pan class="photo">SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Some San Francisco-area doctors are promoting Pap tests for gay men to reduce rising rates of anal cancer. U.S. cases of anal cancer have risen 37 percent in the last 10 years, compared to a 1 percent increase in overall cancer cases. Part of the increase is believed to be because of better reporting. Anal Pap smears would help doctors detect precancerous lesions before they turn malignant, said Dr. Joel Palefsky, director of the Anal Neoplasia Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco. Other doctors say there is disagreement over whether the tests are necessary or effective. The American Cancer Society ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/4-27/news/healthnews/10468.cfm Fri, 27 Apr 2007 05:00:00 EST Bi health report challenges doctors
Better education, understanding sought for patients
By JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, March 23, 2007
Brad Brownfield is willing to tell just about anyone he's bisexual — but not his doctor.

The 36-year-old photographer living in Memphis, Tenn., said nine months after he came out to his family and friends, he still hasn't told his primary care physician.

“I've concealed my orientation because although he is the best doctor I've found, he is still in the military reserves and
I hesitate to reveal my orientation because I am afraid of compromising the level of care I may receive,” Brownfield said.

A new report from the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force aims to help ease those jitters.

“Bisexual Heal ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/3-23/news/healthnews/10252.cfm Fri, 23 Mar 2007 05:00:00 EST Medical Report
New HIV test improves ability to detect drug-resistant strains
By
Friday, January 19, 2007

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Detecting whether patients with HIV/AIDS are infected with even small amounts of drug-resistant forms of the virus can be done with a test developed by researchers at Duke University Medical Center. Findings were announced this week online in the journal Nature Methods. While other tests only pick up drug-resistant strains when they represent a significant portion of the virus in a person's bloodstream, the test developed at Duke may enable doctors to more accurately predict which medicines will work for patients and which drugs will ultimately fail. So far, the test has been used for research purposes only. Duke is seeking patents that will enable i ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2007/1-19/news/healthnews/healthnews.cfm Fri, 19 Jan 2007 05:00:00 EST Medical Report
Cabinet sidelines South African health minister on AIDS
By
Friday, September 15, 2006

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — South Africa's government scaled back the influence of its minister for AIDS policy, pilloried for questioning the effectiveness of anti-retroviral drug treatments and promoting beetroot, garlic and African potatoes as ways to fight AIDS. A group of international scientists called for Health Minister Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, nicknamed  “Dr. Beetroot,” to be fired and they labeled South Africa's program “inefficient and immoral.” Government spokesman Themba Maseko defended the minister, but said Sept. 8 the cabinet had appointed a committee to oversee implementation of the country's AIDS program. “ ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/9-15/news/healthnews/healthnews.cfm Fri, 15 Sep 2006 05:00:00 EST Medical Report
AIDS protesters still visible at international conference
By
Friday, August 25, 2006

TORONTO — While their numbers may be slimmer than in years past, protesters at the 16th International AIDS Conference made their presence known, including a rally by sex workers and a women's march demanding more funding for HIV prevention. Chants from protesters included: “Condom, needles, and the rest — we need more than just a test!” and “Act Up! Fight Back! Fight AIDS!” A discussion with former President Bill Clinton and Bill Gates was disrupted when protesters held up pillowcases spray painted with the words: “Fight AIDS. Fund Healthworkers Now,” according to an Aug. 18 CNN report. “In none of the demonstrations are w ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/8-25/news/healthnews/hibs.cfm Fri, 25 Aug 2006 05:00:00 EST Int'l AIDS confab offers bleak global outlook for gay men
Critics say U.S. abstinence policies hamper prevention
By RYAN LEE
Friday, August 18, 2006

The Bush administration is accustomed to criticism of its AIDS policies by those attending the biennial International AIDS Conference. But this week, two U.S. leaders in the fight against HIV — including Bush's gay former AIDS czar — took aim at what they called the president's “ideologically driven, abstinence-until-marriage focus that places many at risk of needlessly contracting HIV.”

In an opinion piece published Aug. 14 in the Toronto Star, timed to coincide with the city hosting the XVI annual International AIDS Conference Aug. 13-18, Scott Evertz, Bush's former director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, wrote that current dom ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/8-18/news/healthnews/prevention.cfm Fri, 18 Aug 2006 05:00:00 EST Medical Report
Philadelphia yanks controversial ads  for HIV testing
By
Friday, August 18, 2006

pan class="textdark">PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Health officials yanked public service advertisements urging HIV testing after a gay advocacy group expressed concerns about images depicting young black men in a gun's cross hairs. “Putting the face of a black man in the cross hairs of a gun paints a damaging message about violence and black men,” Lee Carson, chair of the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council, wrote in a letter to the city's interim health commissioner last month. The $236,000 campaign, which ended abruptly Aug. 7, was geared at gay and bisexual men and featured the tagline, “Have YOU been hit?” “Given the violence perp ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/8-18/news/healthnews/hibs.cfm Fri, 18 Aug 2006 05:00:00 EST Medical Report
HIV mutation related to AIDS dementia
By
Friday, August 04, 2006

pan class="textdark">SAN FRANCISCO — Researchers may have discovered why only some HIV-positive people develop HIV-related dementia. A study of 18 HIV-positive subjects shows that HIV in the brain and central nervous system is genetically different from HIV that lives in the blood and peripheral tissues, according to a University of California – San Francisco news release. Serious cognitive impairment among the study subjects was correlated with the presence of a particular mutation in the HIV envelope gene. The study appears in the July 2006 issue of Brain. It was led by Satish K. Pillai, Ph.D, a staff research associate at the San Francisco VA Medical Cen ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/8-4/news/healthnews/hibs.cfm Fri, 4 Aug 2006 05:00:00 EST Medical Report
Gates Foundation gives $287 million for AIDS vaccine research
By
Friday, July 28, 2006

pan class="textdark">SEATTLE (AP) — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced July 19 it's awarding $287 million in grants over five years to create an international network of scientists to speed up the development of an AIDS vaccine. The collaboration is critical to making HIV vaccine development more efficient, said the Gates Foundation's Dr. Nicholas Hellmann. “Unfortunately, developing an effective HIV vaccine has proven to be tremendously difficult, and despite the committed efforts of many researchers around the world, progress simply has not been fast enough.” Hellmann acknowledged that an effective vaccine may still be 10 years away. ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/7-28/news/healthnews/hibs.cfm Fri, 28 Jul 2006 05:00:00 EST Medical Report
FDA approves first single dose, once-a-day pill for HIV
By
Friday, July 14, 2006

pan class="textdark">PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) ? Drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and biotech drug maker Gilead Sciences Inc. said July 12 the Food & Drug Administration approved a long-awaited combination HIV treatment made by the companies through a joint venture. The FDA approved Atripla, a fixed dose combination of Bristol-Myers? Sustiva HIV drug, along with Viread and Emtriva, HIV treatments made by Gilead. The product is the first once-a-day single tablet HIV regimen approved for U.S. sale. Sustiva, Viread and Emtriva all work by blocking reverse transcriptase, an enzyme necessary for HIV to make copies of itself. The drugs in the in Atripla already constitute the ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/7-14/news/healthnews/hibs.cfm Fri, 14 Jul 2006 05:00:00 EST Medical Report
Men with older brothers are more likely to be gay
By
Friday, July 07, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) — Men who have several older brothers have an increased chance of being gay — whether they were raised together or not — a finding researchers say adds weight to the idea that sexual orientation is based in biology. The increase was seen in men with older brothers from the same mother, but not those who had stepbrothers or adopted brothers who were older. “It's likely to be a prenatal effect,” said Anthony F. Bogaert of Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada, who did the research. “This and other studies suggest that there is probably a biological basis” for homosexuality, said Bogaert. He studied f ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/7-7/news/healthnews/hibs.cfm Fri, 7 Jul 2006 05:00:00 EST Medical Report
Goodall opposes request for AIDS research on monkeys
By
Friday, June 30, 2006

pan class="textdark">ATLANTA (AP) — Primate expert Jane Goodall and 18 other researchers sent a letter to federal officials urging them to oppose an Atlanta research center's proposal to do AIDS-related research on sooty mangabey monkeys. The letter urges the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to reject a request by the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, according to a copy filed with the government. Scientists at the research center have nurtured a group of the primates, which are natural carriers of a form of the AIDS virus but do not get sick from it, since the late 1960s. But federal officials listed them as endangered in 1988, leaving the center with the ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/6-30/news/healthnews/hibs.cfm Fri, 30 Jun 2006 05:00:00 EST Support growing for 'routine' HIV testing
National HIV Testing Day highlights CDC changes, debate on testing
By LOU CHIBBARO J
Friday, June 23, 2006

Frank Oldham, executive director of the National Association of People With AIDS, will mark the official start of the 12th annual National HIV Testing Day on June 27 by ringing the famous bell at the New York Stock Exchange to open the day of trading.

Aimed at drawing attention to the importance of HIV testing, Oldham's symbolic gesture on Wall Street comes at a time when the federal government is proposing that virtually all of the nation's health care providers — including private doctors and hospital emergency rooms — “routinely” administer HIV tests.

Recommendations issued March 7 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/6-23/news/healthnews/routine.cfm Fri, 23 Jun 2006 05:00:00 EST Medical Report
Calif. high court to hear lesbian's claim against fertility doctors
By
Friday, June 23, 2006

pan class="textdark">SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The California Supreme Court agreed June 14 to hear a case that will determine whether doctors can deny treatment to patients who offend their religious beliefs. The justices decided to review the case of two Vista fertility doctors, Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton, who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian. The conservative Christian doctors do not object to treating married patients requiring insemination. “These physicians do not believe that it is necessarily appropriate for a woman to have a baby out of wedlock,” the doctors' attorney, Robert Tyler said. Jennifer Pizer, with the Lambda Legal Def ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/6-23/news/healthnews/hibs.cfm Fri, 23 Jun 2006 05:00:00 EST Medical Report
U.N. chief says world is losing AIDS battle
By
Friday, June 09, 2006

UNITED NATIONS — Secretary General Kofi Annan said June 1 the world is losing the battle against HIV and AIDS, the New York Times reported. “The epidemic continues to outpace us,” he told a session of the General Assembly. “There are more new infections than ever before; more deaths than ever before; more women and girls infected than ever before.” If countries “don't step up the fight drastically,” the world would not be able to “reverse the tide,” he said, calling the spread of the disease “the single greatest reversal in the history of human development.” The U.N. estimates that it needs $18 billio ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/6-9/news/healthnews/hibs.cfm Fri, 9 Jun 2006 05:00:00 EST HIV still changing the sex lives of gay men
From abstaining to 'bug chasing,' AIDS reactions run the gamut
By JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, June 02, 2006

Steven Dwyer remembers the sexual freedom that he and other gay men enjoyed 25 years ago.

In the months before the HIV outbreak, when Dwyer lived in Los Angeles, he lived a “wild lifestyle” with a lover who owned the city's first leather bar.

All that changed in June 1981, when the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in Atlanta reported the first cases of a rare pneumonia in young gay men. Those reports marked the official beginning of the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

“For men who had never faced problems in their lives because they were gay,” Dwyer said, “HIV certainly gave them something else to think about.”

Dwyer, ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/6-2/news/healthnews/reactions.cfm Fri, 2 Jun 2006 05:00:00 EST Barebacking persists despite risks
Some gay men decry HIV warnings as 'discriminatory'
By JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, June 02, 2006

Despite more than 20 years of admonitions and ad campaigns aimed at promoting safe sex, some gay men continue to seek unprotected anal intercourse, also known as barebacking.

There is no shortage of websites and listserves catering to those interested in bareback pornography and in meeting like-minded men for condom-free sex. Some sites host personal ads, while others tout gatherings for men seeking such risky encounters.

The messages are so prevalent that Tokes Osubu, executive director of Gay Men of African Descent, said he received an unsolicited e-mail invitation last month to a sex party where condoms were to be banned.

“I was shocked and disgusted,&rdqu ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/6-2/news/healthnews/risks.cfm Fri, 2 Jun 2006 05:00:00 EST 25 Years of AIDS
Gay men still largest demographic group of Americans with HIV
By Ryan Lee
Friday, June 02, 2006

Twenty-five years ago this week, James Curran traveled from his Atlanta office to a hospital in New York City where he “reunited” with a patient whom he had never met, and whom the young scientist would never forget.

“I recall walking into NYU Medical Center and meeting a man who was almost precisely my age, who had come from a suburb of Detroit, as I had, and had attended a Catholic high school, as I had,” said Curran, who was then working as an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

“We were now back together, if you will, 20 years later, him with what I initially thought was a rare skin cancer that, frankly, I h ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/6-2/news/healthnews/anniv.cfm Fri, 2 Jun 2006 05:00:00 EST Medical Report
San Francisco makes it easier to test people for HIV
By
Friday, May 26, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Public medical clinics run by the city will no longer require written consent and counseling sessions before testing people for HIV in a bid to increase the number screened for the virus, officials said May 17. It's a dramatic policy shift for a city at the forefront of the AIDS fight, and the first known entity in the U.S. to loosen consent and counseling requirements. The new policy was implemented May 16 in city clinics and two hospitals that test patients. Last year, 240 people tested positive out of the 6,000 tested in San Francisco. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention is contemplating similar recommendations, as well as ... ]]> http://washblade.com/2006/5-26/news/healthnews/hibs.cfm Fri, 26 May 2006 05:00:00 EST