Tagged: aids

Just in time for World AIDS Day -- held every year on December 1st to remember the nearly 30 million people who have died since the epidemic began in the late 1970s -- the US Preventative Services Task Force has released new guidance on routine HIV testing. This is first time since 2005 that the Task Force has updated its HIV testing recommendations.

The Annual Art For AIDS' Sake gala is semi-formal party and silent auction held every October at the New York State Museum to benefit the Albany Damien Center. This year's gala – the 12th annual - is scheduled for Saturday October 20th. Lakia Green and Paul Kosachiner from the Albany Damien Center join us to tell us more.

It is being called a major development and a milestone in the 30 year fight against HIV and AIDS. A new drug called Truvada, a medicine that can help prevent the transmission of HIV. For more on this drug, WAMC’s Brian Shields spoke to Dr. Douglas Fish, an associate professor of medicine at Albany Medical College, and chief of the Division of HIV Medicine.

An estimated 34 million people around the world are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Most of these individuals live in developing countries, but approximately 1.2 million Americans are infected. At least of third of those living with HIV/AIDS in the US are unaware of their status.

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1980s, at a time when HIV/AIDS was decimating the gay community. AIDS has since been rendered a chronic but manageable illness with the development of effective antiviral drugs (at least for those who can afford them), but at that time a diagnosis of AIDS was considered to be a death sentence.