Hospitalization rates down for young kids with HIV

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The introduction and widespread use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the United States has led to "dramatic decreases" in hospitalizations among HIV-infected infants and children younger than 5 years old, new evidence suggests.

However, the decrease in hospital use has been less noteworthy among HIV-infected adolescent.
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HIV-positive toddler joins protest for being banned from RV park

A 2-year-old boy will join more than 100 AIDS activists convening to the Alabama RV park where he was turned away from using the shared pool and showers because he is HIV-positive. read more

AIDS Activists Rally in S.Africa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Hundreds of AIDS activists packed the city's cathedral Wednesday to show support for the dismissed deputy health minister they believe was targeted for speaking out about the AIDS crisis and other problems in the nation's health service.

Madlala-Routledge's firing "is a shame for South Africa. It's a shame for our beloved country," said Mpumi Mantangana, a nurse who oversees the treatment of about 2,000 AIDS patients in a poor Cape Town suburb.

"We will never allow ourselves to be silenced by people who are denialists," she said, using a term for people who question the link between HIV and AIDS and play down the extent of the crisis.read more

Woman gets divorce from HIV-infected husband

FUJAIRAH — Upholding the verdict of the lower court, the Shariah Court of Appeal in Fujairah has granted divorce to a woman on the grounds that her husband is an Aids patient.


The court felt that the life of the woman would be in danger if she continued to live with her Aids-affected husband.
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Arrest Yields Meth Bust, HIV-Spreading Charges

The arrest of an Arizona man wanted for allegedly failing to register as a sex offender led Montgomery County detectives to what officials describe as one of the larger and more sophisticated methamphetamine labs ever found in the county.

The suspect, Robert W. Lindsay, was also charged with trying to infect a Montgomery detective with HIV because he bit the investigator during a long and bloody tussle, police said.read more

HIV worker's ashes scattered on Mt Vic

The ashes of a high profile Wellington HIV outreach and support volunteer have been scattered on Mt Victoria after he died of an AIDS-related illness.

Warren Shore, 51, was a long-time volunteer at the Awhina Centre where he prepared safe sex condom packs distributed around the Wellington region and further afield and made up the thousands of red ribbons needed for the Centre's annual street collections. "

According to Shore, he wishes he was cremated and his ashes brought to the Awhina Centre. A celebration of his life was held was then held at Our Bar, one of his favourite haunts. Awhina staff then scattered the ashes around a kauri tree planted in Plimmer Park on Mt Victoria in 2006 in memory of those lost through AIDS.
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Panel discusses changing faces of AIDS

The woman, in the prime of her being, was forced to have sex with the man in order to retrieve water for her children, recalled Geeta Rao Gupta at the "The New Face of AIDS" discussion held in Edgartown last week.

The man, Gupta said, wanted to claim what he believed was a right and capitalize on the vulnerability of the desperate woman. Though the two parties did not have HIV, the male-dominance dynamic, played out in countries across the globe, is one factor resulting in the spread of AIDS.

"Economic and social dependency on men is a major driver of the epidemic," Gupta said in a phone interview four days after speaking on the panel that addressed the socio-economic effects of AIDS.read more