The SunBreak » hiv

Gay Activists Fight the Squick Factor in Blood-Donation Ban

Michael van Baker — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 18:38:28 +0000

Last June, the American Medical Association turned up the heat by voting to oppose the lifetime ban, saying gay men could be treated like other high-risk groups. That development was followed by a nationwide protest last week, as gay men volunteered to visit blood donation centers and go through the humiliating process of being publicly told they couldn't donate.

American Academy of Arts & Sciences Announces New Members Include Bezos, Corey, Gates

Michael van Baker — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:38:47 +0000

On October 6, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, "220 leaders in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, arts, business and public affairs," newly elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2012 class of fellows, will be inducted to the Academy's ranks. And among them will be local heroes Amazon's Jeff Bezos, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's Dr. Larry Corey, and the Gates Foundation's Melinda Gates.

How Long Until Gay People Can Give Blood?

Michael van Baker — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:27:00 +0000

Blood donation comes with a ticking sound, a count of the roughly 42 days that whole blood can be banked before it's no longer usable. Blood banks and hospitals are daily involved in a complex dance to move blood to where it's needed. If you are gay, of course, you can pay no attention to donating life-saving blood. Currently there's a lifetime "deferral" for men who have at any time since 1977 had sex with other men. This is an FDA policy, nothing to do with your local blood bank.

Hutchinson Center’s Push for HIV Cure is Legacy of “Berlin Patient”

Michael van Baker — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:17:24 +0000

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a 5-year, $20-million grant to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to test " whether a person’s own stem cells can be engineered to deny HIV entry into the body’s blood cells." The possibility of a cure for HIV is more than a little mind-boggling after so many years where the best hope was simply to arrest the virus's progression.