Life expectancy among antiretroviral-treated HIV-positive people in the United States and Canada rose substantially during the 2000s, approaching life expectancy estimates in the general population [1]. But certain subgroups, including nonwhites and people who start antiretroviral therapy (ART) at a CD4 count below 350, still greatly lag the general population in life expectancy, according to this North American AIDS Cohort Collaboration on Research and Design (NA-ACCORD) analysis.

Read more ...

The CDC Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention is pleased to provide a basic guide to the cost-effectiveness analysis of prevention interventions for HIV infection and AIDS. The purpose of this guide is to help prevention program staff and planners become more familiar with potential uses of economic evaluation
...
Cost per new HIV diagnosis
HIV interventions, such as screening and partner services, are intended to identify HIV-positive persons who are unaware of their infection. When evaluating several such programs in CE analysis, the outcome “new HIV diagnoses” is often used to enable a comparison across these programs; so the CE ratio is expressed in terms of cost per new HIV diagnosis.
...Cost of HIV treatmentA large fraction of the economic burden of HIV/AIDS is the medical costs of treating persons with HIV. Medical cost estimates are often based on health care utilization by persons with HIV disease. The costs associated with health care utilization in each disease stage are summed across all disease stages from infection to death. The average annual cost of HIV care in the ART era was estimated to be $19,912 (in 2006 dollars; $23,000 in 2010 dollars).3 The most recent published estimate of lifetime HIV treatment costs was $367,134 (in 2009 dollars; $379,668 in 2010 dollars).4

Read more ....

He limped in looking like a frail bag of bones, carefully supporting his weight with the cane he clutched with his right hand. He wore an eye patch on his right eye, a tragic casualty from his cytomegalovirus infection that marked the onset of AIDS.

....

This scene didn't happen in 1989. It happened last year. Dying of AIDS is something we rarely hear about anymore in the United States, but it still happens -- particularly among minorities and the poor. Often, in 2013, the seriousness of the disease is forgotten, particularly among men my age. For me, it's very real.

Read more ....

In the 1980s, AIDS ravaged gay communities across the country. Gay and bisexual men of all races, classes and walks of life were falling ill, dying or attending their friends’ funerals every week.

It seemed that society was essentially allowing people to die from “the fact that not enough rich, white, heterosexual men have gotten AIDS,” as the late HIV-positive gay activist Vito Russo put it in 1988


read more......

The numbers that define the scope of the HIV–AIDS pandemic are staggering: 30 years, 60 million infections, 30 million deaths. We have not been defenseless in this fight, however. The introduction of potent combination antiretroviral therapy in 1996 and the public health approach to HIV treatment in resource-limited settings in 2002 have changed the course of the epidemic.1,2

Results announced today by the United States National Institutes of Health show that if an HIV-positive person adheres to an effective antiretroviral therapy regimen, the risk of transmitting the virus to their uninfected sexual partner can be reduced by 96%.

Read more ....

On July 13, 2010 the White House released the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS). This ambitious plan is the nation's first-ever comprehensive coordinated HIV/AIDS roadmap with clear and measurable targets to be achieved by 2015.

Read more ....

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the HIV incidence statistics and said there are serious concerns about the disease.
The statistics showed that every 9-and-a-half minutes, someone in the United States is infected with HIV virus. It equates to about 150 people per day and more than 1,000 per week. Unfortunately the current resources are inadequate in stemming this infection.


Read more ....

{not dated) Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adults and youth smoke at substantially higher rates than the general population. The factors driving LGBT disparities in tobacco use include stress due to social stigma and discrimination, peer pressure, aggressive marketing by the tobacco industry and limited access to effective tobacco treatment.1 Data highlighted in this issue brief present compelling evidence for designating the LGBT community as a priority population for tobacco control, similar to racial and ethnic groups disproportionately affected by smoking. This issue brief also outlines how policymakers, health care organizations, and LGBT health advocates can reduce the impact of tobacco on the LGBT community through culturally appropriate policy, research, and community-based strategies 


Read more.....