Tag Archives: HIV+

History - March 19, 1987: The FDA Approves AZT for Treatment of AIDS

History – March 19, 1987: The FDA Approves AZT for the Treatment of AIDS

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On March 19, 1987, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of the antiretroviral drug zidovudine, commonly known as AZT, for the treatment of AIDS. This approval marked a significant milestone in the fight against HIV/AIDS, as AZT became the first drug approved to treat the disease.

AZT was first synthesized in the 1960s as a potential cancer treatment, but it was later found to have antiretroviral properties. In 1985, clinical trials were conducted on AZT to evaluate its effectiveness in treating AIDS, which was a rapidly growing epidemic at the time. The trials showed promising results, with AZT reducing the risk of death and disease progression in HIV-positive individuals.

After the trials, Burroughs Wellcome (now part of GlaxoSmithKline), the company that developed AZT, applied for FDA approval. The FDA granted accelerated approval, which allowed AZT to be made available to patients while further studies were conducted.

The approval of AZT was a turning point in the history of AIDS. Prior to AZT, there were no drugs available to treat the disease, and patients faced a bleak future with few treatment options. With AZT, patients had a ray of hope, as the drug could extend their lives and improve their quality of life.

However, AZT was not a cure for AIDS, and it had limitations. It was expensive, with a price tag of $10,000 per year, making it inaccessible to many patients. It also had significant side effects, including anemia, nausea, and headaches.

Despite these limitations, the approval of AZT was a major breakthrough in the fight against HIV/AIDS. It paved the way for the development of other antiretroviral drugs, which have transformed AIDS from a death sentence to a manageable chronic condition. Today, HIV-positive individuals can live long, healthy lives with the help of antiretroviral therapy, thanks in large part to the approval of AZT on March 19, 1987.

Gay History – January 15, 1973: Remembering Lance Loud. America’s First OUT Gay Man On Television

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Decades before Matt Bomer, Neil Patrick Harris, and Zachary Quinto there was a young man named Lance Loud who brought gay awareness, lifestyle and culture to millions of homes across America at a time when it was unheard of.

On January 15, 1973 Lance Loud came out on the PBS “series” An American Family. He was the first person to come out on national television.

Am American Family was a 12-episode Cinéma vérité  reality documentary series broadcast in 1973 on PBS. The directors, Alan and Susan Raymond, were the first to install cameras into a real-life situation. They documented hundreds of hours of the lives of the Loud family of Santa Barbara, California. During the course of the filming, the marriage of Bill and Pat Loud imploded, they separated, and Pat filed for divorce. The documentary became a real-life soap opera and the progenitor of ”reality television,” in which private lives were captured for a national audience.

An American Family also delved into the lives of the Loud children, Delilah and Michele and brothers Kevin, Grant and oldest son Lance.

Lance was the first openly gay person depicted on television, and was shocking to an audience that had rarely witnessed frank portrayals of homosexuality on television. Lances scenes were of his true self, wearing blue lipstick, moving to the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan, and introducing his mother to the gay underground music and art world of transvestites, hustlers and types of  gritty New Yorker’s that were never seen on television before and made an American Family a groundbreaking series first. (In 2001 Pat Loud  stating that the family were all probably aware of Lance’s sexual orientation beforehand. )

After the show ended Lance remained in New York for 10 years living in a Lower East Side apartment writing for Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine and performing in a semi-successful rock band called the Mumps.

Continue reading Gay History – January 15, 1973: Remembering Lance Loud. America’s First OUT Gay Man On Television →

The Ghosts of Saint Vincent’s Hospital: Ground Zero For New York City’s AIDS Epidemic

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On the latest episode of American Horror Story NYC it’s been reveled that BOTH Hannah and Mr. Whitely work at the now demolished Saint Vincent’s Hospital in NYC.  Despite being a Catholic hospital it would become the front line battlefield during the AIDS epidemic. This is an important part of our history and St. Vincent’s Hospital should never be forgotten.  

Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers  or just, “St. Vinny’s” as the locals called it was located on 12th and 13th Street and 7th/Greenwich Avenue in NYC.  At one time St. Vincent’s was the 3rd oldest hospital in New York City after The New York Hospital and Bellevue Hospital.   It was founded as a medical facility in 1849; and named for St. Vincent de Paul. The hospital was started by the Sisters of Charity by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who went to New York City to set up a charity hospital in the city to meet the demands of the poor and disadvantaged.

St. Vincent’s served the poor as one of the few charity hospitals in New York City and admitted patients regardless of religion or ability to pay.  For more than 150 years St. Vincent’s was a beacon in Greenwich Village, serving poets, writers, artists, and the poor and the working-class. It treated victims of the cholera epidemic of 1849, to the Hudson River landing of US Airways Flight 1549.

St. Vincent’s Hospital never strayed from its core mission to provide care with respect, compassion and dignity for the poor and displaced members of society and in 1981 when a mysterious disease began affecting gay men in New York City St Vincent’s stood strong to their mission.  While many other hospitals turned patients away St. Vincent’s took them in and treated and diagnosed some of the first known cases of what would eventually become known as AIDS.

Continue reading The Ghosts of Saint Vincent’s Hospital: Ground Zero For New York City’s AIDS Epidemic →

Gay History – Remembering Bisexual Actor Brad Davis Who Fought For Work and Dignity While Battling AIDS

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Actor Brad Davis: –  Born Robert Davis on this day November 6th, 1949 to Eugene Davis (a dentist from Beverly Hills whose career declined due to alcoholism) and his wife, Anne (née Creel) Davis. According to an article in The New York Times published in 1987, Davis suffered both physical abuse and sexual abuse at the hands of both parents. As an adult, he was an alcoholic and an intravenous drug user before becoming sober in 1981.  Brad Davis took his stage name after learning that there already was a Bob Davis registered in Actors Equity. Acting was always his ambition, from appearing in productions at Theater Atlanta at the age of sixteen, and moving to New York to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and at the American Place Theater. Television roles soon followed, in a short-lived soap opera and in the miniseries Roots and Sybil (both 1976). But it was his role as Billy Hayes in the film Midnight Express which rocketed him to fame and won him two Golden Globes.

Davis’s career should have taken off. Instead, it languished, due somewhat to homophobia — his bisexuality was generally known if not always acknowledged — and more directly due to his own drug and alcohol abuse. In 1976, he was cast in the television mini-series Roots, then as Sally Field’s love interest in the television film Sybil. In 1981 he sobered in time to take a minor role in Chariots of Fire he played American track star Jackson Scholz in the Academy Award winning film Chariots of Fire. . In 1983, he took a professional risk playing a gay sailor in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Querelle (which flopped), and a dying man of AIDS in Larry Kramer’s play The Normal Heart.  That last role mirrored, somewhat, his own life.

Diagnosed with HIV in 1985, Davis kept his condition a secret until shortly before his death at age 41,  in order to be able to continue to work and support his family.

His wife, freelance casting director Susan Bluestein said: “The Hollywood community may deny it. They will say he could have worked. All I know is that my husband was frightened, and that he wanted to be able to keep putting food on our table for his family,”

Davis was going to write a book about his ordeal of working in Hollywood and having to keep secret his illness. While he died before he could accomplish that his wife did write a book using Davis’ book proposal as the basis for her book, After Midnight: The Life and Death of Brad Davis.

”I make my money in an industry that professes to care very much about the fight against AIDS — that gives umpteem benefits and charity affairs with proceeds going to research and care — but in actual fact, if an actor is even rumored to have H.I.V., he gets no support on an individual basis. He does not work.”

In a 1997 interview with New York Times writer Alex Witchel, Davis’ wife described the great pains he went to seeking medical help only allowing doctors to visit him at home, ”Without the secrecy he may not have gotten better medical care, but earlier medical care,” she said. ”It might have given him a little longer time and better quality of life. We became so isolated. He let a lot of friendships go. He was afraid certain people would pick up on some things. Our world shrank to the bare bones.” In order to hide his illness Witchel wrote that Davis didn’t buy prescriptions in his name but was supplied with prescription “leftovers” from others after they died.

When Brad Davis died on September 8, 1991,  news reports distinguished him as “the first heterosexual actor to die of AIDS.” Not much of that description was true. His bi-exuality aside, he didn’t, strictly speaking, die of AIDS. Davis decided to end his life on his own terms by committing suicide by drug overdose when it became clear that his death from AIDS was imminent.

FDA To Ease Ban On Gay Men Donating Blood And It's Still Stigmatizing

FDA Reduces Restrictions On Gay Male Blood Donors, Continues Stigmatization

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Via NBC News:

Amid what it’s calling an “urgent need for blood,” the FDA revised its blood donor guidelines on Thursday, significantly easing the restrictions on men who have sex with men.

The new guidelines reduce the donation deferral period for sexually active gay and bisexual men from 12 months to three, meaning these otherwise healthy men will now have to abstain from same-sex sexual activity for 90 days before they are eligible to donate blood.

Other 12-month deferral periods have also been shortened under the new guidelines, including those for people who have traveled to areas with certain endemic diseases, those who have engaged in injection drug use and people who have participated in commercial sex work.

Under a regulation change in 2015, gay and bisexual had to refrain from sex for a year before they are permitted to donate blood.  This replaced a former 1983 ruling that stated gay and bisexual men could not donate at all which was leftover from the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when little was known about the disease or how to test for it.

The continued stigmatization of gay male blood donors in the 21st century is uncalled for and needlessly cruel especially since in this terrible time since all blood donations are screened for tested for syphilis, HIV, hepatitis, and HTLV (human T-lymphotropic virus), which can cause a blood or nerve disease.

PA Man Sues U.S. Postal Service For Being Fired Because He Is Gay

PA Man Sues U.S. Postal Service For Being Fired Because He Is Gay

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A former postal worker identified as John Doe to protect himself from retribution, filed a lawsuit on Friday in federal court alleging that he was discriminated against and subjected to harassment at the hands of his co-worker and was fired from his job because he’s gay.

Via MetroWeekly:

The lawsuit claims Doe was a letter carrier in Hanover Township, Pa., for the U.S. Postal Service for 12 years before he was fired on Aug. 19.

According to the lawsuit, one of his co-workers relayed several gay slurs used by co-workers to describe Doe, including a “sick faggot.” Another worker called him “Glinda,” a reference to the “Good Witch” from The Wizard of Oz. Still other co-workers complained that his shorts were too tight. And one supervisor allegedly said, “I fucking swear to God I’m gonna get his ass fired.”

According to the lawsuit, the mailman was fired for allegedly kicking a co-worker, Lisa Williams. Doe claims Williams lied about the incident. He was charged with harassment for the alleged incident, but the charge was dismissed. 

After he was fired, another co-worker told Doe that Williams said “I’m so glad they finally got rid of that fruitcake.”

Williams waited four to six days before reporting the kicking incident to police. Supervisors then waited 40 days after the alleged incident before conducting a pre-disciplinary interview with the letter carrier and waited 53 days before issuing a “notice of removal.”

“Defendants acceded to Ms. Williams’ discriminatory bias and hate by wrongfully terminating Doe,” the lawsuit claims.

John Doe is asking to be reinstated in his job and be paid for the time since he was terminated, as well as damages for pain, suffering, and embarrassment suffered as a result of his firing. Dow who is HIV+ has fallen into a deep depression , because without his employment and insurance it’s unclear how he’ll be able to pay for medication and medical care to manage his condition.

It is unknown whether or not his co-workers or employer knew about his HIV status.

TEXAS Judge Rules Employers Under "Religious Freedom" Can Deny Paying for PrEP

Facebook Refuses To Remove Ads Promoting Misinformation About HIV Prevention Drugs

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Facebook feeds have been inundated with misleading ads containing false information about HIV prevention and LGBT advocates, are saying that the tone-deaf tech giant’s refusal to remove the content is creating a public-health crisis.

The paid ads have been viewed millions of times in recent months, They’ve scared patients, potentially those who may be most at risk of contracting HIV, out of taking preventative drugs, known as PrEP, even though health officials and federal regulators have said they are safe.

The ads many of which have been purchased by personal-injury lawyers allege in lawsuits that HIV medications, such as Truvada, actually threaten patients with serious side effects. LGBT groups that work with Facebook say the ads are “false” and have urged Facebook for months to take them down— and Facebook refuses stating that the ads do not violate its policies.

“We value our work with LGBT groups and constantly seek their input,” said Facebook spokeswoman Devon Kearns said in a statement. “While these ads do not violate our ad policies nor have they been rated false by third-party fact-checkers, we’re always examining ways to improve and help these key groups better understand how we apply our policies.”

Demetre Daskalakis, the deputy commissioner for the Division of Disease Control at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said the ads, which he has seen on his own Facebook feed, threaten to undo years of work to promote a drug that can cut down on the transmission of HIV and potentially save lives.

“I still see patients,” Daskalakis said. “Four of my seven PrEP patients came in and said, ‘How could you be putting me on this medication that’s so unsafe? My Instagram ads say so.’”

Despite the fact that health officials and federal regulators have said that the HIV prevention drugs are safe personal-injury lawyers claiming to represent thousands of HIV patients say the data actually are on their side — and that they have a role in informing patients about the risks in medication.

“These Facebook ads provide a service to let them know there are options available for them now,” said Robert Jenner, the co-lead counsel in the consolidated lawsuit.

Ex-Wales Rugby Captain Gareth Thomas Reveals He Has HIV

Ex-Wales Rugby Captain Gareth Thomas Reveals He Has HIV

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Former Wales rugby captain Gareth Thomas who came out as gay in December 2009 has revealed he is HIV positive, saying he wants to “break the stigma” around the condition.

Thomas says he wants to show how people with HIV are misrepresented as “walking around with walking sticks who are close to dying”.

He has also spoken about “shame” and “fear” of keeping his condition secret.

The ex-British and Irish Lion is due to talk about his diagnosis in a BBC Wales documentary on Wednesday.

In it, he says at his lowest point in 2018 he felt like dying.

Thomas said revealing that he is living with HIV was similar to coming out as gay in 2009 because of “the fear, the hiding, the secrecy, the not knowing how people are going to react”.

“But I think when it was all about my sexuality it just seemed like there was more empathy and more understanding because you had more knowledge, because you could turn on the telly and you could see that there was LGBT representation on most platforms.”

Thomas plans to take part in an Ironman challenge on Sunday, which has involved him learning to swim, were to Thomas a way of demonstrating his physical and mental strength.

New HIV Study Shows With Treatment There Is 'Zero Risk' of Transmission

New HIV Study Shows With Treatment There Is ‘Zero Risk’ of Transmission

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A new study which followed nearly 1,000 gay male couples in The Lancet has found that due to treatment reducing the AIDS virus to very low levels there were no cases of HIV transmission in that subject group for over eight years.

The European study followed 972 gay male couples – where one was living with HIV and taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) and the other was HIV negative –

Antiretroviral therapy is combination of drugs, to be taken daily, to stop HIV replicating in the body.

It can’t cure HIV, but it can reduce the amount of virus to undetectable levels in the blood..

In total, the couples in the study reported having anal sex without condoms a total of 76,088 times. 

“Our findings provide conclusive evidence that the risk of HIV transmission through anal sex when HIV viral load is suppressed is effectively zero,” the researchers said.

Prof Alison Rodger, study author and professor of infectious diseases at University College London, said anal sex was known to have the highest risk of transmission, but gay men should now be reassured.

“This powerful message can help end the HIV pandemic by preventing HIV transmission, and tackling the stigma and discrimination that many people with HIV face.”

In the study, the men with HIV had been taking antiretroviral therapy for an average of four years before it began, making the virus undetectable – defined as fewer than 200 copies per ml of blood.

Most people reach this level after taking daily HIV treatment for six months.

Dr Michael Brady, medical director at Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “The study has given us the confidence to say, without doubt, that people living with HIV who are on effective treatment cannot pass the virus on to their sexual partners.

“This has incredible impact on the lives of people living with HIV and is a powerful message to address HIV-related stigma.

Source: BBC News

DNC Responds to Trump’s 22% CUT in AIDS Funding

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Today, the White House released Trump’s latest budget proposal, which included a  22 percent cut in funding for PEPFAR, a program to treat and fight HIV/AIDS across the globe. In response, DNC LGBTQ Media Director Lucas Acosta issued the following statement:

“Trump’s proposed cut to PEPFAR is just the latest indicator that he has no real intention of making the investments necessary to combat HIV/AIDS. Further, Trump’s proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, totaling more than $1 trillion, would limit the ability of HIV+ people to afford and attain the lifesaving medicine and treatment they need.

“HIV+ people around the world and at here in the U.S. deserve more than lip-service and empty rhetoric.”

Here’s Trump’s real record on HIV/AIDS:

FACT: Trump celebrated a court ruling in favor of a lawsuit he backed to overturn the ACA, endangering coverage for around 130 million people with pre-existing conditions, such as HIV/AIDS.

CBS News: “Around 130 million people in the United States have pre-existing conditions, and without the ACA, insurers would no longer be required to cover those conditions.”

Vox: “To put it simply, the ACA was a ‘watershed moment in the [HIV] epidemic’s history,’ as the Kaiser Family Foundation’s director of global health and HIV policy, Jennifer Kates, told me in 2017. The law was designed to get more people access to health care, including those who were traditionally denied coverage because of ‘preexisting conditions’ like HIV, or who were driven out of the marketplace because their health care was unaffordable. And so under the law, the disease was no longer a barrier to health insurance.”

FACT: The Department of Health and Human Services proposed new rules to eliminate requirements that insurance plans for Medicare beneficiaries cover prescription drugs in “protected classes,” such as HIV/AIDS.

“The Trump administration proposal is bad medicine and dangerous to people living with H.I.V.,” said Carl E. Schmid II, the deputy executive director of the AIDS Institute, a public policy and advocacy organization for patients. “Not all H.I.V. medications are the same. The Medicare Part D program is working well for people with H.I.V., and there is no reason to take these draconian actions.”

FACT: The Department of Health and Human Services redirected money from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program to help fund the separation of immigrant families.

POZ: “Trump Agency Is Using Federal HIV Funds to Separate Immigrant Families”

FACT: United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar created a “Conscience and Religious Freedom Division,” giving health care providers the ability to refuse treatment to LGBTQ people if they have a “moral objection.”

HIV+ Magazine: “In January 2018, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services created the Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom under the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). This division was created following a 2017 executive order by President Trump directing agencies to expand religious freedom protections in ways that could increase discrimination against LGBT individuals and same-sex couples.”

CDC: “Gay and bisexual men are the population most affected by HIV in the United States. In 2016, gay and bisexual men accounted for 67% of the 40,324 new HIV diagnoses in the United States and 6 dependent areas. Approximately 492,000 sexually active gay and bisexual men are at high risk for HIV”

FACT: Vice President Mike Pence, while governor of Indiana, opposed a needle exchange program and exacerbated the local HIV/AIDS crisis.

Politico: “But when confronted with a spiraling HIV outbreak in his home state as a result of opioid addicts sharing contaminated needles, Pence dragged his feet…”

FACT: Trump’s Department of Defense instituted a “Deploy or Get Out” policy, which would remove HIV+ military personnel from service solely because of their status.

Washington Post: “They tested positive for HIV. Then the military kicked them out.”

Sergeant Nick Harrison, an 18-year veteran of both Afghanistan and Kuwait: “This is about every person living with HIV knowing that they can perform any job in the world, including serving in the military […] I look forward to the day that I can serve my country to the full extent of my abilities, based on my performance and unfettered by unfounded fears and misperceptions about HIV.”