Other News

On July 22nd, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) publicized that there will be housing assistance grants available for low-income families who are also HIV positive. There will be $310 million that will be of service to 58,000 U.S families. Some organizations that will be distributed grants are the Gregory House Programs of Honolulu ($1.3 million), the Frannie Peabody Center in Portland, Maine ($1.3 million), the city of Portland, Maine ($1.4 million), New Hampshire (over $716,000), and the Burlington Housing Authority in Vermont (over $392,000).

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According to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, many people who test positive for HIV are diagnosed later in the course of their infection when treatment may be less effective. In a report by Reuters Health, data was taken of individuals who were diagnosed between 1996 and 2005. 45% of people developed AIDS within three years of their diagnosis, 6.7% were diagnosed within two years, and 38.3% were diagnosed within only one year of their HIV test. "R. Luke Shouse of CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention in the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, said, "This means that they may have unknowingly transmitted HIV. It also means that there is a time when they had HIV when they were not under appropriate medical care, so there are missed opportunities for prevention and care."" Another CDC report concluded that 12.9% of all high school students have been tested for HIV.

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A new study by the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University has found that "a receptor molecule involved in the recognition of HIV-1 responds to the virus differently in women than in men," might "explain why HIV infection progresses faster to AIDS in women than in men with similar viral loads." The study also discussed that in the early periods of the infection, the women's immune system responds stronger to HIV than men's immune system. HIV also progresses into AIDS more rapidly in women. The differences in the immune systems shows differences in T-cell activation, which causes the disease to progress. By looking into immune activity separately from replication can help find new approaches for treating HIV.

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On July 19^th, the Department of Justice discussed a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. They spoke out and said that it is unethical to bar people for job positions, trainings, or licenses because of their HIV/AIDS status. Some of these occupations are barbers, masseuses, and home health workers. The AP/Los Angeles Times states that, “The government says that type of regulation is outdated and was not intended to bar people with HIV. The original goal of such a rule was to prevent the spread of tuberculosis and other diseases, not prevent people with [HIV] from working in certain fields.”

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