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Broward Health Officials Want County, Cities to Chip In to Fight HIV/AIDS
Broward County's Health Department recently unveiled a 66-page report that says new HIV infections are growing again among gay and bisexual men and remain high among African Americans.

From 1999 to 2004, new infections among gay or bisexual men jumped 94 percent, due largely to the combination of unsafe sex and "party drugs" such as crystal methamphetamine, said officials. About half of new infections were attributed to that mixture. An estimated one in five gay or bisexual men in Broward is HIV-positive, said the department.

Infection rates are stabilizing but high among African-American residents. One in 58 African Americans had HIV in 2005, compared with one in 207 whites and one in 216 Hispanics.

From Jan. 1, the county will have about $3.1 million for prevention programs, a $100,000 increase from this year due to private donations. With some state and federal resources being directed away from prevention and toward treatment and direct services, Broward County hopes it can persuade local city officials to fill in the prevention funding gap.

Broward's new report targets for prevention gay and bisexual men and African-American women over the next three years. In 2003, African-American gay and bisexual men and heterosexual women were targeted.

"We need to refocus on the groups where we see the risky behaviors," said George Castrataro, the department's assistant HIV/AIDS director and the report's co-author. "We're certainly underfunded in light of what we face," he said.

Among the report's recommendations are enlisting opinion leaders as peer prevention educators; holding small-group forums; and skills-building programs for runaway and homeless youths.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel (12.06.06):: Bob Lamendola

 
     
We are providing the above information as a public service only. Providing synopses of key scientific articles and lay media reports on HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases  does not constitute  endorsement. The above summaries were prepared without conducting any additional research or investigation into the facts and statements made in the articles being summarized, and therefore readers are expressly cautioned against relying on the validity or invalidity of any statements made in these summaries. This CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News Update also includes information from CDC and other government agencies, such as background on MMWR articles, fact sheets and announcements.
HIV1 -  ELISA Antibodies
  • Most people infected with HIV carry the virus for years before manifesting AIDS. During that period, infected people will have few, if any, symptoms yet they can transmit the virus.

  • The percentage of women with AIDS has increased steadily, and the percentage of people infected heterosexually has also increased, surpassing the percentage infected through injecting drug use.

  • During 2001, there were 35575 newly diagnosed cases of HIV infection. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates now that 40,000 new cases of HIV transmission occur every year.

  • Of the people infected with the virus of AIDS in the USA in the year 2001, 42% were whites, 37% blacks, 20%  Hispanics and <1% Asians and Pacific Islanders and <1% American Indians and Alaska Natives.

  • During the 1990s, the HIV epidemic shifted steadily toward a growing proportion of AIDS cases in blacks and Hispanics and in women.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the cause of AIDS (Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome). The presence of  HIV in the body can be detected in several ways. The most common is the HIV-ELISA Antibodies test.

The HIV-ELISA  looks for the body response to the virus manifested by the presence in your blood of Antibodies to HIV proteins. Antibodies are special proteins that our Immune System produce in response to the presence of HIV.

The test performed on your sample actually consists of two tests: a Screening test and a Confirmatory test. The screening test procedure is called an ELISAEnzyme Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay or an EIA (Enzyme Immunosorbent Assay). The confirmatory test is used in the event your HIV-ELISA is positive and/or equivocal and is the procedure used is the Western Blot Assay (WB)

The screening and confirmatory tests are usually done using small samples of blood. If a sample of blood tests positive repeatedly in the screening test, it will be confirmed through the Western Blot test. People will be informed that they are infected with HIV only after both the screening and confirmatory tests have shown a positive (reactive) result.

Positive HIV antibody tests results are over 99% accurate when confirmed. Negative HIV antibody tests are over 99% accurate if it has been at least six months after a contact with a potentially HIV-infected partner. False negatives or false positives occur rarely.

Antibodies to HIV can be detected in the blood, in the  urine or in the saliva. People produce antibodies with different speeds and therefore the time interval between infection and the development of antibodies to HIV can go from four weeks to six months from the exposure date or SDC ( Suspected Date of  Contact). The appearance of antibodies in a blood or urine sample of a person which was known to be negative to HIV is called Seroconversion.

The HIV Elisa results are usually available in one or two business days.

 
 

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