December 27, 2011
By Dalia Colón – Health care isn’t the sexiest topic. It’s easy to get bogged down in data, forgetting that health issues affect real people. It’s their stories–not statistics and jargon–that bring health topics to life and make them relevant. So as 2011 draws to a close, we thought we’d check in with some of the Floridians who kept you talking throughout the year.
December 9, 2011
By Farah Dosani – HIV patient “Donell” (not his real name) was laid off from his job three years ago. “I [went from] making a lot of money to being pretty much homeless. My situation before the economic crisis was so much better. I don’t think I stand alone in that,” he said. “Once I lost my job, that’s when I had to go to places like the food bank.” Many Floridians living with HIV/AIDS were living at or below the poverty level before economic times became rough. Drug costs continue to rise and some patients have conditions that prevent them from working.
December 1, 2011
By Sammy Mack – In just three months, 3,378 Floridians living with HIV/AIDS have gotten the medications they need. That’s the number of people who had been on the waiting list for the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program. What an incredible announcement by the Florida Department of Health on World AIDS Day.
By Sammy Mack – Today marks the 23rd annual World AIDS Day and three decades into the pandemic, the Florida Department of Health is turning to the internet to humanize the impact of AIDS. The Virtual Memorial on WeMakeTheChange.com is a patchwork of user-submitted memorials. Each panel in the digital AIDS quilt consists of a name, a birth and death date, and an epitaph of 100 words or less.
October 21, 2011
By Farah Dosani – Latinos are almost three times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than whites. The disproportionate impact is sobering. And prevention efforts aimed at Spanish-speakers are a challenge. “The Latino community is not one monolithic community,” said Eduardo Rodriguez, Health Educator for Collier County Department of Health’s HIV Prevention Program.
October 14, 2011
By Sammy Mack – Sir Elton John and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) have joined forces to fight cuts to AIDS support programs. The past few years have seen states slashing budgets for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). The program helps people living with AIDS pay for lifesaving—and very expensive—medications.
September 22, 2011
By Sammy Mack – A remarkable bit of news from the research world: a group of citizen scientists have cracked the code to a decade-old virus puzzle. And they did it by playing a computer game.
September 20, 2011
By Sammy Mack – Let’s face it: talking about sex can be really awkward. Talking about sex with your grandparents? Super awkward. But also important, according to the Florida Department of Health.
June 24, 2011
By Sammy Mack – Monday, June 27th, is National HIV Testing Day, and health officials across the state are urging Floridians to get screened. Florida is third in the nation for HIV and AIDS cases. There are approximately 135,000 Floridians living with HIV – and a fifth of them don’t even know they have it. “Our numbers in Palm Beach County are greater than a lot of entire states,” said Timothy O’Connor, the information director for the Palm Beach County Health Department.
June 7, 2011
By Sammy Mack – This past Sunday marked the 30th anniversary of AIDS in the U.S. news outlets across the country – including this one - have been covering the anniversary, using it as a moment to reflect on the past three decades of the virus. Much of the coverage has focused on advances in drugs to treat HIV and AIDS. There also seem to be a great many physician-penned essays on lessons learned over the years. We’ve been keeping an eye on the coverage and thought we’d share a few stories that we found particularly interesting:
June 3, 2011
By Sammy Mack – A recognizable voice has joined the chorus of critics of Florida’s potential changes to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. Sir Elton John wrote an open letter to Gov. Rick Scott, asking Scott to make sure the Florida Department of Health does not change eligibility requirements for ADAP, which helps people living with HIV afford their medications.
June 1, 2011
[VIDEO] By Sammy Mack – Dab Garner has been living with HIV since before there was a name for it. The 49-year-old AIDS activist was a teenager in San Francisco when the first of his friends developed Kaposi’s sarcoma – a skin disorder later associated with advanced AIDS. It was 1981. The friend entered the quarantine ward of the hospital and never left.
May 31, 2011
By Sammy Mack – All this week we’re marking the 30th anniversary of AIDS. This afternoon, a story in numbers:
May 30, 2011
[VIDEO] By Sammy Mack – At age 21, Jeff has legs like broomsticks under his nylon basketball shorts and his cheeks are hollow. Sitting at a table outside the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine with two friends of about the same age, he looks young and fragile. Jeff doesn’t like telling people what’s wrong. He doesn’t like what they say when they learn he was born HIV-positive.
May 24, 2011
By Sammy Mack – On June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control published its first mention of a very rare kind of pneumonia that was showing up in Los Angeles. It was a simple case report in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Five gay, previously healthy, young men developed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Two were dead by the time the study was published. The CDC received a wave of phone calls. Doctors across the country reported seeing the same thing.
May 23, 2011
By Sammy Mack – In the AIDS community, there is an unspeakable phenomenon that’s been unfolding for years now: people who actively spread and seek HIV. This past Sunday, the St. Petersburg Times ran a front-page story on this: “…the shadowy world of ‘gift givers’ – those who knowingly spread the incurable virus – and ‘bug chasers” – those who seek it out. The sardonic nicknames describe people who refuse to believe the virus is deadly, or who know it is and don’t care who is harmed.”
May 22, 2011
By Farah Dosani – Twenty years ago, it took two weeks for people to get their results from HIV testing. Today, folks can learn their HIV status in the time it takes to walk across the street and get a cup of coffee. Rapid HIV testing takes about 20 minutes to get the results and has been available for the past decade. It is also the test of choice for young adults and teens, according to a recent study.
May 13, 2011
By Kimberly Vlach – In Friday’s rounds, study on AIDS patients is the “first to prove” that early antiretroviral drug therapy can reduce transmission; bedbugs can carry MRSA (the antibiotic-resistant bacteria); and a sickle cell anemia drug long used in adults appears to help children, even babies.
May 4, 2011
By Sammy Mack – Murder. Genocide. Holocaust. Those were just a few of the words used at a public hearing about potential changes that would limit access to Florida’s troubled AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). ADAP is the state-run, federally-funded program that helps people pay for expensive AIDS medications.
April 29, 2011
By Euna Lhee – The U.S. South has become an eye-opening epicenter of HIV infection, according to Dr. John Bartlett of Duke University. He says the South accounted for 46% of all new AIDS diagnoses in the U.S. in 2005. Other regions saw a 6% decrease in AIDS cases. How does Florida fare in all this? Well, the Sunshine State has the second highest number of AIDS diagnoses in the country.