Individuals with HIV/AIDS, as well as other vulnerable people, will have an easier time accessing health care in the coming months as a result of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the national health reform law.
But linking them with coverage will be a challenge.
“Essentially, people just don’t know the Illinois Health Insurance Marketplace is here,” quipped...
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A recent arrest under an antiquated Illinois HIV criminalization law challenges how media handle sensitive information when stigma and livelihood are at stake.
The facts of this case are limited:
The individual who filed the complaint was “a 24-year-old man,” according to a press release from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
The alleged aggressor,...
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The phrase “patient-centered medical home” has become a buzz word in the field of healthcare, creating competing ideas about what it means.
Some providers assume that comprehensive medical services under one roof constitutes a patient-center medical home (PCMH), while others focus more on patients’ requests without the infrastructure to support this model of care....
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For disadvantaged people with HIV, the road to health and recovery can be a slow and difficult process. For those who persevere—aided by their own determination and accessible, available vital services—a better future awaits.
Consider the path of Carlos (not his real name). He suffered homelessness, drug addiction and alcoholism. To treat his mental and physical illnesses,...
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ATLANTA, GA - The stories we tell ourselves about the world we live in matter. While we celebrate this week’s story of an HIV-miracle cure, let’s not forget the story of injustice that made it possible.
There have been a lot of stories about this week’s “ Mississippi Miracle ”—the apparent functional cure of a two-year-old girl who was born...
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John is a 26-year-old black man on Chicago’s West Side.
He’s HIV-positive.
And his name’s not really John. He wouldn’t tell me his real name, which makes sense, as he hasn’t even told his immediate family that he’s been living with HIV for five years. Nor has he told any of his friends. He hides his pill bottles. He admires women from afar, but rarely...
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A video of the 2008 Dance for Life finale, choreographed by Randy Duncan.
Before Randy Duncan found the world’s stage, he got down in the living room.
Growing up in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago in the 1960s and ‘70s, Duncan would dance with his sister in front of the television, trying to emulate the R&B moves...
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AIDS walked into Robert Neubert's life almost 30 years ago.
It was the mid-1980s and Neubert was the musical director for a traveling musical theatre tour. His good friend Paul, an actor in the company, was sick and needed further medical attention beyond what was available during a stop in Rockton, Ill. Doctors there were unable to help him and suggested he return home to seek an HIV specialist,...
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By Jim Pickett
The shocking truth is we don’t know much about the safety of sexual lubricants and whether or not they may actually contribute to the spread of HIV.
We know that using condoms with condom-compatible lube is an important HIV prevention intervention. But more than 30 years into the HIV pandemic, we don’t know whether sexual lubricants (lubes) increase,...
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HIV advocates pose in the State House rotunda before seeking out their legislators.
By Lucy Baglin
In the midst of the Illinois’ notoriously unpredictable "Lame Duck Session," 15 HIV/AIDS advocates and myself headed down to Springfield on Monday to advocate the passage of ‘Medicaid Financing for the Uninsured’ – a bill that would help provide health...
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