Latest news with #HIVawareness
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
HIV prevention drugs are effective, but many who need them are left out
Despite highly effective HIV prevention drugs on the market, only a fraction of those at risk in the U.S. are taking them — or even know they're an option. It's called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, and it is about 99% effective to prevent HIV infection through sexual contact when taken as prescribed. But only about one-third of the 1.2 million Americans who could benefit from the medication are taking it, according to an estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. LaTonia Wilkins told CBS News she never knew PrEP was for people like her, even after she had an HIV scare. "I was dating a guy, and while we were dating, he found out that he was living with HIV," she said, adding that no one talked to her about the medication when she went to get tested. "At the time, I never even heard of PrEP," she said. She didn't start taking it until years later. "I thought PrEP was for gay men or trans women. I didn't know I could take PrEP." Who's at risk for HIV? More than 30,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with HIV — the virus that causes AIDS — every year in the U.S., according to the CDC, and a total of about 1.2 million are living with the infection. And it is not just a problem for any single community — almost a quarter of those infected get it through intimate heterosexual contact, the health agency estimates. Dr. Céline Gounder, a CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, says those considered to be at risk for HIV and who may want to get on PrEP include: People who are having unprotected sex AND who have a partner who has HIV;OR who have multiple sexual partners who have not been tested for HIV;OR who have had an STD in the last six among HIV prevention CDC data also shows a stunning disparity among people considered at risk for HIV. While 94% of White people who doctors say could benefit from it are now on PrEP, less than 13% of Black people and 24% of Hispanic/Latino people who could benefit are receiving it, and less than 15% of women at risk are getting the drug. Dázon Dixon Diallo founded a women's health advocacy group in Atlanta some 40 years ago because she saw Black women were being left behind in the fight against HIV. "I started Sister Love out of anger. Out of anger and frustration that nothing was happening," she told CBS News. Dixon Diallo and her team also stressed the need to normalize conversations about sex and HIV. "We want to acknowledge that people have sex, and that just like anything else that we engage in, there are risks," she says. PrEP prices and accessibility issues The cost of the PrEP medication, clinic visit and lab tests averages more than $5,000 a year, Gounder says. This creates accessibility challenges for people like Wilkins. "If my insurance provider decides, I don't want to cover this anymore, I really don't know what I would do because PrEP costs more than my rent right now," she says. "I have a lot of anxiety about that." A federal appeals court case could also limit insurance for PrEP, with some employers arguing they shouldn't have to pay for drugs that "facilitate behaviors ... contrary to" the employer's "sincere religious beliefs." "This federal court case could end insurance coverage or not require employers to provide insurance coverage for this. You also have Gilead — that's a company that makes these combination pills for PrEP — they're looking to narrow their patient assistance program by the end of 2024. And then on top of that, you have congressional Republicans who have proposed really deep cuts to funding for the CDC's HIV prevention program," Gounder explained on "CBS Mornings." What shocked "Matlock" star Kathy Bates? A new you: The science of redesigning your personality "Somebody Somewhere" star Bridget Everett Solve the daily Crossword
Telegraph
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Princess Diana ‘was not a gay icon'
She has an enduring legacy as a gay icon, celebrated for her campaigning for HIV awareness. But Princess Diana might not have actually been as popular with the gay community as first thought. According to author Edward White, a survey carried out after her death in 1997 found that many gay and lesbian people were 'insulted' by the former Princess of Wales's association with them. Speaking to the History Extra podcast, Mr White said: 'Diana was kind of embraced, I think, by a lot of gay people as being kind of an ally or an icon. 'There's an absolutely fascinating resource that I drew on that's called the National Lesbian and Gay Survey. 'After Diana's death, they asked their respondents to write in and give their take on Diana's death and how they felt and what they felt it meant to gay people.' He added: 'Some people were absolutely horrified that Diana should be considered to be an important person in gay life at all, because she's this ultra-privileged ... She's basically a poster girl for heteronormative couples. 'You can't get straighter than Princess Diana.' Diana advocated for HIV awareness and in 1987 she broke new ground by publicly shaking hands with gay men with Aids. She also opened the first purpose-built unit for HIV and Aids at the London Middlesex Hospital. Talking about his book Dianaworld: An Obsession, Mr White said Diana's 1995 Panorama interview saw her become associated with the gay community He said: 'It kind of has a parallel to other sorts of interviews of the time such as George Michael's one, which is essentially like Diana doing a coming-out interview in the Panorama in 1995 as much as it is a kind of a whistleblowing interview.' Mr White said there were also respondents on the survey that held the positive view of Princess Diana that has continued to this day. He continued: 'Other people at the same time felt like she was, you know, their most important ally and that she took the discrimination that gay people faced as part of their daily lives and she did an awful lot to kind of combat it. 'And not just because of her involvement with the HIV issue, but because she was known to be friends with gay people and she was seen to be a great ally. 'Other people that wrote into this survey, they suggested that what was great about her is that she actually cut across all of these kinds of identities and that everybody could kind of find their own Diana, whether you were gay, straight or anything else.'
