I Am Absolutely Furious and I Don't Know What to Do With Myself

My Uncle Ward was 37 -- exactly the age I am now -- when he returned to Wisconsin to die of AIDS-related complications in the spare room in my grandparents' house. They lived next door to my family and I remember waiting by our dining room window hoping to catch a glimpse of him climbing out of the car that had fetched him and my mother from the airport and back from packing up what I imagined was his glamorous, movie-star-esque life in New York City.

Hillary Clinton Is Totally Wrong About Nancy Reagan's Legacy on AIDS

UPDATE, Friday, March 11, 4:30 p.m. ET: Secretary Hillary Clinton just issued the following apology: "While the Reagans were strong advocates for stem cell research and finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease, I misspoke about their record on HIV and AIDS. For that, I am sorry."

HIV Is Not a Murder Weapon: Racism and the Criminalization of AIDS

"HIV has [had] a negative effect on my life and my family. I never want anyone to have to go through this type of pain," Michael Johnson wrote in a letter to Truthout from his prison cell in rural Missouri.

In the 1980s, an HIV diagnosis amounted to a death sentence. Now, with access to the right medical care, someone with HIV can live as long as anyone else. So when Johnson comments on the negative effects of the disease, he's mostly talking about the stigma and laws that criminalize people who are HIV-positive.

At 23 years old, in July 2015, Johnson received a sentence of 30 and a half years in prison for allegedly transmitting and "exposing" others to HIV. He's now confined a thousand miles away from his family in Florida. That family includes his son, Michael Jr., who turns 4 in October, and whom he has not seen since he was first jailed in 2013.

Western governments falling short in the fight against AIDS

When I did some work for the United Nations in tiny Lesotho some years ago, one of every three people in the country was infected with HIV or AIDS. It was all quite chilling. One of every three people I met would soon die an appalling yet preventable death. How do you get your head around that?

In Lesotho, as everywhere else in those days, few people were being tested and only a few of those diagnosed as positive received medication, which cost a small fortune at the time. No one had a clue what to do with the growing population of orphans other than to thank their stars for grandmothers. There was a feeling that the country would soon cease to be a viable entity. At the same time, all of Southern and East Africa endured similar ravages. Yet even Nelson Mandela failed to take the crisis seriously, as he later sadly acknowledged. Truly, it seemed the apocalypse had come.

AIDS Pill: South Africa Anounces $10 Anti-Retroviral Drug

A new ultra-cheap pill introduced in South Africa could be a game-changer for HIV patients.

The treatment, a three-in-one anti-retroviral called an ARV, may be the cheapest treatment yet, costing about $10 per patient in a single dose, Salon reports.

“Before 2010, we were buying the most expensive ARVs in the world. Now we are a country where the ARVs are the cheapest in the world,” jubilant South African health minister Aaron Motsoaledi told Agence France-Presse on Monday.

"Fire in the Blood": Millions Die in Africa After Big Pharma Blocks Imports of Generic AIDS Drugs

The new documentary, "Fire in the Blood," examines how millions have died from AIDS because big pharmaceutical companies and the United States have refused to allow developing nations to import life-saving generic drugs. The problem continues today as the World Trade Organization continues to block the importation of generic drugs in many countries because of a trade deal known as the Trips Agreement. We’re joined by the film’s director, Dylan Mohan Gray, and Ugandan AIDS doctor Peter Mugyenyi, who was arrested for trying to import generic drugs, and is recognized as one of the world’s foremost specialists and researchers in the field of HIV/AIDS.

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Source: Democracy Now!
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Government's defeat of Bill C-398 is a betrayal

The Canadian government had the opportunity last week to help hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of AIDS sufferers in poor countries and deliberately chose not to do so. What should we think about such a decision? When are citizens allowed to ask the unthinkable: If a government knowingly allows hundreds of thousands of people to die unnecessarily, what is its responsibility? How much less culpable is indirect guilt, or guilt by omission, than direct guilt or guilt by commission?

Parliament votes on critical AIDS bill this week, but will it pass?

If you had the opportunity to save "hundreds of thousands, maybe millions" of AIDS sufferers in Africa and other poor countries, what would you do? A complete no-brainer, right? Why in the world is it even a question?

The sad answer is that our federal government has this exact opportunity this week, when private member's bill C-398 to enable this very outcome is voted on in the House. But the government has rejected such a bill before and intends to reject it again. Don't ask me why. There's no rational explanation, either of politics or public policy.

Prison syringe ban: HIV advocates file suit against federal government

A former inmate and a group of HIV advocacy organizations are suing the federal government for its ban on distributing sterile needles in prisons.

Steven Simons, incarcerated from 1998 to 2010 in Ontario’s Warkworth prison, says he contracted hepatitis C when he shared his drug injection equipment with another inmate.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday names the Correctional Service of Canada and its commissioner, the public safety minister and the attorney general of Canada.

Harper's response to AIDS epidemic has been a tale of disappointment

By the time Stephen Harper formed his first minority government in January 2006, then-president George W. Bush's surprising AIDS initiative was in full stride. The President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief -- PEPFAR -- was a commitment of billions of dollars to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. PEPFAR has been the one great positive achievement of the Bush presidency, dramatically increasing the number of people in poor countries receiving life-saving HIV treatment.

Mr. Bush's PEPFAR gave hope that Mr. Harper might follow suit. So did the swift non-partisan commitment of funds by the previous Liberal government for international efforts to fight AIDS and related diseases. So did the enactment in 2004, by a unanimous vote in Parliament, of Canada's Access to Medicine Regime. CAMR was designed to increase the supply to poor countries of affordable generic versions of expensive patented drugs to combat HIV and other public health problems.

Fearing advocacy, Ottawa rejects HIV/AIDS funding proposals

Health Canada has turned down funding for an HIV/AIDS charity for fear it might result in advocacy – an indication of a growing tendency within the Conservative government to steer clear of groups pushing causes out of step with its policies.

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, whose mission is to promote the human rights of people living with or at risk of contracting the virus, has received a significant portion of its funding from Ottawa over its 20-year existence.

Harper government denounced at International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC

To launch off the AIDS 2012 XIX International AIDS Conference Washington D.C., Canadian and international activists demonstrated at the Canadian exhibition booth yesterday afternoon.

The Canadian booth is financed by the Public Health Agency of Canada and is a symbol of the government's presence at the conference. "The Harper government's lack of commitment on HIV and human rights is negligent and shameful," said Alex McClelland of Canada’s AIDS ACTION NOW, the group who organized the demonstration. "We need to act in order to save our lives and our communities," stated McClelland who is living with HIV.

"How to Survive a Plague": As ACT UP Turns 25, New Film Chronicles History of AIDS Activism in U.S.

This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of ACT UP — the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power — an international direct action advocacy group formed by a coalition of activists outraged over the government’s mismanagement of the AIDS crisis. We speak with ACT UP founding member Peter Staley, one of the longest AIDS survivors in the country; and David France, director of the new documentary "How to Survive a Plague," which tells a remarkable history of AIDS activism and how it changed the country. "I’m alive because of that activism," Staley says of the triple drug therapy he was able to take. "This was a major victory this movie tells about getting these therapies. But that was only the beginning of the battle. Now we have these treatments that can keep people alive, and there are still two to three million dying every year. There are more dying now than when we actually got the therapies to save people. So it’s a huge failure of leadership internationally. And it shows a failure of our own healthcare system."

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Source: Democracy Now!
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