Hiv And Aids

Magic Johnson's announcement yesterday that he is retiring from professional basketball because he tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus is a complex situation. What follows are some questions and answers to help explain the issues.Question: What causes AIDS, the acquired immune deficiency syndrome?Answer: AIDS is caused by a virus known as human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. Unlike the viruses that cause colds and flu, HIV does not leave the body after attacking the cells.

Millions in federal funds used to provide services to those living with HIV are again flowing to local programs after a months-long delay. Eighty one Maryland health organizations rely on about $61 million a year from the federal Ryan White Care Act to provide services for those who can't afford their own care, and some officials said they had no choice but to trim their offerings. One of them was Moveable Feast, a nonprofit group that provides food to those who are sick, including 370 with HIV and AIDS in the Baltimore area.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Tom Liberti tells a story that puts a new face on the AIDS epidemic.About two years ago, Liberti, chief of the Florida Department of Health's Bureau of HIV and AIDS, attended a community meeting on AIDS in Miami. There, two people stood up -- a 75-year-old man and an 85-year-old woman.Both announced to the mostly older audience that they had the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome. They'd contracted it through sexual activity."From that point on, you could hear a pin drop in the room," Liberti said.

After more than a decade of working with women to combat the spread of HIV, a West Baltimore nonprofit organization will now share its teen pregnancy prevention message with both girls and boys. Women Accepting Responsibility has worked with teen girls, new mothers and incarcerated women since 1995, but the programs were always gender-specific. But the group celebrated a more than $4 million grant Tuesday from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Adolescent Health that will allow it to reach young men as well.

Hardship seems to follow Shelton Jackson like a wanton stray dog. He spent a lot of time during his childhood waiting in a park with his brother while his parents bought drugs, he says. His father died of AIDS-related pneumonia, and his mother, who is still a drug user, is HIV-positive. In high school, when he told his family he was gay, they stopped speaking to him. He fell in love at a tender age only to lose his partner to AIDS six years later. He is HIV-positive. He is 28. But there's another story, too. Jackson, an on-again, off-again student at Morgan State University, is funny and excitable.

Moveable Feast Inc., the agency delivering meals to low-income people with HIV or AIDS, is getting busier -- and its officials see their growing clientele as a window to the wider community grappling with the disease.They note that people are living longer with the disease, women infected with the virus are turning up in increasing numbers, drug abuse is overwhelmingly the source of the epidemic, and their clients are largely African-American."The AIDS/HIV epidemic has not subsided, although a lot of people think it has," said Moveable Feast's board president, bond analyst Eric Misenheimer.

Carroll County Rainbow of Hope, a support group for people living with problems generated by the AIDS crisis, will act as a resource for HIV and AIDS patients at a new office opening tomorrow in Westminster.Earlier this year, when Paulette Fernekees helped start the group for those "affected by and infected with HIV and AIDS," she said she envisioned a place where county patients and their families could go for help."We can access information quickly from different doctors and organizations," said Ms. Fernekees.

The League for People with Disabilities Inc. recently received a $3.25 million unrestricted bequest from the late Sarah H. Sayler in memory of her deceased husband, Monroe H. Schoss. At the time of her death, Sayler, a Baltimore resident, had been a supporter of the league for more than 50 years. "It's always an honor to be remembered in such a way by a donor," Janice Frey-Angel, chief executive officer of the league, said in a news release. The League for People with Disabilities was founded in Baltimore in 1927 and provides programs in cognitive retraining, job skills training, adult literacy, residential camping and medical day care for people with traumatic head injury and people with HIV and AIDS.

The Baltimore County Health Department has received an additional $160,930 in federal funding to provide more rental assistance to people with AIDS, bringing the total appropriation through 2010 to nearly $2 million. The program offers transportation, education, employment services and counseling to low-income residents coping with HIV and AIDS. The additional funds will mean at least eight more housing vouchers for a total of 100 in 2010, in addition to other support services. No county matching funds are required.

Nearly 30 years after the discovery of HIV and AIDS, the epidemic is still ravaging black neighborhoods in Baltimore and across the nation. Unfortunately, complacency about HIV and the continued stigma associated with the disease are hindering progress by preventing too many African-Americans from seeking either HIV testing and treatment or support from their friends and family. But this is a challenge that can be overcome. At a White House event last month, the Obama administration took an important step in confronting the United States' HIV epidemic, which threatens the health of African-Americans more than any other racial or ethnic group.

The Baltimore County Health Department has received an additional $160,930 in federal funding to provide more rental assistance to people with AIDS, bringing the total appropriation through 2010 to nearly $2 million. The program offers transportation, education, employment services and counseling to low-income residents coping with HIV and AIDS. The additional funds will mean at least eight more housing vouchers for a total of 100 in 2010, in addition to other support services. No county matching funds are required.

Saying they have been too silent for too long in the fight against HIV and AIDS, leaders of several Baltimore faith-based groups converted nearly a dozen churches Tuesday into places where people could be tested for the virus without fear of being stigmatized. The JACQUES Initiative - a program at the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine - launched Project SHALEM in partnership with the Maryland AIDS Administration and several local faith-based and community organizations.

Nearly 30 years after the discovery of HIV and AIDS, the epidemic is still ravaging black neighborhoods in Baltimore and across the nation. Unfortunately, complacency about HIV and the continued stigma associated with the disease are hindering progress by preventing too many African-Americans from seeking either HIV testing and treatment or support from their friends and family. But this is a challenge that can be overcome. At a White House event last month, the Obama administration took an important step in confronting the United States' HIV epidemic, which threatens the health of African-Americans more than any other racial or ethnic group.

It was November 1994 when Carolyn Massey suffered a horrible cold that brought her to a doctor. She was shocked to learn that she had been infected with HIV, the same virus that had led to her 35-year-old brother's death a year earlier. As the 52-year-old mother of two sat recently at the kitchen table of her Laurel home, she described the pain and frustration after learning that she had contracted the virus from the man she had been in relationship with for a decade. "I was in denial and angry and ignorant for about a year," she said.

In remote villages throughout Africa, most people appear far removed from the financial crisis rolling through much of the world. The economy these villagers encounter is unconcerned with complex financial instruments and liquidity on Wall Street. But millions of these men, women and children will suffer the consequences of this crisis unless the new administration and Congress refuse to let the poorest of the poor suffer due to the mistakes of the richest of the rich. Many expect an Obama administration to be very friendly toward Africa; it is not every day that the United States gets a president with a Kenyan father and a Swahili name.

"Ladies," said Cookie Johnson, looking straight into the camera, her husband's arm draped across her shoulders. "Have you been tested ... " " ... for HIV?" finished Los Angeles Lakers basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson. As the most prominent African-American face of HIV, Johnson, who is now a businessman and philanthropist, has long used his fame to raise public awareness of the virus that causes AIDS. But the appearance of his usually camera-shy wife in the public-service announcements that began airing in July on cable TV and YouTube is a sign of a growing outspokenness among African-Americans about the community's disproportionately high HIV rates.

"Ladies," said Cookie Johnson, looking straight into the camera, her husband's arm draped across her shoulders. "Have you been tested ... " " ... for HIV?" finished Los Angeles Lakers basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson. As the most prominent African-American face of HIV, Johnson, who is now a businessman and philanthropist, has long used his fame to raise public awareness of the virus that causes AIDS. But the appearance of his usually camera-shy wife in the public-service announcements that began airing in July on cable TV and YouTube is a sign of a growing outspokenness among African-Americans about the community's disproportionately high HIV rates.

The Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has received a $43 million federal grant to expand its efforts to fight HIV and AIDS in Nigeria, institute officials announced. The money will be used to provide medical care and HIV testing and counseling services to tens of thousands of Nigerians through the virology institute's AIDS Care and Treatment in Nigeria (ACTION) project, which was launched in 2004. "There is a huge need here," said project director Dr. William Blattner, speaking from ACTION's headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria.

Sir Isaac Newton, the pioneer of modern physics, once said he was able to achieve what he had because he stood on the shoulders of giants. In science, as in sports, great things often are accomplished through the collective effort of many individuals. The discovery in 1983 of the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS was such an achievement, and this week two French researchers, Dr. Luc Montagnier and Dr.

SAN FRANCISCO - The United States is at the forefront of a global response to HIV and AIDS but lacks a sense of urgency when it comes to the crisis facing African-Americans, according to a report released yesterday by the Black AIDS Institute. The report, "Left Behind! Black America: A Neglected Priority in the Global AIDS Epidemic," says that the number of African-Americans infected with HIV exceeds the number of people with the virus in seven of the 15 countries served by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.