On March 11, 2002, a number of Los Angeles County AIDS services organizations and Representative Maxine Waters held a press conference to endorse a class action lawsuit ostensibly filed to require correctional facilities to use sterile instruments when cutting inmates' hair.
This spring, Being Alive has started a new Advocacy Committee. The new committee is dedicated to ensuring that the voices of people living with HIV and AIDS are heard in relevant policy and public debates at the local, state, and national level.
This year California State Assemblyman Roderick Wright introduced legislation, AB 2905, that would require mandatory testing of all inmates in California Correctional Facilities. Under the proposed legislation, inmates incarcerated for more than a year, including youth and patients committed to state hospitals, would be tested for HIV both when they entered a correctional facility and before they left.
Imagine for a moment, if you will, that you are I, that you are me. You grew up in a little house with several brothers and sisters always snooping about, in a small town where neighbors' prying eyes bore into you when you walked down the street. A place where people discussed your every movement like they were picking at the bones of last Sunday's chicken dinner.
People living with HIV have long had enough to worry about from the most common opportunistic infections and HIV-related conditions. There are, however, a number of less well-known illnesses for which HIV is considered a risk factor.
This year, Assemblyman Roderick Wright introduced legislation, AB 2930, that would have permitted doctors in California to test pregnant women for HIV without pre- and post-test counseling and without their consent. Currently, California law requires that pregnant women be offered an HIV test, but does not force them to be tested.
One way to categorize the large HIV/AIDS conferences is by whether they provided overall bad news (Berlin International, 1993, "resistance to nuke antivirals is a fatal flaw and combination nuke therapy doesn't add much"), good news (Vancouver International, 1996, "protease inhibitor-containing 'cocktails' are dramatic successes at extending and improving life") or not much news. By most accounts, the 9th Retrovirus Conference in Seattle was in the last category.
In January, 2002, Californians living with HIV scored a major victory as Governor Gray Davis proposed a new regulation to establish the definition of HIV medical specialists under the Standing Referral law (AB2168). The new regulation will utilize a credentialing process created by the American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM), a national group of HIV healthcare providers.
I'm back! And with a jam-packed article! I've enjoyed your many e-mail messages and here are some of the answers to your questions: What is Cetyl Myristoleate? Cetyl myristoleate is an ester of fatty acid. Fatty acids are the individual components of oils in the same way that amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. Polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as linotenic acid and linoleic acid, are crucial to life and are called essential fatty acids (EFAs).
Massage affects the body as a whole. To understand how massage therapy works, some of the physiological effects of massage need to be briefly examined.
Even before September 11, 2001 seemed like a year with fewer major HIV stories than in previous years. I used to sit down each December and make a list of what might be 15—20 stories, each of which somehow had significance -- by changing the way we think about things, or do things. In 1994, we had ACTG 076, which would forever change the way we dealt with HIV+ pregnant women. . . .
My friend asked me to drive him to Glendale to spend the afternoon as guinea pigs for massage students. Hey, I thought, why not? Hot hands, hot oil, candles, incense and New Age music, yes? Actually not. My friend had the wrong info. Instead, I began the first day of training in Healing Touch. I hadn't even known a person can be trained to heal someone else.
Is this a good time to update my friends about my battle with diarrhea when the President announces concerns about leaks from the White House about where troops are deployed?
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.