Minority neighborhoods in the U.S. are hit as hard by HIV as gay enclaves

From Healthline.com…

HIV rates in some urban American neighborhoods rival those of Haiti and Ethiopia, according to a researcher at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

And while affected communities include big-city gay enclaves, such as New York’s Chelsea district, minority neighborhoods in the Bronx and Harlem make the list, too. The difference is that those in mostly white neighborhoods are more likely to be tested and treated than those in minority neighborhoods.They are also less likely to die of AIDS.

In an era of Internet targeting, Dr. Amy Nunn’s approach of going door-to-door if necessary to reach people with HIV may seem old-fashioned. But in areas with limited access to health care, employment, and education, HIV experts agree that a new model is needed to reach at-risk groups of black and Hispanic Americans.

Of the 50,000 new HIV infections in the U.S. in 2010, gay and bisexual men accounted for two-thirds of them, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Black men and women are eight times more likely to become infected than whites, based on population size. Of all groups, white men who had sex with men comprised the largest segment of new infections, at 11,200. Black men who had sex with men were second, with 10,600 new infections.

Dr. Nunn, an assistant professor of medicine at Brown, told Healthline that more money must be targeted toward poor and minority neighborhoods. “If this were happening to white people there would be protests,” she said. “It’s so easy to overlook poor people.”

Of the more than 1.1 million people in the U.S. living with HIV, almost 16 percent don’t know they have it, according to the CDC. Powerful antiretroviral medications available to most everyone in the U.S. can suppress viral loads to the point that transmission is unlikely. But they will only work if they are taken regularly.

“We’ve got to get these people into treatment come hell or high water,” Nunn said.

Continue reading on Healthline.com.

From TheBody.com (written by ACT UP members  James Krellenstein and Jim Eigo)…

Before Hillary Clinton stepped down as secretary of state, she presided over the official November 29, 2012, release of a Blueprint for an AIDS-Free Generation. With a trumpeter on the inside front cover, the 64-page document declared that the world was about to enter the third and final phase of the war against HIV infection. After AIDS as a full-scale plague, and AIDS as a manageable disease, we now had within our sites the elimination of symptomatic HIV. Twenty days later, however, another arm of the U.S. government released another document. Some news it contained struck a discordant note with Secretary Clinton’s battle cry. After reading it, many wondered if we hadn’t somehow traveled back to the dark early years of the epidemic.

According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) incidence estimates released on December 19, men who have sex with men (MSM; a category that includes transgender women), comprising less than two percent of the population, accounted for 66 percent of the 47,600 new HIV infections in 2010. Between 2008 and 2010, new infections rose 12 percent for all MSM and 22 percent for young MSM. Some subpopulations were at substantially higher risk: an African American man who had sex with men was six times likelier to acquire HIV infection than his white counterpart.

Spurred by news of the sharp upward trend of new infections, a core of grassroots activists of differing ages, sexes, orientations, colors, and serostatus began working on prevention issues for ACT UP/NY — they include the authors. Though the CDC numbers told of a prevention emergency, few in New York’s gay communities — from the rank-and-file to the top echelons of Gay, Inc. — seemed to realize what was going on. HIV was something that the community had taken care of back around 1997, wasn’t it? Effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) has made HIV manageable for most who have access to the drugs. For many younger men, AIDS was a disease — and a political cause — of the 1980s. Yet the successful treatment of HIV requires that strong drugs be taken over a lifetime. And those most likely to become infected — young, queer, and of color — are among the least likely to receive care, or even to know they’re infected.

Keep reading on TheBody.com.

From the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia…

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – With the AIDS Walk Philly just days away, a queer Latino group is carrying out a new campaign to stop the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS in North Philadelphia. Latinos make more than 13-percent of new HIV cases and, according to statistics, they are less likely to get tested. Experts believe the stigma of having HIV could discourage early testing. So “Positivo” is all about transforming negative attitudes about having HIV into positive.

“We kept hearing Latinos are homophobic, there’s more stigma in the Latino community,” says Elicia Gonzales, executive director of GALAEI. “But that’s not true.” Gonzales says the GALAEI conducted a small survey of about 100 people showing that Latinos are accepting of family members and friends who are gay, as well as those with a known HIV status. So she says they launched Positivo to help dispel the myth. The campaign includes positive images of Latinos from the neighborhood saying what’s positive about knowing your HIV state. “We canvassed in as many parts of North Philly as we could,” says Nikki Lopez, youth counselor at GALAEI. “We really wanted to integrate the images into the communities themselves, especially in areas that do not have the resources we have downtown.”

The group also started a social media campaign on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook with the hashtags #PositivoPhilly and #GALAEIPhilly. The group says Positivo is the first campaign of its kind.

Read the full article on CBS Philly. For more info on Positivo or on how to share your story, visit: www.GALAEI.org.

From the Washington Blade…

At least seven D.C.-based LGBT or LGBT-friendly organizations sprang into action on Tuesday to help members of the LGBT community and people with HIV choose a health insurance plan under the controversial U.S. Affordable Care Act that’s better known as “Obamacare.” Similar to reports surfacing from across the country, officials from the local groups said some of their clients encountered computer glitches on the website for D.C. Health Link, the city’s online health insurance marketplace or “exchange” on its first day of operations on Tuesday.

But all of the officials contacted by the Blade said they were optimistic that the exchange program in D.C. and those in neighboring Maryland and Virginia would soon be operating smoothly and would be an important resource for LGBT people looking for health insurance. “I’m excited about it,” said Ron Simmons, executive director of the D.C.-based Us Helping Us, an HIV services organization that reaches out to black gay men. “We have so many clients who don’t have health insurance,” Simmons said. “If you are HIV positive you need a certain type of insurance, and we are ready to help people choose the best policy suited for their needs.”

Read the full article on the Washington Blade.

From the Guardian.com…

Two years ago, James Krellenstein had unprotected sex. Luckily, the 22-year-old knew exactly what to do. The next day, he took a train from his parents’ house on Long Island to see a doctor at Bellevue Hospital inNew York City. The doctor prescribed James PEP – a strong combination of drugs usually prescribed for people who already have HIV. Months later, Krellenstein found out his partner from that night was indeed HIV-positive. But James remained negative. PEP’s little-known effectiveness in preventing the virus taking hold in someone’s body has led it to be dubbed the “morning-after pill for HIV”.

Yet Krellenstein’s experience remains rare. While the idea of treating people who may have been exposed to HIV with PEP has gained ground among doctors and activists over the last few years, most local governments in the United States have yet to implement a comprehensive PEP distribution or education program. That’s left many who are most at risk from contracting HIV unaware the option even exists. Now, as HIV diagnoses continue to rise among gay men, activists and experts are urging governments to invest money in PEP awareness campaigns and treatment programs. Otherwise, they say, many communities might be heading for a new HIV and AIDS crisis in coming years.

“We’re going to have to deal with [HIV] one way or another,” said Krellenstein, a member of the HIV awareness and activism group Act Up. “And I’d rather do it on the prevention side rather than waiting for everyone to be positive.” Krellenstein’s concern about “everyone” contracting HIV may sound like hyperbole. But if current infection rate trends continue, 54% of all men who have sex with men (MSM) will have HIV by the time they are 50, according to a 2009 University of Pittsburgh study. Among African American men who have sex with men, half will have HIV by the time they are 35. And while contracting HIV is no longer a death sentence, many worry that the increasing incidence of infection will burden the already-strained US healthcare system. The lifetime cost of treating someone with HIV can reach over $1m.

Those staggering numbers are what’s led groups like Act Up to campaign for increased funding for PEP, and increased awareness within the gay community. Act Up’s involvement is notable. The group made a name for itself pushing for politicians to take the HIV crisis seriously in the 1980s. But as treatment for HIV improved, gay marriage and other social issues replaced health at the forefront of the LGBT rights movement, and Act Up faded from view. Now, the group has found renewed purpose in calling notice to the increasing prevalence of HIV and the lack of funding for unorthodox solutions like PEP. While no one in Act Up thinks PEP is a cure-all in the ongoing fight to stop the spread of HIV, many believe it’s a missing piece in comprehensive “prevention pipeline” that includes condoms, regular testing, and education.

“A lot of young gay guys, even well-informed ones, don’t know a lot about HIV,” said Jim Eigo, an activist with Act Up who also petitioned governments to take action on HIV in the 1980s. “We’ve got to open up the eyes of the gay community … and say if you’re HIV-negative, there’s an individual value and a community value in staying that way.”

Continue reading the full article here.