Illinois Attorney General Files Lawsuit Against Center for AIDS Prevention
House Passes Bill – Ban on Needle Exchange Funding Lifted
Clinical Trial Investigates Drug's Ability to Reduce HIV in Body
Justice Department Improves Occupational Training/Licensing Guidelines
Illinois Attorney General Files Lawsuit Against Center for AIDS Prevention
In a July 27 story for ProPublica, Chris Weaver reported that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed a lawsuit against the Center for AIDS Prevention for unlawful fundraising and falsifying official documents. Madigan said the state revoked the organization's registration 20 years ago, but its director, Steve Neely, also known as Morrell Neely, has continued to solicit donations in the state. According to Weaver’s report, "If the suit is successful, Illinois could seize money illegally raised there, bar Neely and others involved with the center from future charitable work in the state, freeze their assets, force them to pay back donations they may have 'misused and/or wasted' with interest, and attempt to shut the group down for good by revoking its corporate status."
discuss this news brief in our discussion forum
House Passes Bill – Ban on Needle Exchange Funding Lifted
On July 24, the U. S. House of Representatives passed a $730.5 billion bill (HR 3293) "to fund health, education and labor programs in fiscal 2010 after narrowly defeating an attempt to strip language that would lift the ban on federal needle exchange programs," CQ Today reports, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation Daily HIV/AIDS Report of July 27. Lawmakers voted 211-218 to reject an amendment by Mark Souder (R-Ind.) that sought to keep the ban in place, the AP reports in the Lewiston Sun Journal. However, the bill does include a restriction against using federal funds for needle exchanges within 1,000 feet of day care centers, schools, parks, playgrounds, pools and youth centers. The bill also drops funding for abstinence-only sex education and provides $114 million for a new teenage pregnancy prevention initiative.
discuss this news brief in our discussion forum
Clinical Trial Investigates Drug's Ability to Reduce HIV in Body
At the International AIDS Society’s conference in Cape Town, South Africa, Bloomberg reports that findings were presented from a small study of GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) experimental HIV drug S/GSK1349572. Results from the first human trial of the drug found that it was able to reduce HIV to undetectable levels in 70% of the 35 patients taking the treatment for 10 days. According to Bloomberg, “The drug decreased the virus in the body without the signs of resistance linked to treatments from Merck's Isentress and Gilead Sciences' elvitegravir.” GSK will begin a larger trial of the drug this month.
Michael Saag, director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of Alabama, who is not affiliated with the study, said the scale of viral reduction was "spectacular," adding, "In 10 days to go to undetectable is pretty strong. This thing's working.”
discuss this news brief in our discussion forum
According to the July 21 Daily HIV/AIDS Report of the Kaiser Family Foundation, "HIV infection rates among babies are significantly cut when mothers are given prolonged ARV treatment during breastfeeding," according to findings released at the International AIDS Society conference in Cape Town, South Africa on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Reuters adds, "Key findings from the study showed that a stronger drug cocktail administered over a longer period reduced the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission compared with the current WHO-recommended short-course ARV regimen." Tim Farley, project leader for the "Kesho Bora" study, conducted by the World Health Organization in partnership with several other international agencies, said, "The results of this study show an almost two-fold reduction in the risk of HIV transmission during the breastfeeding period and also [show] there is no short-term toxicity (to mothers or infants)." The WHO "is reviewing its 2006 recommendations on the use of ARVs (antiretrovirals) in pregnant women, including during the breastfeeding period. New guidelines are expected to be published by the end of 2009 and will take into account emerging data."
discuss this news brief in our discussion forum
Justice Department Improves Occupational Training/Licensing Guidelines
In a release on July 22, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the issue of a new technical assistance factsheet on legal requirements relating to admitting HIV-positive individuals to occupational training schools and granting state licensure in occupations such as barbering, massage therapy, and home health care assistance.
People living with HIV/AIDS frequently face obstacles in obtaining training and state licensure in such occupations because some states require that applicants for licensure be free of communicable diseases. Because HIV disease is not spread through casual contact, excluding HIV-positive individuals under these requirements is unnecessary and discriminates against them in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“People with HIV or AIDS should not be denied access to their chosen profession because of outdated laws or unfounded stereotypes and fears. The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice is committed to the full and fair enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” said Loretta King, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.
discuss this news brief in our discussion forum
