Tag Archives: AIDS

Federal Ban on Blood Donation Continues

This past Friday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decided to uphold the federal ban against sexually active gay men donating blood. The ban has been in effect for 25 years, when the AIDS blood scare first began. You probably remember young hemophiliac Ryan White who was infected with HIV in 1984 after receiving a tainted blood treatment. White died at the age of 18 in 1990. Another early victim of tainted blood was actor Paul Michael Glaser’s wife Elizabeth. She contracted HIV after receiving a blood transfusion when giving birth to their first child Ariel. She … Continue reading →

Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV

The World Health Organization is working hard to reduce the number of pregnant mothers around the world who pass HIV on to their unborn children. HIV is not automatically passed from mother to unborn child. This is good news! But there is always a chance that the disease will be transmitted. The main way to prevent transmission is through the use of antiretroviral drugs. What are antiretroviral drugs? These are medications taken to treat infection by retroviruses like HIV… which opens up another question: what are retroviruses? A retrovirus is a virus that inserts itself into a host cell and … Continue reading →

Today is World AIDS Day

December 1st each year is World AIDS Day. The World Health Organization (WHO) started World AIDS Day in 1988 to bring people around the world together to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS. But that’s just the beginning. The WHO hopes that World AIDS Day will demonstrate international unity in the face of this disease. It’s a chance for anyone and everyone to spread awareness, encourage HIV and AIDS prevention, raise money for AIDS charities, champion treatment programs, and more — all around the world. Some statistics about HIV and AIDS around the world from a 2008 World Health Organization … Continue reading →

Talk Show Hosts say Magic Johnson “Faked” AIDS

We all know that sometimes talk show hosts can step over the line when on air. Take Don Imus and his comments about the Rutgers’ woman’s basketball team for example. Now two Minneapolis radio talk show hosts are finding themselves in deep water as well for their on-air comments. Chris Baker and Langdon Perry of station KTLK took insensitive to a whole new level this week when they (hopefully) were joking about Magic Johnson and AIDS last Wednesday. They were talking with another caller about health care when the following exchange took place: Perry: What about diseases that are eminently … Continue reading →

Global AIDS Epidemic Has Stabilized

According to the United Nations AIDS agency — UNAIDS — the epidemic has stabilized. Fewer people are dying of AIDS and more patients are on HIV medication. The good news: The global AIDS epidemic peaked in the late 1990s and deaths from AIDS are on the decline. Approximately two million people died from AIDS in 2007, down from 2.2 million in 2005. AIDS work in the past five years has done more than work in the last two decades, according to UNAIDS. The number of people on medication for HIV has increased dramatically in the last six years — only … Continue reading →

Mercy Me – Margaret A. Graham

“Mercy Me” is a down-to-earth Christian novel about a woman named Esmeralda and her best friend Beatrice. Beatrice has moved to another town and misses all her old friends, but Esmeralda keeps her up-to-date on everything that’s going on in town, and throws in some life advice as well. She feels responsible for making sure Beatrice is happy – after all, Beatrice did have cancer a few years back and lives in fear that it will return. As Esmeralda moves quietly through her life, doing all that needs doing, she uses her God-given stubbornness and common sense to solve problems … Continue reading →

How Much Would You Bid for Madonna’s Lip Gloss?

Would you consider $500,000? Goodness knows I wouldn’t. But someone in France did so happily and got the Material Girl’s magnifying mirror, hair clips, skin blotting tissues, and lip gloss thrown in as well. Oh, and did I mention the person also walked away with a one-of-a-kind diamond-encrusted alligator bag donated by Chanel? And it was all for a good cause. The 49-year-old world famous singer parted with her personal possessions at an auction to benefit AIDS research and made it clear that she wasn’t going to settle for peanuts. Prior to her lot going up Madonna warned the crowd … Continue reading →

Book Review: There Is No Me Without You

Whether you are interested in adoption, in history, in science, in child welfare or simply in riveting memoirs of children and families, you will find There Is No Me Without You to be a fascinating book. It tells the story of an Ethiopian woman who has taken in children orphaned by AIDS, many of whom were later adopted to Europe and America. There Is No Me Without You is written by Melissa Fay Greene, an award-winning writer and a parent of four children by birth, a child adopted from Bulgaria and several Ethiopian-born children. The book’s main subject, Haregewoin Teferra, … Continue reading →

Cause Celeb

Call it history in the making. A slew of Hollywood’s biggest names are lending their names (and arms) in the name of HIV awareness. Regina King, Howard Hesseman and Jimmy Jean-Louis of NBC’s “Heroes” are among a group of entertainers getting voluntary HIV tests next week to raise public awareness of the virus in black communities. The actors will not only be undergoing the test, but they will be doing so in front of cameras at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) headquarters in Los Angeles. Their efforts are part of a new campaign called “1 in a Million.” The campaign’s … Continue reading →

A Million Dollar Kiss

Okay, maybe it didn’t cost that much, but I’m sure it felt like it was worth as much. After all, it was a kiss by George Clooney. The hunky “Ocean’s Thirteen” co-star was put on the auction last night (or at least his lips were) at a charity event benefiting AIDS research. According to news reports, the actor along with his friends and castmates Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia and Ellen Barkin made a brief appearance at the annual Cinema Against AIDS dinner to auction off a seven-day Mediterranean getaway on a private boat. That’s when auction host Sharon … Continue reading →