Dr. Joel D. Weisman dies at 66; among the first doctors to detect AIDS
Dr. Joel D. Weisman, who was one of the first physicians to detect the AIDS epidemic and who became a national advocate for AIDS research, treatment and prevention, died Saturday at his Westwood home. He was 66.
He had heart disease and had been ill for several months, said Bill Hutton, his domestic partner of 17 years. See Dr. Joel D. Weisman dies at 66; among the first doctors to detect AIDS
Los Angeles Times
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Closet Case: How Intolerance Fuels Africa’s AIDS Crisis
New research has challenged the long-standing belief that HIV and AIDS in Africa primarily affect heterosexuals. A study published on the website of the British medical journal Lancet found that men who have sex with other men are up to 10 times more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to be infected with the virus — which suggests that the fight against AIDS on the continent may be undermined by widespread homophobia.
Researchers from Oxford University, the Population Council of Ghana and the Kenya Medical Research Institute reviewed AIDS studies conducted over the past few years and concluded that male-male sex was a major blind spot in AIDS research and policy in Africa. Men having sex with other men is far more common in Africa than is socially acknowledged, owing to widespread hostility toward homosexuality, and the phenomenon there is underreported in research and largely ignored in public-health responses to the pandemic. The researchers compiled statistics from a small but growing number of studies conducted in various African countries in recent years that included estimates of HIV prevalence among men who have sex with other men. (See pictures from Africa’s AIDS crisis.)
See Closet Case: How Intolerance Fuels Africa’s AIDS Crisis
TIME
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Tribeca film targets hypocrisy in US gay politics
A documentary called “Outrage” argues that closeted homosexual U.S. politicians who vote against the interests of gays and lesbians should be “outed” because their hypocrisy has slowed the progress of gay rights.
Written and directed by Kirby Dick, the film relies on interviews with people who claim to have had gay relationships with politicians who vote against gay marriage, hate crime legislation, gays in the military, and funding for HIV/AIDS research.
“Outrage” premiered at this week’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York and opens on May 8 in select U.S. cities.
See Tribeca film targets hypocrisy in US gay politics
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Safer or Stupid? Some Gay Men ‘PrEP’ for Sex
More than two decades into the AIDS epidemic, the well-known conundrum of condom burnout among gay men has produced a highly controversial underground practice. “Pre-exposure prophylaxis,” or PrEP, involves taking a comprehensive anti-retroviral drug, usually tenofivir, before having sex.
Some men are actually doing this because they take safer sex seriously indeed. One doctor told me of two patients who took the drug before they had protected sex with strangers as an added preventative in case a condom breaks.
But for the vast majority of gay men, PrEP means a key to not using a condom. That’s what makes it such a hot-button issue among AIDS researchers, doctors and activists. The theory behind is that the anti-retroviral drug prevents HIV from grafting itself onto healthy cells and replicating. When HIV first enters the human body, there isn’t much of it; theoretically, if those few viruses swimming around the bloodstream don’t have anywhere to go, they’ll die out–just as do millions of germs we come across every day that don’t affect us.
One prominent doctor in Boston maintained that PrEP, despite its bad rep, is necessary as one more tool in the arsenal of AIDS fighters. But others see it as an enabler for those men who don’t want to bother using protection. See Safer or Stupid? Some Gay Men ’PrEP’ for Sex
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/safer-or-stup…
Businessman donates $100 million to AIDS research Reuters
A Massachusetts businessman has donated $100 million to fund research into the development of an AIDS vaccine, according to Massachusetts General Hospital, which received the gift.
Phillip T. Ragon, provider of the gift, is the chief executive of a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based software company called InterSystems Corp. The money will establish the Phillip T. and Susan M. Ragon Institute, to be based at MGH.
The gift, which will flow through MGH, will be shared with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.
See Businessman donates $100 million to AIDS research
Reuters
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