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HIV-Positive for 20-Plus Years: ‘Not Easy, but I’m One of the Lucky Ones’
Steven Watiti was diagnosed with HIV in 1993. His wife was pregnant with their second child when she died of the disease, along with their baby. “That left me with my daughter who was 4,” said Watiti, a Ugandan physician. He spoke on a panel at the recent International AIDS Conference about people who have…
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‘Mississippi Baby’ Still Represents Hope—and Heroism—for AIDS Community
It’s no surprise that the so-called Mississippi Baby was a hot topic at an international gathering of AIDS experts. Earlier this month, the world learned that the child, thought to have been cured of HIV after her July 2010 birth, had detectable levels of the virus in her blood. Quick as a heartbeat, “cure” was downgraded…
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Setback for AIDS-Vaccine Research
(The Root) — First do no harm. That’s the golden rule of medicine. But a new analysis of a trio of AIDS-vaccine trials shows that’s exactly what happened in two of the three studies. In trials conducted across four continents with a combined total of more than 6,000 participants, vaccines using a flulike virus that…
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White Girl in an Afro Wig? I Don't Care
Culture appropriation can be a bad idea, especially if you’re a white woman who’s decided to wear an Afro wig to a fried-chicken festival. Still, Salon contributor Linda Villarosa says she’s indifferent to the aforementioned antics of Michelle Joni, a white female blogger at Before and Afro. Instead, Villarosa writes that African Americans should loosen our…
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Images of the Fight Against AIDS in Africa
Austin Muyambela cleans the grounds at the Nangoma Mission Hospital in rural Zambia. He also volunteers as an HIV/AIDS counselor and helps patients stay on their medications. Muyambela (left) also assists Fred Mbewe, a nurse who performs circumcisions, which can reduce HIV infection by 60 percent in men. The Ethiopian village of Galato holds community…
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5 Lessons From Africa About Fighting AIDS
(The Root) — At the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., this week, much of the focus has been on Africa. And rightly so: It has been hit hardest by the disease. In Africa, 23 million people are living with the virus, or 68 percent of the world’s HIV-positive population. In some African countries as…
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LGBT, Out and African: Life in Zambia
While the tides are turning for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender blacks in the United States and throughout the Western world, Linda Villarosa, writing at the Huffington Post, explains why a harsh environment for Zambia’s LGBT community is thwarting the African country’s fight against HIV/AIDS. Those of us who are black and gay approach Africa…
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What HIV-Prevention Drug Means for Blacks
(The Root) — On Monday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first pill to prevent HIV infection in adults who do not have the virus — but are at risk of becoming infected. Studies have shown that Truvada, a little blue tablet taken once a day, can dramatically reduce transmission of the virus.…
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'Pariah' Filmmaker Scores Acclaim
Pariah, a stunner of a movie that opens on Dec. 28, begins simply, with a quote from the late Audre Lorde: “Wherever the bird with no feet flew, she found trees with no limbs.” That line comes from Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, the rapturous 1982 memoir that documents Lorde’s rebirth as a…
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Obama and Me: Integration Babies
Barack Obama turns 50 on Thursday. Been there, done that, had the big birthday party. He was born in 1961, and like the president, I was also born in the slice of years between the very late 1950s and mid-1960s. We fall between the cracks of the baby boom generation and Gen X. We missed…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
