Oleh: Iko Safika, Ph.D.

Peningkatan kasus HIV di kalangan Lelaki berhubungan seks dengan Lelaki (LSL) membutuhkan penggunaan beberapa strategi yang tepat sasaran, terlebih dengan fakta bahwa LSL sangat bervariasi dari jenis dan tipenya. Salah satu solusi untuk mengurangi hambatan dalam mengakses jam layanan dan tingginya stigma dan diskriminasi yang dialami di fasilitas kesehatan adalah strategi menjemput bola dengan pelaksanaan Mobile testing.  Mobile testing melalui pendekatan tempat atau venue-based testing[1]telah banyak didokumentasikan sebagai strategi yang efektif dalam menjangkau dan meningkatkan cakupan test HIV dikalangan LSL. Sauna dan Panti Pijat yang bertebaran di wilayah Jakarta, merupakan tempat/lokasi yang biasa digunakan LSL untuk nongkrong dan/atau mencari pasangan seksual.

Read more ...

Oleh: Mira Renata

Ibarat memasuki belantara, stigma adalah belukar yang menghambat program penanggulangan HIV and AIDS. Stigma moral, agama, maupun ‘label’ negatif dalam masyarakat menyoroti perilaku kelompok beresiko sebagai ‘penyimpangan’, ‘penyakit’, atau bahkan ‘kutukan’.

Di sisi lain, pemahaman mendalam terhadap karakter dan pola interaksi kelompok beresiko masih belum maksimal. Situasi ini mempengaruhi pengemasan dan format pesan penanggulangan HIV dan AIDS menjadi kurang pas. Ketimbang meralat stigma dan menjawab pertanyaan atau rasa khawatir kelompok berisiko, banyak informasi pencegahan penularan bernada normatif atau tanpa sengaja malah memojokkan. Cara penyampaian pesan terkadang kurang menarik serta disampaikan melalui format media yang tidak sesuai dengan khalayak sasaran.

Read more ...

K-Earth101, 30 October 2014

Elton John has been an advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness for decades now, and urged the LGBT communities to "wise up" in terms of attitudes about the pandemic at a recent gala his foundation hosted. (via CBS)
At "An Enduring Vision" gala, hosted by the Elton John AIDS Foundation, John urged LGBT identifying individuals that the AIDS crisis is not a thing of the past, noting that "HIV infection have remained at steady or increasing levels in many parts of the world, including the U.S., and that AIDS still remains the leading cause of death for male African-Americans."

Read more ...

Blog AIDS Gov, 30 October 2014

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced today that more than $2.2 billion in grants was awarded in fiscal year (FY) 2014 to cities, states and local community-based organizations, funded through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. This funding will ensure that more than half a million people living with and affected by HIV infection continue to have access to critical HIV health care, support services, and medications that are insufficiently covered by other forms of health care insurance.

"As we strive to achieve an AIDS-free generation by pursuing and accomplishing the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program serves an increasingly important role," said Secretary Burwell. "These grants will make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable Americans living with HIV disease."

Read more ...

NAM AIDS, 29 October 2014

"There's only one Berlin patient still. But by this time next year he will at least be joined by 40-50 Portland monkeys." This was vaccine researcher Louis Picker, summarising in quotable form why the outlook for the development of an effective HIV vaccine is brighter than it has been for years, in a satellite session in advance of the HIV Research for Prevention conference (R4P) in Cape Town, South Africa, which opens fully today.

Picker was speaking about his research into a vaccine which created a lot of interest before and at last year's AIDS Vaccine conference in Barcelona, Spain, (the R4P conference results from a merger between the annual AIDS Vaccine conferences and the biennial Microbicides conferences). Picker said that, by next year, this number of monkeys infected with SIV, the monkey equivalent of HIV, who were also previously given a 'replicating vector' vaccine, will have had no detectable HIV anywhere in their bodies for more than 70 weeks – and that probably means not one single infected cell.

Read more ...