From the CDC Website:

Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C can become chronic, life-long infections which can lead to liver cancer. Millions of Americans are living with chronic viral hepatitis, and many do not know they are infected. CDC’s Division of Viral Hepatitis is leading a  national education initiative called Know More: Hepatitis.  The initiative aims to decrease the burden of  chronic viral hepatitis by increasing awareness about this hidden epidemic and  encouraging people who may be chronically infected to get tested.

Online Hepatitis  Risk Assessment

Know More Hepatitis is being featured in May as part of Hepatitis  Awareness Month.  This year, May 19th  will serve as the first ever Hepatitis Testing Day in the United States. Since chronic  hepatitis often does not cause any symptoms until serious liver damage has been  done, testing for hepatitis is crucial. Find out if you should be tested by taking a 5 minute  online Hepatitis  Risk Assessment.

The  online assessment is designed to determine an individual’s risk for viral  hepatitis and asks questions based upon CDC’s guidelines for testing and  vaccination.  The Hepatitis Risk  Assessment allows individuals to answer questions privately, either in their  home or in a health care setting, and print their recommendations to discuss  with their doctor.

Go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Website for the full story.

From AIDSmeds.com…

Orasure’s oral swab-based rapid in-home HIV test has been recommended for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Blood Products Advisory Committee. If the FDA follows its advisory committee’s recommendation, the Oraquick In-Home HIV Test will be the first complete home-based screening assay for any infectious disease available for purchase over-the-counter (OTC) from pharmacies and internet retailers.

The advisory committee voted unanimously, 17-0, in favor of the test upon being asked two questions: Do the available clinical trial results provide reasonable assurance that the test is safe and effective? And, importantly, do the benefits of in-home HIV testing outweigh the potential risks, notably false negative and false positive results?

The particulars of the second question were hotly discussed throughout the May 15 meeting in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Of concern to the FDA presenters and advisory committee panelists is the test’s reduced sensitivity—its effectiveness at screening for HIV antibodies in those infected with the virus—compared with the professional oral swab OraQuick assay.

However, even with reduced sensitivity, Elliott Cowan, PhD, of the FDA acknowledged, the in-home HIV test is anticipated to have a net public health benefit. “The OraQuick In-Home HIV Test is expected to be associated with a net increase in the number of HIV infections newly identified each year,” he said, “with evidence of new infections averted with use of the test.”

Read the full article on AIDSmeds.com.

From the LA Times:

The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that Gilead Sciences’ Truvada appears to be safe and effective for HIV prevention. It concluded that taking the pill daily could spare users “infection with a serious and life-threatening illness that requires lifelong treatment.”

On Thursday, a panel of FDA advisors will vote on whether Truvada should be approved as a preventive treatment for people who are at high risk of contracting the human immunodeficiency virus through sexual intercourse. The FDA is not required to follow the advice of its panels, but usually does.

An estimated 1.2 million Americans have HIV, which attacks the immune system and, unless treated with antiviral drugs, develops into AIDS, a fatal condition in which the body cannot fight off infections. If Truvada is approved, it would be a major breakthrough in the 30-year campaign against the AIDS epidemic. No other drugs have been proven to prevent HIV and a vaccine is believed to be decades away.

Gilead Sciences Inc., based in Foster City, Calif., has marketed Truvada since 2004 as a treatment for people who are infected with the virus. The medication is a combination of two older HIV drugs, Emtriva and Viread. Doctors usually prescribe the medications as part of a drug cocktail that makes it harder for the virus to reproduce. Patients with low viral levels have reduced symptoms and are far less likely to develop AIDS.

Researchers first reported in 2010 that Truvada could prevent people from contracting HIV. A three-year study found that daily doses cut the risk of infection in healthy gay and bisexual men by 44%, when accompanied by condoms and counseling. Another study found that Truvada reduced infection by 75% in heterosexual couples in which one partner was infected with HIV and the other was not.

Read the full article on the LA Times Website.

From WebMD…

An online game aimed at gay men has been launched to promote the importance of regular checkups for sexual health.

The game, ‘Man Up‘, has been devised by the HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust. It carries the message that the more men you have sex with, the more often you should be screened for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

The game, which is available on Facebook, sees players attempt to bounce between brightly coloured beds without either falling off the screen, or being knocked off by a ‘love bug’. The higher they manage to bounce, the more points they receive.  However, points can only be banked through a visit to the floating clinic.

Players also receive messages containing important facts on sexual health, including how STIs are transmitted and guidance on how often to test for them. There is also a link to a website with further sexual health information, and a clinic finder which lists the nearest screening service to the player.

Read the full story on WebMD. Play the game on Facebook.

Text for Testing is a program created by the Pitt Men’s Study and the Pennsylvania Prevention Project, at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health. It was designed to make free HIV testing more accessible to residents of Pennsylvania. By texting “PAtest” to 41411, smart phone users can connect to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention database that lists free testing clinics throughout the state. You can then search by zip code to find the location nearest you.

Many of the clinics provide free rapid oral testing too—which means no needles and you get your results while you wait. For more information about Text for Testing, contact the Pitt Men’s Study by sending a message to PMS@stophiv.pitt.edu.

From Thinkprogress.com:

Medical progress now ensures that HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence, but only for those who can access good medical care. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that almost three out of four Americans with HIV are not receiving enough medicine or regular health care “to stay healthy or prevent themselves from transmitting the virus to others.” Out of the 1.2 million people in the U.S. have HIV, 850,000 aren’t receiving regular treatment to keep the virus at a low enough level to prevent transmission or hurt their own health and 240,000 Americansdon’t even know they’re infected with HIV.

For some, medical treatment is  hard to come by. A Williams Institute study found that 5 percent of dentists in Los Angeles refused services to those with HIV/AIDs, a rate that is “lower than that of other health care providers. Over the past decade, “55% of obstetricians, 46% of skilled nursing facilities, and 25% of plastic surgeons” in L.A. “had policies that specifically discriminated against people living with HIV or AIDS.” Successful treatment rates “were lowest in blacks and women,” according to CDC director Dr. Thomas Frieden.

Read the full article on Thinkprogress.com.