Black Aids Weekly

December 1, 2015 Donate Join List BlackAIDS.org  Easy to take 10 Things Black Women Need to Know About PrEP A single daily pill can reduce women's risk of acquiring HIV through sex by more than 90 percent. But many African American women don't know much  |more          Dr. Albert Liu Silver cost changes Navigator Jekisha Elliott Can't believe denial Preventive HIV Treatment Shown... During a year of taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), only two people out of more than 400 high-risk                                                                     Study: Health Plan Buyers Will Save Money... For holiday gifts?                    New Video: How Enrollment Assisters Can... Enrollment assisters - also known as navigators and certified application counselors - play an essential role in helping people living with HIV find an affordable health plan that best covers their needs. During 2016 Open Enrollment| more                               Medicaid Denies Nearly Half Of Requests For... People with hepatitis C who sought prescriptions for highly effective but pricey new drugs were significantly more likely to get turned down if they had Medicaid coverage than if they were insured by Medicare or private commercial| WHAT WE'RE READING A cross-section of articles we've read this week about HIV/AIDS, STIs and a wide cross-section of structural and systemic factors impacting HIV/AIDS in Black communities. Hepatitis   Liver Fibrosis Improves After Successful Treatment  for Hepatitis C A majority of people with chronic hepatitis C and advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis showed improvement in liver health following treatment, according to study findings presented last week at the  2015 AASLD Liver Meetingin San Francisco, USA. However, the researchers identified few demographic, laboratory or disease-related factors that could predict who would experience fibrosis regression and who would have worsening liver damage.   Why We Should Be Willing to Pay for Hepatitis C Treatment   Hepatitis C virus (HCV), an epidemic impacting up to 3.9 million people in the U.S., could be a rare disease by 2035. How can we so confidently project such an outrageous shift? We can attribute this largely to two factors: updates in HCV screening guidelines and the launch of oral direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) to treat chronic HCV infection. The latter hit the scene in 2014 surrounded by controversy.   Science   Alcoholism Drug Could Help Cure HIV, Study Finds   A drug used to treat alcoholism - called disulfiram - could bring us closer to a cure for HIV, according to the results of a new study led by researchers from the University of Melbourne in Australia.   Scientists Find Surprising Trait in Anti-HIV Antibodies   Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have new weapons in the fight against HIV.   Treatment   Low Vitamin D May Hamper HIV Treatment in Adults   HIV attacks the body's CD4 cells, or T cells - a type of white blood cell that plays a major role in helping the immune system fight infection. Antiretroviral therapy aims to control HIV and restore immune function, but the effectiveness of HIV treatment in adults may be hampered by low levels of vitamin D.   Many Doctors Unaware of Truvada, Drug for Preventing  H.I.V.   Even though taking a daily pill can protect almost completely against getting H.I.V., a third of primary care doctors and nurses in the United States have never heard of it, federal health officials said this week.   Miscellaneous   Donald Trump's Hatemongering Moves on to African Americans   Having already played the hate card against Mexicans and Muslims--and getting crackerjack results--Donald Trump has apparently decided to move on to African Americans. I don't know what the "Crime Statistics Bureau" in San Francisco is, and I don't think I want to know, but one of the most well-established facts about murder in the United States is that it's pretty racially segregated. Whites kill whites, blacks kill blacks, etc. But today Trump decided to tweet the CSB graphic on the right, for no readily apparent reason. And wouldn't you know it: it contains a wee racial error. It claims that most whites are killed by blacks, but in 2014,which is the latest full-year homicide data available from the FBI, 82 percent of whites were killed by other whites and only 15 percent were killed by blacks.   Homicides of Transgender Women in US Reach Alarming High   For a few transgender Americans, this has been a year of glamour and fame. For many others, 2015 has been fraught with danger, violence and mourning.   How Schools Are Getting It Wrong on HIV and Aids   Children have been humiliated in school and even excluded because many teachers are still badly informed. In This Issue Phill Wilson Today is World AIDS Day, a day when people worldwide to come together to fight HIV, support people living with virus and remember those who have lost their lives. In the almost 35 years since the virus was | more EVENTS    National Center for Innovation in HIV Care 2015 Webinars     December 3 2pm ET ERH Solutions to Provide Great Care Register here   December 10 1pm ET Strong Commuities: Understanding Intersectionality and its Role in Access to and Engagement in HIV Care Register here   December 14 1pm ET Implications of the Updated National HIV/AIDS Strategy for ASOs, CBOs, and Health Centers Register here    2015 National HIV Prevention Conference December 6-9, 2015  Atlanta, Georgia  Hyatt Regency Atlanta & Atlanta Marriott Marquis National PrEP Tour 2015 - 2016 Broward County, Fl 2/5/16 Charlotte/Rock Hill 2/23/16 Cincinnati, OH TBD Columbia, SC 2/16/16 Dallas, TX 1/27/16 Detroit, MI TBD Fort Lauderdale (Broward County) 2/5/16 Jackson, MS TBD Kansas City, MO TBD Little Rock, AR TBD Los Angeles, CA 2/11/16 Melbourne, FL 2/3/16 Miami, FL TBD Miami, FL TBD Nashville, TN TBD Philadephia, PA TBD Richmond-Petersburg, VA 2/24/16 *Dates are subject to change. Click here for more info. ----------------------------- For more information on events  contact Gerald Garth at GeraldG@BlackAIDS.org or visit  BlackAids.org  Affordable Care Act  National HIV/AIDS Strategy  Positively  Out Find a Testing Place Near You  Greater Than  AIDS BLACK AIDS WEEKLY PHILL WILSON Publisher HILARY BEARD Editor-in-Chief TERESA RIDLEY Copy Editor LASHIEKA P. HUNTER Media and Public Relations Consultant

Founded in May of 1999, the Black AIDS Institute is the only national HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on Black people. The Institute's Mission is to stop the AIDS pandemic in Black communities by engaging and mobilizing Black institutions and individuals in efforts to confront HIV. The Institute interprets public and private sector HIV policies, conducts trainings, offers technical assistance, disseminates information and provides advocacy mobilization from a uniquely and unapologetically Black point of view. Support the Black Aids Institute through the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC# 12320). The Institute holds the Independent Charities Seal of Excellence for meeting the highest standards of public accountability.