Current CDC recommendations focus on testing individuals with known hepatitis C risk factors. However, more than 75% of American adults with hepatitis C are baby boomers and baby boomers are five times more likely than adults of other ages to be infected. Â Likely reasons for this disproportionate infection rate are that this generation may have received blood transfusions before screening of the blood supply began 20 years ago and because they came of age before HIV brought awareness of the risks of unprotected sex and needle sharing.
Tag: HIV
The AFA at the International AIDS Conference in Washington DC
by Stuart Bell
I am currently in Washington DC staffing a booth for the American Fertility Association’s new HIV Outreach program, designed to educate men with HIV about their biological family building options through assisted …
FDA Approves Drug to Reduce Risk of HIV
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Truvada (emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), the first drug approved to reduce the risk of HIV infection in uninfected individuals who are at high risk of HIV infection and who may engage in sexual activity with HIV-infected partners. Truvada, taken daily, is to be used for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in combination with safer sex practices to reduce the risk of sexually-acquired HIV infection in adults at high risk.
No link seen between contraceptives and higher HIV risk-CDC
ATLANTA, June 21 (Reuters) – There is no clear link between the use of contraceptives such as the birth control pill or injections such as Depo-Provera and an increased risk that a woman will contract HIV, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.
But the CDC also said it was “strongly” encouraging the use of condoms as a precaution against the virus that causes AIDS.
Recent studies have suggested that the use of hormonal contraceptives could increase the risk of women contracting HIV. But after reviewing the studies, the Atlanta-based CDC said, “the evidence does not suggest” a link between oral contraceptives such as the birth control pill and increased HIV risk.
For injectable forms of birth control the evidence is inconclusive, but in the absence of more definitive research it too is considered safe, CDC officials said.