Tag Archives: HIV

Infectious disease outbreaks rise with opioid epidemic

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About Bara Vaida

Bara Vaida (@barav) is AHCJ's core topic leader on infectious diseases. An independent journalist, she has written extensively about health policy and infectious diseases. Her work has appeared in outlets that include the National Journal, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg News, McClatchy News Service, MSNBC, NPR, Politico and The Washington Post.

Photo: Courtesy of the San Diego Union TribuneTent “cities” have swelled in southern California, creating crowded and unsanitary conditions.

Cases of infectious diseases such as hepatitis A, B and C, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have surged as the opioid epidemic has worsened over the past several years, two public health officials said during a Aug. 23 webcast for AHCJ members.

The increasing number of infectious disease cases are likely due to infected needle injections, unprotected sex, homelessness, lack of access to medical care and other socioeconomic challenges associated with people who have physical addictions to drugs and opioids.

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Covering HIV in the modern era: What reporters need to know

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About Bara Vaida

Bara Vaida (@barav) is AHCJ's core topic leader on infectious diseases. An independent journalist, she has written extensively about health policy and infectious diseases. Her work has appeared in outlets that include the National Journal, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg News, McClatchy News Service, MSNBC, NPR, Politico and The Washington Post.

Image: Benny Sølz via Flickr

About 36.7 million people around the world – about 1.1 million in the U.S.- are living with an HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) diagnosis, making it one of the most enduring pandemics on the planet. HIV is the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Since the virus was first discovered in the 1980s, about 35 million people have died from complications of AIDS.

There has been much progress in terms of treatment. There are now 30 antiretroviral drugs available for those diagnosed with HIV, writes Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, in the JAMA Network. Continue reading →

Tips to expand coverage of LGBT health beyond HIV and AIDS

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About Tara Haelle

Tara Haelle (@TaraHaelle) is AHCJ's medical studies core topic leader, guiding journalists through the jargon-filled shorthand of science and research and enabling them to translate the evidence into accurate information.

Photo: Ted Eytan via Flickr

Photo: Ted Eytan via Flickr

For the past several decades, HIV and AIDS have dominated discussions and reporting about LGBT health. While HIV/AIDS continues to be relevant to this population, thorough coverage of health for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals must be much more comprehensive in examining other challenges they face.

Several takeaways from the Health Journalism 2016 session, “Beyond HIV/AIDS: Reporting on the LGBT Community,” can help reporters go beyond those issues to discover new stories and important trends. Two major themes emerged from the session that offer fertile ground for deeper reporting. Continue reading →

Resources for covering HIV/AIDS in the aging population

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About Eileen Beal

Eileen Beal, M.A., has been covering health care and aging since the late 1990s. She's written several health-related books. including "Age Well!" with geriatrician Robert Palmer, and her work has appeared in Aging Today, Arthritis Today,WebMD and other publications.

Aging Awareness Day. September 18th.Thanks to a variety of antiretroviral medications available, especially the widely used HAART combination therapy, those who contracted HIV/AIDS from the 1990s on and have been able to maintain drug compliance, are aging longer with the disease, something that is recognized with National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day each year on Sept. 18. Continue reading →

Health insurance discrimination persists for those with HIV, cancer and other conditions, despite ACA

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About Joseph Burns

Joseph Burns (@jburns18), a Massachusetts-based independent journalist, is AHCJ’s topic leader on health insurance. He welcomes questions and suggestions on insurance resources and tip sheets at joseph@healthjournalism.org.

Over the past two years, patient advocacy groups, researchers and consultants have said health insurers have discriminated against their members with high-cost conditions.

A number of journalists have covered these stories. The Marketplace’s Tim Fitzsimons reported in June that the federal Department of Health and Human Services was addressing complaints against insurers whose benefit programs were designed to drive away members with costly pre-existing conditions. Wes Venteicher of the Chicago Tribune reported on efforts by health insurer Coventry to make HIV treatments more affordable after patient advocates complained that costs for HIV drugs were too high. Continue reading →

Despite progress fighting HIV, most vulnerable still at risk #ahcj15

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About Anna Gorman

Anna Gorman (@AnnaGorman) is a senior correspondent with Kaiser Health News. She attended Health Journalism 2015 on an AHCJ-California Health Journalism Fellowship, which is supported by The California HealthCare Foundation.

HIV-panel

Pia Christensen/AHCJSharon Hillier, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, discusses the pre-exposure prophylaxis pill, or PrEP, which can help prevent HIV infection.

HIV prevention and treatment have undergone a revolution since the disease first appeared, but there are still barriers to reaching the most at-risk populations, HIV experts said during a session at Health Journalism 2015.

While HIV patients in 1985 had a life expectancy of at most 10 years, now they are living into old age and are more likely to die from smoking, said Brad Hare, director of HIV care and prevention at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco.

Researchers are working toward a cure and people without HIV can take a prevention pill to keep them from becoming infected. Continue reading →