Showing posts with label HIV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HIV. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

What's wrong with this article?

The Associated Press: Circumcision doesn't protect gays from AIDS virus

By MIKE STOBBE (AP) – 20 hours ago

ATLANTA — Circumcision, which has helped prevent AIDS among heterosexual men in Africa, doesn't help protect gay men from the virus, according to the largest U.S. study to look at the question.

The research, presented at a conference Tuesday, is expected to influence the government's first guidance on circumcision.

Circumcision "is not considered beneficial" in stopping the spread of HIV through gay sex, said Dr. Peter Kilmarx, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Could it be that the dumb ass reporter has equated anal sex with gay sex and hetero sex with vaginal sex? Maybe? Possibly? Few things irritate me more than those terms because they are incredibly narrow minded and imprecise. What about oral sex? Is that gay or hetero? Please do tell, Mr. Stobbe. I'd love to know. Oh wait, lemme guess...that's lesbian sex? I need to borrow someone's Great American Challenge so I can beat this clueless dope over the head with it until he gains some semblance of intelligence about human sexuality.

Let me be a postmodern sexgeek here and break it down for you. Straight people have anal sex, gay men have other kinds of sex besides anal sex. Lesbians have anal sex too (we'll discuss the niceties of strap ons some other time). Any man who has unprotected, insertive anal/penile sex with someone, regardless of their gender, who has HIV, is at risk even if he is circumcised. Anyone who has receptive anal/penile sex with a man who has HIV is also at incredible amounts of risk regardless of circumcision. In other words folks, cut or uncut, using a condom is still your best bet for preventiing infection with HIV and other STD's.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

For the record...

I am all in favor of microbicides. Anything that will help stop the spread of HIV is fine by me (with ethical considerations a given here of course), however, I would really love it if these people writing about them would stop acting like African women are the only women in the world who are not empowered to require condom use by their partners! I have met far too many American women with the same issue AND I have met African women who were quite self efficacious and required condom use from their partners. Let's try fighting HIV AND racism, KTHNXBAI!



This moment of fail brought to you by the alertness of Bianca Laureano.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

A Reason For Hope?

Thursday, August 6, 2009

"Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have decoded the entire HIV genome, opening the door to understanding how viruses infect humans – knowledge that could lead to new antiviral drugs," the Triangle Business Journal reports. The building block of HIV is a single stranded RNA, not a double stranded DNA (Gallagher, 8/6). In the Nature study, published Thursday, the team of researchers describe how their newly developed "chemical method called SHAPE ... make[s] an image not only of the RNA's nucleotides, but of the shapes and folds of the RNA strands," Reuters writes (Fox, 8/5). The approach allowed researchers to capture a more complete picture of the HIV RNA genome than previously identified, revealing "that the RNA structures influence multiple steps in HIV's infection cycle," HealthDay News/U.S. News & World Report writes (8/5). According to the team of researchers, the technique could lead to new treatments for HIV as well as "for other viruses such as influenza and the bugs that cause the common cold," Reuters writes (8/5).


I would love to think that this will aid researchers in finding a vaccine or a cure. Only time will tell.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Postmodern Geek's Guide to Sex #37: The POTUS is Rocking My Sexgeek Socks

Download the MP3 here!

Hi folks! I"m back after a rather long holiday hiatus. I chat a bit about some of the exciting policy decisions that have come out of our new President's policy decisions as well as throw in some random sexgeekiness that has struck my fancy recently.

Global Gag Rule: LIFTED!
UNFPA Funding: RESTORED!


I mention NARAL's Blog for Choice Day and the entry I made on that day which I was then happy to see start coming true the next day as mentioned above. :-)

Also, Condoms do help protect against HPV, Tonsils are not friendly to HIV and in Weird Sex News: Blow Up Doll Bandit.


Email: postmodern.sexgeek@gmail.com


Twitter: http://twitter.com/PMSexgeek


Feed URL: http://marieb.libsyn.com/rss

Intro and Outro music is "We Carry On" by Portishead

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

The Postmodern Geek's Guide to Sex Show #29: I'm BAAAACK!!!!

That's right sexgeeks! I'm back. Today's podcast is a random hodge podge of things and is basically just me coming back and saying hello and letting you know what's up in my world. Some of the things I discuss are:


Intro and Outro music is Temple of Love by Enigma




~*~*~*To download the podcast directly, click HERE~*~*~*