[News] Why we still need to worry about AIDS

Why we still need to worry about AIDS

By The Doctors, for USA WEEKEND

 

Thirty years ago, a brief report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described five young men with a rare form of pneumonia usually seen in people with severely depressed immune systems — the men were previously healthy, the report noted; they were also "all active homosexuals." Experts later learned those were the first documented cases of AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome — a disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and one that has since killed more than 33 million people worldwide.

Three decades later, there's no cure for AIDS and no HIV vaccine, and though prevention efforts have been effective, about 50,000 Americans still are infected every year, recent estimates show. Gay men still account for the most new cases, and infections among young, African-American gay and bisexual men are rising. To be safe, people should:
Reduce risky behaviors.
Having multiple sex partners and not using condoms are two of the most common ways HIV is transmitted. At best, abstain from sexual activity until you're in a long-term, mutually monogamous relationship with an uninfected partner. Otherwise, limit your number of sexual partners (the fewer you have, the less likely you'll encounter someone with HIV) and use latex condoms every time ("natural" or lambskin versions don't provide sufficient protection).
Get tested.
The CDC estimates that 20% of people with HIV in the United States don't know they're infected. Everyone ages 13 to 64 should be tested at least once; if you are at increased risk for HIV, get tested at least once a year.
Seek treatment.
If you think you were exposed to HIV, see your doctor immediately — sometimes HIV medications can prevent infection if they are started quickly.

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‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1’ takes top box-office spot; epilepsy group’s seizure warning doesn’t cause dent 

Childbirth scene's strobe light effect cited as cause of attacks

Monday, December 5 2011, 11:08 AM
Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1’
Handout
Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1.’

A scare over seizures couldn’t come between the love shared by Bella, Edward and movie audiences this weekend.
“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1” took the top spot at the box office for the third weekend in a row in spite of a nationwide warning to moviegoers who suffer from epilepsy that the movie’s infamous birth scene may spark seizures.
The movie pulled in $16.9 million to bring its total domestic box-office haul to $247.3 million.
To date there have been at least nine known cases of seizures at theaters showing the film — believed to have been caused by flashing white lights during that sequence, ABC News reported last week.
Flashing lights can trigger the firing of neurons in the brains of those who are susceptible.
Multiplexes across the country — including the AMC Loews Village 7 in Manhattan — put up warning signs alerting ticket-buyers that the scene could cause seizures.
Family films dominated the rest of the list of top earners, with “The Muppets” finishing in second place with $11.2 million, bringing its total to $56.1 million. “Hugo,” “Arthur Christmas” and “Happy Feet Two” rounded out the top five. The sex addiction film “Shame” — starring Michael Fassbender, all of Michael Fassbender — finished in a healthy sixth place, despite an NC-17 rating and showing in just 10 locations.

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[News] As troops, police patrol Moscow, Putin tries to put positive spin on party's election result


As troops, police patrol Moscow, Putin tries to put positive spin on party's election result
  • Article by: MANSUR MIROVALEV , Associated Press 
MOSCOW - Thousands of police and Interior Ministry troops patrolled central Moscow on Tuesday, an apparent attempt to deter any further protests a day after a rally against vote fraud and corruption caught Russian authorities by surprise.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, called his party's reduced number of seats in Sunday's parliamentary election an "inevitable" result of voters always being dissatisfied with the party in power. Putin also dismissed allegations of corruption among his United Russia party members, calling it a "cliche" that the party had to fight.
In neighboring Lithuania, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton again criticized the Russian election and urged that widespread reports of voting fraud be investigated.
United Russia party won slightly less than 50 percent of Sunday's vote, according to nearly complete preliminary results. Although that gives the party an absolute majority in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, it is a significant drop from the 2007 election when the party got a two-thirds majority, enough to change the constitution unchallenged.
Even that smaller majority is seen as questionable in the wake of numerous reports of voting fraud to inflate United Russia's total. Russian officials, however, have denied any significant vote violations.
Still, the election results reflected public fatigue with Putin's authoritarian streak and with official corruption in Russia, signaling that his return to the presidency in next March's election may not be as trouble-free as he expected.
Russia's beleaguered opposition has been energized by the vote. Late Monday, thousands marched in Moscow chanting "Russia without Putin!"
On Tuesday evening, hundreds of police cordoned off Triumphal Square, adjacent to the capital's main boulevard, after reports that anti-Putin demonstrators would try to gather there. Hundreds of young men, some wearing emblems of the Young Guards, United Russia's youth wing, also were seen at the square.
Police also cordoned off a monument to the 1905 Revolution, which also has been the site of demonstrations.
Police detained about 300 protesters in Moscow on Monday and 120 participants in a similar rally in St. Petersburg. One of the leaders, Ilya Yashin, who was among those arrested, was sentenced to 15 days in jail Tuesday for disobeying police.
Security forces already had been beefed up in the capital ahead of the election. Moscow police said 51,500 Interior Ministry forces were involved and it was all part of increased security for the election period.
Putin's comments Tuesday appeared aimed at saving face and discouraging the opposition from seeing United Russia as vulnerable.
"Yes, there were losses, but they were inevitable," Putin said. "They are inevitable for any political force, particularly for the one which has been carrying the burden of responsibility for the situation in the country."
Putin also addressed the popular characterization of United Russia as "the party of crooks and thieves," saying corruption was a widespread problem not limited to a single party.
"They say that the ruling party is associated with theft, with corruption, but it's a cliche related not to a certain political force, it's a cliche related to power," he said during a meeting with provincial officials.
"What's important, however, is how the ruling government is fighting these negative things," he said.
Clinton criticized the Russian vote for a second straight day, saying Tuesday that "Russian voters deserve a full investigation of electoral fraud and manipulation."
Konstantin Kosachev, a senior United Russia member, described Clinton's statement as "one of the darkest pages in the Russian-U.S. relations" and warned Washington against supporting the opposition.
Russia's only independent election monitoring group, Golos, which is funded by U.S. and European grants, came under heavy official pressure ahead of Sunday's vote after Putin likened Russian recipients of foreign support to Judas. Golos' website was incapacitated by hackers on election day, and its director Lilya Shibanova and her deputy had their cell phone numbers, email and social media accounts hacked.
The Russian election even drew criticism from one of Putin's predecessors.
"There is no real democracy here and there won't be any, if the government is afraid of the people," former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said on Ekho Moskvy radio.
____
Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report.

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