Magic Johnson: 20th Anniversary Of HIV Announcement

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By: Nsenga Burton

Today marks the 20th anniversary of an announcement that literally rocked the sports community -- the announcement that legendary basketball player Earvin "Magic" Johnson was retiring, having contracted the H.I.V. virus. Little was known about the virus at the time, so much so that Johnson had to be reminded that he had HIV., not full-blown AIDS before making the announcement. On November 7, 1991, the world stopped for a moment when learning that the man with the magic touch and infectious smile was now facing what was believed at the time to have been a certain death.

The announcement came just after Johnson had married his longtime girlfriend Earleatha "Cookie" Kelly in September of that same year. After a routine physical examination, the seemingly invincible point guard tested positive for HIV. CONTINUE....

Related articles

• Video: 20 Years Ago Today, Magic Johnson Announced He Has HIV and Is Retiring (laist.com)
• The Magic Effect: 20 Years After Magic Johnson's HIV Announcement (hellobeautiful.com)
• Magic Johnson, 20 Years with HIV (socyberty.com)

A Harsh Life In Kibera, Kenya

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by Elisa Morgan, ONEMoms in Kenya

I had to watch each step very carefully. The stench was indescribable. I ducked under clotheslines and around dogs everywhere. Children called out around me, “Hello! How are you?” They reached out and touched me. I smiled and called back, “Hello!” while jumping over muck of who knows what. All around me: rows and rows and rows of rooftops and alleys and chickens and women cooking and men loitering and tables of piled vegetables and dried smelly fish.

Kibera. The largest slum in Africa. Home to around one million people. Poverty like you can’t imagine. Filth you wouldn’t believe. HIV/AIDS and malaria and TB and you name it. Here 1 in 3 babies die before their first year and one in 6 moms. Malaria is rampant. CONTINUE....

WORLD AIDS DAY

Global AIDS Crisis Overblown? Some Experts Dare to Say It Is

By: Maria Cheng

LONDON - As World AIDS Day is marked on Monday, some experts are growing more outspoken in complaining that AIDS is eating up funding at the expense of more pressing health needs.

They argue that the world has entered a post-AIDS era in which the disease's spread has largely been curbed in much of the world, Africa excepted.

"AIDS is a terrible humanitarian tragedy, but it's just one of many terrible humanitarian tragedies," said Jeremy Shiffman, who studies health spending at Syracuse University.

Roger England of Health Systems Workshop, a think tank based in the Caribbean island of Grenada, goes further. He argues that UNAIDS, the U.N. agency leading the fight against the disease, has outlived its purpose and should be disbanded.

"The global HIV industry is too big and out of control. We have created a monster with too many vested interests and reputations at stake, ... too many relatively well paid HIV staff in affected countries, and too many rock stars with AIDS support as a fashion accessory," he wrote in the British Medical Journal in May.

Paul de Lay, a director at UNAIDS, disagrees. It's valid to question AIDS' place in the world's priorities, he says, but insists the turnaround is very recent and it would be wrong to think the epidemic is under control.

"We have an epidemic that has caused between 55 million and 60 million infections," de Lay said. "To suddenly pull the rug out from underneath that would be disastrous."

Global AIDS Crisis Overblown?....

Commentary: Bush’s Support for African AIDS Relief Could Be the Bright Spot in an Otherwise Dark Legacy

By: Judge Greg Mathis






Congress, after some hesitation from its conservative members, finally passed legislation that would provide $48 billion to treat AIDS and other diseases in Africa and key Third World nations over the next five years.

Passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year, the bill extends and more than triples spending for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The move is seen by many as an important step in not only stopping the spread of the AIDS virus in poor nations, but in also improving this country’s badly damaged international image, tarnished by years of poor foreign policies.

The African Medical and Research Foundation, an international health organization located in Kenya, reports that there will be approximately 18 million AIDS orphans in Africa by 2010. The disease, which is 100 percent preventable, has ravished the continent, killing more than 35 million since the disease was first discovered. Currently, PEPFAR funds treatment for nearly 1.5 million people in Africa and in Third World nations, preventing the spread of new infections and providing care for AIDS orphans.

COMMENTARY....

CDC: It’s National HIV Testing Day -- Do You Know Your Status and Your Partner’s Too?

By: Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its partners are encouraging Americans -- particularly black Americans -- to use Friday, National HIV Testing Day, to schedule an appointment and/or be tested for HIV.

“Knowing your HIV status empowers you to help prevent the spread of the disease,” Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the Centers’ National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, said in a statement. “If you are infected, you can take steps to protect your health and that of your partners as well as seek life-extending medical treatment. People who learn they are not infected can take steps to help ensure they remain uninfected.”

“There are about 250,000 people nationwide who do not know they are HIV-positive, and about half the people living with HIV are African-American,” Fenton told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Organizers around the country for National HIV Testing Day have distributed information about HIV/AIDS, testing sites and have targeted black and Latino populations, which are most at risk of contracting the virus, Fenton said.

CDC: It’s National HIV Testing Day -- Do You Know Your Status and Your Partner’s Too?....

UPI VIDEO NEWS 01.11.08

John Kerry endorses Obama for president.

Senator John Kerry is endorsing Senator Barack Obama for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Kerry made the announcement yesterday, saying the Illinois senator will bring the country together. The endorsement may be seen as a blow to former Senator John Edwards who's running against Obama for the White House. Edwards was Kerry's running mate in the 2004 election when Kerry was the Democratic presidential candidate.

Democrat Dennis Kucinich is calling for a recount of the New Hampshire primary. The Ohio congressman says he's concerned about the integrity of Tuesday's results after reports and allegations have surfaced questioning its credibility. Kucinich won less than 2 percent of the vote. In a letter yesterday, he said he doesn't expect significant changes in his vote total but wants assurance that all of the voters had all of their votes counted.

The Israeli government says it endorses President Bush's call for a speedy peace agreement with Palestine. However, the government cautioned that it doesn't see the final establishment of a Palestinian state this year. Bush visited the region this week in an attempt to move the process ahead. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the country hopes for a historic agreement in 2008 that would outline the framework of a future Palestinian state.

And scientists say they've identified more than 200 proteins in the human body that help the AIDS virus multiply and spread. That discovery gives researchers many more possibilities for developing new drugs to combat the disease. Scientists say HIV, which is the virus that causes AIDS, depends on proteins in the body to fuel its growth.

COOKIE JOHNSON'S 'I STAND WITH MAGIC

In conjunction with World AIDS Day, Cookie Johnson, the wife of Earvin "Magic" Johnson, and Abbott brought the "I Stand With Magic" program to Los Angeles to educate the African-American community, specifically women, on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

The program aims to reduce new HIV infections among African Americans by half over five years.

Cookie joins the "I Stand With Magic" program, which has a new emphasis: to urge women to get informed, tested and treated for HIV/AIDS and provide tools for prevention and testing.

Los Angeles is part of a three-city tour of "I Stand With Magic" events around World AIDS Day. HIV testing and celebrity concerts also are being held in Chicago and New York City to highlight the first-year results of the campaign and renewed efforts to reach African-American and other minority women.

African Americans account for approximately half of the nearly 500,000 Americans estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS and have represented nearly 40 percent of all deaths among people with AIDS in the United States.