HIV TRANSMISSION RISK BY CDC

American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has published a list of HIV transmission risks.

NOTE THAT MEDICATION LOWERS THE RISK OF TRANSMISSION MORE THAN USE OF CONDOMS!






http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/law/transmission.htm

"The risk of getting HIV varies widely, depending on the type of exposure. Transmission happens most often during sexual or drug-using activity, and the chance of getting HIV varies for each act. The table lists the risk of transmission for various exposures.

Different factors can increase or decrease transmission risk. For example, taking antiretroviral therapy (i.e., medicines for HIV infection) can reduce the risk of an HIV-infected person transmitting the infection to another by as much as 96%1. Consistent use of condoms reduces the risk of getting or transmitting HIV by about 80%2. Conversely, having a sexually transmitted infection or a high level of HIV virus in the blood (which happens in early and late-stage infection) may increase transmission risk.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reviewing the most recent science and constructing mathematical models to update transmission risk."

THE NEW NORWEGIAN "PATIENT NETWORK"

Louis Gay and Kim Fangen

- The first hiv organization for and by HIV positive people since 1999. http://pasientraadet.no/
Since The Organization Pluss was abolished in 1999, we lost the only broad, national organization by and for people living with HIV in Norway.
- This huge loss in the Norwegian HIV-work field all these years, we have now sealed, says Kim Fangen and Louis Gay, chairman and deputy chairman of the Patient Network board of directors.

By Tom Ovlien.
(translated by Louis Gay)


På norsk her:
http://louisgay72.blogspot.no/p/pasientradet-lansert-under-aids2012.html

The Patient Network for HIV was formalized this summer and is now officially registered with a board of directors and provisional constitution as an organization by and for people with HIV.
Kim Fangen is chairman and Louis Gay is deputy chairman until the first annual general meeting is held and a new board elected.
- With this, we have finally managed to close a huge gap that occurred after the Norwegian HIV organization Pluss was closed in 1999, Kim Fangen says.
- With it disappeared the most important voices of HIV positive with different backgrounds like: women, heterosexuals, immigrants and men who have sex with men - had to the government and society in Norway.

So good to meet Your own peers.
Kim says that one of the first things that struck him when he was diagnosed nearly ten years ago was how alone he was as HIV positive.
- However after a year and a half after I came out as HIV positive I meet a HIV positive from Australia who said that they had their own organization there.
Soon after I went visiting Australia. It was amazing. It felt liberating. It was so good to meet Your own peers.
That's why we want to create this new organization, which we now call the Patient Network.

There Is almost none HIV positive in the other organizations nor on the boards of directors in these organizations.
- So this is primarily an organization for the social needs of HIV positive to have a meeting place?
- No, says Kim and Louis. - This is both HIV politics and a place to meet other people with HIV, points both of them out.
- I've only been involved in the HIV work for barely seven months and only been HIV positive since 2010, says Louis.
- One of the things I discovered when I meet the field of HIV organizations during this time is that there was almost no HIV positive people in these organizations.
I meet many well-meaning, wise and ambitious HIV negative who would like to do positive things, but unfortunately it is often slightly deficient, based on lack of knowledge and at worst directly hollow.
For example, talk about stigma, HIV negative simply don´t understand what this is and what it means for us living with HIV.
You must feel it in your body, to understand this.
I felt I have spent much time and effort trying to raise awareness among HIV negative, so they don't cause us more stigma, when they think they are helping us, he says.

Cooperation
Kim tells that the most important for the Patient Network right now is to start to reach as many as possible.
We need to initiate communication. We need to develop cooperation with hospitals, infection medical personnel, medical students, now working in the field.
All HIV positive groups must be included: immigrants, women, transsexuals and men who have sex with men.
Already there have been initiated sessions and mastering courses in some departments, a work that must be monitored at all hospitals and clinics dealing with this challenges.

Norway must become more results-oriented within the hiv field nationally.
- What do you think must be added to the new policy in the HIV field?
- Internationally, there is plenty of resources, important networks that we have in the Patient Network, is a little ignored in Norway.
We are not so good at listening to others' experiences or invite them here to learn, despite the fact that in Norway doesn't have a lot to brag about in HIV field in the past ten years or more.
We are not exactly the smartest boy in class either on prevention, non-discrimination or organization.
We must become more result-oriented at home, see what we actually can achieve in order to prevent both infection and stigmatization.
Louis Gay says he looks at the creation of a secure framework for engagement as the key to creating change.
- We must have safe venues for HIV so that we can participate in public debate ourself as positive people to better the current situation.

General Risk or harmless?
- There are too many units and too many double messages.
It must be improved so that politicians don´t speak with one voice, our doctors with another, and judges and lawyers with a third.
Science and medicine say that we as well treated patients due to medication are harmless in the context of infection, the lawyers on the other hand that we are a public danger to society.
Kim adds that people living with HIV today are an untapped resource in the prevention and other purposes.
- Government, communities and society need our voices, completely unfiltered, says the two.

AIDS2012 IN WASHINGTON IS OVER

Nick Rhodes, congresswomen Barbara Lee and me

I need to express my gratitude to those who made it possible for me to attend the AIDS2012 in Washington.

It's difficult to realize how much came out of it, this close to the conference? But what I do know is that a group of 2 Norwegian colleagues and me, managed to launch a new organisation for people living with HIV, by people living with HIV.

http://pasientraadet.no/




Hopefully this will be an important contribution to the work against stigma, lack of knowledge and public discrimination as criminalization.

I also hope that my presence at the conference, the interviews I did for the Americans and the panel debate I attended against criminalization, all together made a difference?

Thank you Sean Strub and the http://seroproject.com/ for inviting me. Without you it would never have happened!

Thank you Edwin J. Bernard at http://www.hivjustice.net/ for putting me up at the panel, letting me share my story and experiences. You have no idea how much it means to me and my fight in Norway.

Thank you Alex Garner (Editor at Large, Positive Frontiers) at Frontiers Media LLC http://www.frontiersla.com/ for providing me the access to the conference as a media representative. Without you I would never have seen the inside of that convention center.

And most of all!

Thank you Christopher Cannon (Manager, Health Care Access) at National Alliance of State & territorial AIDS Directors http://www.nastad.org/

You took me in to your home in Washington for free, so I could attend this conference. I will not forget!

Klassekampen Lørdag 30. juni / søndag 1. juli 2012. Les debattinnlegget her:

http://louisgay72.blogspot.no/p/debattinnlegg-i-klassekampen-30612.html

Important survey about people with or affected by HIV concerning their attitudes about criminalization of HIV non-disclosure, potential exposure or transmission.

Take your time to answer it! It makes you think about who you are regarding these questions.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HIVandtheCriminalLaw

Thank you for the invitation:-)

Today I posted this new entry at american POZ.

http://blogs.poz.com/louisgay/

"A clarification before arriving at AIDS 2012 in Washington DC

I am invited to AIDS 2012 in Washington DC this summer by the american organisation SERO http://www.seroproject.com and the international HIV Justice Network http://vimeo.com/hivjustice. I will participate in debates and workshops surrounding HIV and media and HIV criminalisation. Before I arrive I need to clarify a few things.

While a lot of the HIV-criminalisation discussions in US is about disclosure, this is not the case in Norway.

The law here does not require HIV-positive people to disclose. Even though the court has stated that people with HIV should disclose their status prior to sex, it doesn't give you any protection against prosecution and the question of guilt in a trial. The question of guilt is only connected to whether you have (knowing or neglecting the probability of being HIV positive) put someone at risk of infection or actually infected them.

All in all there is a lot of misunderstandings and confusion around this in Norway. Even the organisations and politicians are sometimes making the wrong assumptions about this. The consequences are bad for every one. A lot of HIV-negative people believe that those with HIV are legally obligated to disclose and therefore feel protected, while people with HIV are told that they are not obligated to disclose their status, making the others upset and sometimes angry if they find out.

In my case my indictment is not about nondisclosure. This has nothing to do with the question of whether I'm guilty or not. It will on the other hand be an issue if I am convicted in relation to how they will sentence me.

The law in Norway puts all responsibility on the one with HIV. My case is a very good example of the Norwegian and Nordic way of thinking. The law is to protect the society from communicable diseases, like HIV. Even if we want to (and I tried once with my former HIV negative partner) a person can not legally free anyone with HIV from the threats of prosecution by the state, even if they wanted to by signing papers/contracts etc. So disclosing gives us no protection from the law.

The prosecutor in my case find it irrelevant to this indictment that the complainant had HIV prior to the sex we had. The law opens to prosecute any HIV-positive conducting in sex which they find to be a risk of infection. Whether that is another HIV-positive or it was consensual sex with disclosure has nothing to do with the law. Because the law is there to protect the society not the individual.

The complainant in my case is not my enemy. He wanted to withdraw his charge already in October last year (in writing and given to the police). In my country you can not withdraw your charges in HIV cases if you once pushed that button. Because as a complainant you are just a witness to the state of Norway (represented by the prosecutor) which is my opponent in the upcoming trial.

This is part of why Norway and some of the Nordic countries are ranked among the worst in the world (by UNAIDS) when it comes to criminalize HIV-positive people?

Watch the newly published interview Sean Strub and SERO did with me during the UNAIDS conference in Oslo, February 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1C4zpdHiY"