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The South Rises Again
The Southern AIDS Coalition (SAC) issued an update to its 2002 Southern States Manifesto, highlighting both the encouraging progress made against the HIV epidemic in the South and the daunting work that remains to be done. SAC co-chairperson Kathie Hiers shares with POZ her dream that activists will unite next year to help heal a part of the country most severely ravaged by the epidemic.

July 22, 2008

Loreen Willenberg: In Search of (Other) HIV Controllers
It took Loreen Willenberg nearly 10 years after her HIV diagnosis to write “I am HIV-positive.” When her name first appeared in the March 2001 issue of POZ, Willenberg was still closeted in her small town life working as a landscaper. Five years later, her name and her story were all over the world press as a spokesperson for an international HIV study. Now she is launching a foundation and website to attract others to the study and help them enter clinical trials. Willenberg tells POZ what happened between 1992 and 2006 to convince her to shed her veil of anonymity and become a world-class HIV advocate.

July 15, 2008

New Guidelines for Treating—and Avoiding—Opportunistic Infections
Despite the fact that HIV is now perceived as “manageable,” opportunistic infections (OIs) remain a threat, especially for those who are unaware of their HIV status and those out of HIV treatment options. In this AIDSmeds interview, National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientist Henry Masur, MD, explains the Department of Health and Human Services’ recently revised OI prevention and treatment guidelines. They help health care providers and patients steer clear of—and treat—these life-threatening illnesses.

July 09, 2008

Is Treating AIDS the Way to Stop the Spread of the Disease?
The use of HIV treatment as a prevention strategy has been largely overlooked by public health officials. Now, a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases suggests that aggressive treatment programs for HIV-positive people could reduce the number of new cases by as much as 60 percent.

July 02, 2008

Moving the Needle on Syringe Exchange
The decision to lift the ban on federally funded syringe-exchange programs is gaining bipartisan momentum on Capitol Hill. This July, a new bill recommending lifting the ban is scheduled to hit Congress. Has the time finally arrived for evidence-based science to prevail over moral debates around the issue of providing clean syringes for safer injecting?