International Carnival of Pozitivities - Edition 16

The 16th edition of the International Carnival of Pozitivities is now available at Ogre's Politics and Views at this link.

This edition represents an attempt to reach out to a conservative political community about HIV/AIDS. It is our hope that our messages might encourage those who normally do not come in contact with the issues of HIV/AIDS to think about how to help us fight the pandemic. We have poetry, video, personal accounts and news from around the world.


Next Edition

Please visit the ICP homepage to learn more about this project and how you can contribute at this link.

We are now accepting submissions for edition 17 to be hosted at Slimconomy at this link. Please consider contributing your original artwork, poetry, news, personal accounts, short stories, videos or music files for the next edition.


_______________

Please Share with Your Friends

Please post a permanent link to the ICP homepage (you can get a widget there as well) on your blogs or websites and to share the word of this edition with your readers and friends. The more people who know about the ICP, the more likely it will be that we will continue to receive excellent contributions. In fact, feel free to nominate your own HIV/AIDS related contributions from your favorite blogs or websites. The most powerful stories are those of personal nature, so I would encourage you to seek out or write personal accounts and to share them with the ICP. There are many more of you than of me, so join me in the search for quality blogs that share personal stories about HIV/AIDS from around the world. We have hardly begun to tap into the situation in Asia, so blogs from that region of the world are particularly welcome.

Bono: We Can Be the Generation that Ends Extreme Poverty

The last minute or two of Bono's NAACP humanitarian award speech is so powerful. Please watch this. He begins, "To those in the church who still stand in judgement of the AIDS emergency, let me climb into the pulpit with you for just a moment...."



Excerpts:


"I grew up in Ireland, and when I grew up, Ireland was divided along religious lines, sectarian lines. Young people like me were parched for the vision that poured out of pulpits of Black America. And the vision of a Black reverend from Atlanta, a man who refused to hate because he knew love would do a better job. These ideas travel, you know, and they reached me clear as any tune and lodged in my brain like a song, I couldn’t shake that...."




"I know that America hasn’t solved all of its problems and I know AIDS is still killing people right here in America, and I know the hardest hit are African-Americans, many of them young women. Today at a church in Oakland, I went to see such extraordinary people with this lioness here, Barbara Lee, took me around and with her pastor J. Alfred Smith – and may I say that it was the poetry and the righteous anger of the Black church that was such an inspiration to me, a very white, almost pink, Irish man growing up in Dublin."




"..to those in the church who still sit in judgment on the AIDS emergency, let me climb into the pulpit for just one moment. Because whatever thoughts we have about God, who He is, or even if God exists, most will agree that God has a special place for the poor. The poor are where God lives. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house."








"God is where the opportunity is lost and lives are shattered.












"God is with the mother who has infected her child with a virus that will take both their lives."











"God is under the rubble in the cries we hear during wartime. God, my friends, is with the poor. And God is with us if we are with them."











"This is not a burden, this is an adventure."









"Don’t let anyone tell you it cannot be done. We can be the generation that ends extreme poverty."

THE ONE CAMPAIGN



*Thanks to Weekend Fisher for transcript.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

International Carnival Of Pozitivities - Edition 11


Be sure to see Steve Schalchlin's edition of the International Carnival of Pozitivities. [LINK] It's issue number 11 and its filled with the stories of those living with or loving someone with HIV/AIDS. I was moved by this revelation from 2sides2ron's guest writer Robin Hope, who describes the joy and the struggles of adopting an HIV positive baby:

"The ignorance that still floats around is amazing . My daughter comes home from school and relays to me how some kids in her health class still believe that you will get AIDS just from being in the same room. Ashley wants to stand up and scream, but instead she screams silently, afraid of the repercussions if she were to disclose her diagnosis."

Clinton Foundation & UNITAID: Reduced Prices on Vital AIDS Drugs

Press Release: Clinton Foundation and UNITAID Announce Price Reductions on 16 AIDS Medicines for 66 Developing Countries

Cost of Second-Line Treatments Falls by 25 percent in Low Income, 50 percent in Middle Income Countries; “Next Generation” One-Pill, Once-Daily AIDS Treatment Now Available for less than $1 per Day
May 8, 2007
New York, NY
LINK TO STORY

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anil Soni has a message I'd like to share with you today regarding the above good news. I just sent the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative a donation and I hope you will, too.

Shaibu Musa's parents died of AIDS when he was just eight years old. Shaibu recently learned he too is HIV-positive, following a door-to-door testing campaign conducted by Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) volunteers in Tanzania. The virus has stunted his growth, keeping this 16 year old young man in the body of a boy. His body's defenses weakened, Shaibu was quiet and lethargic when we met him, but now he is being given a second chance at life thanks to antiretroviral therapy. There are five million people just like Shaibu around the world today who need these medicines and deserve that same chance to live a long, happy and healthy life.

Fortunately, President Clinton today announced new agreements that dramatically decrease the cost of medicines for people living with HIV/AIDS in poor and middle income countries - the best treatment in the world, just one pill taken once a day, now costs less than $1 per day. The new prices have been made possible by a partnership between the Clinton Foundation and UNITAID, a new fund for HIV/AIDS medicines.

I am proud to announce these new and important price reductions that will help CHAI and others in our global efforts save thousands of lives. But this is just a start, and we need your help.

You can make affordable treatment a reality for people around the world. Every contribution helps us to increase access to treatment, build health systems, and enable our government partners to effect the change that is so desperately needed for people like Shaibu.

Will you donate $25, $50 or more now to help the Clinton Foundation continue its important work?

My colleagues in Tanzania were able to work with local and national partners to ensure treatment is available for Shaibu and other Tanzanians living with HIV/AIDS, particularly in rural areas. In a world without borders, we all have an unprecedented ability to solve problems, save lives, and make a difference in our communities. Please contribute today, and help us take more steps forward in this fight against HIV/AIDS.


Anil Soni
Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative

There are five million people around the world today who need anti-retroviral medicines and a chance to live a long, happy and healthy life.

You can help give others like Shaibu a second chance at life. Donate to the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative using the link below today.

ICOP - Edition 9

The 9th Edition .... of the International Carnival of the Pozitivities is hosted this month at Creampuff Revolution. [click Red Ribbon for link]

I'd like to feature Kristian's My Space blogpost. It's an open and poignant story about her own 20-year experience with living with HIV. It reminded me that those who look down upon or who fear people who struggle with this disease are in denial about the importance of keeping forgiveness and loving intention at the center of the fullness of our common humanity.

I couldn't make the father of my child leave my home dying from a disease and not care for him. His own relatives called me to say, make him leave, and I thought they were insane. All I knew was, he was sick, and he was my husband, and he was the father of my child. So he was staying, and we were going to learn whatever we needed to learn in order to deal with this.

But I had to be tested as well, and I tested positive. He looked as shocked as I was. I was a straight young mom having sex only within the confines of a marriage. That proved it was not hard to come in contact with someone who had been exposed for whatever reason. If it wasn't that he, himself, was in a high risk category, he could have been exposed to someone who was. It could have started anywhere. Being a member of this race, the human race, linked us all.

To add more news about HIV/AIDS, I have to say that I was astounded to learn that 2008 POTUS candidate John McCain drew a complete blank when asked if he supported the distribution of taxpayer-subsidized condoms in Africa to fight the transmission of H.I.V.


Gene defect leads to an AIDS drug - In 1996, scientists solved a mystery surrounding certain gay men who were immune to AIDS. This year, Pfizer Inc. will sell the first drug based on that discovery. The US and European researchers, writing in several science journals, said a small group of Caucasian gay men carry a gene mutation that provides natural protection against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Last week, culminating an 11-year race among three drugmakers, Pfizer released successful studies of a new pill [called Maraviroc] specifically designed to mimic the gene defect.
[A tip o'the hat to Rah Bourbon for the heads-up on this one.]

The 8th Edition of the International Carnival of Pozitivities

ICP
Edition #8 of the ICP [International Carnival of the Pozitivities] includes a special Valentine’s Day feature from host Ron Hudson:

As many of you know, I have opened up my personal blog to provide space to anyone who wishes to contribute to the ICP. This month, Janina from the kd lang MSN langisms fan group contributed an original poem in honor of St. Valentine’s Day. Janina describes herself as a hopeless romantic and has shown tremendous support for the ICP within the kd lang fan group since I began to participate a while back. Her poem, hearts ~ is not specifically about HIV/AIDS, but her contribution is intended to spur on others who might be willing to write something relating to HIV/AIDS for future editions of the ICP.

hearts ~

a weaving melancholy,
flocks of birds crossing their wings;
two hearts entwined as one
enflamed passion unites.

truth be upturned
for i can imagine the further dawn;
as our future is upon us
the birds carry on.

the sky paints in the arms of the tree
the raindrop bends the leaf;
flowing musician writes
lyrics embraced it's song.

my lover loves but only me
and her spirit feeds my soul;
a beat to hear them
hearts watermark.

alas, but in my lovers arms
my heart lays to rest;
angels in heaven
forever blessed.

we pray of one another
eternally languid and sweet;
immortally begotten
bittersweet!

In many of our lives, we suffer needlessly from lack of compassion. Often, we suffer alone. Isolation is an ever increasing issue for people living with HIV/AIDS. Never, ever give up hope. Hope is what truly keeps us alive. Reach out to make new friends if your old friends have left you behind. Do it for you because you do not deserve to be alone.

My own monthly feature with updates on news about HIV/AIDS:

ENCOURAGING?
Iranian Scientists Boasting New Herbal-Based Med for HIV/AIDS
Ron Brynaert is reporting at Raw Story that scientists in Iran are claiming to have found an herbal-based medication with no known side effects called 'IMOD' that they say will help to control the AIDS virus and increase immunity in patients who have tested HIV positive.


DISCOURAGING?
Opinion: AIDS burden worsens and the silence lingers by Leonard Pitts Jr.

Eight years ago, I wrote this: "The silence, the absence of voices raised in fear, raised in warning, raised in alarm -- raised -- is deafening." [..] Eight years later, the silence is still loud and the numbers are worse. Blacks now account for nearly half of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses and contract AIDS at a rate 10 times that of whites. Sixty-four percent of all American women living with HIV/AIDS are black. AIDS is the leading cause of death for black women 25 to 34 years old. [..] And eight years later, Gaye's advice still haunts. Because while poverty plays a role in those ghastly numbers, while access to healthcare and lack of information are factors, who can deny that the main reason for this plague is the silence, the closed-mouth social conservatism, the priggish moral rectitude, of a people still ill at ease discussing sexuality, homosexuality, drug use and other realities. Instead, we mouth piety, prayers and platitudes while the world burns down around us.


DISAPPOINTING.
Halt of trials a setback in AIDS fight

Researchers said last week that they had shuttered two trials of a microbicidal compound because preliminary data found that women using it were contracting HIV, which causes AIDS, at a higher rate than those not using it. [..] The halt was a setback for Conrad, a Virginia health-research group supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which hoped to market the compound. [..] It's the second time in recent years that a microbicide appeared to increase the risk of HIV infection rather than retard it.

TROUBLESOME.
New WHO Chief fails to stand up for people living with AIDS

Approximately 108,000 of 500,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Thailand depend on GPO-VIR, the generic version of the first-line anti-retroviral therapy produced by the Government Pharmaceutical Organization. According to the Thai government, an estimated 20,000 of these patients have developed resistance to the drug, and are in need of Kaletra. [..] “AHF is alarmed by Dr. Chan’s comments regarding Thailand’s move to increase access to lifesaving AIDS medications for its citizens in need. It is clear that, despite the WHO’s mission to attain the highest possible level of health for all people, the health of people living with HIV in Thailand is not among Dr. Chan’s priorities,” said Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s President. “Thailand’s move to issue a compulsory license for Kaletra will likely lower the price of this lifesaving drug to nearly half of its current cost and will mean the difference between life and de ath for thousands of Thai citizens in need. The comments made by Dr. Chan serve only to undermine Thailand’s efforts to protect the health of its people and it is appalling that in her position she would choose to advocate for multinational corporate interests over the interests of people living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world. AHF seeks immediate clarification from the Director General on her position regarding Thailand’s efforts to protect the health of its citizens.”


NEW CAUSE FOR CONCERN
Seattle area sees drug-resistant HIV

SEATTLE -- A hard-to-treat strain of the virus that causes AIDS has been found in four gay men in Washington's King County, and authorities fear it could spread to more. [..] There is no evidence that the troublesome strain of HIV is spreading rapidly, but its appearance underscores the need for renewed emphasis on safe sex practices, said officials in the Seattle-King County Public Health Department.

John Edwards on NPR: Peace in Iraq

John Edwards spoke to Diane Rehm on NPR by phone from Detroit, Michigan this morning for the entire first hour of the Diane Rehm show. He answered many questions from Diane Rehm and interested callers and from listeners who had sent emails.




He said that he believes presidential campaigns should be publicly financed, but in reality, he likely won't be doing that because of the already-made decisions of Democratic competitors in this 2008 presidential race. When asked, he named Senators Clinton and Obama as his primary rivals in this race. In my opinion, this is not exactly earth-shattering news to anyone, considering that all we seem to hear about in the obviously "excluding" mainstream media in recent days is 'Obama-Clinton.' The fact that Senator Edwards is often left off "the list" despite his enormous popularity with real people serves to reinforce a non-myth about mainstream media, which is the twisted reality of "money" being "speech". Which takes me back to the very beginning of this particular paragraph....

Senator Edwards said, as far as popularity polls are concerned, that we tend to see results of the national polls on national television, and these results don't mean a whole lot right now. What matters now is what we see happening in the individual states, such as Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. When asked, he said he surely wouldn't run as a vice-presidential candidate but he would welcome many leaders who he would felt would deserve to be considered for his vice-president when it came time to choose. When asked, he said he hoped that the country was ready for a female and/or a black president. [Personally, I hope that's true myself.] He stated that he was proud of his professional life as an attorney working for the "little guy" against powerful forces. His life has shown a clear pattern of working for those who are up against sometimes seemingly insurmountable forces, which is why he has shown his genuine care for the working poor of this country - most recently as Director for the Poverty Center at Chapel Hill. His presidential campaign is a natural extension of this pattern in his life's chosen work.

Campaigns and campaign finance in America are every bit as dysfunctional as our current healthcare system. Speaking of which....

Senator Edwards has just presented a new plan for Universal Healthcare, emphasizing that our current healthcare system is currently dysfunctional. There are extraordinary inefficiencies built into the system as it stands today. Senator Edwards believes that his Universal Healthcare plan is transformational. Everyone, from government to business to healthcare provider to the individual, is asked to share responsibility in seeing that every person is covered with healthcare insurance. His new plan creates new and improved efficiencies in the healthcare system - many that don't exist at the present time. Health Markets, non-profit and state-based with support of federal government, will be used as a new competetive bargaining tool in the marketplace; with business, healthcare system, and the individual working with government support to create never-before seen choices for all Americans.

There are many within the political ranks of the Democratic party who'd love for Senator Edwards to say that no one's taxes will ever have to go up to have a real and meaningful universal healthcare plan, but that simply is not true. "Honesty is so important in today's world," said Senator Edwards, and he stated he would not lie to the American people about what it would take to make this plan work. People are tired of small and meaningless steps that amount to little. They are ready for transformation in the way we approach the healthcare system.

A pointedly skeptical email question came in to the radio show, basically saying that the citizen-emailer was tired of "gimme programs" and that they were not personally willing to see their tax dollars going toward the proposed universal healthcare plan. Senator Edwards said that he believes we have a moral responsibility to help poorer Americans to help themselves, creating a cycle of independence vs. the old cycle of dependence that was an unfortunate result of past 'wars on Poverty'. Many of the working poor have been up against tremendous barriers in their lives. Senator Edwards believes in restoring hope, dignity and self-reliance to the poor who are willing to help themselves by being willing to work. Personally, I recall hearing the amazing Archbishop Desmond Tutu saying that God created us all to be different, not so that we should be alienated from one another, but that we should know our need of one another, that ultimately there can be no such thing as "the totally self sufficient." In fact, being totally self-sufficient is "subhuman" according to Archbishop Tutu.

Americans aren't sub-human - it just isn't who we are or what we're about. I know my friends and neighbors. I know my community.

We're better than that.

In October 2002, Senator Edwards voted for the Iraq War Resolution. Today he is sorry for that vote. A caller asked Senator Edwards: People who disseminated the false information, the false intelligence - should they be held responsible? In his reply, Senator Edwards accepted his responsibility - for his vote. The information provided to him and to the Intelligence Committee was wrong. The trusted opinions he was hearing, at the time, directly from from members who'd worked in the Clinton administration were verifying exactly what the intelligence community was saying. Those trusted opinions contributed to his vote back in 2002, which he fully takes responsibility for today - and which he now believes was wrong.

To stabilize the Iraqi nation, a President Edwards would redeploy 40,000 combat troops and while many of those troops would likely come home, some may be required to help support the NATO effort in Afghanistan. He averred that we need Iran and Syria directly involved in diplomatic discussions in order to stop the potential spread of civil war over the borders of Iraq, and he added that, as President, you always have to prepare for the worst. As president, he would enable any necessary prescence in the Persian Gulf. He stressed the importance of political reconciliation regarding oil revenues as a route to stabilizing the Iraqi national government. Through the rule of law, a centralized government would be be enabled to share oil revenue among all of the population. If this were to happen and if the motives were transparent and trustworthy, Sunnis would buy into a stable government in Iraq because they would have something material [ie: oil revenue] to gain from it. Over time, a removal of our military presence is going to be very important. Senator Edwards said that we'll need to intensify our training of Iraqi troops, and that we must work with Prime Minister Maliki and the Sunnis in Iraq for political reconciliation with the majority Shia political elements. It's the only route to peace in Iraq. On a personal note, I thought about 'Peace in Iraq' and that we should begin saying that more often.

Senator Edwards believes that there should be more humanitarian aid going directly to people in the Palestinian territory [not to Hamas - but to the people]. Israel should make steps to reduce the numbers of now-existing checkpoints and focus on reaching a settlement with the Palestinian people.

Diane Rehm asked: How do we fight a war against terror? Senator Edwards stated that a leader can't be bellicose in his or her rhetoric. He also expressed disappointment that the United States, in recent years, had lost quite a bit of its once-strong reputation as a stabilizing force - a great moral force for good in the world. We've fallen short in places like Sudan/Darfur - where we have recognized a genocide but have taken no serious steps to stop it. There has been insufficient government leadership on HIV/AIDS in Africa. The Abu Ghraib incident hurt our reputation tremendously. He stated we needed more serious effort to use intelligence against terrorist activities - more smart and more aggressive intelligence efforts not only in Iraq, but around the world. When we know nations like Iran and North Korea are pursuing nuclear weaponry, we would hope that the world would rally around US to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons. [Senator Edwards didn't mention this, but look at what French president Jacques Chirac said just this week about Iran - underplaying the geopolitical consequences of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. It was surely no rally cry around our country's leadership.] In order for that to happen, for other nations to begin to rally around our ideas again, we must be respected as a force for good. A President who will engage on more of these moral issues will be necessary before we see any changes in the world. It seems to me that a new President - a President Edwards - would strongly forward a spirit that is a far more true representation of the good will of the people of this nation.

A last comment:

'Peace in Iraq' - how often have you heard any other prominent leaders daring to mention peace in Iraq in any serious manner? We should be saying that more often. Our words have great power. Senator Edwards has been incredibly effective in inspiring others in this way. I believe that he's a man of great vision.

If we envision peace, we will have peace. If we envision fear and death, so shall it be.

Which vision do you choose?

On the HIV/AIDS Battlefront

ENCOURAGING?
Iranian Scientists Boasting New Herbal-Based Med for HIV/AIDS
Ron Brynaert is reporting at Raw Story that scientists in Iran are claiming to have found an herbal-based medication with no known side effects called 'IMOD' that they say will help to control the AIDS virus and increase immunity in patients who have tested HIV positive.


DISCOURAGING?
Opinion: AIDS burden worsens and the silence lingers by Leonard Pitts Jr.

Eight years ago, I wrote this: "The silence, the absence of voices raised in fear, raised in warning, raised in alarm -- raised -- is deafening." [..] Eight years later, the silence is still loud and the numbers are worse. Blacks now account for nearly half of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses and contract AIDS at a rate 10 times that of whites. Sixty-four percent of all American women living with HIV/AIDS are black. AIDS is the leading cause of death for black women 25 to 34 years old. [..] And eight years later, Gaye's advice still haunts. Because while poverty plays a role in those ghastly numbers, while access to healthcare and lack of information are factors, who can deny that the main reason for this plague is the silence, the closed-mouth social conservatism, the priggish moral rectitude, of a people still ill at ease discussing sexuality, homosexuality, drug use and other realities. Instead, we mouth piety, prayers and platitudes while the world burns down around us.


DISAPPOINTING.
Halt of trials a setback in AIDS fight

Researchers said last week that they had shuttered two trials of a microbicidal compound because preliminary data found that women using it were contracting HIV, which causes AIDS, at a higher rate than those not using it. [..] The halt was a setback for Conrad, a Virginia health-research group supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which hoped to market the compound. [..] It's the second time in recent years that a microbicide appeared to increase the risk of HIV infection rather than retard it.

TROUBLESOME.
New WHO Chief fails to stand up for people living with AIDS

Approximately 108,000 of 500,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Thailand depend on GPO-VIR, the generic version of the first-line anti-retroviral therapy produced by the Government Pharmaceutical Organization. According to the Thai government, an estimated 20,000 of these patients have developed resistance to the drug, and are in need of Kaletra. [..] “AHF is alarmed by Dr. Chan’s comments regarding Thailand’s move to increase access to lifesaving AIDS medications for its citizens in need. It is clear that, despite the WHO’s mission to attain the highest possible level of health for all people, the health of people living with HIV in Thailand is not among Dr. Chan’s priorities,” said Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s President. “Thailand’s move to issue a compulsory license for Kaletra will likely lower the price of this lifesaving drug to nearly half of its current cost and will mean the difference between life and de ath for thousands of Thai citizens in need. The comments made by Dr. Chan serve only to undermine Thailand’s efforts to protect the health of its people and it is appalling that in her position she would choose to advocate for multinational corporate interests over the interests of people living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world. AHF seeks immediate clarification from the Director General on her position regarding Thailand’s efforts to protect the health of its citizens.”


NEW CAUSE FOR CONCERN
Seattle area sees drug-resistant HIV

SEATTLE -- A hard-to-treat strain of the virus that causes AIDS has been found in four gay men in Washington's King County, and authorities fear it could spread to more. [..] There is no evidence that the troublesome strain of HIV is spreading rapidly, but its appearance underscores the need for renewed emphasis on safe sex practices, said officials in the Seattle-King County Public Health Department.

International Carnival of the Pozitivities #7

Welcome to the 7th Edition of The International Carnival of the Pozitivities


We begin this 7th edition of ICOP by revealing the spirit by which the Carnival itself was born. In 21 Years of Knowledge that I am HIV+, Ron Hudson of 2sides2ron tells you about himself and his reasons for creating the ICOP.

Ron writes:

Today is the 21st anniversary of having learned my HIV status in 1985. It was a different time then, but stigma, fear and ignorance still surround HIV/AIDS. I am trying to help change that by talking openly and honestly about my situation and by encouraging others to do so as well.

In June of this year, I founded the International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP) to help bring HIV/AIDS back into the forefront of discussion. This forum is a place to learn the truth about HIV/AIDS, its prevention, treatment and direction.

I joining enigma4ever in thanking Ron and sending him many healing thoughts:

....you have taken good care of yourself and others, and I can only hope and pray that the Next Regime will treat People and our Young with more respect and Truth, and recognize AIDS as the Health Crisis it is....Bless you or sharing your path with us and helping us learn more...Namaste.

__________________


CDC Chatter has posted an article seen in the Bucks County Courier Times in Pennslyvania written by Emanuel Stanley, a Disease Intervention Specialist for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. The title is The Monster is on the Attack: AIDS ravishes Minority Communities. Dedicated public health servants, in pledging to uphold their mission of "Early Detection, Intervention and Prevention of Disease Transmission, Disability and Death," are frustrated and concerned about African-American and Latino females who are contracting HIV at a high and disproportionate rate in America. Mr. Stanley explains how public health departments must redirect their efforts in order to lower the level of the ever-growing pool of undetected infections, including recognizing that what goes on in our prison system increases the contracting and the spreading of HIV/AIDS to heterosexual females:

With the advent of African-American and Latino females becoming the number one population demographic contracting HIV and eventually dying from AIDS, public health departments around this nation will have to redirect their efforts, via partner notification and other disease control measures, to help curtail this exponentially driven threat. More federal funding will also be necessary to protect the unknowing and unsuspecting female from becoming infected or at least to be notified in a timely fashion about their possible exposure to this deadly virus. This is a "Right to Know" and a "Right to Exist" issue.

An interesting discussion follows, icluding the fact that US. House Rep. Henry Waxman, Ranking Minority Member of the Committee on Government Reform's Minority Office, has requested an explanation of why the CDC has failed to update the Compendium of HIV Prevention Interventions with an Evidence of Effectiveness document. The Compendium, a key compilation of evidence-based prevention measures, has not been updated since its 1999 release, although government experts have identified multiple new proven programs.

__________________



Laura Finley talks about Women And HIV/AIDS in Africa at The AIDS Pandemic. Here are just some of the many facts she provides:

Globally, women now constitute 48% of the HIV positive population. 76% of these HIV positive women live in Sub-Saharan Africa, where women account for 59% of adults living with HIV.

The rising rates of HIV infection in women and young girls is directly related to their inferior social, economic, and legal status in this region of the world.

Violence against women, whether in the context of rape or sexual abuse, is a significant factor in the propagation of HIV in women.

Antiretroviral treatment is now available to 1.3 million people, representing a significant increase in just a few years. Still, ARVs are only available to 17% of the people in Sub-Saharan Africa who need them.

Laura says that, thankfully, "there are feasible steps that can be taken to empower women and address the issues that make them vulnerable to HIV infection." She outlines some of them for us.

______________



In an article he's written for TomPaine.com titled Bush, the Democrats, and AIDS, Doug Ireland of Direland says that we are losing the fight against the AIDS pandemic, in part, due to too many years of George W. Bush and the Republican-led Congress and that it's time for the Democrats to repair some of the damage.

AIDS prevention education has suffered due to the Bush policy restrictions that are undermining AIDS education and prevention. He forwards hope that Rep Barbara Lee's reintroducing of the PATHWAY Act (Protection Against Transmission of HIV for Women And Youth) will result in ensuring that all those who are sexually active are taught how to practice safe sex���and that includes using condoms.

Doug walks us through some recent history regarding another critical problem that has undermined the 2005 G8 summit meeting goals of universal access to treatment for AIDS by 2010. He shows how the Bush administration has been, behind closed doors, "sabotaging the ability of the world's poorest countries to produce or buy cheap, generic AIDS medications."

__________________



At The Nata village blog, Melody and Martha tell us a New billboard in Nata advertising a new campaign that The National AIDS Coordinating Agency has rolled out to encourage fathers to get tested along with their pregnant partners.



From the website:

Overall, men are dying at a faster rate than women as they are not testing and taking ARV's at the same rate as women. In the past, the PMTCT (prevention of mother to child transmission) program has been geared to women.

________________



Last February, a blogger named Marianna offered to us some facts about HIV/AIDS in Azerbaijan, as best as she could gather them, at a post titled Situation with HIV/AIDS in Azerbaijan at the New Eurasia website.

Official statistics on HIV/AIDS in Azerbaijan claims that over 700 people were infected and 60 died by early 2005. However, experts say the figures are woefully under-reported. And it may be true: the CIA World Factbook listed 1,400 HIV/AIDS infected people in Azerbaijan back in 2003. Half of them, according to the United Nations Development Program���s data, are drug addicts; 25% have been infected through sexual intercourse. Men constitute 70% of this relatively young group, predominantly ages 30 to 39.

She explained how the government has introduced praiseworthy initiatives to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, but she also reveals, sadly, that the government has failed to back them up with substantial budgetary allocations. She also pointed out that the citizens of Azerbaijan have a long way to go to fully understand how the disease is spead and what can be done to prevent it:

Materials released at the XIV International Conference on AIDS held in Spain in 2002 acknowledged that less than 60% of survey respondents in Azerbaijan were aware of the disease and the ways to prevent it. Up to 98% of young women in the country held major misconceptions about HIV/AIDS.

Fact Sheet: HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
HIV/AIDS is rapidly spreading through countries of this region,
which is now experiencing the fastest-growing epidemic in the world.

________________



The Dreamer is asking for prayers and healing energy at his blog Nightmare Hall - Welcome to my nightmare. He had to have back surgery in November and he's still healing.

..it was interesting that all of the doctors and nurses who made the rounds while I was in the hospital were amazed tnat I've been living with HIV for so many years and have remained as healthy as I have. They're even more shocked and amazed that I've been off all HIV meds for 16 months and still coasting along fine. A few have asked what I attribute this to and I tell them, dumb luck, genetics, taking care of myself, being aware of and listening to my body, doing my own research (on the web) plus taking the law into my own hands as far as medical treatment goes.

In this post, he talks about how to choose a doctor, especially when you're living HIV+.

My healing thoughts and prayers are with you, Dreamer.

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There's a lot we can learn from Japan, says JP at Japundit, and one of those lessons is about the new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who recently donned a pair of red Giorgio Armani sunglasses given to him by rockstar Bono for the media cameras. [Part of the profits from the Red-brand sunglasses are donated to AIDS programs].



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LeVoyd Carter's HIV/AIDS - Pestilence Within Our Land �� Blogswana is a must read call to action at the Blogswana blog. He was inspired by the ABC Primetime news special titled, ���Out of Control: AIDS in Black America." The research for this special was initiated by the late Peter Jennings. Mr. Carter asks this of you:

Please make a decision to make a difference by passing this important message and link on to at least five (5) people - NOW

He includes a list of...

Important Links Related to HIV/AIDS

Afraid to Ask

AIDS Education Global Information System (AEGIS)

AIDSinfo

AIDS Survival Project

AIDS Treatment Data Network

AIDS Treatment Initiatives (ATI)

American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR)

American Social Health Association Resource Center

Body, The

CDC

ChildKind, Inc.

Correctional HIV Consortium

Critical Path AIDS Project

Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

Emory/Atlanta Center for AIDS Research

Families USA

GA Division of Public Health (DHR)

Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC)

Gender and HIV/AIDS

Global Campaign for Microbicides

Hepatitis Information (American Liver Foundation)

HIVdent

Internationa Association of Physicians in AIDS Care

JAMA

Kaiser Family Foundation

Medscape HIV/AIDS

NAMES Project

National AIDS & Education Services for Minorities

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

National Minority AIDS Council

National Tuberculosis Center Information Line

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)

POZ Magazine

Sexuality Information and Education Council of the US

Southeast AIDS Training and Education Center

Straight But Not Narrow

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services

US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Until There’s A Cure

 

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Kelly is one of 324 South Carolinians on a list that was started in July after federal funding was cut for South Carolinians who needed financial assistance for expensive AIDS medications. Most people would agree that nobody in a country as rich as ours should have to wait to receive life-saving medication. At the Blog To End AIDS, Angie reveals how the federal government has cut funding for HIV/AIDS treatment and how tebh State of South Carolina is woefully short on its appropriations for HIV/AIDS programs. According to Angie, the DHEC [Department of Health and Environmental Control] is working with patient assistance groups, thankfully, to get people like Kelly the medicine they needand will soon ask the General Assembly for $5 million in funding to help patients on the list.

Kelly - you are in my healing thoughts and prayers.

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In November, Ron Brynaert of Raw Story wrote an article which pointed out "a study conducted by an international Christian child development organization finds that many Americans are ambivalent about the world's HIV/AIDS crisis, with nearly two-fifths admitting to having difficulty sympathizing with victims."

While roughly one out of seven Americans (15 percent) said they donated in 2005 to an organization specifically to address the HIV/AIDS crisis, only 8 percent said that they have a compassionate attitude toward HIV/AIDS victims and have donated to the cause.

Fifty-two percent admitted to being unengaged with the HIV/AIDS crisis, expressing conflicting, neutral or undecided views and behaviors related to addressing the issue, according to the press release.

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At 2sides2ron, guest writer Royce Hardin, returns this month to contribute a poem that he just penned titled Weakness' Temptation. Ron says that he hopes you will welcome Royce's work with praise and feedback. The poem begins...

Give me strength
To keep my life whole
To journey with grace
The twisting hilly miles

Give me strength
To keep myself upright
With dignity
To honor love, life, calmness and truth....

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Ron Hudson [2sides2ron] hosts the powerful words of a gifted poet who has dedicated his poem to the great actor and director of Chilean theatre, Andr��s P��rez, who died of AIDS on 3 January 2002.

See Ya Eres Todo Un Muerto by Guest Poet Mario Mel��ndez of Chile

[Translation: You Are Already Completely Dead]

Mario has agreed to participate in the International Carnival of Pozitivities as the first contributor from South America. Ron first "met" Mario a couple of years ago when he was asked to translate Mario's poetry for the Other Voices Poetry Project. Since then, Ron has been working with Mario to translate a number of additional poems that should soon be available in print.

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World AIDS Day -December 1

When asked to write something for December's International Carnival of the Pozitivities, a cooperative blog effort to help others understand how HIV/AIDS effects real human beings, I immediately agreed. I've lost (and am losing) too many friends and loved ones to a disease that no one talks about because of pride, fear, embarrassment, depression, or pain. We need to open up and talk about HIV/AIDS and how it effects our lives and the lives of those around us.

December 1, 2006 is World AIDS Day. On this day, I'll tell you about Chuck, a boy I grew up with and called a close friend. He was always a joyous person. A gifted musician and a gay male living in a town where his prospects for happiness with openness about his true self were dulled by prejudice and fear, he moved to San Francisco in the late 70s. Chuck was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the days when the public barely knew what the heck it was. Those were the days when President Reagan's response to the easily forseeable oncoming public health crisis was "halting and ineffective," according to his biographer Lou Cannon. "Those infected initially with this mysterious disease -- all gay men -- found themselves targeted with an unprecedented level of mean-spirited hostility." [source of quote]

I knew Chuck's mother and father all my life. They were good friends to my own parents and Chuck was more to me like family than just a friend. He was like a big brother to me. An only child, Chuck was luckier than some others of his time. He was "out" from the beginning. None of us who knew and loved him ever questioned his personal choices. He had wonderful, loving and supportive parents.

The disease took him quickly once the opportunistic infections begin to emerge. At that time, medicine could do little for him. There just wasn't enough known about the disease except what you'd hear from the so-called "moral majority" - that it was a punishment from God for the sin of homosexuality. When I speak about real values today on this blog - love, compassion, understanding, human rights, justice - I speak about the memory of the lack of compassion and the outright fear-mongering of the Religious Right toward a disease that stole someone I knew and loved.

Looking back, I wish I could have been mature enough to have been an effective listener in the many times when Chuck and his mother must have needed to talk to someone confidentially. I wasn't old enough, nor was I educated enough at the time. I remember my own parents explaining it all to me. I didn't learn about HIV/AIDS from my own government. Instead, I learned it the hard way, and believe me, I realize it was a lot harder for those who had to suffer the night sweats and the never ending body pains - hardly realizing what was slowly killing them. I made a journey West ten years ago just to visit Chuck's grave. I wish to God Chuck could have been standing there - alive. Thankfully, there has been good progress in medical research that allows for HAART (anti-retroviral therapy) that can improve the quality and length of life for many HIV-positive people. The importance of early detection is key to survival. If you are not sure, please go and get tested today.

On December 1 - World AIDS day - I see that there are many people in this world who have taken up the cause because our leaders abdicated their responsibilities so long ago. President Reagan could have chosen to end the homophobic rhetoric that flowed from so many in his administration. Dr. C. Everett Koop, Reagan's surgeon general, has said that because of "intradepartmental politics" he was cut out of all AIDS discussions for the first five years of the Reagan administration. On June 1 1987, after being booed at an AIDS conference, then-Vice President George HW Bush wondered aloud in front of a live mic: "Who was that? Some gay group out there?" We're way behind the eight-ball, but I give former President Clinton credit for really opening up the gates of knowledge about HIV/AIDS during his administration. With a foul scent of the old "moral majority" foolishness, the current Bush administration seems to have closed some doors and brought back some of the fear and ignorance about birth control and how it can stop the deadly disease in our own nation as well as overseas.

A leader who understands values from the most human perspective would scramble to push an agenda that would include real and complete sex education for the protection of the children of this world. If you think that frank talk about sex causes children to lose their innocence, just wait until you see what the effect of AIDS will do to their sense of innocence. I was no more than an innocent child when Chuck died of AIDS-related complications. It is realizing that Chuck was an innocent child that makes me so sad as I write these words today. We're all innocent children.

Break the silence.
If we want to know all we can about HIV/AIDS, go to the World AIDS Day website.

Please say a prayer for Chuck and promise me you'll teach your children well.


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See Royce Hardin's moving, honest and beautiful testimony to the trials of HIV/AIDS, along with the mysteries and wonders of love, life, death, and the spirit.

See outgoing UN secretary-general Kofi Annan's statement for World AIDS Day.

China HIV Cases Up by 30%

China HIV Cases Up Nearly 30 Percent

BEIJING (Reuters) - The number of reported HIV/AIDS cases in China has grown by nearly 30 per cent this year, state media said on Wednesday, warning the virus seemed to be spreading from high-risk groups to the general public. [..]

[..] As of October 31, 12,464 people have died in China as a result of illnesses associated with the HIV virus, Hao Yang, deputy director of the Ministry of Health's Disease Control Bureau, said yesterday.

Hao added that virus appeared to be spreading from so-called high-risk groups to the general public.

Drug abuse accounted for 37 per cent of the cases reported in the first 10 months of the year, while unsafe sexual contact had caused 28 per cent, Hao noted, adding that these two activities had caused most of the infections. Before 2002, only 10 per cent of all infections were caused by sexual contact. [Reuters/Alertnet]

Archbishop Desmond Tutu's comments about the HIV/AIDS epidemic:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been asked about comments made by other religious figures that AIDS is "God's punishment" for sexual promiscuity or drug use. His response? An angry rebuttal: "If that were the kind of God we were told to worship, I would reject that God. My God is not a God who is so sadistic; why punish an innocent child?"
AIDS, he said is the new apartheid, the new enemy. "Let's stop playing around and roll up our sleeves and invoke the spirit that fought apartheid," he said. "We did it with apartheid, we can repeat it with AIDS."

In India, spiritual leaders, including Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Bishop Lawrence Pius Dorai Raj, have recently come together to fight HIV/AIDS, stressing the need for preventive care for a disease that has hit five million Indians. They discussed HIV/AIDS care, giving the much-needed prophetic voice to the stigma and discrimination related to the disease. Faith-based bodies have "historically provided a vital network for community based work". The voluntary Health, Education and Rural Development Society in India [known as "Vherds"] stresses that these groups should play the key role in "compassionate care" for HIV/AIDS infected.

A Prayer For AIDS Awareness

Weary from anger, fear and confusion
Wailing at the loss of audacious beauty -
The souls stricken with AIDS
I search.

In my risings, I search for the answers
Buried deep in the cold earth.
Why has become as useless
As battling the winds.

Hope scurries under my feet
She is present, but fleeting.
I trace her with my eyes
I do not want to lose sight.

I lay down
And beseech You
Spread over me Your canopy of peace
So I may rest and find wholeness in Your shards

I lay down
And look above
Where the memories have formed
A canopy embroidered as finely as the stars
I am renewed and will continue to ask You
Spread over us Your canopy of peace.


A prayer by Rabbi Joshua Lesser of Atlanta, Ga.

Global HIV/AIDS - How Can We Pretend We Don't See?

Science and the human heart
There is no limit
There is no failure here sweetheart
Just when you quit

- From the song "Miracle Drug" by U2

Production capacity and an adequate number of healthcare workers and clinics are all-important considerations when it comes to fighting HIV/AIDS in developing nations. In a 2005 Boston Globe article by John Donnelly, we see how economic contributions from philanthropic and government efforts can only take the global fight against the disease so far. The battle to slow the rapidly-spreading HIV virus has come a long way, but there is still a lot of work to be done before a real difference can be made and before we can rest assured that our sincere efforts are not wasted.

Many places, even entire countries, are still not ready to start programs. In the small West African nation of Guinea-Bissau, a shipment last month of Brazilian-made antiretroviral drugs arrived at the airport—and there it sits, because the country does not have trained health workers to oversee distribution.

In a Lesotho village, a mother waits with many others in a clinic waiting room so her child may be seen by the one specialist who has come from far away to work in her village. Photo Credit: Joao Silva, NYT


Clinics are swamped, overcrowded, and backlogged. Stress is unimaginably high among healthcare workers. Because of overwhelming demand,manufacturers of some drugs drugs currently purchased by the US program PEPFAR have had trouble meeting orders because of a greatly increased demand for the drugs.

Several heads of US-funded AIDS programs said the projected drug shortages raise long-term concerns about whether pharmaceutical companies or generic manufacturers have the capacity to keep up with rising future demands. Still, the biggest long-term problem for AIDS treatment programs is the lack of trained health
workers, specialists said.

[..] donors will have to find ways to increase the salaries of health workers in poor countries to prevent more from leaving their jobs. One important step was the British development agency's decision to give nearly $200 million to the government of Malawi with the express purpose of increasing health workers' pay.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who recently wrote about the need and hope for reform in African governments [subcription required], has an eye-opening series of video, photography, and narratives about the HIV/Aids crisis in Africa, done in conjunction with guest journalism student Casey Parks. While Mr. Kristof credits the Bush administration for some of what they've done about the AIDS crisis, there is a very serious problem in the hypocrisy of the unrealistic expectation that we can stop the spread of the HIV virus by sticking to politically conservative guns:

A central problem is that the U.S. program is sometimes squeamish about condoms for young people and obsesses about abstinence. Christina Lem, a friend working on an AIDS orphan project, saw a U.S.-funded aid worker (my emphasis) in Zambia warning kids away from condoms because they break.

The Bush administration is right to promote abstinence, but condoms must be part of the message. Pontificating against promiscuity only goes so far, because often what kills African women isn't flings but marriage.

What does it truly say about national and global moral leadership when people are dying unnecessary and painful deaths for a conservative values-judgement?

In Zimbabwe, burial space is running out. From today's NYT article by Michael Wines:

The six government cemeteries in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, are either full or nearing capacity and citizens are already casting about for places to bury their dead, the government-run newspaper The Herald reported. The shortage of burial space is tied to the AIDS epidemic, which kills roughly 3,000 Zimbabweans a week, and to the nation’s collapsed economy, which has curtailed adequate food supplies and medical care for the sick. City officials are recommending that the dead be cremated, but cremation runs counter to the culture of many Zimbabweans, and a dire shortage of coal has crimped cremation options in any case. Some mourners are shipping bodies to Mutare, on the Mozambique border, where wood-fired crematoriums are available, The Herald reported.

We may have our own troubles here in the United States, but I assure you they pale in comparison to this. How much longer can any of us close our eyes and pretend we just don't see the suffering?

In the vacuum of political leadership in our nation's capital today, celebrities and our former President Bill Clinton have helped to generate public awareness and funding for the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS. Michael Wines [NYT] writes:

..what makes the Clintons and Bonos such spectacular philanthropic successes is that they are clearly not only playing a part. [..] Mr. Clinton's gift for bringing passion to humanitarianism has raised hundreds of millions of dollars while decades of those stolid ''You-can-help-this-child-or-you-can-turn-the-page'' appeals have, increasingly, spurred readers to turn the page.