It is by no accident that the AIDS Memorial Quilt -- which now measures more than 50 miles laid side by side and weighs 54 tons -- is gracing the National Mall in Washington this weekend as the global HIV and AIDS community gathers nearby for the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012).
As a gay black man who came of age just before the 1969 Stonewall riots, I've seen far too many examples of the inequalities that exist in America. But I'm also highly encouraged by recent developments: same-sex marriage support from President Barack Obama and the NAACP, and a wave of federal court rulings -- from the Defense of Marriage Act being deemed unconstitutional to the rejection of California's Proposition 8 -- that have opened a promising new chapter in the gay rights movement.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer talks to a doctor about Truvada, a new drug approved to prevent HIV infection.
A drug already approved for treatment of AIDS might one day be approved for prevention of the deadly disease in individuals at high risk.
A U.S. presidential commission uncovers details of human experiments by American researchers in Guatemala in the 1940s.
The victims and heirs of U.S. experiments involving sexually transmitted diseases and human subjects in Guatemala between 1946 and 1948 will appeal following the dismissal of their lawsuit against the U.S. government.
Consumers may soon be able to test themselves for HIV and quickly learn the results in privacy of their own homes following unanimous approval recommendation from a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee on Tuesday.
John Meletse is deaf, gay and HIV positive. He's is inspiring the deaf community to communicate openly about sex.
It's been 11 years since John Meletse, a deaf, gay South African man, first learned he was HIV positive.
El doctor Baffi nos habla de lo factores que pueden aumentar el riesgo de padecer cáncer de cuello uterino.
Q: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is releasing new guidelines on cervical cancer screenings. What's changed?
The United States has rejected the grounds of a lawsuit stemming from experiments involving sexually transmitted diseases and human subjects in Guatemala between 1946 and 1948.
Ma Soe Soe Kyi's skeletal frame is visible above her blanket; she is too weak to keep her eyes open. Her husband waves away the flies and looks on helplessly.
Anderson Cooper is "Keeping Them Honest," as a school rejects a child simply because he has HIV.
This week, we hosted a renowned expert in HIV/AIDS care currently practicing at a hospital known for serving the poor and vulnerable in New York.
Thirty years after AIDS was first recognized by the CDC, Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains how far we've come to finding a cure.
Marianne Swanson closes her eyes, with smoky gray circles beneath her long lashes, as she counts the number of pills she takes every day for HIV: "One, two, three, four" in the morning, and three more at night.
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen on the status of the HIV/AIDS epidemic 30 years after the disease was discovered.
An additional $50 million is going toward treatment and medical facilities across the United States to help combat the AIDS virus, President Barack Obama announced Thursday during a Washington event marking World AIDS day.
CNN's Monita Rajpal speaks to designer Kenneth Cole who is raising awareness of AIDS.
It should be time to celebrate key milestones in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Recently, the United Nations announced that new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths fell to their lowest levels since the epidemic's peak. Today, 6.6 million people in low- and middle-income countries are on life-saving antiretroviral therapy, and people with HIV are living longer.
Eight years ago, I suffered a life-threatening complication after delivering my daughter. I was fortunate to have access to health care providers who managed the situation. The experience set me on a path to ensure that geography alone no longer determines whether or not childbirth is deadly for women and infants.
Something about the redness of the red ribbon continues to haunt me. I have had many dreams of it: one is a bonfire of ribbons. Red like blood, red like passion and anger, and red like love.
When an old widower from the central Chinese city of Wuhan went into hospital last summer because of a persistent high fever, he was diagnosed with the AIDS virus -- and made national news.
Dr. Valerie Delpech of the UK Health Protection Agency discusses the challenges of tackling HIV/AIDS.
Her blue-green eyes are as clear as her name would suggest, but her wants and needs are muddy as she walks with aching joints on the streets of Atlanta, trying to resist the urge to get high.
When the topic of HIV/AIDS enters a conversation, Earl Thompson hears that it's "just what gays get."
The stakes in the current budget battles are enormous. As the super-committee deliberates over how to reduce the deficit and other congressional committees struggle to cut spending, the fate of important programs hangs in the balance.
Gov. Rick Perry responds to claims made by Rep. Michele Bachmann about the HPV vaccine and mental retardation.
A federal government advisory committee voted Tuesday to recommend that males ages 11 to 21 be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus, which is blamed for thousands of cases of cancer among women and men.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry responded to Rep. Michele Bachmann's criticism of his short-lived 2007 executive order requiring girls to get a vaccination for human papillomavirus, during Thursday night's Republican presidential candidates' debate in Orlando. Bachmann said a drug company that produced the vaccination hired his former chief of staff to lobby him.
Rep. Michele Bachmann continued to criticized Texas Gov. Rick Perry's short-lived 2007 executive order requiring girls to get a vaccination for human papillomavirus, during Thursday night's Republican presidential candidates' debate in Orlando.
On Monday night at the CNN/Tea Party Republican Debate in Tampa, Florida, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas suggested that he couldn't be bought for a campaign contribution of $5,000. That raises the question: Is there a price at which Perry's loyalty is for sale?
Elizabeth Cohen explains the science behind the HPV vaccine, a topic that tripped up Rick Perry at the Tea Party debate.
During the recent Republican presidential debate, the issue of vaccinating girls against human papillomavirus, or HPV, came up several times, and some statements have been made that may concern parents of children scheduled to receive the vaccine.
Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann accuses Rick Perry of helping drug companies with the HPV vaccine.
CNN's Anderson Cooper looks into Rep. Michele Bachmann's suggestion that the HPV vaccine is dangerous.
A U.S. presidential commission has uncovered more details regarding human experiments conducted by American researchers in Guatemala in the 1940s in which the subjects were exposed to sexually transmitted diseases.
Michael Lee Howard, like many HIV-positive men, lives with a biohazard tattoo. He explains the significance of his "ink."
As he puts a straw in his fruit smoothie, Michael Lee Howard accidentally knocks over the cup, spilling the seaweed-colored liquid. "Well, it happens," he says. As he collects the smoothie overflow in the plastic lid, he exposes the tattoos on his wrists: a biohazard symbol on the right and a radiation symbol on the left.
Dr. Kamiar Alaei and his brother, Dr. Arash Alaei, have been called pioneers for their community-based approach to HIV and AIDS in Iran.
This week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the latest data on HIV in the United States, and it should give us all pause: 30 years into the epidemic, about 50,000 Americans still become infected with the virus each year.
India's health minister said Tuesday he was misquoted by the media in comments made at an AIDS conference that homosexuality is "unnatural" and a "disease" that was brought into India.
Asunta Wagura has emerged as a symbol of hope for those suffering with HIV and AIDS.
Two weeks after a routine medical test, Kenyan nursing student Asunta Wagura was summoned into her principal's office. There, a crowd of tutors, student leaders and her mother was waiting for her.
Through her Discover to Recover Centre, Patricia Sawo supports nearly 100 children who have been impacted by HIV.
HIV is a curse from God. That's what Patricia Sawo used to tell others as a church leader in Kitale, Kenya.
Tonya Rasberry dialed her husband's number, her composure shaken and her nerves numb.
Thirty years ago this month, the first report of a lethal disease that appeared to be selectively stalking gay men appeared in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The disease was AIDS; its cause, unknown. But it quickly became clear that the disease didn't threaten only gay men -- hemophiliacs and intravenous drug users, among others, soon joined the list.
A patient in his early 20s from our clinic will be buried later this week. His story is unfortunately all too common here in Atlanta. He had been in and out of treatment and care for several years as he fought homelessness and poverty. Despite recently returning to care, he would spend his final year battling AIDS-related lymphoma. This fight he did not win.
As we mark the 30th anniversary of the CDC's official reporting of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, it's surprising to see which nation has fared the best in response. It's not the United States; it's not China, India, or even Russia ... It's our good friend to the south, Brazil.
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen tells us about a woman who has survived with HIV for more than two decades.
In 1985, Edmund White had five or six published books behind him, a Swiss lover with him and the outcome of an HIV test ahead of him. When the results came in, White told his partner:
Thirty years ago, the CDC published its first mention of the HIV virus. In honor of that anniversary we take a look back at the most important moments in AIDS history.
Public attitudes about HIV and AIDS have changed dramatically since the first AIDS cases were reported 30 years ago.
CNN Hero Patricia Sawo is fighting the stigma of HIV and AIDS in her native Kenya.
Dylan Ryan and Danny Wylde knew each other online -- she's read his blog, he's seen her tweets -- before they met in person in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. A bit awkward, they made small talk, spending an hour or so getting to know each other.
Fifty-one years ago, Frank lost something he considers valuable. It was his foreskin, and Frank would like it back.
In the early 1980s, Elizabeth Taylor stepped up when others were afraid.
A group of Guatemalans who were infected with syphilis during U.S. human experiments and their heirs have filed a lawsuit against U.S. health officials.
HIV and AIDS hampers Lesotho's largest industry, textiles, where 40 percent of employees are HIV positive.
From 2009: Oral cancer has primarily been a man's disease, but more women are developing it and one factor is HPV.
Boys and young men who receive the human papillomavirus vaccine appear to be at reduced risk of contracting the virus and developing the genital warts associated with the common sexually transmitted disease, according to a large international study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
I want this article to break your heart. But it deals with a subject that has had a tough time of it in the break-everyone's-heart department. I'll bet that a number of you will be more angry at me than sympathetic by the time you finish reading it. If indeed you finish reading it.
I was infected with HIV in 1981, the year the disease was discovered.
A new report about the sex habits of young adults has turned up a worrisome discrepancy.
Researchers in Germany are reporting that they may have cured a man of HIV infection. If true, that would represent a scientific advance, but not necessarily a treatment advance, said researchers familiar with the work.
What is the deal with the HPV shot for teen boys? I have heard that is now being advised for males. I have a 15-year-old son.
As an African man, I have always felt a sense of responsibility, not only toward my country, but to those living on the continent who face the daily challenges that poverty and disease bring.
CNN's Zain Verjee asks Global Fund's executive director what the organization is doing to mark World AIDS Day.
As the global community commemorates World AIDS Day on Wednesday, international health organizations report both promising and sobering trends.
President Barack Obama on Wednesday requested a review of regulations on federally funded scientific studies to ensure they "adequately guard the health and well-being of participants."
New HIV infections have decreased by almost 20 percent in the past decade, and AIDS-related deaths are down by about one-sixth in five years, according to a new United Nations report released Tuesday.
Pope Benedict XVI's possible shift on condom use is a "significant and positive step forward," the head of the United Nations anti-AIDS campaign said, welcoming the potentially historic remark.
A leading HIV/AIDS expert says it is time for Africa to take a "brutally realistic" look at how it combats a disease that kills thousands of people on the continent each day.
A research project in Europe aims to let people self-diagnose sexually transmitted diseases like HIV and syphilis by using their mobile phones.
"It's the story of morning afters and sweet departures...and the stains we leave on each other" -- so begins the trailer for "Shuga," a cutting-edge MTV drama that's been a smash hit in Africa.
Meet the cast of MTV's Kenyan drama "Shuga" a three-part series about young people surrounded by the danger of HIV/AIDS.
China awaits a verdict in a precedent-setting discrimination case, with an HIV-positive man suing over being rejected for a teaching job, state media said.
At least two years ago, I received the first of three shots for the HPV vaccine. At the time, I was not told about the additional shots, and so never got them. Am I still able to do the vaccine, whether I start over again or just get the next two shots? Can I be tested for HPV to see if it's even worth it any more?
The United States is apologizing to Guatemala for research that purposely gave people sexually transmitted diseases.
The United States apologized Friday for a 1946-1948 research study in which people in Guatemala were intentionally infected with sexually transmitted diseases.
The Tuskegee syphilis experiment of the 20th century is often cited as the most famous example of unethical medical research. Now, evidence has emerged that it overlapped with a shorter study, also sponsored by U.S. government health agencies, in which human subjects were unknowingly being harmed by participating in an experiment.
National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on Monday will stress what's always been stressed: testing and prevention -- an approach promoted in a study showing 1 in 5 gay men have HIV and nearly half of them are unaware.
There's a liquid drug that women can get injected into a layer of muscle -- three separate times over a six-month period -- that can protect them from a kind of cancer. From a scientific perspective, that's amazing. In terms of public health, it's a breakthrough.
The king of Swaziland on Thursday distanced himself from a top adviser who has come under fire for saying the nation's AIDS epidemic is exaggerated to help benefit drug companies.
Singer-songwriter Annie Lennox proudly wears an "HIV Positive" black T-shirt, proclaiming her solidarity with the disease's victims, even though her status is HIV negative.
June 5, 1981. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its first warning about a rare pneumonia called pneumocystis circulating among a small group of young gay men.
For all the discord the Bush administration sowed on the world stage -- withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol and various arms agreements, holding foreign nationals indefinitely at Guantanamo with restricted rights, generally disdaining multilateralism -- the previous president was rightfully celebrated for his commitment to fighting the global AIDS epidemic.
With the promise of coming AIDS vaccines, former President Bill Clinton urged the world's nations Monday not to give up on funding to prevent a calamity.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton talks about the state of international funding for AIDS prevention and care.
The White House unveils its national strategy to reduce HIV/AIDS cases and increase access to care.
A new topical gel has shown promise in helping to protect women from HIV infection, according to a study being presented at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria.
Growing numbers of vulnerable children across Eastern Europe and Central Asia are at risk of dying from AIDS, with widespread drug use and the sex trade contributing to an "underground HIV epidemic," UNICEF warned on Monday.
President Obama's HIV/AIDS plan focuses on prevention, improving HIV treatment and narrowing health disparities.
As President Obama announced the first national HIV/AIDS strategy earlier this week, outside the gates of the White House, 3 percent of the District of Columbia's population continues to live with the disease.
The Obama administration aims to cut the annual number of new HIV infections in the United States by 25 percent over the next five years, according to a nationwide HIV/AIDS strategy unveiled Tuesday.
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