Obama Makes Giant Steps towards a Full Health Care Team

Health and the 44th Presidential Administration (Part III). In three nearly back-to-back announcements, President Obama is working prodigiously to fill his leadership roster for health care. Of course, the most newsworthy was his selection of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary-designate of the Department of Health and Human Services. The White House Office of Health Reform, however will be lead by Nancy Ann DeParle who headed up the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services during the Clinton administration.

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HIV/AIDS, An Epidemic among Blacks in America

Blacks experienced a disproportionate number of HIV infections. Forty-six percent of new HIV infections occurred in blacks, even though blacks comprise only 12% of the US population. The majority (65%) of new infections in blacks occurred in men. Among black men, 63% of new infections occurred through male-to-male sexual contact. Thirty five percent of new infections in blacks occurred in women. Of those, eighty-three percent of the infections occurred through high-risk heterosexual contact. The disparity in new infections was especially pronounced among women, with the incidence rate in black women being almost 15 times higher than that of white women.

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Has the Time Come for Mandatory HIV/AIDS Testing

December began with the 20th annual observance of World AIDS Day. Both the NY Times and the Washington Post ran articles discussing the potential benefits of mandatory testing in curbing the incidence (new cases) and prevalence (all existing cases) of the disease. The Washington Post article focused on implementing such a policy in the United [...]

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First Fridays in First Person: Love & Diane

On the first Friday of each month, the Health Advocate and enBloom will feature the personal story of an individual’s trials and triumph living with disease or in advocacy for others living with disease. This is an effort, to place you, the patient and health consumer back in the center of what has become an ever increasingly complex and sometimes impossible to navigate health care system.

During a trip to New York City in the spring of 2003, a dear friend and I caught a new and much heralded independent film, a documentary actually at the Film Forum. We were not prepared for the gripping and powerful story that we saw. It was entitled Love & Diane. So our premier post is the life experience of HIV+ teen mom, Love Hinson. A synopsis from the film’s website follows:

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1988~2008: 20 Years of World AIDS Day Observance

AIDS has orphaned a generation of children on the African continent.

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