Miami-Dade County and the city of Miami have failed miserably to oversee MOVERS Inc., a nonprofit agency serving people with HIV and AIDS. MOVERS was supposed to put needy clients in lowincome housing. The first outrage came last year when eight families were cruelly evicted. Charles Hollis ended up sleeping on a bus b
Two major grants from the National Institutes of Health aim to combat South Florida s AIDS rate, the fastest growing in the country for at least three years running. The federal government is pouring grant money into researching Hispanic health issues at two universities in Miami -- the metropolitan area with the highe
A nonprofit agency is under scrutiny for its practices, including selling a Liberty City apartment complex that was supposed to be set aside for people with HIV/AIDS. The apartments at Sugar Hill were built for people like Charles Hollis -- people with HIV and AIDS, people with no other place to go. For more than two y
The Broward County Health Department is near the end of its effort to give away 250,000 condoms along with information about HIV prevention. The yearlong Take Me, I am Free campaign was created to establish a network of venues in the gay community where condoms are given away and to reduce the number of HIV infections
The operator of an AIDS/HIV infusion therapy clinic in Miami has been charged with attempting to defraud Medicare of more than $15 million. The U.S. Attorney s Office s six-count indictment accuses Reinel Pulido of submitting false claims for expensive infusion services from February 2005 through November on behalf of
Kevin Sauve wrote note after note from the Broward County jail to the jail s health services over a period of several weeks: I need HIV meds ASAP. I still have not received my HIV meds. I am getting sicker every day. Sauve s health continued to deteriorate until finally a Broward judge ordered his $500,000 bond for sel
Barbara Powers, Broward s former HIV/AIDS services coordinator for the Archdiocese of Miami, died Friday afternoon at a Fort Lauderdale hospice. She was 69. Powers, who retired from her job in June, was to receive the Broward World AIDS Day 2007 Lifetime of Service award on Nov. 30. After winning the award, Powers lear
Barbara Powers is one of South Florida s most passionate voices for people with AIDS. Her reward was to come Nov. 30: a Lifetime of Service award from Broward s World AIDS Day committee. Instead, the committee gave Powers her plaque early -- at the hospice where she is dying of advanced bone cancer. They had decided to
She wasn t Rosie, that s for sure. Compared to the opening night anti-President Bush tirade by Rosie O Donnell to kick off the Miami Book Fair International last weekend, Tuesday night s speech and book reading by presidential daughter-turned-humanitarian Jenna Bush was a calm affair. There were no protesters or Q
Ever since the University of Miami s Project Outreach center for AIDS patients closed last week, patient Laura Docher has had to shuffle between two clinics to get her medical care. It s been a struggle, said Docher, 43. The clinic, run by the university s Comprehensive AIDS program, closed Oct. 31 because there weren
Ashley Judd says education and prevention is the best way to combat AIDS and HIV, which disproportionately affect women and girls and prey upon the vulnerable and less fortunate. Speaking about her new documentary film, India s Hidden Plague, in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC s This Week, the actress said it cost
News release: WHAT: Mercy Hospital’s Special Immunology Services invite you to their HIV Health Fair. Come meet with HIV/AIDS experts for information on the latest in care, treatment and services. The information will be provided in both English and Spanish. Some of those scheduled to participate include: • HIV Special
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:56:27 EDT From: Larry Kramer To: Dr. Michael Worobey Subject: from larry kramer re: hiv s path out of africa dear professor worobey, i hope my name might be familiar to you. i helped to start two of the earliest of aids organizations, gay men s health crisis and ACT UP. i read with interest o
Fred Tasker and Jacqueline Charles, ftasker@MiamiHerald.com
A new scientific finding that AIDS came to the United States from Africa via Haiti , probably arriving in Miami as early as 1969, stoked controversy among researchers and Haitians on Tuesday -- reopening deep wounds over the medical community s role in perpetuating a stigma against people from the island.
Octavio Campos should be panicking, but there s no time and anyway he s enjoying himself too much, speeding up and down Northeast Second and North Miami avenues ( I m so super ghetto now, I love it ) in his little black Chevy Aveo ( It sounds like my name -- everything is connected ), juggling ideas and phone calls --
On the face of it, the two women could hardly be more different. One is a news reader in Zimbabwe , married and the adoring mother of a little boy. The other is a rebellious, streetwise teen in Los Angeles. But as the saying goes, appearances can be deceiving. Because this African woman and this American girl, living h
The 30-some pictures set at Dolphin Mall are of natural life: a small, gray bird drinking from a fountain. A yellow fire hydrant. Sunset in Miami. And close-ups of different roses, some closed and others in full bloom. But the simple things tell a more complex story. It is one that weaves the wonders of science with th
An 80-year-old South Florida doctor involved in a $7 million HIV infusion therapy scheme to defraud Medicare has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, the U.S. attorney s office announced. Orestes Alvarez-Jacinto also was ordered to spend seven months in home confinement and to pay $5.1 million in restitution for subm
Leonel Galdos Jr., 28, was found guilty of money laundering and perjury by a federal jury in Miami after a four-day trial, the U.S. Attorney s Office said. Galdos faces up to 20 years in prison. He is the last of 12 defendants to be convicted in connection with a $6.4 million healthcare fraud and money-laundering opera
A new federal report to be released Wednesday says that South Florida s Medicare claim rates are way above the the national average and out of proportion to the number of actual HIV and AIDS patients residing in the area, another sign of the massive fraud in the region. Despite the fact that just 8 percent of the count
Adelaida Asegura checked her glucose level and blood pressure and got her eyes examined by an optometrist -- all for free. It happened at the Hialeah Health Fair, organized by medical students from the University of Miami. Asegura s husband Orlando Gorra and her son Rafael also had free health screenings during the fai
Children living with HIV/AIDS have plenty of negative stuff to deal with. Each summer, 60 of them get to try to forget some of those problems while they attend Camp Hope in Houston. Helping to make that possible is Tuesday s Angels, a support group for the Children s Diagnostic & Treatment Center in Fort Lauderdale
The brightly colored bus zipping across Alligator Alley early Wednesday afternoon caught the attention of a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, who chased it down to hand the driver a speeding ticket. But the trooper stumbled upon a more serious potential crime. Found: $1 million worth of HIV-fighting medications stowed in
As drug busts go, this one was highly unusual. The Florida Highway Patrol stopped a speeding bus on Alligator Alley and found it laden with $1 million worth of HIV/AIDS drugs. They arrested two of the people onboard. The bus was stopped just after noon Wednesday at mile marker 82, on its way to Miami. The brightly colo
Kenneth Wilk, convicted by a federal jury of murdering Broward sheriff s Deputy Todd Fatta three years ago, was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday. Wilk was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James Cohn after a panel of eight women and four men found him guilty on June 13 of murder, possession of child pornography, ob
Conservative members of the religious and medical communities Tuesday joined Fort Lauderdale Mayor James Naugle in his crusade against public and promiscuous sex. The mayor is standing against the city of Fort Lauderdale becoming the AIDS capital of the world, Janet Folger, president and founder of Faith2Action, an onl
Red-faced and banging his fist on the podium, gay rights activist Gary Steinsmith vowed at a Dolphin Democrats annual banquet in the 1990s that the gay community would no longer accept table scraps from politicians. That phrase stuck with the club, said Dean Trantalis, a former Dolphin Democratic club president and for
Conservative members of the religious and medical communities Tuesday joined Fort Lauderdale Mayor James Naugle in his crusade against public and promiscuous sex. The mayor is standing against the city of Fort Lauderdale becoming the AIDS capital of the world, Janet Folger, president and founder of Faith2Action, an onl
Starting a crackdown on the billion-dollar fraud industry in South Florida involving infusion therapies, federal authorities announced Monday their biggest infusion case ever -- the owner of a Miami billing company being charged with collecting $105 million from phony Medicare claims. In a second infusion case, prosecu
Sixteen of the nation s most powerful gay leaders on Thursday called for the Broward County and Fort Lauderdale commissions to condemn recent anti-gay comments of Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle. We are writing to support UNITE Fort Lauderdale s request that you promptly pass a resolution condemning Mayor Naugle s ins
Drug use and the resulting risky behavior are the biggest factors in the spread of HIV/AIDS in the United States , and Hispanic and black men are more likely to be infected this way than others, an AIDS expert told a national AIDS conference in Miami Beach on Monday. Drugs, whether you inject them, inhale them or take
Hundreds of medical care providers are meeting in Miami Beach this week to discuss how to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS among America s Hispanics. The National Conference on Latinos and AIDS kicks off today at the Miami Beach Resort and Spa, 4833 Collins Ave. The conference aims to reinvigorate the national discourse on
The National Conference on Latinos and AIDS kicked off Monday morning on Miami Beach. Hundreds of the nation s medical care providers gathered in South Florida this week to discuss ways to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has described the virus as a growing health crisis
Lack of access to medical care and lack of awareness of the AIDS virus within the nation s community of undocumented immigrants are among some of the topics that will be discussed during The National Conference on Latinos and AIDS to be held Monday and Tuesday in Miami Beach. Hundreds of primary care providers, doctors
When Charles Martin became executive director of the South Beach AIDS Project in 2005, he found that all the educational materials were in English and only showed pictures of gay white men. Since most of the agency s clients are black and Hispanic, that didn t seem very effective. He replaced the old posters with bilin
The Fort Lauderdale City Commission voted Tuesday to let a gay-oriented library occupy city property -- but only after Mayor Jim Naugle made comments likely to renew his feud with the city s large gay population. Naugle said the Stonewall Library, which bills itself as one of the nation s largest collections of gay and
Guests streamed down the red carpet like Hollywood stars at the Oscars. But instead of Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg sauntering into the Kodak Theatre, about 80 people, mostly teenagers, walked into the University of Miami s Mailman Center for Child Development to watch the premiere of three student-made films w
1 How you get it: When an Atlanta man honeymooned in Europe in May while infected with TB, it set off an international health scare. This disease is spread when people with TB in their lungs or throat cough, laugh, sneeze, sing or even talk, but it s not easy to become infected. Repeated contact is usually necessary in
In his heyday, Michael Vita sang and danced in some of Broadway s biggest hits (Bye Bye Birdie, Sweet Charity and Chicago), behind legendary women of musical comedy including Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon. Vita spent his youth in show business, until AIDS ravaged his friends in the theater and he could ta
Beyond the living room where music videos flicker on a massive flatscreen TV, past the pool table under hanging banners that boast Respect and Caring, the cafeteria at the Miami Bridge is getting crowded. It s where teachers have placed a chalkboard for the morning math class because the number of homeless kids at the
Kenneth Wilk, the man convicted in the slaying of a Broward Sheriff s Office deputy, will spend the rest of his life in prison, a federal jury decided Wednesday. Prosecutors had asked the 12 jurors to sentence Wilk to death for the killing of BSO Deputy Todd Fatta as Fatta served a federal search warrant on Aug. 19, 20
Kenneth Wilk -- convicted last week in the slaying of a Broward sheriff s deputy -- grew up in a typical middle-class family who loved and cared about him, Wilk s father, Walter, testified Tuesday. He was kind and generous and often performed random acts of kindness, testified his sister, Karen Marie. Yet he was cold-b
Andrea Robinson, arobinson@MiamiHerald.com and Marc Caputo
For a quarter-century, F.J. Davis has lived with the terror of the AIDS virus, watching friends die as he coped with myriad drugs and doctors. But now, because of a change in a state contract that pays for his care, the 47-year-old Miami man says he has something new to fear: the loss of his longtime nurse, who s more
A Fort Lauderdale man who claimed he was suffering from AIDS-related dementia when he gunned down Broward Sheriff s Deputy Todd Fatta three years ago was convicted of first-degree murder by a federal jury Tuesday. The panel of eight women and four men deliberated for four days before finding Kenneth Wilk, 45, guilty of
Imagine you are a founding member of a rock group once deemed the most popular by American teens, but you have a secret that could upset not only your place in this carefully cultivated demimonde of willing groupies, sex, fame and money, but your bandmates futures as well. Now, imagine one of your biggest hits has the
Beth Reinhard, breinhard@MiamiHerald.com, and Alexandra Alter
As the Republican Party s hold on religious conservatives shows signs of loosening in Florida and around the country, some evangelicals are redefining what it means to be a values voter. About 1,500 Christians are expected in Washington today for a nationally televised forum with the leading Democratic presidential can
For years, South Florida has been the healthcare fraud capital of America, but that may be changing -- at least a little. In what may be the first major case of a South Florida healthcare fraud operation moving north, eight Miami-Dade residents were arrested Thursday, charged with running a clinic in Belle Glade that b
It is now a quarter-century since the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was recognized. The knowledge that has been gained since then has been breathtaking, and the pace at which basic research has been translated into lifesaving treatments is unprecedented. The discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (H
As Dr. Glenda Hutson rose from her seat, the somnolent toddler in her arms clung like lint on a pillow. The 18-month-old girl is one of thousands of South African children who are orphans or in danger of ending up on the streets for other reasons. She won t let me go, said Hutson, chuckling. She is a family medicine an
Calling South Florida a particularly ripe area for Medicare fraud, federal prosecutors Wednesday announced a crackdown on sham medical care companies, including the arrest of 38 people prosecutors say fraudulently billed the government for more than $142 million. They said the arrests -- mostly across Miami-Dade County
Lesley Clementi looked down, then sighed softly while her mother told a Miami-Dade high school class what she had found hidden in Lesley s bedroom: Pills -- enough to fill a shoe box. Meds she should have been taking. Living with HIV is painful, the 17-year-old Lakeland girl later told students last week at William H.
For Richard Gere, a kiss isn t just a kiss. A court issued arrest warrants for the Hollywood actor and Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty on Thursday in India , saying their kiss at a public function transgressed all limits of vulgarity. Judge Dinesh Gupta issued the warrants in the northwestern city of Jaipur after a local
It s only 450 square feet -- slightly larger than the average two-car garage -- with a mattress on the floor and a television its only furnishings, but to Jorge Luis Fernandez, It s a palace! He s 49, a recovering addict, and for the first time in his life, has a home of his own. In South Beach, no less, just steps fro
Miami Beach lifeguard Cynthia Aguilar paddled from Bimini to Florida in a day, arriving successful but tired in Dania Beach on Tuesday. Aguilar started at a Bimini Island called Cat Cay, she said, leaving shortly before 10 p.m. on Monday. The 23-year-old arrived at Dania Beach Tuesday afternoon. She paddled the whole w
1. Trichomoniasis is the most common curable sexually transmitted disease in the United States and worldwide, says Dr. Jane Schwebke, professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. There are an estimated seven million new cases each year. 2. This STD is usually asymptomatic, esp
A Miami Beach lifeguard paddling from the Bahamas to South Florida to raise money to fight AIDS is expected to arrive Tuesday afternoon in Dania Beach. Cynthia Aguilar is approaching the Dania Beach Pier, said Capt. Glenn Morris with the city s Marine Rescue Division. Paramedics will be there when she arrives to make s
A new county-run clinic officially has opened its doors in Little Haiti , giving neighborhood residents new opportunities to get much-needed healthcare services. The Little Haiti Health Center is a state-of-the-art clinic and it is a dream come true, said Lillian Rivera, administrator of the Miami-Dade County Health De
Ten persons were indicted in federal court Tuesday, accused of bilking Medicare out of more than $5 million for fraudulent claims for durable medical equipment and treatments in expensive infusion therapies intended for AIDS and HIV patients. Raul Rodriguez and Armando Arias were accused of committing fraud using Coral
A new, virulent strain of an old scourge -- tuberculosis -- is a growing and deadly threat, not only in poor countries, but here in the United States , especially in South Florida. Without more aggressive prevention and treatment programs, the unchecked spread of this TB strain will take an enormous financial and human
The Miami-Dade County Health Department will formally open its newest clinic on March 30 in Little Haiti . We re honored that we re able to serve the community, keep them healthy and improve their quality of life, said Lillian Rivera, who heads the health department. Known as The Miami-Dade County Health Department Lit
1 Risks associated with tongue piercings include hepatitis, HIV, and local infections that can spread to the body, says Dr. Roy Geronemus, past president of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery. To lower your risks, make sure your piercing is done in a sterile setting. 2 Tongue rings can become a good environm
Facing a growing AIDS epidemic in Florida s black community, local black churches have fortified their efforts to combat the disease by hosting prayer summits, distributing condoms, offering HIV testing at their churches and launching counseling ministries and support groups for those living with AIDS. More than 20 loc
Spoken-word artist Emanuel Xavier says most gay teens have it better today than 19 years ago when his homophobic, fundamentalist mother kicked him out on the streets at 16. We ve come a long way, but unfortunately the Tim Hardaway incident reminds us we have a long way to go, said Xavier, 35, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who ll
Because we tend to focus on the negative, hate stands as the biggest four-letter word you can use on ABC. People used to having their publicly spoken words recorded or written for posterity know to handle that word as if it were a glass of nitroglycerin. Which is just one reason to say please to any apology from former
Because we tend to focus on the negative, hate stands as the biggest four-letter word you can use on ABC. People used to having their publicly spoken words recorded or written for posterity know to handle that word as if it were a glass of nitroglycerin. Which is just one reason to say please to any apology from former
Since its premiere in 1990, John Corigliano s Symphony No. 1 has remained all too timely. Inspired by several friends AIDS deaths, this vast, majestic work has lost none of its titanic force or relevance, in the intervening 17 years. Yet, as demonstrated by the roiling, majestic performance delivered by conductor Alasd
Dorothy Pierre sat on her friend s stoop on Northwest 22nd Avenue to smoke a cigarette in silence. The only noise came from the friend s two pet roosters crowing behind her. Then the ground rumbled. Pierre looked down the street. The marching band from Edison High School was in full blast, its dancers twirling red bann
I ve written this column before. Eight years ago, to be exact. I opened with a line from Marvin Gaye s most celebrated song. It goes: Talk to me, so you can see, what s going on. Eight years ago, the statistics were terrifying: 9,526 African Americans dead of AIDS in 1997, the latest year for which figures were then av
A series of activities has been planned to mark National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, which is observed each year on Feb. 7 as an effort to encourage African Americans to get educated, tested, treated and involved with the deadly disease. National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is a remarkable effort that was founded in
Law enforcement announced several major developments over the past several days in its fight against healthcare fraud, reported to be a $1 billion a year business in South Florida alone. On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney s Office announced that Diana Sotto, an owner of All Medical Billing Solutions, a medical billing comp
Law enforcement announced several major developments over the past several days in its fight against healthcare fraud, reported to be a $1 billion a year business in South Florida alone. On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney s Office announced that Diana Sotto, an owner of All Medical Billing Solutions Inc., a medical billing
A federal jury in Miami has convicted a doctor, Frantz Achille, on five counts of healthcare fraud involving $2.1 million in fraudulent Medicare billings involving two Miami HIV/AIDS clinics. Achille was a doctor at two Miami-based HIV/AIDS clinics in 2005. The indictment alleged that he and others falsified medical pa
The fifth annual ING Miami Marathon Weekend, featuring a health expo, a 5K run/walk, a half-marathon and a full marathon, will take place today through Sunday. The health expo will be from noon to 8 p.m. today and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday inside Hall D of the Miami Beach Convention Center, 1700 Convention Center Dr. A
A cheap, widely available dietary supplement may help some patients with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, new research suggests. A study conducted at the University of Miami found that a daily selenium capsule slowed the progress of the virus in patients who faithfully took the supplement and did not have gastrointesti
The president of a Miami-Dade HIV/AIDS infusion clinic, Sonia Rivera, 46, was arrested today after a two-year investigation. She faces up to 30 years in prison for allegedly defrauding Medicaid, the government program for the poor, out of more than $73,000 for billing for HIV/AIDS infusion therapies through Medlife Ser
One of the most important surveys of the nation s health is expanding its focus to include a broad swath of Hispanics -- and researchers are rolling out the new strategy in Miami. Today, a procession of Miamians will begin filing into a mobile clinic set up in four semi-trailers in a parking lot on the main campus of F
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.