International

So you tested for HIV a few hours, days, weeks, months or years ago and you found out that you are HIV-positive. I know that was the last thing you expected, yet you must have been worried since that day you messed up somewhere or unwillingly/unknowingly got involved in a mess. Don't even burden yourself with thinking of that; it is absolutely not important. What is important is what you do after getting the facts. Immediately you saw two lines appearing in that testing kit, your mind went i

HIV-positive people who took injectable cabotegravir + rilpivirine every four or eight weeks as antiretroviral therapy found it more convenient and discreet than daily pills, also feeling that it eliminated a “daily reminder of living with HIV”, Deanna Kerrigan and colleagues report in PLOS One. Similarly, HIV-negative men who took injectable cabotegravir every 12 weeks as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) felt that it was probably more convenient and easier to adhere to than dai

Washington, DC - Transitioning away from a popular contraceptive shot known as DMPA could help protect women in Sub-Saharan Africa and other high-risk regions from becoming infected with HIV, according to a research review published in the Endocrine Society’s journal Endocrine Reviews. The predominant contraceptive in Sub-Saharan Africa is depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA)—a birth control shot administered every three months. Human studies suggest DMPA use may raise the risk of H

New data released by Public Health England showed that HIV diagnoses across the country had fallen by 18%. Confined to just gay and bisexual men, the drop was 21%; narrow it even further to just gay and bisexual men in London and it was 29%. The message is loud and clear: Combination HIV prevention works. Increasing testing and early access to treatment, plus adding PrEP to condom use as a safer sex strategy, gives us the power to send HIV into retreat. Why has it taken us so long to get here

To read the complete story by Andy West and look at some video, visit Out News Global, here. Jason Domino had sex without a condom with a fellow star with HIV to make a point. He knew the actor wasn’t on any anti-viral medication and had a high viral load. A viral load is a metric for how much HIV is found in someone’s blood. Jason told OutNews Global: “I knew I wouldn’t get HIV. I chose to do this to reinforce confidence that PrEP works even in “high risk” events. “My scen

To read the complete story visit Healio, here. The AIDS czar under former U.S. President Barack Obama worries about the consequences of the Trump administration’s recent termination of the last members of a presidential HIV/AIDS council. “Is this a signal that they’re moving away from evidence-based policymaking? That’s what’s troubling,” Jeffrey S. Crowley, MPH, program director of infectious disease initiatives at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law

Drug giants have warned of 'significant disruption to the supply chain for medicines' NHS Photo Library Looming disruption to the flow of medicines after Brexit means Britain must seek to stay under EU regulation, senior Government figures have conceded. Ministers are already pushing for the chemicals and aviation industries to remain under Brussels supervision – despite it clashing with Theresa May’s pledge to end oversight by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Now three leading

HIV infection is associated with airway obstruction, French investigators report in AIDS. Middle-aged HIV-positive smokers were matched with HIV-negative smokers of the same sex and age. After controlling for potential confounders, the investigators found a significant association between HIV and airway obstruction, an association that persisted after controlling for history of previous serious lung disease. Smoking intensity was also a significant risk factor. Lung function was measured usi

I wonder if I will finish this piece. Have you ever wondered when you are sad, if writing about it will help you find peace? I have, and it has been my experience that spending the time, effort and contemplation to express these feelings definitely helps. I’m not unfamiliar with sadness. Like every person with a chronic illness, I have my long dark nights when I feel like I’m wandering around, lost, in the dark. I am bipolar, so sadness can be a bit difficult to battle. Like I have ment

To read the complete article by George Citroner visit MD, here. Evidence suggests that exposure to certain types of mental and physical stress in adolescence may make it more likely that as adults they will practice behaviors that increase the risk of HIV infection. A longitudinal study conducted by the University of Michigan over 18 years, from Sept. 1994–May 2013, studied the effects exposure to illicit drug use, and violence had on adolescents in later adulthood. The findings sugge

Frequenters of the U=U page and some other influential Face Book pages got a treat last weekend when Danny Ssemuli and William Matovu of Uganda’s Love To Love Organization presented the final audio mix of their new song, “U=U”. LISTEN HERE to the final mix Readers of PositiveLite.com will remember that Love to Love Organization is a Ugandan NGO providing support for orphans, children and others infected and/or affected by HIV, especially through educational programs designed to allow c

People with HIV over the age of 50 are more likely to have developed type 2 diabetes if they started antiretroviral treatment before 1999 or had a longer exposure to older antiretroviral drugs such as stavudine (d4T) or first-generation protease inhibitors such as nelfinavir or indinavir, according to a study of people receiving HIV care in British Columbia, Canada. The onset of diabetes was much less likely in people aged 50 and over who started treatment from 2010 onwards, or who started tr

Day 132.  Devil or Angel? Ed, you actually enjoy hating him and being outraged at his latest policies. Ed, you know all this resentment you’re feeling is just poisoning yourself. But all of those pictures of him looking so ugly really are funny. All those pictures of him looking so ugly are really mean. You want to contact your friends and family members who voted for him and tell them how disappointed you still are and that you’ll never be able to forgive them. You want to figure out ho

A class of anti-inflammatory drugs already FDA-approved for rheumatoid arthritis could "purge" the reservoir of infected immune cells in people infected by HIV, according to new research. When culturing cells from HIV-infected individuals, researchers found the medications tofacitinib and ruxolitinib block viral production from infected cells, prevent transmission to bystander cells, and decay the viral reservoir. The results were published in PLOS Pathogens. "One of the major impediments t

Privilege; Definition a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people. I’m a lucky person. I get to go on vacations. I also take a lot of photos while I’m away, not on an expensive camera now, but on my iPhone. It’s become a habit to share some of them on Facebook while I’m away. I also go to quite a few HIV-related conferences, some in Canada, some further away. Again I take photos and post them on Facebook. I sometimes fe