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Indian Gender Clinics Shut Down After Losing Funds That Biden Passed Off As AIDS Relief

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President Donald Trump’s freeze on foreign aid has led to three transgender clinics shutting down in India as liberal causes around the world lose taxpayer funding.

Mitr Clinic, the country’s first health institution “exclusively for the transgender community,” closed three facilities on Jan. 24 after Trump cut most of its budget, Indian news outlets reported Sunday and Monday. The clinics almost fully relied on American taxpayer funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an entity the left has defended as Trump’s administration moves to dismantle it.

Former President Joe Biden’s State Department celebrated Mitr Clinic’s opening in 2021 along with the premiere of a documentary “Mitr Clinic – Pride and Beyond.” Biden’s USAID used a federal AIDS relief program to help open the clinic in partnership with Johns Hopkins University.

“As the White House report released on November 20 [2021] to memorialize the Transgender Day of Remembrance noted, the U.S. government is taking essential steps to address the root causes of anti-transgender violence, discrimination, and denial of economic opportunity,” a U.S. diplomat said in the State Department’s news release. “These clinics, which provide community-led comprehensive health care services to the transgender community, are a big step toward building a more inclusive society for the LGBTQI+ persons.” (Read more from “Indian Gender Clinics Shut Down After Losing Funds That Biden Passed Off As AIDS Relief” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

New Epidemic of HIV in Cuba is Twice as Aggressive as Average Virus

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By Payton Guion. Researchers are worried after discovering a new strain of HIV in Cuba that progresses to AIDS twice as fast as the average strain of the disease, leaving those infected with a preciously shorter window in which to seek treatment.

The strain – which is actually a mix of three subtypes of human immunodeficiency virus – can progress to AIDS within three years if left untreated, according to reports. The average HIV strain advances to AIDS in six to 10 years.

Mutated HIV viruses are more difficult to diagnose and the rapid nature of the new Cuban strain make it difficult to treat those with HIV before it is too late. Researchers have identified more than 60 strains of HIV type 1 because of mutations. (Read more about the HIV in Cuba being twice as aggressive as the average virus HERE)

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Fast Acting HIV Strain in Cuba Troubles Aids Researchers

By Daniel Chang and Nora Gamez Torres. A strain of HIV that progresses to full-blown AIDS within three years if left untreated has become “epidemic” among newly infected patients in Cuba who reported having unprotected sex with multiple partners, according to a study published last week by international researchers working with patients and doctors in the Caribbean island nation.

The strain of human immunodeficiency virus — a combination of three subtypes of the virus — progresses so fast that researchers at Belgium’s Catholic University of Leuven said they worry patients infected with the mutated virus may not seek antiretroviral therapy until it’s too late.

The finding, published in the medical journal EBioMedicine, raises concerns among U.S. AIDS researchers who worry that mutated HIV viruses are more difficult to diagnose, might eventually become resistant to therapy and could challenge efforts to develop a vaccine.

Hector Bolivar, a physician and infectious-disease specialist with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said the HIV research community has long known about the virus’ capacity to mutate and create new versions.

More than 60 strains of HIV type 1 exist in the world because of mutations. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Federal Sites Leaked the Locations of People Seeking AIDS Services for Years

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computersoffice-7475Two federal government Web sites that help people find AIDS-related medical services have begun routinely encrypting user data after years in which they let sensitive information — including the real-world locations of site visitors – onto the Internet unprotected.

Until the change, these sites had risked exposing the identities of visitors when they used search boxes to find nearby facilities offering HIV testing, treatment and other services, such as substance abuse and mental health counseling, say security experts. Government smartphone apps associated with one of the Web sites, AIDS.gov, also transmitted the latitude and longitude of users seeking services, after collecting those details from the phones of users.

The sites and apps did not themselves track visitors, but their data was handled in ways that could have enabled monitoring by employers, universities or others with access to the data flowing between individual devices – such as computers and smartphones – and the Internet. Even using a public wifi signal, offered by a coffee shop or airport, could have allowed a nearby hacker to learn that an individual user, wielding a particular type of smartphone, was seeking treatment for HIV or drug addiction.

Privacy advocates long have argued that routine encryption – using a popular protocol called SSL – should be standard for Web sites or apps handling potentially sensitive information, especially when it relates to personal medical concerns. Government officials, in response to questions posed by The Washington Post, said they came to agree that their sites created privacy risks for those seeking AIDS-related services.

Read more from this story HERE.

AIDS-Positive Alabama Pastor Who Slept with Congregants Banned from Church

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Photo Credit: JAY REEVES / APA minister who confessed to having sex with church members and neglecting to tell them he had AIDS was temporarily banned from acting as pastor on Thursday.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Charles Price issued a preliminary injunction, as sought by deacons and trustees of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church. Price ruled that the Rev. Juan McFarland, 47, must turn in his church keys and his church Mercedes vehicle and then stay away from the church he led for 24 years.

Church members hugged and prayed after the ruling. “Now we’ve got the church back, and the healing can begin,” said Lois Caffey, a member for 21 years.

The judge scheduled a hearing Dec. 1 to decide whether to issue a permanent injunction.

Lee Sanford, chairman of the board of trustees, said the challenge now is to reunite the 170 active members of the congregation. “I’m confident with God’s help we will be able to do that,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Dozens Infected With Hepatitis, AIDS from Oklahoma Dental Practice

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Blood tests conducted on patients treated at an Oklahoma oral surgery practice that has been closed over health concerns show that 57 have hepatitis C, three have hepatitis B and as many as three have HIV, the virus than can lead to AIDS, officials said on Thursday.

Health officials said it will take more investigation – including interviews with each patient and blood tests of the remaining patients – before they can determine whether the viruses were contracted at the dental offices, an extremely rare occurrence.

“Now the real disease detective work goes into effect,” state health department spokeswoman Leslea Bennet-Webb said.

Officials cannot be more specific about the number of patients who tested positive for HIV because of the state’s confidentiality policy that restricts public disclosure of HIV cases involving fewer than three people, Bennet-Webb said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Scientists Say Baby Born With HIV Apparently Cured

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Photo Credit: APA baby born with the virus that causes AIDS appears to have been cured, scientists announced Sunday, describing the case of a child from Mississippi who’s now 2½ and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection.

There’s no guarantee the child will remain healthy, although sophisticated testing uncovered just traces of the virus’ genetic material still lingering. If so, it would mark only the world’s second reported cure.

Specialists say Sunday’s announcement, at a major AIDS meeting in Atlanta, offers promising clues for efforts to eliminate HIV infection in children, especially in AIDS-plagued African countries where too many babies are born with the virus.

“You could call this about as close to a cure, if not a cure, that we’ve seen,” Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, who is familiar with the findings, told The Associated Press.

A doctor gave this baby faster and stronger treatment than is usual, starting a three-drug infusion within 30 hours of birth. That was before tests confirmed the infant was infected and not just at risk from a mother whose HIV wasn’t diagnosed until she was in labor. “I just felt like this baby was at higher-than-normal risk, and deserved our best shot,” Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist at the University of Mississippi, said in an interview.

Read more from this story HERE.

AIDS Activists Arrested After Protesting Speaker Boehner’s Office in the Nude

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Three women AIDS activists saying they wanted to highlight the ‘naked truth’ about potential spending cuts in HIV programs were arrested Tuesday after taking their clothes off in the lobby of House Speaker John Boehner’s office.

The trio had the words ‘AIDS cuts kill’ painted on their bodies and had linked arms with four men who also disrobed as part of the protest.

The protest came as health officials revealed that AIDS is spreading to a new generation of young men who are having risky sex and ignoring the painful lessons learned during initial outbreak of the disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that 1 in 5 new HIV infections occur in a tiny segment of the population – young men who are gay or bisexual.

The government on Tuesday released new numbers that spotlight how the spread of the AIDS virus is heavily concentrated in young males who have sex with other males.

Read more from this story HERE.

Starting this month, Obamacare begins to cater to promiscuity

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By Susan Jones.  Starting August 1, the Democrats’ health care law — as implemented by the Health and Human Services Administration — entitles 47 million women to eight new “prevention-related” health care services “without paying more out of their own pocket,” HHS reminded Americans on Tuesday.

In addition to the controversial contraceptive mandate, HHS says virtually all health plans must cover – at no charge — the following items for sexually active women.

— HIV screening and counseling: “Sexually-active women will have access to annual counseling on HIV,” HHS said, noting that women are at increased risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.

— Counseling on sexually transmitted infections: “Sexually-active women will have access to annual counseling on sexually transmitted infections,” HHS said. “These sessions have been shown to reduce risky behavior in patients, yet only 28 percent of women aged 18-44 years reported that they had discussed STIs with a doctor or nurse.”

— HPV (human papillomavirus): This sexually transmitted disease is linked to cervical cancer. According to HHS, “Women who are 30 or older will have access to high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing every three years, regardless of Pap smear results.”  Read more from this story HERE.

Sen. Harkin:  Free birth control mandated by Obamacare because women have severe menstrual cramping

By Elizabeth Harrington. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) today justified what the Catholic bishops of the United States have unanimously called an “unjust and illegal mandate” that forces Catholic business owners to provide coverage for free sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs because, Harkin said, some women need birth control pills to deal with menstrual pain.

“There are many women who take birth control pills, for example, because they have terrible menstrual cramps once a month, some of them almost incapacitated, can’t work,” said Harkin. “I know of young women myself who, because of this, aren’t able to work and be productive, and it’s prescribed by their doctor.”

In an interview with CNSNews.com, Harkin at no time contested that the regulation required Catholics to act against their faith. Instead, he likened forcing a Catholic to purchase health insurance that covers sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs to forcing Quakers to pay taxes to cover a war.

“It’s like a Quaker who pays income taxes,” said Harkin. “They have to pay income taxes. Quakers, as you know, have unalterably been opposed to war and military spending. Yes, some of their taxes have to go to that.”

The “preventive services” regulation, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), goes into effect on Aug. 1. It mandates that nearly all health insurance plans must offer sterilizations, contraceptives, and abortion-inducing drugs free of charge.  Read more from this story HERE.

United Nation’s Commission wants to legalize prostitution, IV drug use worldwide

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A report issued by the United Nations-backed Global Commission on HIV and the Law recommends that nations around the world get rid of “punitive” laws against prostitution – or what it calls “consensual sex work” — and decriminalize the voluntary use of illegal injection drugs in order to combat the HIV epidemic.

The commission, which is made up of 15 former heads of state, legal scholars and HIV/AIDS activists, was convened in 2010 by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and is jointly backed by the United Nations Development Programme and UNAIDS – the Joint U.N. Programme on AIDS/HIV.

The commission recommends repealing all laws that prohibit “adult consensual sex work,” as well as clearly distinguishing in law and practice between sexual trafficking and prostitution.

The report–“HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights & Health”–cites a recommendation by the International Labour Organization, which recommends that “sex work” should be recognized as an occupation in order to be regulated “in a way that protects workers and customers.”

Specifically, the commission wants to: “Decriminalise private and consensual adult sexual behaviours, including same-sex sexual acts and voluntary sex work.”

For other actions that the UN commission wants to take, please read more from this story HERE.

The Economics of Abortion: Hundreds of Billions of Dollars Lost

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As we all know, there are so many effects that abortion has on our society and the whole world. What seems to be overlooked is how abortion can hurt the economy. People make the mistake that abortion is solely a moral issue, and therefore cannot be related to the effects of the economy.

In the United States, we have a national debt nearing $16 trillion, which has surpassed the nation’s annual GDP. In other words, our federal government is spending beyond our means. Since abortion was legalized in 1973 by Roe v. Wade, over 50 million babies have died, with over 3,000 killed on a daily basis.

It’s horrible enough that these innocent babies are murdered, but can you imagine how many more contributions those 50 million lives would have made? Perhaps one of those aborted could have found a way to cure AIDS, cancer, or asthma, just to name a few. Plus, with more people contributing to society through work, we would have a higher GDP, which would greatly help reduce the burden of our government spending, which spends about $4 billion daily. Much progress could be made to shore up the social security of the 10,000 individuals who retire every day.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Social Security Administration, Guttmacher Institute, and National Center for Health Statistics, if abortion had never been legalized in 1973, more than 17 million people would be employed, resulting in an additional $400 billion from those workers, with $11 billion contributed to Medicare and $47 million contributed to Social Security. Although it is important to also reduce government spending, these added incomes would nevertheless help the country.

It doesn’t take a world-renowned economist to figure out that when you’re decreasing the youth from abortion and with all the baby-boomers retiring, Social Security is going to eventually run out if we continue with abortions and the amount of spending by the federal government. Even though Social Security cannot last forever with the amount of federal spending today, not having abortion would help Social Security last longer, assuming that the amount of federal spending is the same.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: utsfl