Patient / Public:
Health Professional:
Article Opinions:	php?associatednewsid=153912′ rel=’nofollow’>0 posts

The Los Angeles County’s Commission on HIV this week backed down on a proposal that would have cut $350,000 from nutrition programs that serve people living with HIV, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. The commission members voted on Thursday to send the proposal back to a committee for further review after protests by food pantry clients and volunteers and staff from AIDS Project Los Angeles, Project Angel Food and other organizations attending a hearing on the issue. While this year’s Ryan White Program funds, which the county uses for its programs, were increased from last year, the bad economy and increasing medical and pharmaceutical costs for people living with HIV prompted the commission to consider using the $350,000 slated for nutrition for other services, according to the Daily News. Roughly 3,000 people use the nutrition services monthly (Abram, Los Angeles Daily News, 6/11).

This information was reprinted from dailyreports.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily U.S. HIV/AIDS Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at dailyreports.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Patient / Public:
Health Professional:
Article Opinions:	php?associatednewsid=153910′ rel=’nofollow’>0 posts

Twenty-two people in the adult film industry have tested positive for HIV in the last five years in Los Angeles County, according to a new report released on Thursday by county health officials, the Los Angeles Times reports. Officials were prompted to release the report after an adult film star last week tested positive for HIV. An outbreak occurred in 2004, in which at least five people tested positive for HIV, and caused the industry to shut down for one month. The cases in 2004 prompted a series of public hearings over the years that sought to require the industry to adopt safer practices, but no legislation was introduced. “The report … is bringing renewed scrutiny to the estimated $12-billion-a-year industry’s long history of resisting regulation and condom use,” according to the Times. Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said, “This industry screams for regulation,” adding that the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health “needs to require that condoms be used in any film.” Sharon Mitchell, co-founder of the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, the clinic which tests people in the adult film industry for sexually transmitted infections, said the clinic promotes HIV prevention and testing, but added “we are not the police department of the industry nor wish to be” (Yoshino/Rong-Gong, Los Angeles Times, 6/12).

This information was reprinted from dailyreports.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily U.S. HIV/AIDS Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at dailyreports.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Patient / Public:
Health Professional:
Article Opinions:	php?associatednewsid=153901′ rel=’nofollow’>0 posts

At the China Post reports (China Post, 6/12).

“Resources are becoming scarce, but there is a need to ensure their use in an equitable way to address priority areas,” Delay said. “HIV/AIDS has in the past been operating in isolation. We have to look at how we can integrate funding for the epidemic into funding for education, shelter and nutrition.”

According to DeLay, an estimated $25 billion is needed to provide universal prevention, care, treatment and counseling by 2010, while so far, $14 billion has been raised for low- and middle-income countries. “Donors want to know how their money is being used in achieving universal access,” DeLay said. “Countries themselves should be able to demonstrate that the funds have made an impact on the intended recipients.”

The AP/Khaleej Times writes that UNAIDS says fighting HIV/AIDS “will require that 1.5 million teachers be trained, 13 million sex workers reached, 10 billion condoms provided, 2.5 million circumcisions performed, and 19 million orphans and vulnerable children supported” (AP/Khaleej Times, 6/11).

A joint UNAIDS/World Bank report, titled “The Global Economic Crisis and HIV Prevention and Treatment Programmes: Vulnerabilities and Impact,” based on the results of a 71 country survey on the impacts of the economic crisis on HIV prevention programs, is expected to come out in late June/early July (World Bank release, 6/11).

Former Boston Globe reporter, John Donnelly, is live blogging from the conference here for the Center for Global Health Policy.

This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.