Fighting AIDS At Home

President Obama talks about the legacy of Ryan White as he reauthorizes the landmark bill named in his honor that helps provide medical treatment to more than half a million Americans living with HIV/AIDS. October 30, 2009. THE PRESIDENT: We often speak about AIDS as if it's going on somewhere else. And for good reason -- this is a virus that has touched lives and decimated communities around the world, particularly in Africa. But often overlooked is the fact that we face a serious HIV/AIDS epidemic of our own -- right here in Washington, D.C., and right here in the United States of America. And today, we are taking two important steps forward in the fight that we face here at home. It has been nearly three decades since this virus first became known. But for years, we refused to recognize it for what it was. It was coined a "gay disease." Those who had it were viewed with suspicion. There was a sense among some that people afflicted by AIDS somehow deserved their fate and that it was acceptable for our nation to look the other way. A number of events and advances over the years have broadened our understanding of this cruel illness. One of them came in 1984, when a 13-year-old boy from central Indiana contracted HIV/AIDS from a transfusion. Doctors assured people that Ryan White posed no risk to his classmates or his community. But ignorance was still widespread. People didn't yet understand or believe that the virus couldn't be spread by casual contact. Parents protested Ryan's attendance in class. Some even pulled their kids out of school. Things got so bad that the White family had to ultimately move to another town. It would have been easy for Ryan and his family to stay quiet and to fight the illness in private. But what Ryan showed was the same courage and strength that so many HIV-positive activists have shown over the years and shown around -- show around the world today. And because he did, we didn't just become more informed about HIV/AIDS, we began to take ...

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News & Politics

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• AIDS
• Obama
• Ryan
• White
• HIV

[StefanLankaTalks]

They are also given to pregnant women who are expected to have premature infants as the result of the use of illicit drugs, and to their infants to enhance the maturation of the lungs. The use of other immuno-suppressant agents, cytotoxic drugs, antibiotics, antiviral, and antifungal has also increased tremendously since the1970s. Most of these agents cause bone marrow depression and other tissue damages, which have also contributed to the pathogenesis of AIDS.

[StefanLankaTalks]

Ryan White was hemophiliac.

Since the 1970s, the prescriptions containing glucocorticoids have increased tremendously to treat more than forty medical conditions induced by narcotics. The side effects of these medications include thrombocytopenia, peripheral neuropathy, and chronic opportunistic infections. Glucocorticoids have also been given to hemophiliacs to prevent the development of antibodies against foreign transfused clotting factors.

[hookalakah]

"Under the Bush administration, about 400,000 more African patients received treatment every year. President Obama’s Pepfar strategy would reduce the number of new patients receiving treatment to 320,000 — resulting in 1.2 million avoidable deaths over the next five years... Doctors would have to decide which of the 22 million Africans afflicted with H.I.V. should receive treatment and which should not." --Bishop Desmond Tutu, 7/20/10

[123456787016]

Thanks obama for fighting and caring for people with aids/hiv. If It werent for my meds and bing on the ryan white program that you passed I dont know what I would do. . I know any medications are not good for the body,but I guarantee If I didnt have these meds, I wouldnt be alive today. , . since diagnosed in 2000I thank you so much again. like I said theryan at least help you pay for your meds is such an enormous relief. Thanks again, I m very happy I voted for you. god bless you

[UNLebanon]

Those of you who think that AIDS is made up need to have a reality check. It's real.

[UNLebanon]

AIDS is not contagious. You can't get it from casual contact. Unless you have sex with or get blood transfusions from these "dangerous people" you'll be fine.

[noixe68]

Are you crazy? Aids and HIV infections are growing with all demos in america. Do your research dude. do your research.

[RobearBuddy]

Please, Mrs. White ask Pelosi and Obama not to cut funding to the AIDS programat the San Francisco 7th. St. Clinic.

PLEASE

[TheKookbuster]

HIV doesn't cause AIDS? Really? Google dead denialists for a few other morons who thought that...

[mykoolaidtastesfunny]

Go watch Montagnier admitting we've been lied to for 25 years....he just won the Nobel Prize for "hiv"...on youtube

Nobel Laureate Montagnier: HIV Can Be Cleared Naturally - House of Numbers

He admits that "hiv" won't make healthy people sick and that immune problems can be treated with nutrition except there's no profit in nutrition. Go see for yourselves. It's my featured video for anyone who can't find it

;)