adamant about making it work & he was just as adamant about ending it. I had shed the person that was deteremined to “never” date someone HIV positive for a newer, optimistic version of me. I attended HIV/AIDS workshops whenever I could to learn the dos & don’ts with someone living with the virus. The more I learned, the more he pulled away. I had no idea the information I gathered at those workshops would be the backdrop for "A Day in the Life". He confessed on one occasion that he wasn’t going to tell me (initially) that he was HIV positive because there was no need to; we hadn’t been active. He went on to say, “I love you more than I love myself…I want you to find someone that isn’t sick…I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you came home one day to tell me that I gave it to you.” He made the decision to walk away & never look back at that relationship. To this day, it's one of the most selfless things anyone has ever done for me...

He died January 2007.

I wrote “A Day in the Life” to celebrate his life & legacy, but also for every boy, girl, man, or woman that’s ever apologized for who they are because they struggle to understand what they’re feeling. This story & blog are dedicated to every young boy in small, rural cities that has few or no examples of progressive gay men, as well as those in a mental war with themselves. Lastly, it's for every brother that mistakenly believes HIV is part & parcel of being gay.“A Day in the Life” belongs to you.

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Who Are We, Without the Labels...

After years of researching & writing about the gay community, I’ve concluded there’s a link to HIV in the black gay community with the fact there's no public voice for black gay people. The gay subculture, in general, is underrepresented in media, general knowledge history and Hollywood despite the fact the entertainment business is fraught with gay people serving as make up artists, hair & fashion stylists, directors and more. Nevertheless, gay people are summarily discriminated against & excluded unless the creative genius is needed.

With respect to black gay men, no one has given us permission to be who we are, thus, many live in secret. Parents should be the first to offer support, but in many cases they aren't because of their own [religious] beliefs. As a result, the [gay] community is comprised of people that have been rejected by its own families, churches, friends, and ultimately the world.

The black church has always been the foundation for black people. It’s credited with how black people function as a whole & quite frankly could single handedly claim responsibility for carrying the African American community from slavery through civil rights to present day struggles. There's a spirit among black people and that spirit is sometimes manipulated & seduced by our spiritual leaders. We now live in a time where our thoughts "controlled" by bishops or preachers. The church has contorted God’s words for its selfish purposes. Some Christians have been so brainwashed that they can’t hear the voice of God because they’re so transfixed on the pastor’s words. Others seem confused about what God wants from them because of the admonishments from spiritual teachers; many of whom aren't meeting the standards they've outlined for their congregations. It isn’t until a bishop, pastor or priest falls from grace, behind some sort of scandal, that Christians are forced to remember they too are human and fall short.

The black church could “change the game” in the fight against HIV/AIDS by starting a dialogue about the reality of AIDS in our communities. After all, 80% of black people believe in a higher power. Instead, the church has opted to stand by and do nothing as this disease decimates the black race leaving the brunt of the burden & indelible scar of HIV on black women. The black church has broached other subjects that plagued the community i.e. civil rights & race relations, but a dialogue about HIV/AIDS would lend itself to conversations about premarital sex or worse homosexuality which both are prevalent in the congregations AND the pulpits. Nevertheless, the church has avoided the topic. In fact, few have HIV/AIDS ministries.

After years of navigating through life with bottled up feelings, gay men often become promiscuous, perhaps, in an effort to play “catch up” for all the years of not acting on the feelings. Additionally, most become susceptible to one or more vices that lead to anonymous sex; from loitering in public parks looking for sex [with a stranger], to bath houses, to sex parties, to online sex sites or even marriage with hopes of quelling the desire to be with another man. A great preponderance find themselves soul searching; in search to nullify the “feelings" or a way to release pent up feelings & emotions that have been ignored for years.

Week after week these men are badgered & besmirched in churches by the pastors they tithe. The end result is a subculture full of injured men with so many layers that no one has taken time to peel back, including the injured man himself. These same injured men make futile attempts to have relationships that often times are co-dependent. Both parties take turns licking the other’s wounds instead of stepping back to nurse his own wounds after years of verbal, sometimes physical, abuse inflicted upon him from years of being called sissy, punk or faggot by family, friends, even strangers.

A vast majority of gay men, irrespective of race, lose so many years hoping & wishing they weren’t gay, and before fully accepting oneself or acknowledging to oneself “I’m gay”, the popular choice is to make repeated attempts at [same sex] relationships without thoroughly understanding the psychology behind the feelings.

Gay men are synonymous with aesthetics and everything luxury, but the irony is the lack of self worth as a result of years of disenfranchisement....

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