Forbes Magazine : Gay Rights Advances Likely in Congress

Two measures are likely to win win approval this year:

1.A hate-crimes bill that would cover offenses motivated by anti-gay bias.

Notes:

According to the FBI, about 14 percent of the 7,163 hate crimes reported in 2005 targeted gays or lesbians - a slightly lower percentage than the two prior years.

The hate-crimes measure would expand existing federal provisions to include acts of violence against gays and lesbians. Opponents contend it would be an ominous first step toward criminalizing criticism of homosexuality.

2. A measure that would outlaw workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.


Also on the table - although with more doubtful prospects - will be a measure to be introduced Wednesday seeking repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bans openly gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the military.

If approved by Congress, the bills would head to the White House. Activists on both the left and right are unsure whether President Bush would sign or veto them.

Gay men :: Cancer and the risks of smoking

Gay men may be at increased risk for certain forms of cancer, and illnesses linked to cigarette smoking.

Evidence of the damaging effects of cigarette smoking on human health continues to accumulate. Today there are some 25 known tobacco-related diseases, including heart disease, strokes, respiratory illnesses, several forms of cancer, and male impotence.

Smoking takes a heavy human toll. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that worldwide 4 million people die prematurely each year from smoking cigarettes. The 400,000 lives claimed each year by smoking-related illnesses in the United States matches the number of Americans who died in World War II. In China, smoking takes an estimated 2,000 lives per day, the equivalent of having five fully loaded jumbo jets crash each day with no survivors.

Cancer

Some cancers are more commonly seen in persons with HIV infection. For example, Kaposi's sarcoma and certain types of lymphomas are more common in people with HIV. Since HIV is found in higher rates among gay men in Western nations, cancers associated with HIV infection are more common among gay men in these parts of the world.

Some strains of HPV -- the virus that causes genital and anal warts -- are linked to certain forms of cancer. When this virus causes cancer in men, it most often causes anal cancer. Anal HPV infection primarily occurs through unprotected anal intercourse, and direct penis-to-rectum contact during sex. Anal cancer occurs more frequently in men with damaged immune systems (including those with HIV). Smoking may increase the risk of cancer as well. HPV on the penis can also cause penile cancers, but this quite rare.

Gay men may also be at increased risk for liver cancer. Gay men are considered at increased risk for hepatitis B infection, which has been linked to liver cancer and other forms of liver disease (including cirrhosis of the liver).

In addition to anal and liver cancers, gay men may also be at increased risk for lung cancer and other cancers linked to cigarette smoking. It has been suggested that smoking rates among gay men may be higher than the general population. Of course, smoking also has many other health risks, including an increased risk for emphysema and heart disease.

Cigarette smoking causes sexual impotence

The antismoking campaign is being bolstered by research indicating that cigarette smoking is a leading cause of male impotence. The constriction and blockage of small blood vessels associated with smoking may first manifest itself in the inability to achieve an erection, well before blockage of the larger coronary arteries leads to heart disease.

One of the mainstays of California's highly successful antismoking campaign is a TV commercial in which a man's flirtation with a woman fails when the cigarette in his mouth begins to droop. Experience in California indicates that while adolescent males may not be particularly worried about their mortality, they are concerned about their sexuality. In Thailand, cigarette packs carry in large type the warning “Cigarette smoking causes sexual impotence.”

Sources: (http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com)(http://www.thebody.com)

Video - Life cycle of HIV virus

Really interesting video shows the life cycle of the HIV virus.

New Drugs on the Horizon to Battle HIV

"There is a confluence of new drugs in the pipeline that people are pretty excited about," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

More than 25 years into the AIDS epidemic, many drugs are used to treat HIV, but an alarming number of patients are becoming resistant to therapy, driving research into new ways to combat the virus. About half of U.S. patients treated for infections with HIV have stopped responding to at least one drug, said Dr. John Mellors, chief of infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh.

Drugmakers Merck, Pfizer Inc. Gilead Sciences and Johnson & Johnson are expected to present new clinical data at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Feb. 25-28 2007 in Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, Merck & Co. will release results of a trial of MK-0518, which is likely to be the first in a new class of drugs, known as integrase inhibitors, designed to block genetic information needed for HIV to reproduce. Merck plans to seek U.S. approval for the drug in the second quarter.Also on Tuesday, Pfizer Inc.will present data from a late-stage trial of its CCR5 inhibitor, maraviroc, now awaiting U.S. and European approval. Patients in the trial had fared poorly on previous HIV treatments.

“If maraviroc is approved, it would change the landscape of treatment and be the first new oral class of HIV treatments in a decade, since the approval of protease inhibitors,” said Howard Mayer, a Pfizer executive in charge of maraviroc’s development. This new class of medicines works by blocking HIV from entering and taking up residence in T cells, a type of white blood cell vital to the immune system. The drugs work by jamming receptors — or docking stations — that dot the surface of the T cells and act as doorways into the cells. If HIV is barred entry, the virus cannot replicate. Because the receptors are made of a protein called CCR5, the crop of drugs are called CCR5 inhibitors.

On Wednesday, Gilead Sciences Inc., maker of top-selling HIV pill Truvada, will present data from a mid-stage trial of its experimental integrase inhibitor, GS-9137.

Also on Wednesday, Johnson & Johnson, which last year launched its first AIDS drug, Prezista, will announce results from a mid-stage trial of its next-generation non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, known as TMC278, which works by blocking an enzyme the HIV virus needs to replicate.

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) to successfully replicate itself, the virus must first infect a host cell and integrate itself into the cell's genome. Three enzymes in the body help the virus accomplish this task: reverse transcriptase, protease and integrase. Once HIV gets cozy inside a host cell, it turns that cell into an HIV factory, capable of churning out new copies of the virus to seek out and infect new cells.

There are currently three major classes of antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV. Two of these classes work by inhibiting the action of the reverse transcriptase enzyme; the third class inhibits the protease enzyme. Modern HIV therapy, which involves patients taking a cocktail of these drugs, does a remarkable job of tamping down the virus to undetectable levels. HIV and AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) used to kill patients quickly but now have been somewhat defanged, and HIV infection is treated more like a chronic disease. (There is still no "cure" for HIV because under current therapies, the virus is never 100% eliminated from the body.)

The human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS infects more than 1 million people in the United States and nearly 40 million worldwide. An estimated 40,000 Americans become infected each year.