Home
Up

National News  TN00047A.gif (2049 bytes)  

 

July-August News

Prevention and Public Health Fund in Jeopardy
Help is needed to preserve the Prevention and Public Health Fund established in the health reform law, $30 million of which has been directed to HIV prevention activities in FY2010.

On September 14, the U.S. Senate will consider an amendment by Senator Mike Johanns (R-NE) to the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010 (HR 5297), which eliminates a small business reporting requirement using the Prevention and Public Health Fund to pay for it. This means $15 billion dedicated to prevention and public health for fiscal years 2010 through 2017 would be eliminated.

The Prevention and Public Health Fund is the first ever investment of this size to bolster prevention efforts and public health capacity. The Johanns amendment would decrease support for evidence-based HIV/AIDS prevention activities, reduce funding allocated to the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, and weaken state and local public health infrastructure.

You can TAKE ACTION by calling the Congressional switchboard at 202.224.2431 and asking your senators to oppose all attempts to use the Prevention and Public Health Fund as an offset, including for the Johanns Amendment and add your agency support to a group letter. See the NASTAD breakdown of spending for the Fund.


"Salk Gets $21 Million to Study HIV/AIDS"
San Diego Union-Tribune , (08.16.2010)
The National Institutes of Health has awarded $21 million to a consortium led by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies to investigate how the body’s immune system responds immediately after it is exposed to HIV.

It is hoped the research will contribute to the development of new HIV therapies and better understanding of why the infection is more virulent in some people than others.

The project is led by Salk immunologist John Young and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute geneticist Sumit Chanda. Other research organizations on the project are the University of California-San Francisco, the University of California-San Diego, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Northwestern University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

“With the exception of a few specific proteins, (including APOBEC3G and BST-2/CD317) there is actually very little known about how cellular innate immune factors and pathways defend against HIV infection,” Young said.

 

CDC Updates HIV/AIDS Basic Statistics Web Page
AIDSinfo At-A-Glance Volume 6 Issue 31
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently updated the HIV Infection and AIDS Basic Statistics Web page with information from the HIV Surveillance Report: Diagnoses of HIV infection and AIDS in the United States and Dependent Areas, 2008. This page provides information and statistics on HIV/AIDS in the United States, including statistical breakdowns of HIV and AIDS diagnoses by age, race/ethnicity, and transmission methods. The page also provides links to Web sites to find HIV infection data by state and links to locate international HIV/AIDS statistics.

In US Cities, HIV Linked More To Poverty Than Race
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/19/ap/health/main6691007.shtml
A study by the CDC released today- the first government study of its kind - indicated that "Poverty is perhaps the most important factor in whether inner-city heterosexuals are infected with the AIDS virus." "Federal scientists found that race was not a factor - there were no significant differences between blacks, whites or Hispanics." AP (7.19.10)
 

"Major Shift in HIV Strategy"
San Francisco Chronicle , (07.14.2010) Andrew Aylward  CDC NPIN Summary
Advocates are hopeful that the National HIV/AIDS Strategy’s focus on coordinating local, state, and federal responses to the epidemic will clarify resources available to patients and streamline treatment and counseling services. President Barack Obama unveiled the much-anticipated plan Tuesday at the White House.

“For the Bay Area and San Francisco, the plan allows a more coordinated effort between communities and federal agencies,” said Jason Riggs, deputy director of Stop AIDS Project in San Francisco.

Critics noted that 2,200 Americans were on waiting lists for subsidized AIDS treatment as of early July. Though the administration last week pledged $25 million to help these patients, waiting lists are a disincentive for testing, said Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

Thirty million dollars appropriated under the new health care reform law will be used to help implement the strategy, said Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services. While additional monetary pledges were not offered, existing HIV/AIDS funds will be redirected to meet the national objectives.

The report tasks several federal agencies, including CDC, with re-evaluating prevention programs in high-risk communities. The strategy marks the first time HIV/AIDS’ disproportionate effect on black men and men who have sex with men has been acknowledged at the national policy level. More than half of all HIV infections in the United States were acquired through male-to-male sex, and African Americans are seven times as likely to become infected as other races.

“From the very early days of the epidemic, the fear that some people will stop caring about AIDS if it seems to happen mostly to people who are in their eyes ‘not like them’ has been there,” said Keith Humphreys, a Stanford Medical School professor. “I think the country has come a long way since the epidemic started, in terms of compassion and inclusiveness.”
 

Obama to Outline Plan to Cut H.I.V. Infections
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/health/policy/12aids.html

In the report, the administration calls for steps to reduce the annual number of new H.I.V. infections by 25 percent within five years. [Also] by 2015 the report says, the United States should “increase the proportion of newly diagnosed patients linked to clinical care within three months of their H.I.V. diagnosis to 85 percent,” from the current 65 percent.  NYTimes (2.11.10)

ONAP launches the National HIV/AIDS Strategy
Download the National HIV/AIDS Strategy
Download the National HIV/AIDS Strategy Implementation Plan


"White House to Unveil National AIDS Strategy Tuesday"
Advocate , (07.08.2010)
The White House is set to present its National AIDS Strategy, the product of a year and a half of work and meetings across the country, at 2 p.m. Tuesday. Early in his presidency, Barack Obama tasked Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Jeffrey Crowley, director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, with creating the plan. According to the White House, the National AIDS Strategy is a “roadmap for policymakers, partners in prevention, and the public on steps the United States must take to lower HIV incidence, get people living with HIV into care, and reduce HIV-related health disparities.” Sebelius and Crowley are scheduled to introduce the strategy along with White House Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes and Dr. Howard Koh, HHS assistant secretary for health.

"Economy Hurts Government Aid for HIV Drugs"
New York Times , (06.30.2010) Kevin Sack   CDC NPIN Summary
An economic “perfect storm” is hitting state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs across the nation. As of June 24, according to the National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors, 1,840 people who cannot afford treatment were on ADAP waiting lists...

Nationwide, ADAP enrollment grew 12 percent from June 2008 to June 2009, just as the economic crisis saw many people lose their jobs and insurance coverage.

While federal ADAP assistance was up a scant 2 percent this year, state contributions were down by 34 percent. Expanded testing efforts and earlier initiation of antiretroviral therapy also are factors driving demand, NASTAD reported. Pharmaceutical companies have upped their contribution by half, but this is not enough to close the gap. See more in Care News.


 

 

 

White House Releases National HIV/AIDS Strategy
On July 13th, 2010 at 2p.m. the White House released its National HIV/AIDS Strategy. Watch the video above.
 

Across the Nation

OHIO:
"AIDS Research Center Gets NIH Grant"
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) , (07.27.2010) CDC NPIN Summary
The National Institutes of Health has awarded a five-year, $9 million renewal grant to Case Western Reserve University/University Hospitals Case Medical Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). Scientists there plan new studies into how to limit HIV’s transmission, how to eradicate the virus from infected patients, and how HIV causes disease, as well as the links between HIV and cancer. The Cleveland facility is one of 17 CFARs across the country and provides support to HIV research locally as well as internationally.

"Panels to Probe Problems at St. Louis VA Clinic"
Associated Press , (07.29.2010) Jim Salter
CDC NPIN Summary
Equipment sterilization problems at the St. Louis Veterans Affairs Medical Center’s dental clinic will be investigated by two independent panels, Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) said Thursday. In June, the VA began informing 1,812 veterans who underwent dental procedures at the clinic between Feb. 1, 2009, and March 11, 2010, that the errors may have exposed them to HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. Of the 1,144 patients screened so far, 809 tested negative. The VA has not provided a breakdown of the diseases for which the other 335 have tested positive. The new investigations, by the congressional Government Accountability Office and the VA inspector general, are in addition to an internal VA probe launched soon after the problems were made public. “If there are veterans who have tested positive, regardless of whether they were exposed through the dental clinic or through some other completely unrelated source, they need to know so that they can get the treatment they need and take needed precautions to keep their spouses and family members safe,” Carnahan said.

 

"AIDS Agency Gets a New Home, and a Founder's Ire"
New York Times , (07.14.2010) Fred A. Bernstein  CDC NPIN Summary
Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) is moving into new office space in Manhattan, in the process making changes that worry some advocates and infuriate the organization’s co-founder.

“We did make some adjustments in order to secure what is a very good deal, and I have no regrets,” said GMHC CEO Dr. Marjorie Hill, in response to objections from, among others, co-founder Larry Kramer.

From its current site at 119 W. 24th St., GMHC will move on Jan. 1 about one mile north and west to 450 W. 33rd St. The relocation was prompted by an increase in GMHC’s annual rent from $6 million to more than $8 million.

At its new location, GMHC’s neighbors include the Associated Press, the Daily News of New York and public broadcaster WNET, from which it is subletting 165,000 square feet of space. In order to get approval for the deal from the building’s owner, GMHC made a series of concessions that have raised eyebrows in the community.

Unlike its current site, GMHC’s new location will not allow on-site medical services. About 650 GMHC patients use the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center clinic at the 24th Street site, said center representative Kathleen Robinson.

The loss of clinic facilities is “regrettable but not fatal” to GMHC, Hill said.

GMHC clients will enter the new site through a private entrance. While Kramer likened this to a Jim Crow-like stigmatization, Hill said the separate entrance provides clients with easy and private access.

Kitchen facilities at the new site are scaled down from the industrial-type arrangement at the existing location, but GMHC still will offer hot meals as it always has, Hill said.

Founded in 1981, at the very beginning of the HIV epidemic, GMHC provides education, clinical services, and psychosocial support.

 

Bay Area Response to National AIDS Strategy
Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco) , (07.15.2010) Liz Highleyman CDC NPIN Summary
Some HIV/AIDS group representatives are finding hopeful signs in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy that President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday.

“The current [AIDS Drug Assistance Program] crisis is a prime example of what is wrong with our current response to HIV/AIDS; it is fragmented and seems to move from crisis to crisis rather than to think strategically,” said Randy Allgaier, a member of the Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy. Thousands of US HIV patients are confronting ADAP cuts and income caps, and nearly 2,300 were on ADAP waiting lists as of early July.

Over the next five months, federal agencies will devise implementation plans that will involve reallocating existing HIV/AIDS funds.

“The vision statement says a lot about the current administration’s philosophy, by framing the plan in terms of human rights, non-discrimination, and equity,” said Judith Auerbach of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF).

“We are excited to see evidence-based interventions a priority in the federal plan,” said Barbara Kimport, SFAF’s interim CEO. “In San Francisco, we learned a long time ago through experience with needle-exchange programs that when you put science before ideology, you can make great progress against HIV.”

A national objective of tackling HIV among gay and bisexual men notes that they comprise more than half of new HIV infections. “After 29 years of neglect, gay and bisexual men are finally being given the attention they deserve,” said Jim Pickett of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, however, branded the strategy “a day late and a dollar short.” “There is no funding, no ‘how to,’ no real leadership,” he said.

Kate Krauss, executive director of the AIDS Policy Project, also expressed disappointment. “They’re leaving 2,000 people without AIDS drugs because of a $100 million ADAP shortfall, and they’re cutting AIDS treatment in Africa. That isn’t a plan, it’s a disaster,” she said.

 


"VA Technician Says She Warned of Sterilization Problems"
Associated Press , (07.13.2010) Jim Salter  CDC NPIN Summary
A former technician at the St. Louis Veterans Affairs Medical Center said she warned supervisors of sterilization errors more than a year before the VA was forced to notify vets of possible exposure to hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV.

“If people were taking their jobs seriously, not passing the buck and pointing the finger, none of this would have happened,” medical supply technician Earlene Johnson said at a congressional hearing Tuesday in St. Louis.

The lapses involved prewashing dental equipment without detergent prior to sterilization, VA Undersecretary for Health Robert Petzel said.

In March 2010, the St. Louis VA concluded that its dental clinic sterilization processes between February 1, 2009, and March 11, 2010, were inadequate. Two weeks ago, the VA sent letters to 1,812 veterans urging them to be tested for viruses including hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV.

While these viruses have been found in some of the 950 vets tested so far, it is not known if exposure at the VA is the source, said Dr. George Arana of the Veterans Health Administration.

Sterilization procedures have been revised, and no one who received services since March 11 is at risk, Petzel said.

Johnson said she first alerted officials at the VA of problems in March 2009. She believes her complaints resulted in her subsequent termination, and she is seeking to be reinstated.

The VA took heat at the hearing for the gap between confirmation of the exposure in March of this year and notification almost four months later.

“We did not respond quickly enough,” Petzel said.


 

"VA: Some of the Tested Missouri Veterans Have Viruses"
Associated Press , (07.13.2010) CDC NPIN summary
At a House Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing Tuesday in St. Louis, it was reported that some patients of the John A. Cochran Medical Center’s dental clinic have tested positive for HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. It is too soon, however, to know whether the infections occurred as a result of lapses in equipment sterilization. Two weeks ago, the VA sent letters warning 1,812 veterans treated there that the mistakes may have exposed them to viruses. So far 950 veterans have been tested, said Dr. George Arana of the Veterans Health Administration, who did not report the number of patients testing positive.

 

Hundreds of Veterans at Risk for HIV From Dirty Dentist Tools, VA Admits
Veterans Affairs Secretary Vows Investigation, Disciplinary Measures at St. Louis Facility
ABC New (7.01.10)

See June Archives




 

Return to the top of the page / Return to the Home page/ Go to the Site Map (TOC) page / Search this site / If you have comments or questions about the site, please send e-mail to info@mihivnews.com