KITTEH?!
Read the full article here.
Um, what? That’s right: “Previous lab studies have shown that smelly socks work well in attracting mosquitoes,” and now doctors are pioneering a way to use these smelly socks to lure malaria-ridden socks into a traps where they become contaminated with poison and die. Read the whole article here.
Here’s hoping it works.
Two studies announced Wednesday, July 13 show Gilead Science Inc.’s Truvada pill helped prevent the spread of the AIDS virus between heterosexual couples in Africa. The drug is already used to treat people with HIV.
Read the whole article here.
In the 30 years since the discovery of HIV/AIDS, much advancement has been made. New drugs ensure that people with HIV are living longer, more symptom-free lives. One area in which we are still lacking, however, is in testing. Says Dr. Patrick Sullivan, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, “One of the problems we still have is a very basic one: We’ve had a test for HIV since 1985, and yet we still haven’t taken full advantage of that tool.”
Read the full article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/23/hiv-screening_n_882467.html.
“Cash-strapped states are scaling back efforts to provide life-saving medicines to HIV patients.”
In this article, Shefali S. Kulkarni somewhat frighteningly explains that in an effort to save money, some states are changing eligibility, cutting back on waiting lists, and decreasing the availability of antiretrovial drugs for AIDS patients. This means that thousands of people cannot get the drugs they need.
Experts say this plan may save money now but will ultimately backfire, because patients with access to antiretroviral drugs are better able to manage the disease and may even be less infectious, thus lowering costs in the long run.
This article highlights the importance of looking back at the early days of AIDS in the US. In these days, there was a plethora of discrimination and ignorance surrounding AIDS.
Today, “one of the most daunting challenges is to stay vigilant until AIDS is at last conquered. Consider that it has been almost a quarter century since federal health officials confidently predicted that a vaccine would be available in the late 1980s — a promise that has yet to be fulfilled.”
Read the full article here.
DC released its latest HIV/AIDS numbers this month, and they’re high enough to cause alarm among the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, ABC 7 reports. This group came to Capitol Hill to support a bill called HR 1964. The bill would provide funding for massive testing, treatment and education for people with AIDS. In Washington, D.C. 81 percent of the people who have AIDS are black.
The good news is that more people are living longer with HIV and taking precautions not to spread the disease, and more people are getting tested. But the rising number of people in DC living with HIV, 3 percent of the adult population, is considered an epidemic by the CDC.
Read the full article here.
“Tanzania is among seven African countries that will benefit from a donation of more than 100,000 tons of agricultural commodities valued at US$170 million from the AmeriAcan people under the Food for Education program this year, the US Embassy here said Monday,” says an Afrique en ligne article.
Food assistance provides a healthy meal and may be the only meal that children receive each day. It will benefit 244,315 children. The program is administered by the USDA and donates agricultural products and technical assistance.
“Overall support from the American people to Tanzania’s agriculture sector impr oves productivity, access to credit, and food processing capacity to help Tanzania overcome regional and seasonal food insecurity and boost family incomes, especially among women smallholder farmers,” quotes the article.
‘Given Tanzania’s enormous agricultural potential, this assistance supports Tanzania’s goals of achieving food self-sufficiency, improving the business climate for agriculture, and eventually becoming a major food exporter to the region and the world,’ the embassy statement added.