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European Crisis: Half of HIV Infections in Greece Are Self-Inflicted

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Photo Credit: REUTERSA recent World Health Organization report paints an alarming picture regarding the health implications of Europe’s economic crisis, including how some Greek citizens are infecting themselves with HIV in order to receive 700 euros in government benefits.

The findings highlight how startling levels of unemployment and severe, mandated government cutbacks are trickling down to European citizens.

The September WHO report concludes that the economic crisis that began in 2008 has “exacerbated” health problems in Europe and “exposed stark social and economic inequities within and between countries.”

Greece has been among Europe’s hardest-hit, with its debt crisis causing the country’s economy to shrink and nearly knocking it out of the euro zone entirely.

According to the WHO report, suicides soared by 17% in Greece between 2007 and 2009 and then another 25% in 2010. As the crisis deepened in the first half of 2011, suicide attempts surged 40%.

Read more from this story HERE.

Brryan Jackson, AIDS Patient Injected With HIV By His Father As Infant, Forgives Father

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Photo Credit: Opposing Views

Photo Credit: Opposing Views

Over 20 years ago, St. Louis resident Brian Stewart injected his infant son with HIV-tainted blood.

When his unfathomably evil act came to light, Stewart was sentenced to life in prison and called “the worst kind of criminal” by the presiding judge. When asked why he would inject his son with the deadly virus, Stewart said he wanted to kill his son in order to avoid paying child support.

The infant, now 22-year old Brryan Jackson, contracted full-blown AIDS by the age of five. Doctors gave him five months to live.

“Anyone in my condition would die in three months, they gave me five,” Jackson said.

The side effects from his medicine were terrible – Brryan lost 70% of his hearing from his treatments. As a five-year-old child, Brryan was taking 23 different pills, two IV bags, and three injections daily.

Read more from this story HERE.

CDC: 94 to 95 Percent of HIV Cases Among Young Men Linked to Gay Sex

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Photo Credit: CDC

Photo Credit: CDC

The above is a graphic from a CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) online slide presentation, “HIV Surveillance in Adolescents and Young Adults” [1] – breaking down the incidence of HIV among young men ages 13-24. In 2011, an astonishing 94.9 percent of HIV diagnoses among teenage boys (13-19-years-old) were linked to homosexual (“male-to-male”) sex. And 94.1 percent of the cases among young men ages 20-24 (more analysis below) were from “gay” sex.

With the incidence of HIV among men so closely tied to homosexual sex, shouldn’t the government and all concerned and compassionate adults be urging young men and teenaged boys not to engage in or experiment with dangerous homosexual behavior? And yet, the CDC and other pro-”gay” institutions (including many schools public and private) are doing exactly the opposite, as they focus instead on affirming “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender” youth as a “sexual minority.”

Feds Fund ‘Gay’ Youth Activist Groups

Another CDC document, “HIV and Young Men Who Have Sex with Men” (June 2012), reports that in 2011, the CDC awarded funds to two homosexual activists groups — the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network (GSAN) — “to assist CDC-funded public health and environmental changes to help schools and communities meet the health and medical needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth.” See this CNSNews article on the CDC grant.

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Man Charged with Knowingly Transmitting HIV Claims 300 Partners

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A Missouri man who claims to have had sexual relations with as many as 300 people since being diagnosed with HIV has pleaded not guilty to infecting another man with the virus.

David Mangum entered the plea after being charged with recklessly infecting another with HIV, which in Missouri — where sentences for such crimes are among the nation’s harshest — carries up to life in prison. His attorney didn’t return messages seeking comment.

According to Fox2Now.com, Mangum, 37, of Dexter, Mo. was arrested last week after a former lover tested positive for the virus and turned Mangum in to the police. The victim, identified in court documents as D.B., met Mangum on Craigslist in October 2012. D.B. says he questioned Mangum about having any diseases and he told him ‘no.’ The Associated Press reports that Mangum admitted to a roommate that he had been HIV-positive since 2003.

Court documents allege that the 36-year-old Mangum told detectives in Dexter, a small town in southeast Missouri, that he had unprotected sex with as many as 300 partners since being diagnosed with the virus that causes AIDS. Up to 60 of those contacts allegedly occurred after he moved to Missouri two years ago from Dallas, where he has convictions for prostitution, indecent exposure and public lewdness.

Many of his trysts stemmed from Craigslist ads, he told investigators, and he would meet up with men at parks, truck stops and other remote locations. Police believe many were truckers or others passing through the region, and because Mangum had little information about many of the men, investigators are concerned about finding potential victims, Dexter police detective Cory Mills said.

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Obama Quietly Institutes Mandatory HIV Testing

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Photo Credit: APWith almost no public notice, President Obama has issued an imperial decree executive order requiring universal HIV testing. Yasmeen Abutaleb of Reuters published a blandly-title dispatch, “Obama orders stepped up effort against U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic” that takes seven paragraphs before getting to what should be the lead:

The new order follows recommendations this year from the U.S. Preventive Service Task Force that all 15 to 65 year olds be screened for HIV infection, something that will be covered under Obama’s signature heath reform, the Affordable Care Act.

If you’ve never engaged in receptive anal intercourse or shared a needle, the odds of you getting AIDS are very low, now that blood for transfusions is tested. Nevertheless, Kathleen Sebelius going to be coming up with a plan to order you to report for the blood draw the government will now require.

The order said a working group chaired by Grant Colfax, director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius would have 180 days to deliver recommendations to the president.

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U.S. Spends $228K to Find Out Why Gay Kenyans Avoid Free HIV Treatment

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has authorized a three-year study to find out why some HIV-positive homosexual men in Kenya do not seek the free treatment that American taxpayers already are funding.

The study, which will cost U.S. taxpayers $228,147, seeks to encourage Kenyan homosexuals, including prostitutes, to avail themselves of the AIDS treatment known as antiretroviral therapy (ART)–and to continue taking it once they start.

“Although men who have sex with men (MSM) are at very high risk for HIV globally, this group has only recently become an important focus of national HIV/AIDS programs in sub-Saharan Africa,” the project description says.

“While it is clear that antiretroviral therapy (ART) can reduce AIDS-related morbidity and mortality and prevent sexual transmission from HIV-infected MSM, little is known about antiretroviral adherence and barriers to care among African MSM.”

Researchers say they have worked with male prostitutes on the Kenyan coast since 2005 and have found “significant disparities” among people who seek treatment and continue with the therapy, partly due to “stigma and social isolation.”

Read more from this story HERE.

HIV-Infected Teacher’s Aide Accused of Molestation

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Photo Credit: APAn Illinois special-needs teaching assistant accused of molesting a teenage student in school while knowingly infected with HIV remained jailed Tuesday as police investigated another claim of similar misconduct by the man involving a different student.

Prosecutors in St. Clair County east of St. Louis charged Mario L. Hunt, 35, on Monday with felony counts of criminal sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual abuse and “transmitting” HIV through intimate contact during the first half of 2011, when the student was 17. The transmission charge means a defendant merely exposed a victim to the virus that causes AIDS, not necessarily causing actual infection.

Cahokia police Lt. Dennis Plew said Tuesday he was unaware whether the teenager, now 19 and still a student at Cahokia High School, has been tested for HIV.

At least one other possible victim has come forward, though that case has not yet produced charges, Plew said. Police publicly implored the school district’s parents to report any questionable dealings between Hunt and their children — or at least get them tested for HIV if they’re reluctant to get police involved.

“This is horrible,” Plew told The Associated Press. “I’m sure some kids come to school and put a lot of trust in a teacher, and for anyone to take advantage of that is a terrible thing.”

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.

Delaware Planned Parenthood Clinic 'Filthy,' Women at 'Risk of HIV' (+video)

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A local abortion clinic is under fire, facing allegations of unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

A series of emergency calls made from the Planned Parenthood of Delaware this year are raising concerns about what’s happening behind the closed doors. Two former nurses who both quit are speaking exclusively with Action News about what they saw inside.

Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich, former employee said, “It was just unsafe. I couldn’t tell you how ridiculously unsafe it was.” Werbrich alleges conditions inside the facility were unsanitary.

“He didn’t wear gloves,” said Werbrich. Another former employee, Joyce Vasikonis told Action News, “They were using instruments on patients that were not sterile.”

The former nurses claim that a rush to get patients in and out left operating tables soiled and unclean. Werbrich said “It’s not washed down, it’s not even cleaned off. It has bloody drainage on it.”

“They could be at risk of getting hepatitis, even AIDS,” added Vasikonis.

Watch video here:

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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.