HIV and Disability Law

A new report authored by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) shows that the nation’s overall funding for HIV prevention programs has been relatively flat in recent years while an estimated 56,000 people continue to become infected each year in the U.S.
Based on a survey of [...]

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today awarded $23.6 million to programs in 17 states to provide housing and related support services to more than 2,700 low-income people with HIV/AIDS and their families.
The grants are part of HUD’s Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) program, which is distributing about $232 million total [...]

From aidsmeds.com today:
“Due to a number of recent studies showing detrimental effects of uncontrolled HIV replication—even at fairly high CD4 cell counts—international HIV treatment guidelines may begin recommending that people start ARV therapy when their CD4 counts drop below 500. The current recommendation is to start treatment at 350.”
If HIV treatment guidelines were updated to [...]

From AIDSmeds:
Starting early HIV therapy at the same time as hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment—in people simultaneously infected with both HIV and HCV—yields universally good HCV treatment responses, according to a study published in the August 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.
HIV and HCV can be transmitted at the same time, and by the same [...]

From Medscape Medical News:
Liver Transplant Outcomes: HIV-Positive Patients Similar to General Population
July 17, 2009 (New York, New York) — HIV-positive patients who undergo cadaveric liver transplantation have graft and survival rates equal to those of HIV-negative patients, but those co-infected with hepatitis C virus or who are HCV positive alone have suboptimal outcomes, according to [...]

The New York Daily News on Friday examined the federal government’s recent
actions to remove HIV from the list of diseases that can bar foreign residents
from entry into the U.S. According to the Daily News,
“The current regulations
took effect in 1987, at the height of the worldwide AIDS scare,” but, “[
now, with the backing of the Obama [...]

Twenty-six people representing a coalition of five HIV/AIDS groups from
Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York were arrested on Thursday for
unlawfully demonstrating in the Capitol rotunda, the AP/Washington Post report.
According to Politico, the protestors were demanding “congressional
action on three AIDS priorities: the end of the federal ban on syringe
exchange, increased housing funding for [people living [...]

City council members and health officials in Washington, D.C., are asking
“health care providers to make HIV testing part of routine patient treatment,”
the Washington Examiner reports. According to the Examiner, “Health officials
want all medical providers in the city to implement an ‘opt-out’ policy in
which patients would be tested automatically for HIV unless they choose to
refuse the [...]

From today’s New York Daily News, the president gets a up-close-and- personal story about the dysfunction of the Social Secuirty claim process for terminally ill people: “President Obama played the comforter-in-chief Wednesday when a woman with kidney cancer, no insurance and little hope went looking for help at his health care summit.
“Obama gave an [...]

There is a link to the July 1, 2009 edition of the MEDICAID WATCH under the “what’s new” tab here:
The MEDICAID WATCH not only covers state-level Medicaid eligibility and access news; it also reports on other state health assistance programs. Recent state developments and proposals that expand access and eligibility appear in this [...]