Brucellosis

Two Philly brothers and a woman who ran a food voucher program for HIV/AIDS patients were federally charged Thursday, with prosecutors accusing them of taking thousands of dollars from their city jobs for personal gain. In total, former city officials Leo Dignam and Paul Dignam - and former city contract worker Barbara Conway - allegedly siphoned over $300,000 in separate schemes, with the oldest dating back to 2012. U.S. Attorney William McSwain announced the charges in a news statement. Leo Dignam, 61, was assistant managing director in the city managing director's office, after serving as deputy commissioner for programs in the city Parks ands Recreation department. He helped arrange events like the Philadelphia Marathon, Broad Street Run and Mummers Parade in his 38-year career. Between 2012 and 2019, prosecutors say Leo Dignam misused two city bank accounts to pay off personal expenses. With one account supposed to be involved with the nonprofit Junior Baseball Federation -...

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 6, 2020-- This World AIDS Day, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is announcing the timely theme – “AIDS: The Other Pandemic.” This new theme and corresponding logo serve as a reminder to the world that even in times of a new pandemic, HIV/AIDS remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases in history and must be kept high on the global public health agenda. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://ift.tt/38kv9sY AHF welcomes everyone worldwide – organizations and individuals alike – to utilize the theme “AIDS: The Other Pandemic.” Feel free to access the high-resolution logos here! Even though HIV/AIDS is treatable and preventable, 38 million people are still living with HIV worldwide. There are 1.7 million new infections annually, and an estimated 690,000 people still die from HIV/AIDS-related causes every year. Millions of people living with HIV/AIDS are still not accessing lifesaving treatment. “COVID-19 ...

People with HIV are living longer. What was once considered a deadly disease, HIV is now a manageable, chronic condition that allows a nearly normal lifespan, thanks in large part to the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) and expanded access to HIV treatment services and medical advancements. In 2018, 46.1 percent of RWHAP clients were aged 50 years and older. Of RWHAP clients aged 50 years and older receiving HIV medical care, 91.5 percent were virally suppressed. As people with HIV age, their health care and social needs change. All members of the health care team can assist in the care and treatment as people age with HIV. Over the last year, HRSA’s HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) has been working with RWHAP recipients, subrecipients, and providers to identify and share effective strategies to meet the unique needs of this growing population. As part of this effort, we recently released two new reference guides to assist health care pr...

Around 600 racers and walkers participated the 2015 Winter Walk for AIDS and Ron Johnson 5K Run. Because of COVID-19, this year's event has moved to five area parks. The challenge is to walk at one or any number of them during the week of Nov. 14-21. Drs. Kees Van Dam (a physician) and Minh Pham (a clinical pharmacist), local infectious disease specialists, are  hoping to raise $10,000 with a faux battle royale as part of the Ron Johnson Red Ribbon Week 5K Run/Walk. NANCY MCLAUGHLIN GREENSBORO — One of the "battle royales" in this year's Ron Johnson Red Ribbon 5K Run/Walk includes Drs. Kees Van Dam and Minh Pham, local infectious disease specialists hoping to raise $10,000. Featured face to face on a "No Retreat, No Surrender" poster on the teams page, each is hoping to land a knock-out punch — only not to the other, according to the promo on the poster (a spoof on a 1986 movie by martial artist/actor Jea...

Congressional Delegation News: WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), along with U.S. Representatives Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) and Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.), have announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded nearly $8.5 million to the University of New Mexico and the New Mexico Department of Health for grants through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. The grants are part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act that the New Mexico delegation voted to pass in March, and will fund medication, primary medical care, and support services for New Mexicans living with HIV/AIDS. The New Mexico Department of Health received over $2.4 million to improve the quality, availability, and organization of HIV health care and support services. The University of New Mexico (UNM) received $492,914 for primary care and medical se...

During the meeting, Danielle Yates, chief of the county’s housing and community connections bureau, told commissioners that Baltimore City is one of such jurisdictions that administers funding in this way. She said her agency has been corresponding closely with the city to ensure that it would be able to offer assistance through the program. For families who receive long-term assistance through this program, it would be the eventual goal for them to transition to regular housing choice vouchers to free up spots in the program for other families, Yates said.

CLOSE Staff of the CENTER Project, a Green Bay AIDS prevention, advocacy and support organization, in front of a billboard in Green Bay in 1993.   (Photo: Courtesy of Mike Fitzpatrick) Note: Part of a series marking October as LGBTQ History Month. GREEN BAY – Green Bay resident Paul "Cricket" Jacob clearly remembers the fear during the first years after AIDS emerged, a time when people didn't yet know why so many young, healthy people were dying. "And then, when the virus was identified and there was no cure – they didn't know a lot about it – there were people dying left and right," Jacob recalled. "I don't mind sharing as a gay man, I remember sitting around with friends and we would make lists of all our friends who had died, and there could be 30 people on this list of all our friends who died within the last year or two." Amidst that fear, Jacob started volunteering in 1986 for the Green Bay-based CENTER Project – Commu...

Recently, I had the opportunity to share updates about Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America (EHE) during a webinar with the Latino Commission on AIDS in the lead up to the observance of National Latinx AIDS Awareness Day. Below, I’ve summarized a few of the things that we discussed. Disproportionate Impact of HIV in Latino Community Though not news to this audience, we briefly discussed the disproportionate impact of HIV in the Latino community. In 2018, Hispanics/Latinos accounted for 28% of the estimated 36,400 new HIV infections in the United States and 78% of new infections among Hispanics/Latinos were among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. In 2018, the largest percentage of HIV infections among Hispanic/Latino males was among those aged 25–34 years (44%), followed by those aged 13–24 years (22%). However, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use is less common among Hispanic/Latino gay and bisexual men . According to a CDC report, only 21% of HIV...

This year’s annual U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA) concluded on October 21 with a plenary session featuring several federal HIV leaders and I was honored to be included. I am grateful to NMAC for convening this conference virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling the community along with federal and state partners to continue to share important information, strategies, and experiences about HIV, sexually transmitted infections, viral hepatitis, leadership, and race. Following are some highlights of what I shared with the participants. Status and Next Steps for the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative Naturally, participants wanted to know about the status of Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America (EHE) given all that has happened this year and what lies ahead for this national initiative. I reiterated that EHE remains a priority at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and that its agencies and offices are moving forward with implementation activities. Som...

With a new $1 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration , Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine is partnering with the Atlantic County Sheriff’s Department and other community organizations to provide prevention services to minority boys and young men at highest risk for substance use and HIV.  By targeting this hard-to-reach population, RowanSOM’s chief of infectious disease, Dr. Judith Lightfoot , hopes to address a persistent problem: serious health disparities for Black and Latino patients, who account for more than three-quarters of New Jerseyans living with HIV/AIDS, according to the New Jersey Department of Health . Though the state’s number of newly diagnosed patients continues to decline, the true number of infected individuals remains unknown. That untested, undiagnosed population most worries Lightfoot, who has provided HIV/AIDS care in South Jersey since the 1990s.  This year, Lightfoot began treating seven ...

Dr. Joyce Wallace, a Manhattan internist who treated prostitutes for AIDS, occasionally brought streetwalkers home with her when they had nowhere else to go. Once, when her son, Ari Kahn, was about 12, Dr. Wallace, who had to get to the hospital to see her patients, left him at home with a prostitute who was H.I.V. positive and going through heroin withdrawal. It wasn’t clear who was to take care of whom. Ari ended up making pizza for them both. When Dr. Wallace returned, she took the prostitute to a drug-treatment center; the woman eventually overcame her addiction and got a job at a research foundation that Dr. Wallace had started. “On one hand, it was grossly irresponsible,” Mr. Kahn said of the incident in an interview. On the other hand, he said, it was typical of his mother’s extraordinary capacity for empathy, and she helped a lot of people. Dr. Wallace died on Oct. 14 at a hospital in Manhattan. She was 79. Mr. Kahn said the cause was a heart attack. Dr. Wallace was...

Newswise — Rutgers School of Public Health dean, Perry N. Halkitis, will receive the Hyacinth Award from the Hyacinth Foundation. The award – which honors those who have been an advocate and champion for individuals living with HIV – will be presented to Halkitis and the Sanofi PRIDE Connect Employee Resource Group at the Foundation’s 35th Anniversary Virtual Celebration on Saturday, November 14, 2020. Halkitis, who is trailblazer in the field of HIV, was one of the first public health scientists to advance our understanding of how structural and psychosocial stressors interact with viral dynamics to perpetuate the epidemic in sexual and racial minority individuals. He has also set the groundwork for a substantive body of research on the intersection of HIV and drug use, abuse, and dependence, all the while working – for nearly two decades - as a tireless advocate and activist for those infected with and affected by HIV. His lab, the Center for Health, Identity, Behavior & Preve...

CanSino Biologics’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine is one of at least four using an adenovirus that some worry could increase HIV susceptibility. CHINA DAILY CDIC/REUTERS By Jon Cohen Oct. 19, 2020 , 6:30 PM Science ’ s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation. Certain COVID-19 vaccine candidates could increase susceptibility to HIV, warns a group of researchers who in 2007 learned that an experimental HIV vaccine had raised in some people the risk for infection with the AIDS virus. These concerns have percolated in the background of the race for a vaccine to stem the coronavirus pandemic, but now the researchers have gone public with a “cautionary tale,” in part because trials of those candidates may soon begin in locales that have pronounced HIV epidemics, such as South Africa. Some approved and experimental vaccines have as a backbone a variety of adenoviruses, which can cause the common cold but are often harmless. T...

Welcome to Ethics Consult -- an opportunity to discuss, debate (respectfully), and learn together. We select an ethical dilemma from a true patient care case. You vote on your decision in the case. And next week, we'll reveal how you all made the call. And stay tuned, bioethicist Jacob M. Appel, MD, JD, will weigh in next week with an ethical framework to help you learn and prepare. The following case is from Appel's 2019 book, Who Says You're Dead? Medical & Ethical Dilemmas for the Curious & Concerned: Monty, a 50-year-old roofer who is positive for HIV, has been treated by Dr. Kildare for many years, but often skips his prescribed HIV medications for months at a time. One summer afternoon, Monty becomes short of breath while working and is rushed to the nearest hospital with a collapsed lung -- the result of a walking pneumonia that likely resulted from his untreated HIV/AIDS. Soon Monty loses consciousness and is placed on a ventilator; his prognosis for rec...

The 2020 US Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA) is happening virtually October 19-21.  Whether you’re registered to attend USCHA or not, there are several HIV.gov hosted sessions open to everyone. Of note, several of these open sessions include chances to hear Harold Phillips from OIDP and his guests discuss the Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America (EHE) initiative and provide updates from USCHA. Open to Everyone The HHS Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP) will host Live with Leadership conversations to hear from key HHS and community leaders about activities to further the EHE initiative. Harold Phillips will moderate these 20-minute discussions with Q&A opportunities. Join at the scheduled time with this link. No advance registration is needed. Monday, October 19th (11:15–11:35 a.m. ET) Guest: Kaye Hayes, OIDP Acting Director, and Executive Director, Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) Topic: Importance of USCHA to EHE Tuesda...

About the Conference The 2020 United States Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA) will take place online Oct. 19-21. Organized by NMAC, this is the largest domestic conference on HIV. Federal Plenary An October 21st plenary session entitled “ Federal Perspectives on EHE Efforts in the Era of COVID-19” will be held from 2:00 – 3:00 pm ET. Speakers are: Harold Phillips , Chief Operating Officer for Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America (EHE) and Senior HIV Advisor for the HHS Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP) Laura Cheever , MD, ScM, Associate Administrator for HIV/AIDS Bureau, HRSA Anthony S. Fauci , M.D., Director, NIAID Neeraj Gandotra, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, SAMHSA Maureen M. Goodenow , Ph.D., Associate Director for AIDS Research and Director, Office of AIDS Research, NIH Jonathan Mermin , M.D., M.P.H., RADM and Assistant Surgeon General, USPHS, Director, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, and Prevention, (C...