Full Obama remarks at AIDS bill signing
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT SIGNING OF THE RYAN WHITE HIV/AIDS
TREATMENT EXTENSION ACT OF 2009
Diplomatic Reception Room
11:58 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody.
AUDIENCE: Good morning.
THE PRESIDENT: We often speak about AIDS as if it’s going on somewhere else. And for good reason — this is a virus that has touched lives …
Tags: aids, Aids Treatment, Audience, Diplomatic Reception, Extension Act, Good Reason, hiv, Hiv Aids, Hiv Treatment, Reception Room, Room 11, Ryan White, VirusAIDS/LifeCycle charity bike ride gets personal when recession hits
For the last two years, Brodt has participated in the annual bike ride to raise money for HIV and AIDS-related services at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.
But Brodt, once a television producer with a six-figure salary, never thought “others” could include him.
After losing his job and health insurance, Brodt, 37, now relies on the same services that he raised money for in the past for his own HIV treatment.
He was laid off last April. Although he was offered another job in the industry, he decided to take time off to reassess his career. When he was ready to return to work, previous job offers had dried up. By then, he said, people who had provided job leads were losing their own positions.
Savings stretched only so far. Brodt moved into an older, cheaper apartment on the edge of Hollywood and gave up his car. Some weeks, he said, he had less than $20 in his bank account.
After six months, Brodt could no longer afford the $500 monthly payment for COBRA health insurance benefits. His HIV medications could run several thousand dollars a year. He stopped taking them.
It wasn’t long before he started to feel fatigued and depressed.
“I thought, maybe I need to talk to someone . . . Maybe I’m just depressed. I can’t find a job,” Brodt said. “I didn’t really think it had to do with HIV.”
Brodt’s symptoms were a textbook example of what can happen when someone who is HIV positive stops taking medication, said Brad Hare, medical director of UC San Francisco’s Positive Health Program at San Francisco General Hospital. A lapse in treatment can increase the risk of disease progression and medication resistance, he said.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/aidslifecycle…
Gay rights advocate, AIDS activist McFarlane dies
(Denver, Colorado) Rodger McFarlane, a Denver-based advocate for gay rights and HIV-AIDS treatment and education, has died while traveling in New Mexico. He was 54.
The New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator confirmed Monday that McFarlane died Friday in Truth or Consequences but didn’t immediately release the cause.
A statement released …
Tags: aids, Aids Activist, Aids Education, Aids Treatment, Denver Colorado, gay rights, hiv, Hiv Aids, Hiv Treatment, Medical Investigator, New Mexico Office, Rights Advocate, Rodger Mcfarlane, Truth Or Consequences
