Tag Archives: HIV

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Run For Coverage!


How New Health-Care Laws Affect You … from Marie Claire

It’s health plan enrollment season again. And those who actually take the time to read the literature may save a heap of cash next our. Why? The benefits mandated by the

Affordable Care Act, a law requiring private plans to cover an array of preventative services and treatments at zero out-of-pocket cost. Women, especially,stand to gain, so read on.

__ What’s Covered Now: Mammograms and cervical cancer screenings;depression screening and counseling;obesity screening and counseling;folic acid supplementation;smoking interventions and counseling;breast-feeding support; chlamydia and gonorrhea screening

__ Coming Soon! Additional coverage for women,effective August 2012 -most significantly,100% covered FDA-approved prescription contraceptives. Also added were a doctor’s visit to determine which preventive services are recommended;rental of breast-feeding supplies;domestic violence screening;HPV DNA testing;sexually transmitted infection counseling; and HIV screening and counseling

__The Fine Print: Many plans(specifically,those created before March 23,2010)are grandfathered from providing such coverage. And coverage may not apply if you go out of network. Plus, some plans may choose not to cover brand-name contraceptives if a generic is available(unless the brand-name is doctor-recommended).

__Get What You’re Entitled to: Not sure if your insurance is up to par? Ask your benefits dept, or check out  www.healthcare.gov/prevention

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Update: 24 Hours to Stop Uganda’s Gay Death Penalty -Avaaz team


Amazing! Over 1.5 million have signed already, and the pressure is working! Parliament closed yesterday without debate on the bill, but anti-gay MPs want to bring it back in an emergency session tomorrow. We’ve got 24 hours to stop this vote — forward the email below, and click here to call your head of state! http://avaaz.org/en/uganda_call_to_stop_homophobia/?email

In 24 hours, Uganda could pass a law that imposes the death penalty for homosexuality. An international outcry shelved this bill last year — we urgently need to ramp up the pressure to press President Museveni to stand up for human rights and stop this brutal law. Sign below, and tell everyone:

In 24 hours, the Ugandan Parliament may vote on a brutal new law that carries the death penalty for homosexuality. Thousands of Ugandans could face execution — just for being gay.

We’ve helped stop this bill before, and we can do it again. After a massive global outcry last year, Ugandan President Museveni blocked the bill’s progress. But political unrest is mounting in Uganda, and religious extremists in Parliament are hoping confusion and violence in the streets will distract the international community from a second push to pass this hate-filled law. We can show them that the world is still watching. If we block the vote for one more day until Parliament closes, the bill will expire forever.

We have no time to lose. 1.5 million of us have already joined the call — let’s get to two million voices against Uganda’s gay death penalty in the next 24 hours — click here to take action, then forward this email to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/uganda_stop_homophobia_petition/?cl=1066790964&v=9089

Being gay in Uganda is already dangerous and terrifying. They are regularly harassed and beaten, and just months ago, gay rights activist David Kato (pictured above) was brutally murdered in his own home. Now LGBT Ugandans are threatened by this draconian law which imposes life imprisonment for people convicted of same-sex relations and the death penalty for “serial offenders”. Even NGOs working to prevent the spread of HIV can be imprisoned for “promoting homosexuality” under this hate-filled law.

Right now, Uganda is in political turmoil — in the wake of the Arab spring, people across the country are taking to the streets, protesting high food and gas prices. President Museveni has responded by violently cracking down on the opposition. This upheaval has provided religious extremists in Parliament the perfect chance to slip in the shelved anti-gay bill just days before Parliament closes and all proposed laws are wiped from the books.

President Museveni backed away from this bill last year after international pressure threatened Uganda’s aid and support. With violent protests sweeping the streets, his government is more vulnerable than ever. Let’s build a two million strong petition to stop the gay death penalty bill again and save lives. We only have 24 hours — sign below, then tell friends and family:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/uganda_stop_homophobia_petition/?cl=1066790964&v=9089

Earlier this year, we stood in solidarity with Uganda’s equality movement to show that every human life, no matter what creed, nationality or sexual orientation, is equally precious. Our international petition condemning the gay death penalty law was delivered to Parliament – spurring a global news story and enough pressure to block the bill for months. When a tabloid newspaper published 100 names, pictures and addresses, of suspected gays and those identified were threatened, Avaaz supported a legal case against the paper and we won! Together we have stood up, time and time again, for Uganda’s gay community — now they need us more than ever.

With hope and determination,

Emma, Iain, Alice, Morgan, Brianna and the rest of the Avaaz team

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Wilson: Can we keep up our progress on AIDS? It’s 2023, what do you


Phill Wilson is the president and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, a national HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on black people.
Phill Wilson is the president and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, a national HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on black people.

Phill Wilson
Special to CNN

Editor’s note: Watch “Hope Survives: 30 Years of AIDS,” an AC360° special, at 9 p.m. ET Friday. Phill Wilson is the president and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, a national HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on black people. Follow him on Twitter.

(CNN) – I was infected with HIV in 1981, the year the disease was discovered.

Back then, most people died in six to 12 months from horrible diseases like Kaposi’s sarcoma, a skin cancer normally found in older men of Semitic descent; pneunocystis carinii pneumonia, a fungal infection in the lungs; cryptococcal meningitis, which causes the lining of your brain to swell; or toxoplasmosis: You got that from cat feces, and it turned your brain to Swiss cheese.

There were no treatments, really. A “long-time survivor” was someone who lived 18 months.

I was 24 then. In April, I will celebrate my 54th birthday.

I almost didn’t make it. In 1996, my doctor at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles called my mother in Chicago to tell her that if she wanted to see me alive again, she should fly to Los Angeles immediately. They had given me less than 24 hours to live. I was in a coma in the ICU.

I eventually came out of that crisis, and my doctor prescribed something brand new: a three-drug regimen, commonly referred to as “the cocktail.” I recovered from that crisis and went on to found the Black AIDS Institute, an organization I still lead.

What a difference three decades can make. We have gone from no drugs to a few very toxic drugs that didn’t really work to more than 25 antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV. The new drugs are highly effective, and the side effects are much reduced.

Read more from Wilson on CNN.com’s Opinion Page

Editor’s note:
Greater Than AIDS– a new national movement to respond to AIDS in America– is asking Americans to share their “Deciding Moments,” personal experiences that changed how they think about the disease and inspired them to get involved. For many it is someone close to them who was infected. For some it was their own diagnosis. For others it was a realization that we all have a role to play. Tell us about your “Deciding Moment” by visiting: www.greaterthan.org/moment.

Related: Visit Greater Than AIDS for answers to frequently asked questions about HIV/AIDS, as well as information about local testing centers.

More about: 360° Radar • AIDS • Opinion • Phill Wilson
This article was first posted on Jan 14, 2011
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iReport Assignment: 30th anniversary of AIDS epidemic (via Anderson Cooper 360)


iReport.com CNN 2011 marks 30 years since the AIDS epidemic began, and is an important time of remembrance for those whose lives have been affected by the disease. Has AIDS and HIV touched your life or that of someone you know? Have you been inspired to take action … Read More

via Anderson Cooper 360

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Help save 3,600 lives a day


Change.org
5.7 million lives saved already – tell Pres. Obama to keep investing in the Global Fund

Sign the Petition

For the first time, a world where no one dies from malaria and no more children are born with HIV is within reach. The Global Fund, the world’s largest global health financier, is a big reason to have hope.

In less than a decade, the Global Fund has delivered life-saving treatment for AIDS to 2.8 million people, given tuberculosis treatments to 7 million people, and distributed more than 122 million insecticide-treated nets to prevent malaria. In total, more than 5.7 million lives have been saved.

None of this would have been possible without funding from the U.S. and international partners. And it won’t continue without our support.

There are just a few weeks before Global Fund donors meet and the U.S. must commit to continuing to fund the life-saving program. Please tell President Obama to commit $6 billion over the next three years to the Global Fund before the meeting is underway >

Even in tough economic times, this is a very smart investment for America. The Global Fund brings in other donors who match $2 for every $1 invested by the U.S. – meaning the U.S. investment is tripled on the ground. The Global Fund has rigorous standards. Programs that work get funds and programs that don’t are eliminated.

Recipient countries are intimately involved and are often required to co-finance the programs. It’s a proven model for development that works.

This is one case where there is a direct relationship between U.S. investments and lives saved. Every dollar goes to fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and child mortality, and those dollars are working – to the tune of 3,600 lives saved each and every day.

The United States has the opportunity to maintain and accelerate amazing life-saving progress by fully funding its commitment this year to the Global Fund.

There are only a few weeks left before the big Global Fund meeting. Please urge President Obama and Congress to maintain spending on these programs in the FY2011 federal budget to build upon the life-saving success of the Global Fund >

With grassroots support for this smart investment in the Global Fund, we can create a world where no one dies from malaria and no child is born with HIV.

Thanks for taking action,

The Change.org Team