ACTION ALERT - Help Lift the Ban on Gay Blood Donations!

Urge Your Representative to Co-Sign a Letter to the Department of Health and Human Services to End the Ban on Gay Blood Donations!

Call Today, June 7, 2010!

The Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability (ACBSA) is planning to review the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decades-long ban on blood donation by any man who has had sex with another man since 1977.

FDA’s current blood donor eligibility policies are largely inconsistent, imposing significantly less restrictions on heterosexual men and women who engage in high-risk sexual behavior, yet banning gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) who are HIV-negative, consistently practice safe sex, or are in monogamous, long-term relationships. This policy reinforces inaccurate stereotypes about gay men and HIV, and results in a significant loss of healthy blood donors.

The advent of new HIV testing technologies, which can detect HIV directly and have a window period of only 9-11 days after infection, has provided scientific and technological reasons to reconsider the policy. In the face of chronic blood shortages in the nation’s blood supply, the unnecessary exclusion of large numbers of HIV-negative blood donors may harm patients in need of blood transfusions.

The ban on all gay, bisexual and other MSM from donating blood is discriminatory and contributes unecessarily to ongoing stigma and homophobia.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Your Representative needs to hear from you today. Deadline for sign-ons is Tuesday, June 8 at noon EST. Help end this discriminatory ban!

1. Call toll-free to urge your Representative to sign-on: 1.800.828.0498. When you reach the Capitol Switchboard, ask to be connected to your House Representative. If you have trouble getting through with the toll-free number, you can use the regular switchboard number: 1.202.224.3121

Call your rep and say:

“My name is _____ and I’m a constituent from (city/state). I’m calling to ask you to co-sign the letter to HHS urging the FDA to lift the ban on gay blood donations. The current ban is discriminatory and medically and scientifically unnecessary. Sign the letter today to help increase our nation's blood supply.”


2. Please forward this information to everyone you know.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.



TAKE ACTION TODAY - TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE - TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!

Study at Rush on HIV Meds

At Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, researchers are seeking HIV-positive individuals who are failing on their current drug regimens. Study medications are selected based on the type of virus and its resistance profile. For more information, telephone Dr. Beverly Sha at 312-942-5865.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


Together We Remain Strong!

Vietnam Launches Campaign to Prevent Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission

In Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday, Vietnam launched a month-long campaign to promote HIV testing among the nation's pregnant women. The outreach, whose theme is "HIV Test for Mother, Health for Child," advises mothers-to-be to visit one of the country's 225 prevention centers to undergo testing and, if they are infected, to receive medication to help prevent transmission of the virus to their baby. While Vietnam is making progress against HIV, the number of pregnant women with the virus is increasing, according to campaign kick-off remarks by Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong. Each year, about 6,000 pregnant women in the nation are diagnosed with HIV.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


Together We Remain Strong!

AIDS Outreach Center of Greater Tarrant County to Close Main Arlington Office

On Aug. 31, the community-based AIDS Outreach Center of Greater Tarrant County will shutter its main office in Arlington, officials said. However, AOC will continue to provide free HIV and syphilis testing, counseling, and other services at the University of Texas-Arlington and Tarrant County College Southeast.

Client numbers at the main 410 W. Stanford St. location in Arlington have been falling over the past three to four years, said Allan Gould, AOC's executive director. In the last three months, the office saw only 45 clients by appointment or walk-in.

"Almost 95 percent of our clients are at or below the poverty line," Gould said. "A lot of our clients have difficulty accessing transportation. The fact that Arlington does not have a viable public transportation system has, for a very long time, played into our ability to attract the number of people we believe need to be accessing that site to be viable."

State and federal grants to AOC have been shrinking over the years and donations, which comprised a third of the budget, declined with the economy, Gould said. AOC has cut four staff positions at its Fort Worth location and reduced the hours of a fifth position.

The money saved through the cutbacks will be used to support client services including nutritional and mental health counseling, insurance, housing and legal assistance, and workplace education, Gould said. The center is seeking other partners and hopes to offer its services at additional locations in Arlington.

"If there are 45, 50, 80 people that have AIDS in Arlington, they deserve services just like they do in Fort Worth and other cities," said Mayor Robert Cluck, a physician. Local voters have rejected using taxes for public transit three separate times, he noted. "To deny convenient health care on the basis of the lack of transportation is disingenuous," he said.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


Together We Remain Strong!

Rights Groups Criticize Uganda's New AIDS Bill

Human rights activists are alarmed about an HIV testing bill recently introduced in Uganda's parliament. The measure would make HIV testing mandatory for pregnant women, their sexual partners, and the perpetrators and victims of sexual assault.

"If you make testing compulsory, the individual doesn't buy into the result," said Robert Ochai, executive director of the AIDS Support Organization. "For them to take action, like getting treatment for example, they have to accept the outcome of the test."

Treatment access is another big issue, Ochai said. "What are we going to do with all these people we forcibly test? We don't have the resources to support them."

The bill would require that persons convicted of sex work, drug use or possession of hypodermic needles take an HIV test as part of the criminal investigation. It would compel persons to disclose their HIV status to sex partners, and it would allow medical personnel to reveal a patient's status to others.

"The HIV/AIDS bill tramples on rights and encourages stigma and intolerance," said Joe Amon, the health and human rights director of New York City-based Human Rights Watch.

Lawmaker Beatrice Atim, who worked on the measure, defended its pregnancy-related provisions, saying, "There is no mother in Uganda who would want to infect their child if it could be stopped."

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


Together We Remain Strong!

AIDS Groups Slam FIFA for Blocking Condoms at World Cup

One week before the start of the World Cup, AIDS activists in South Africa issued a statement accusing soccer's governing body of blocking access to condoms and HIV prevention materials at competition venues and fan parks.

"To date, FIFA has not permitted any civil society organization to distribute HIV or health-related information," said groups including the AIDS Consortium and the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society. "FIFA has not provided any written confirmation that condoms may be distributed at stadia and within the fan fests." Advocates have raised concerns about the potential for HIV transmission during the month-long event in South Africa, where an estimated 5.7 million people are HIV-positive among the population of 48 million. In a reference to the nation's aggressive plan to diagnose and treat HIV, the activists said, "The World Cup is an opportunity to take forward this campaign and to combine sport with messages about HIV prevention and healthy living that can be heard by millions." There was no immediate response from FIFA.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


Together We Remain Strong!

Partisan Gridlock Contributes to HIV/AIDS Prescription Wait Lists

An estimated 77 Iowans are among the more than 1,000 persons across the country on waiting lists for help accessing HIV medications through state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs).

State governments administer and, with the federal government, fund ADAP initiatives to make the drugs available to low-income HIV-positive residents. The governments are turning to waiting lists to cope with budget shortfalls and competing priorities in a tight economy.

One fear among HIV advocates is that congressional gridlock on how to fund the federal government's ADAP responsibility could force as many as 25 states to resort to client waiting lists until additional money becomes available.

"But what is really of concern to us is that the federal share of ADAP spending has dropped dramatically from about 74 percent to roughly 52 percent," ADAP Advocacy Association CEO Brandon M. Macsata said. "So, as far as we are concerned, the federal government is not living up to its responsibility for this important program."

Almost 80 members of the US House of Representatives sent a letter to President Obama on May 19 asking for a $126 million emergency addition to the program. "It's abundantly clear that without emergency action the ability for ADAP programs to provide a safety net will be seriously damaged," they said.

The ADAP Advocacy Association is focusing its efforts on freeing up federal funds that would resolve the ADAP waiting lists across the country.

"We are demanding action from the president and Congress," Macsata said. "Whatever it is that you have to do, just come to an agreement and help the nearly 1,100 Americans that are waiting to access the medications we know will keep them healthy and productive," he said.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


Together We Remain Strong!