Pre-Pride Event @ Gay Men’s Space

posted: 08/08/2011

Monday 22nd August
5pm – 8pm

Let’s get this party started! It’s the run up to Manchester Pride so to mark the occasion we’ll be looking back at Prides gone by.

Do you have any memories or memorabilia you would like to share such as old photographs perhaps?

If so, bring them along to the pre-Pride event. We’ll also be having a quiz and a display of some of GHT’s archive of photographs and past campaigns.

The Gay Men’s Space is open to any gay or bisexual man living with HIV in the North West of England.

For further information contact;

Dunkan@ght.org.uk
0161 274 4499
 

Volunteers "step up" at George House Trust

posted: 26/07/2011

George House Trust is delighted to announce that it has received a grant from Awards for All to create an exciting new volunteer role, within our busy Services Team.

Advice Support Volunteers will be matched to individual staff members and will support with a range of tasks including researching information, making phone calls, completing financial applications for service users, contacting volunteers and supporting around monitoring and evaluation and administration.

This is fantastic opportunity for volunteers to develop skills and experience in health and social care and advice work.

The grant from Awards for all will enable three volunteers to undertake an NVQ Level 3 in Advice and Guidance, as part of their volunteering. It also provides vital funds to reimburse volunteer travel expenses and help with childcare costs for volunteers to attend the induction training for this role.

Deadline for applications for this volunteer role is Monday 1st August 2011.
If you are interested in this role, please take a note of the following dates. If we invite you to interview, interviews will take place on Thursday 4th August. There will also be training taking place on the 10th, 11th and 12th August.

Please email: volunteering@ght.org.uk for a copy of the role description and information about how to apply. Priorty will be given to applications from people living with HIV.

Laura Hamilton
Volunteer & Development Manager

Amanda Orr
Adviser 

Treatment Protects Partners

posted: 13/05/2011

There’s been a lot of publicity in the last day or so about HIV treatment helping stop the spread of HIV. 96% of HIV transmissions among couples are blocked by early treatment of the partner with HIV, was the headline result from a multinational study.

The results were so striking that the study was stopped three years early and everyone with HIV who was not already on HIV treatment was immediately offered HIV treatment.

The results show that treating people living with HIV is at least as good as using condoms to prevent HIV transmission.
 

Universal access to treatment goal
This treatment for prevention success offers an extra reason for pushing the world to achieve the internationally agreed World Health Organisation goal of universal access to HIV treatment, prevention and care. The goal was to reach universal access by 2010, but better late than never. Millennium Development Goal 6 includes halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.
 

Gay men too?
The study included hardly any gay couples (only 3% were gay), so the results don’t prove a 96% reduction in transmission in gay couples. Other evidence already strongly suggests gay men living with HIV on successful treatment are also much less likely to transmit HIV, but probably not by the same amount. (Anal sex is riskier than vaginal sex for passing on HIV, gay men tend to have more partners than heterosexual couples, and other sexually transmitted infections also raise the risks).
 

What they found
The study began in 2005 of 1763 couples where one partner has HIV and the other did not (97% were heterosexual couples). They wanted to find out whether HIV treatment prevented the uninfected partner from getting HIV. It was an international study at 13 sites in Botswana, Brazil, India, Kenya, Malawi, S Africa, Thailand, USA (only one couple were from the USA), and Zimbabwe.
 

They split the couples in half randomly and half the partners with HIV immediately started HIV treatment (with CD4 counts higher than normal for starting treatment at between 350 and 550). The other half of positive partners only started treatment when their CD4 count fell to 250 or less, or they developed an AIDS defining illness.
 

• 39 (2.2%) of the negative partners out of 1763 got HIV
• Up to 11 of the 39 got HIV from someone else, not their partner in the study
• 28 (1.5%) got HIV from their partner in the study, and all but one of those were infected by positive partners who were in the delayed treatment half of the study.

That result was so stark they stopped the study and offered immediate treatment to everyone with HIV not already on treatment because the prevention effect of early treatment was so clear. Early treatment also prevented partners from getting tuberculosis (TB) with only 3 of the people treated early getting TB, compared with 17 of those treated after their CD4 count fell below 250. There were slightly more deaths among the deferred treatment group, but the difference was not statistically significant.
 

You can read the report from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases here  and their Q&A page about the study here
 

Aidsmap’s report

New HIV Treatments Directory

posted: 11/05/2011

The latest version of NAM’s excellent HIV Treatments Directory is now available – either free online or as a paid for book, at just under £65.
This tells you all you (and the HIV clinic) ever need to know about HIV treatment.

Simpler Treatments Information

For many people with HIV this is far more than you need and there are simpler leaflets for day to day use.

If what you want is easy answers we suggest you find what you need in

• The Basics leaflets

And for a bit more detail try the

• The Booklets

And for even more information try the

• Treatments Topics pages

Treatments Directory

The Treatments Directory itself has almost 600 pages of detailed information on

• Introduction to HIV and AIDS
• The immune system and HIV
• Monitoring the immune system
• Genetics and HIV treatment
• Ways of attacking HIV
• Starting HIV treatment
• Changing HIV treatment
• Drug resistance
• Side-effects
• Adherence
• Drug interactions and pharmacokinetics
• Women's health issues
• Prevention of mother-to-child transmission
• HIV treatment in children
• Treatment guidelines
• A to Z of antiretroviral drugs
• A to Z of investigational drugs – new drugs in the pipeline
• A to Z of other drugs
• A to Z of illnesses
• A to Z of symptoms
• A to Z of tests

Treatments Directory 2011
 

DLA to PIP Benefit Plans

posted: 10/05/2011

The benefit called Disability Living Allowance (DLA) will be replaced from 2013 - 14 with a new benefit, Personal Independence Payment (PIP). The government has just published their detailed proposals for how this new benefit will be assessed and asks for public comments.

Disability Living Allowance some people with HIV now recieve comes in two flavours - the care component (with 3 rates of payment), and the mobility component (with 2 rates of payment). The top rate of the mobility component is converted by many people into a leased car from Motability.
 

The government intends to cut 20% from the benefits bill when they make the change from DLA to PIP, so the rules for Personal Independence Payment are tougher than the DLA rules, so PIP will go to people ‘with the greatest need’. This means some people will no longer get the benefit or will get less than now.
 

Most people get DLA after simply filling in a claim form. Everyone getting PIP will face a medical assessment as well as filling in a claim form.

Most people will want something simple to read and understand. The Disability Alliance has a useful factsheet page which is kept updated.

The official explanation and consultation documents

Comments by 6 June

The deadline for public comments on these proposals is 6 June. Leading HIV organisations will be making comments on these proposals.