Hello all!
Check out the White House webcast of US President Barack Obama’s signing of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act @ 11:50 a.m.! This is the historic legislation that funds HIV/AIDS services throughout the US, providing prevention, treatment and care.
CARES’ staff have submitted their photos and the selections have been made. Make sure that you stop by the CARES office to see the beautiful images of nature, captured by our staff. They now adorn the entry way of the Kalamazoo office.
(Effect of Antiretroviral Therapy on Risk of Sexual Transmission of HIV Infection and Superinfection) http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/treatment/resources/factsheets/pdf/art.pdf
The attached link will take you to an article recently published by the CDC. It indicates that individuals who have well controlled HIV are not very likely to spread the disease to others during sexual contact. This is big news. I hear over and over again how frightened HIV positive people are that they may infect other people with HIV. And yet, phyisical intimacy is a vital aspect of being human and being healthy. Sex is most often a life affirming, esteme building and bonding experience. Physical intamcy and feeling good about ourselves changes our body chemistry. It helps us be healthier both mentally and physically. And the reverse is also true, being fearful of your body or of physical contact can be destructive to our physical and mental health. So, when the CDC researchers declared that HIV “antiretroviral therapy may greatly reduce the likelihood of sexual transmission from infected individuals to their sexual partners”, I imagined a great sigh of relief from the more than one million Americans who live with HIV.
HIV treatment in this country has come a long way. HIV has moved from a terminal illness, to what most would consider a chronic condition that can be controlled by medications. While the medications themselves are not always easy to take, and are accompanied by a variety of unpleasant side effects, we have certainly moved beyond the terminal illness definition. And yet HIV brings with it a lot of stigma in our culture. I believe that a lot of the stigma comes from people not understanding how HIV is transmitted. It is through sexual contact or needle sharing. Not from drinking glasses or casual contact. And now we understand that HIV positive individuals who are treating the disease successfully are even less likely to transmit the disease to their negative sex partners. This may well change the way people with HIV are thought of and treated.
Risk reduction is not risk elimination. the CDC and CARES still recommends that condoms be used during sexual contat to protect youself and your partner. But when looking at being safer, HIV positive people can add taking medications, not only to help keep themselves healthy, but also to keep their partners that way. Read the article and let me know if you have questions.
