Leroy N. Soetoro
2017-11-26 20:09:51 UTC
Change the law, avoid responsibility for poor behavior, bad decisions and
psychopathic intent.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/i-dont-feel-like-
im-a-threat-anymore-new-hiv-guidelines-are-changing-
lives/2017/11/24/a9ee84e2-cf10-11e7-a1a3-
0d1e45a6de3d_story.html?utm_term=.3f51430d5641
Last year, Chris Kimmenez and his wife asked their doctors a simple
question. Could Chris, who has been HIV positive since 1989 but keeps the
virus in check through medication, transmit it sexually to Paula?
They were pretty sure they knew the answer. Married for more than 30
years, they had not always practiced safe sex, but Paula showed no signs
of having the virus.
Their physicians were less certain. They had a conversation, and they did
some research on it, Kimmenez said. They came back to us and said there
may still be a risk, but were comfortable enough that unprotected sex is
safe.
We knew that all along, said Kimmenez, 56, who works with ex-offenders
in Philadelphia.
Simple acknowledgments like that one, spoken quietly in the privacy of
doctors offices, mark the arrival of a historic moment in the history of
HIV: Medical authorities are publicly agreeing that people with
undetectable viral loads cannot transmit the virus that causes AIDS.
The policy change has profound implications for the way people view HIV.
The change promises not just unprotected sex for couples like Kimmenez and
his wife, but also reduced stigma for the 1.2 million Americans living
with HIV. The policy change also offers the hope that more people will be
tested and begin treatment if they are found to have the virus rather than
live in denial.
There was something in me that said Im damaged and I made a mistake, and
people see it and Im a danger, said Mark S. King, 56, a writer and
activist who tested positive for HIV in 1985. But now, treatment has fully
suppressed the virus. When I finally internalized this message .?.?.
something suddenly lifted off of me that is hard to describe. It was
almost as if someone wiped me clean. I no longer feel like this diseased
pariah.
Once considered a death sentence, HIV infection can now be managed via
medication, much like chronic diseases such as diabetes, and people with
the virus live full lives. The rate of new infections in the United States
dropped by 10 percent from 2010 to 37,600 in 2014, according to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fewer than 7,000 people died
of HIV/AIDS that year.
In July, Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases and one of the worlds leading authorities on HIV,
publicly agreed at an international conference that people with
undetectable viral loads in their blood cannot transmit the virus.
On Sept. 27, the CDC followed, releasing a letter that said people who
take medication daily and achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load
have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-
negative partner.
The influential British medical journal the Lancet HIV endorsed the idea
in an editorial this month. All told, more than 500 organizations in 67
countries now agree, according to Bruce Richman, who is leading the
Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) campaign credited with beginning to
change public perception of HIV transmissibility.
Like many developments in the four-decade history of HIV, this one has
been slow to gain acceptance among mainstream health-care providers. Many
are not aware of it or must unlearn the habit of drilling safe-sex lessons
into patients, as they have been doing almost since the AIDS epidemic
began. HIV-positive people also must alter deeply ingrained beliefs that
nothing good can come of revealing their status.
The change in philosophy also has sparked concerns, for which there is
some evidence, that more condomless sex will lead to an increase in other
sexually transmitted infections. And experts acknowledge that a few people
whose viral load is not truly suppressed will eventually transmit HIV to
others.
Laws in many states also are out of date. Many still criminalize the
failure to reveal HIV status to a sex partner, even when there is no
danger of transmissibility.
But on balance, authorities said, the agreement that people with HIV can
prevent sexual transmission by taking a single pill each day is nothing
less than revolutionary.
Nothing is completely risk-free, Fauci said in an interview. What the
community feels is that all of the good that will come from the lack of
social stigmatization is worth the risk. This means a lot to them. This
has a lot to do with their self-worth, their identity.
An undetectable viral load is defined as fewer than 200 copies of the
virus in a milliliter of blood. Generally, people with HIV should maintain
that level or a lower level for six months before beginning to consider
themselves incapable of transmitting the virus sexually.
Many who faithfully take antiretroviral medication and lead healthy
lifestyles can bring their viral loads considerably lower, to 50 or even
25 copies.
But progress raises other questions, said Jonathan Mermin, director of the
CDCs National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB
Prevention. What if a person forgets to take medication for one day? What
about two, or more? How long after resuming therapy should someone wait
before once again considering himself or herself incapable of transmitting
the virus? And what about people who go above and below the 200-copy
threshold over time? Studies show that to be the case for about 10 percent
of the people with HIV, Mermin said.
As yet, there are no evidence-based answers to these questions, he said.
The public-health challenge now is moving from theory to implementation,
he said. Many questions arise following the information that when a
person with HIV has an undetectable viral load, he has effectively no risk
of transmitting the virus.
In 2008, Swiss experts announced that those with undetectable levels of
HIV could not transmit HIV through sex. But the world was not ready to
hear the message then.
Starting in 2011, three large studies confirmed the idea, tracking more
than 75,000 vaginal and anal condomless sex acts without finding a single
HIV transmission to an HIV-negative partner from someone whose viral load
was undetectable. The initial 2011 study was named breakthrough of the
year by Science magazine.
Now the challenge is to get the message out to HIV-positive people,
caregivers and the public. And that process has been slow.
I would tell everyone about this, friends and family and people I wanted
to date, and I was coming across so much resistance, because major
institutions were saying this is wrong, Richman said.
He launched U=U last year, initially a lonely and sometimes controversial
campaign to let the world know something that many people with HIV had
concluded for themselves. His breakthrough moment came in August 2016 when
New York Citys health department signed on. Soon, other cities and
organizations were joining.
Still, the message is moving mainly from people with HIV to health
authorities and policymakers, rather than in the other direction, Richman
said.
This is a radical challenge to the status quo and to 35 years of HIV and
fear of people living with HIV, Richman said.
Brigitte Charbonneau, 71, of Ottawa, found out this year that she could
not transmit the virus after 23 years of being HIV positive. I thought,
My God, Ive been living with my man for 20 years, and weve been using
condoms, the retired hairdresser recalled. And I phoned him right that
afternoon.
Jennifer Vaughan of Watsonville, Calif., vividly remembers the moment she
learned she could not transmit the virus to her boyfriend. The mother of
three tested positive in February 2016 after she became critically ill
with what was finally determined to be AIDS. HIV was not among the
possibilities she or her doctors considered, until a blood test revealed
the virus. She thinks she was infected by a previous boyfriend with a
history of intravenous drug use.
Vaughan attended a speech Richman gave and was talking with him in a
parking lot outside a Starbucks.
Ill never forget him saying those words, You cant transmit the virus
if youre undetectable, the 47-year-old substitute teacher recalled.
And I said, Wait, what?
It was like the sky opened. Are you kidding? Theres, like, zero risk? I
dont feel like Im a threat anymore. I dont feel like Im dirty. I dont
feel like Im a dangerous person.
--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party has run out of gas.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for ending the disaster of the
Obama presidency.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.
ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its
supporters can dispute that.
Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.
psychopathic intent.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/i-dont-feel-like-
im-a-threat-anymore-new-hiv-guidelines-are-changing-
lives/2017/11/24/a9ee84e2-cf10-11e7-a1a3-
0d1e45a6de3d_story.html?utm_term=.3f51430d5641
Last year, Chris Kimmenez and his wife asked their doctors a simple
question. Could Chris, who has been HIV positive since 1989 but keeps the
virus in check through medication, transmit it sexually to Paula?
They were pretty sure they knew the answer. Married for more than 30
years, they had not always practiced safe sex, but Paula showed no signs
of having the virus.
Their physicians were less certain. They had a conversation, and they did
some research on it, Kimmenez said. They came back to us and said there
may still be a risk, but were comfortable enough that unprotected sex is
safe.
We knew that all along, said Kimmenez, 56, who works with ex-offenders
in Philadelphia.
Simple acknowledgments like that one, spoken quietly in the privacy of
doctors offices, mark the arrival of a historic moment in the history of
HIV: Medical authorities are publicly agreeing that people with
undetectable viral loads cannot transmit the virus that causes AIDS.
The policy change has profound implications for the way people view HIV.
The change promises not just unprotected sex for couples like Kimmenez and
his wife, but also reduced stigma for the 1.2 million Americans living
with HIV. The policy change also offers the hope that more people will be
tested and begin treatment if they are found to have the virus rather than
live in denial.
There was something in me that said Im damaged and I made a mistake, and
people see it and Im a danger, said Mark S. King, 56, a writer and
activist who tested positive for HIV in 1985. But now, treatment has fully
suppressed the virus. When I finally internalized this message .?.?.
something suddenly lifted off of me that is hard to describe. It was
almost as if someone wiped me clean. I no longer feel like this diseased
pariah.
Once considered a death sentence, HIV infection can now be managed via
medication, much like chronic diseases such as diabetes, and people with
the virus live full lives. The rate of new infections in the United States
dropped by 10 percent from 2010 to 37,600 in 2014, according to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fewer than 7,000 people died
of HIV/AIDS that year.
In July, Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases and one of the worlds leading authorities on HIV,
publicly agreed at an international conference that people with
undetectable viral loads in their blood cannot transmit the virus.
On Sept. 27, the CDC followed, releasing a letter that said people who
take medication daily and achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load
have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-
negative partner.
The influential British medical journal the Lancet HIV endorsed the idea
in an editorial this month. All told, more than 500 organizations in 67
countries now agree, according to Bruce Richman, who is leading the
Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) campaign credited with beginning to
change public perception of HIV transmissibility.
Like many developments in the four-decade history of HIV, this one has
been slow to gain acceptance among mainstream health-care providers. Many
are not aware of it or must unlearn the habit of drilling safe-sex lessons
into patients, as they have been doing almost since the AIDS epidemic
began. HIV-positive people also must alter deeply ingrained beliefs that
nothing good can come of revealing their status.
The change in philosophy also has sparked concerns, for which there is
some evidence, that more condomless sex will lead to an increase in other
sexually transmitted infections. And experts acknowledge that a few people
whose viral load is not truly suppressed will eventually transmit HIV to
others.
Laws in many states also are out of date. Many still criminalize the
failure to reveal HIV status to a sex partner, even when there is no
danger of transmissibility.
But on balance, authorities said, the agreement that people with HIV can
prevent sexual transmission by taking a single pill each day is nothing
less than revolutionary.
Nothing is completely risk-free, Fauci said in an interview. What the
community feels is that all of the good that will come from the lack of
social stigmatization is worth the risk. This means a lot to them. This
has a lot to do with their self-worth, their identity.
An undetectable viral load is defined as fewer than 200 copies of the
virus in a milliliter of blood. Generally, people with HIV should maintain
that level or a lower level for six months before beginning to consider
themselves incapable of transmitting the virus sexually.
Many who faithfully take antiretroviral medication and lead healthy
lifestyles can bring their viral loads considerably lower, to 50 or even
25 copies.
But progress raises other questions, said Jonathan Mermin, director of the
CDCs National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB
Prevention. What if a person forgets to take medication for one day? What
about two, or more? How long after resuming therapy should someone wait
before once again considering himself or herself incapable of transmitting
the virus? And what about people who go above and below the 200-copy
threshold over time? Studies show that to be the case for about 10 percent
of the people with HIV, Mermin said.
As yet, there are no evidence-based answers to these questions, he said.
The public-health challenge now is moving from theory to implementation,
he said. Many questions arise following the information that when a
person with HIV has an undetectable viral load, he has effectively no risk
of transmitting the virus.
In 2008, Swiss experts announced that those with undetectable levels of
HIV could not transmit HIV through sex. But the world was not ready to
hear the message then.
Starting in 2011, three large studies confirmed the idea, tracking more
than 75,000 vaginal and anal condomless sex acts without finding a single
HIV transmission to an HIV-negative partner from someone whose viral load
was undetectable. The initial 2011 study was named breakthrough of the
year by Science magazine.
Now the challenge is to get the message out to HIV-positive people,
caregivers and the public. And that process has been slow.
I would tell everyone about this, friends and family and people I wanted
to date, and I was coming across so much resistance, because major
institutions were saying this is wrong, Richman said.
He launched U=U last year, initially a lonely and sometimes controversial
campaign to let the world know something that many people with HIV had
concluded for themselves. His breakthrough moment came in August 2016 when
New York Citys health department signed on. Soon, other cities and
organizations were joining.
Still, the message is moving mainly from people with HIV to health
authorities and policymakers, rather than in the other direction, Richman
said.
This is a radical challenge to the status quo and to 35 years of HIV and
fear of people living with HIV, Richman said.
Brigitte Charbonneau, 71, of Ottawa, found out this year that she could
not transmit the virus after 23 years of being HIV positive. I thought,
My God, Ive been living with my man for 20 years, and weve been using
condoms, the retired hairdresser recalled. And I phoned him right that
afternoon.
Jennifer Vaughan of Watsonville, Calif., vividly remembers the moment she
learned she could not transmit the virus to her boyfriend. The mother of
three tested positive in February 2016 after she became critically ill
with what was finally determined to be AIDS. HIV was not among the
possibilities she or her doctors considered, until a blood test revealed
the virus. She thinks she was infected by a previous boyfriend with a
history of intravenous drug use.
Vaughan attended a speech Richman gave and was talking with him in a
parking lot outside a Starbucks.
Ill never forget him saying those words, You cant transmit the virus
if youre undetectable, the 47-year-old substitute teacher recalled.
And I said, Wait, what?
It was like the sky opened. Are you kidding? Theres, like, zero risk? I
dont feel like Im a threat anymore. I dont feel like Im dirty. I dont
feel like Im a dangerous person.
--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party has run out of gas.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for ending the disaster of the
Obama presidency.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.
ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its
supporters can dispute that.
Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.