XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: billsteele@more-liberalism.com   
      
   You cannot educate the mentally ill homosexual degenerate.   
      
   Saturday is National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, but the   
   news about knowledge and treatment of HIV in the gay community   
   is dispiriting.   
      
   Just 30 percent of gay and bisexual men say they were tested for   
   HIV within the last year as recommended; another 30 percent say   
   they have never been tested.   
      
   And even when they are tested, only half of those who have been   
   diagnosed with HIV are receiving care and treatment for their   
   infection.   
      
   Those statistics come from two reports released Thursday, the   
   first a survey of gay and bisexual men from the Kaiser Family   
   Foundation and the second, an analysis of men diagnosed with HIV   
   in 2010 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.   
   (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the   
   Kaiser Family Foundation.)   
      
   “It’s unacceptable that treatment, one of our most powerful   
   tools for protecting people’s health and preventing new HIV   
   infections, is reaching only a fraction of gay men who need it,”   
   said Jonathan Mermin, M.D., director of CDC’s National Center   
   for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention   
   in a statement. “A top prevention priority at CDC is making sure   
   every gay man with HIV knows his status and receives ongoing   
   medical care – otherwise, we will never tackle the HIV epidemic   
   in the country.”   
      
   At least part of the problem may be a lack of education about   
   the disease.   
      
   Fewer than half of gay and bisexual men surveyed in the KFF poll   
   were aware that antiretroviral treatment should begin   
   immediately after an HIV diagnosis, and one quarter knew that   
   treatment can reduce the risk of passing their infections along   
   to a partner. Just 26 percent knew about PrEP, a daily pill for   
   HIV-negative individuals that can lower their risk of becoming   
   infected.   
      
   “It is surprising to a lot of us who spend a lot of time   
   thinking of these issues and live in places where they’re talked   
   about a lot,” says Liz Hamel, lead author of the KFF poll. “But   
   this survey is nationwide and doesn’t necessarily reflect what   
   gay men in activist circles in San Francisco are hearing and   
   talking about.”   
      
   The results of the survey mean that there’s a tremendous   
   opportunity to increase awareness, Hamel adds. Some of that   
   education could come from physicians. More than half of those   
   polled in the KFF survey report that a doctor has never   
   recommended they get tested for HIV; 61 percent say they rarely   
   or never discuss HIV with their doctor.   
      
   “When you look at the growing epidemic among young gay and bi   
   men, I’m not sure the results aren’t all that surprising, but   
   certainly hugely disappointing,” says Michael Kaplan, President   
   & CEO of AIDS United, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy and grant-   
   making group. ”It is amazing at a time when testing and   
   treatment offer so much hope in this epidemic, and when gay and   
   bi men face such high rates, we’ve yet to succeed in more   
   regular screening and educating gay and bi men about treatment.”   
      
   The KFF poll found that the gay and bisexual community has also   
   shifted to other priorities besides HIV.  HIV was still listed   
   as the top health priority, but when asked to name the most   
   important issue facing gay and bisexual men today, HIV ranked   
   behind discrimination/lack of acceptance and was on a par with   
   equal rights and marriage equality.   
      
   Just 35 percent said they were personally concerned about   
   becoming infected with HIV.   
      
   Once diagnosed with an HIV infection, the CDC analysis found   
   that about three-quarters of those were linked to care within   
   three months. But only half retained that care, and fewer than   
   half were prescribed antiretroviral therapy.   
      
   Just 42 percent achieved viral suppression, the level at which   
   their virus is considered under control. That number was even   
   bleaker for young men age 13-24: just 26 percent achieved viral   
   suppression.   
      
   Gay and bisexual men make up a just 2 percent of the U.S.   
   population but account for 66 percent of new HIV infections.   
      
   The KFF survey was conducted from July 17-August 3 with a sample   
   of 431 men age 18 and over who self-identified as gay or   
   bisexual based on a nationally representative, probability-based   
   online research panel. The margin of sampling error is plus or   
   minus 7 points.   
      
   Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news   
   service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry   
   J. Kaiser Family Foundation.   
      
   http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/for-gay-   
   men-gaps-in-hiv-knowledge-and-treatment-   
   persist/2014/09/25/8df159da-44d6-11e4-8042-   
   aaff1640082e_story.html   
      
   I told you gays are ignorant, selfish and stupid.   
      
         
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)