HIV Media Digest will not be published this Friday, 27 August, due to travel commitments. We’ll be back on Monday.
In this edition:
Australia
Melbourne Community Voice, 24 Aug
Tags: hiv human-rights kirby,michael michael-kirby-centre melbourne plc williams,michael vac kennedy,mike sidibe,michel
A new research centre focusing on the link between human rights and good health will officially open next month at the Positive Living Centre.
Continues: http://www.mcv.gaynewsnetwork.com.au/news/michael-kirby-think-tank-to-op...
Sydney Star Observer, 25 Aug
Tags: hiv-sector housing stanford-house nsw
Stanford House is hosting a community barbecue on August 29 as it moves towards its 20th anniversary of helping people with HIV.
Continues: http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/2010/08/25/stanford-house-marks-20-y...
6 Minutes, 23 Aug (BLOG)
Tags: hiv general-practice di-natale,richard politics
It's eighth time lucky for Victorian doctor Richard Di Natale, a former GP who has finally been elected to office, making history as the state's first Greens Senator. Di Natale has experience working in indigenous health and HIV.
Continues: http://www.6minutes.com.au/articles/z1/view.asp?id=522365
Our Region
Viet Nam News (Vietnam), 24 Aug
Tags: hiv vietnam film women sex-workers
Pham Thi Hue, featured in Time magazine's issue about Asian Heroes in 2004, has just wrapped up the shooting of a new film in which she stars as an HIV-infected prostitute.
Continues: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Life-Style/202902/Famous-HIV-activist...
Viet Nam News (Vietnam), 24 Aug
Tags: hiv children discrimination stigma vietnam
Half a million copies of a booklet intended to help lower the incidence of AIDS and combat discrimination against children with the disease will be distributed to schools and the broader community.
Continues: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Social-Isssues/202898/Booklet-hopes-t...
HIV Treatments
Aidsmap (UK), 24 Aug
Tags: hiv bone-density heroin ageing
Older HIV-positive men have lower bone mineral density than their HIV-negative peers, a US study shows. The study involved men with or at risk of HIV who were aged over 49. Advanced HIV disease and heroin use were associated with bone loss.
Continues: http://www.aidsmap.com/page/1505745/
HIV Prevention
Los Angeles Times (US), 23 Aug
Tags: hiv prevention circumcision safrica
In the windblown hills of the Eastern Cape, boys from the Xhosa tribe are in a hurry to be men. At 20, Siphelele Zweni was ridiculed in his village. They called him nofontyela, a non-man, who'd gone too long without his coming-of-age circumcision.
Continues: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/23/world/la-fg-africa-circumcision-...
HIV Criminalisation
Huffington Post (US), 23 Aug
Tags: hiv criminal-law benaissa,nadja gmhc poz-magazine
Many AIDS advocacy organizations including GMHC and POZ Magazine say that criminal prosecution further stigmatizes people living with HIV and that prosecution discourages HIV testing as only those who know their status are likely to be prosecuted.
Continues: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chelsealyn-rudder/the-responsibilities-of-...
Zoe Williams/The Guardian (UK), 18 Aug (OPINION)
Tags: hiv criminal-law op-ed benaissa,nadja deliberately-infected reckless-endangerment gbh evidence phylogenetic-analysis intentionality shared-responsibility morality promiscuity
Nadja Benaissa, of the German pop group No Angels, is in court accused of infecting a man with HIV when she knew she had the virus. Her defence is that she was "careless", but had been advised that the chances of passing on the virus were near z
Continues: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/18/hiv-nadja-benaissa-l...
Criminal HIV Transmission, 24 Aug (BLOG)
Tags: hiv criminal-law canada prosecution-guidelines disclosure
A new report, launched at AIDS 2010 in Vienna last month, recommends that the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General establish a consultation process to inform the development of prosecution guidelines for cases involving allegations of non-disclosure o
Continues: http://criminalhivtransmission.blogspot.com/2010/08/canada-new-report-ca...
Sexual Health
Melbourne Community Voice, 24 Aug
Tags: stis herpes film ahmf
The fight against the Herpes virus is being taken to the silver screen in a new competition. The Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV), associated with cold sores and genital herpes, is the subject of the Live & Love Short Film Competition.
Continues: http://www.mcv.gaynewsnetwork.com.au/news/lights-camera-herpes-007855.ht...
Sydney Star Observer, 24 Aug
Tags: stis herpes film ahmf
The Australian Herpes Management Forum is organising Australia’s first herpes-themed film festival.
Continues: http://www.starobserver.com.au/community/2010/08/24/putting-herpes-on-sc...
Drugs
The Guardian (UK), 24 Aug (OPINION)
Tags: idu stigma op-ed uk drugs addiction hiv opiod-substitution-therapy
Drug addicts have a lot in common with other marginalised groups, such as sex workers, people with disabilities and asylum seekers in that many people have never met them and know very little about the realities of their lives.
Continues: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/24/stop-stigmatising-dr...
Hepatitis
Reuters/PR Newswire, 24 Aug
Tags: hcv clinical-trials pharmasset psi-7977 polymerase-inhibitors
Pharmasset, Inc. announced today that dosing has begun in a Phase 2b study of PSI-7977, a nucleotide analog polymerase inhibitor for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (HCV).
Continues: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS104087+24-Aug-2010+PRN20100824
Science & Medicine
San Francisco Chronicle (US)/Bloomberg, 23 Aug
Tags: cfs raltegravir tenofovir retroviruses xmrv
Fresh evidence linking chronic fatigue syndrome to a family of mouse viruses was reported in a U.S. government study that has spurred new debate over how to treat the disease.
Continues: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/08/23/bloomberg137...
Boston Globe (US)/Washington Post, 24 Aug
Tags: cfs viruses xmrv prostate-cancer
A well-respected team of scientists released long-awaited new evidence yesterday that a virus could be playing a role in chronic fatigue syndrome.
Continues: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/08/24/researchers_link_c...
New York Times (US), 23 Aug (BLOG)
Tags: general-practice ethics
Does your doctor call you names once you leave the exam room? In today’s Cases column, Dr. Michael W. Kahn writes about doctors who speak about their patients in unflattering terms, and the risk that poses to patient care.
Continues: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/doctors-who-mock-their-patients...
This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here. 
