Click here to download our “Free Adult Education In Philadelphia” flyer

ADULT EDUCATION BOOKS

The AIDS Library collection includes the following:

• McGraw-Hill’s GED: The Most Complete and Reliable Study Program for the GED Test (2 COPIES)
• Contemporary’s Pre-GED: Language Arts, Writing
• Contemporary’s Pre-GED: Science
• Contemporary’s Pre-GED: Social Studies
• Writing and Reading the Essay: A Process Approach

All these books are reference only, which means they can’t be checked out of the library.  They can be used in the library, however, and we can make photocopies of small sections of them for clients.

In addition, the Free Library’s Reader Development Program has a great initiative where any person with a library card can get free GED and literacy textbooks (up to three books per person).  Call 215-686-5346 to find out more.

ADULT EDUCATION CLASSES

For a printable list of adult education classes in Philly that are free of charge, check out the flyer attached to this email.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE) has webpage of ABLE Providers in Philadelphia.  These are organizations that do GED prep, ESL, literacy, math, family literacy, and more.  (All of the organizations AND MORE are on the attached flyer.)

You can also search for ABLE Providers in other parts of Pennsylvania.

To help locate the right class in Philadelphia, folks can call the Mayor’s Commission on Literacy at 215-686-4400.  They will help you find the right class in the right location.

To find literacy programs anywhere in the country, see the National Institute for Literacy’s Literacy Directory.

GED & ADULT EDUCATION MATERIALS ONLINE

The American Council on Education’s GED Test webpages has some useful information including:

• Info about the five content areas of the GED test
• Info about people with disabilities taking the GED
• A lot of sample test questions
• A search function to locate GED test centers anywhere in the country, by zip code
• A page explaining that the GED test cannot be taken online, which appears to be a common scam
• Instructions on how to Request a Copy of Your Transcript for clients who already received a GED

To ask questions about the GED, you can call the American Council on Education’s GED hotline: 1-800-62-MY-GED.

A division of the publisher Houghton Mifflin has a website of GED practice tests in English and Spanish, all free to take without registering.

The website Study Guide Zone has a Free GED Study Guide that is free to download.

There are lots of other Adult Basic Ed resources online.  Here are some that I’ve found that look useful for adult learners and their teachers/tutors.  All are free, but some require registration.

• PBS’s Literacy Link
• Literacy Works Learning Resources
• Educational Broadcasting Corporation’s Adult Ed Online Resources
• Florida Tech Net’s Pre-GED Lesson Plans
• Quia’s Interactive Math Games
• ESL Go’s Free Online English Classes
• ESL Partyland

A FEW OTHER ADULT EDUCATION OPTIONS

For learning outside a classroom, see the PA Department of Education’s website on its Distance Learning Project, which allows students to study on their own but with a teacher.  Subjects include GED prep, reading, math, and employment skills.

For folks looking for job skill education, see:

• The PA Department of Education’s Work Improvement Network list of WIN sites
• Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation
• PA Career Link

HIV/AIDS & the Law

LEGAL REPRESENTATION

The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania is the primary source of pro bono (free) legal counsel for HIV+ folks in Philadelphia.  People seeking assistance should call the AIDS Law Project at (215) 587-9377 between 9:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., Mon-Fri.  Spanish is available.  In addition, AIDS Law Project offers:

• Seminars for people who are HIV+ about legal issues
• Trainings for case managers and medical providers
• Several useful publications, including the third edition of AIDS and the Law: Your Rights in Pennsylvania (which we have five hard copies of in the AIDS Library!)

For folks not in PA, consult the American Bar Association’s Directory of Legal Resources for People with HIV/AIDS that lists organizations like AIDS Law Project in all U.S. states and territories.

For pro bono legal counsel in Philly, not necessarily related to HIV/AIDS, see Community Legal Services.  Go to the CLS intake page for intake phone numbers by legal issue.

For other pro bono counsel in PA, see the Pennsylvania Legal AID Network.  For free legal resources in Pennsylvania on a wide range of topics, see PALawHelp.org.

For LGBT legal counsel in Pennsylvania, not necessarily related to HIV/AIDS, see Equality Advocates Pennsylvania.  (EAP is going to become part of the Mazzoni Center by 2010, but for now is still its own organization.)

For legal counsel for the incarcerated in Pennsylvania, contact the PA Institutional Law Project, and/or the Lewisburg Prison Project.  To see resources for other states, consult the American Civil Liberties Union’s Prisoner Assistance Directory.

RESOURCE COLLECTIONS

The biggest web resource for U.S. legal information is The Center for HIV Law and Policy, which has a searchable Resource Bank that’s overflowing with legal information.  The resources are sorted into 33 topics – Confidentiality and Disclosure, Employment, Housing, Public Access Benefits, Youth, and many more.  Within each topic, you can sort by type of document – Laws, Court Decisions, Advocacy Documents, Legal Guides, Journal Articles, and Training Materials, and more.

Highlights from the Center for HIV Law and Policy website include:

• The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rights of Persons with HIV/AIDS to Obtain Occupational Training and State Licensing
• Reproductive Choice and Women Living with HIV/AIDS
• Housing Rights of People Living with HIV/AIDS: A Primer

• How to Litigate an HIV Confidentiality Case

David Webber, the former executive director of the AIDS Law Project, edits a book called AIDS & The Law, which we have the 2008 edition of in the library.  You can read the table of contents at Webber’s website, or come down to the library and check it out!

For international resources, see the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network’s AIDSLEX, which includes:

• an e-Library of resources which can be browsed by topic (Prisons, Sex Work, Prevention, Disability, etc), as well as access to bibliographies, lit reviews, judicial decisions, and other topics of particular interest to those doing scholarly research
• an open discussion forum and an Ask the Experts section

For general legal resources, the American Bar Association’s ABAlawInfo.org is an invaluable collection, LexisNexis’s LexisONE allows you to search for individual legal rulings, USA.gov has a page on all Federal Laws and Regulations, and the U.S. Law Library of Congress has a wide range of freely accessible Legal Resources.

The AIDS Library has several legal resource books, including:

• The Rights of People Who are HIV Positive by the ACLU
• The RIGHTS of Lesbians, Gay Men, Bisexuals, and Transgender People by the ACLU
• Represent Yourself in Court: How to Prepare & Try a Winning Case

Another useful resource collection is The Body’s assemblage of legal documents and suggestions about Wills, Guardians & Powers of Attorney & HIV/AIDS.

LAWS and LEGAL NEWS

There are a number of key laws that are relevant to the HIV/AIDS community.  Among them are

• Act 148 – the Pennsylvania law on HIV-related confidentiality
• Americans With Disabilities Act – federal rules prohibiting discrimination of the disabled
  • David Webber’s AIDS & The Law website has an interesting essay about HIV and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008
  • The PA Human Relations Act – prohibiting discrimination in Pennsylvania
  • Family & Medical Leave Act – allows unpaid work leave for people caring for family members
  • Lambda Legal has a list of State-by-State Statutes on HIV Exposure
  • AIDS Law Project lists and discusses several other relevant laws at their Legal Information page
  • The AIDS & The Law website has a similar list, with interpretation, of several more laws

The American Civil Liberties Union has a regularly updated collection of legal stories on HIV-Related Discrimination, HIV/AIDS Privacy/Confidentiality, Access to Health Care, Major HIV/AIDS Court Cases, and more.

The Body has collections of stories on Legal Rights for HIV-Positive People, HIV/AIDS-Related Discrimination Cases, U.S. Laws/News Regarding HIV Disclosure, and several more topics.

Job Hunting

AIDS LIBRARY RESOURCES for JOB HUNTING

These are some job-hunting books we have in the AIDS Library’s reference collection:

• Gallery of Best Resumes: A Collection of Quality Resumes by Professional Resume Writers
• Gallery of Best Cover Letters: A Collection of Quality Cover Letters by Professional Resume Writers
• Networking and Interviewing for Jobs (from “Putting the Bars Behind” You series
• Best Resumes & Letters for Ex-Offenders
• Job Hunting Tips for People with Hot and Not-So-Hot Backgrounds: 150 Smart Tips That Can Change Your Life
• Job Interview Tips for People with Not-So-Hot Backgrounds: How to Put Red Flags Behind You to Win the Job
• Resume, Application, and Letter Tips for People with Hot and Not-So-Hot Backgrounds: 185 Tips for Landing the Perfect Job

These books are designated “REFERENCE,” which means they can’t leave the library, but folks can use the books on site, or make photocopies of pages or sections that they find particularly useful.

We also have a computer program called Resume Pro.  Users can enter in their personal information, job history, etc., and the program shapes it into a professional-looking resume, which they can edit and tailor as they chose.

If clients need help using these books or this program, make sure they know to ask for Reference Librarian, Ben Remsen (or any other library staff member, in my absence).

SEARCHING FOR JOBS ONLINE

There are many places to search for jobs online.  For general job searches, one of the first websites that I show people is Indeed.com, which is a Google-like search engine that searches other commercial job listings.  You can combine a search for a job title or description and with a location, and you can sort your results by full-time/part-time, desired salary, and more.

Also check out:

Inquirer / Daily News job listings
Philadelphia Craigslist job listings
City Paper job listings
Philly Weekly job listings
Philadelphia city government jobs website
Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance job bank
Snagajob.com – focusing on hourly employment
Community College of Philadelphia job site
University of Pennsylvania job site
Temple University job site
Drexel University job site
St. Joseph’s University job site
La Salle University job site

Remember, online job applicants are usually expected to have an email address.  Clients who need an email can get one free from our own Critpath, as well as from Yahoo mail, Gmail, and many other commercial sites.  Please feel free to send clients to the library for help with this.

JOB TRAINING IN PHILADELPHIA

Clients can access workshops and training programs through several organizations, including:

AIDS Law Project’s Back-to-Work Seminars (specific to those who are HIV+!)
Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation
Philadelphia Job Corps (must be 16-24)
Pennsylvania CareerLink
JEVS Human Services
The Free Library of Philadelphia’s Career Services

Follow those links to find out about current programs and to get contact information.

EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS

People living with HIV returning to work may want to consult AIDS Law Project’s Returning to Work: A Helpful Guide, which explains relevant laws clearly and offers advice about such issues as:

• explaining HIV-related employment gaps in interviews
• disclosure on the job
• getting Medicaid while working

If folks feel these rights are being violated, they should use ALP’s intake page contact information to seek legal help.

For legal issues applying to all job-seekers, regardless of HIV-status, see the Community Legal Services webpage on Employment Rights, including explaining:

• Family and Medical Leave
• Unemployment Compensation
• Wage Laws
• and more

To apply for legal representation, if rights are being violated, see CLS’s intake page.

EMPLOYMENT FOR FORMERLY INCARCERATED PEOPLE

The Mayor’s Office for Reentry of Ex-Offenders has a webpage of Philadelphia organizations that do job training and/or job placement specifically for people who’ve been incarcerated.

For people dealing with employment discrimination due to criminal records, CLS has a page just on Employment with a Criminal Record, which includes info on:

• “cleaning up” a criminal record
• getting convictions pardoned
• employment rights
• and more

OTHER EMPLOYMENT RESOURCES

For people with employers who are relatively ignorant regarding HIV, but would like to help make their workplace a more comfortable place for PLWHAs, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a manual online, Educating Your Workforce: A Guide to Managers and another manual on Workplace Policy.

TheBody.com has a page of links to articles on HIV and the Workplace, including an article called When Things Are Looking Up: Tips for the Job Search.

Finding HIV/AIDS Statistics

HIV/AIDS Statistics by Region

PHILADELPHIA

HIV/AIDS statistics for Philadelphia are collected by the AIDS Activities Coordinating Office (AACO).  AACO’s statistics page contains:

• Graphs and maps of demographic trends
• Instructions and contact information for specialized data requests
• The most recent epidemiological report for Philadelphia – This is the most detailed information AACO publishes; scroll down to the bottom of the page to access it, or go to it directly, here.

PENNSYLVANIA

For Pennsylvania statistics, including statewide reports, regional reports, and specialized data requests, see the PA Department of Health HIV/AIDS Annual Summary & Other Reports and its Integrated Epidemiologic Profile of HIV/AIDS in Pennsylvania.

For more Pennsylvania statistics (with a particular emphasis on HIV/AIDS funding), see the Kaiser Family Foundation’s State Health Facts webpage on PA and HIV.  The State Health Facts page also allows you to compare PA to other states and to find information on other health issues.

NATIONAL

For US-wide statistics, see the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website on HIV/AIDS Statistics and Surveillance.

You can also make data requests from the CDC, at their Contact CDC page.

For historical study of the epidemic, see Past Issues back to 1982 of the CDC Surveillance Report.

The Kaiser Family Foundation also has lots of good statistical analysis at their HIV/AIDS in the US webpage.  There isn’t one single statistics page, but if you use their “sort” tool, at the bottom of the page, you can sort by Document Type: Charts & Data and Subtopic: HIV/AIDS in the US.

GLOBAL

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, has a webpage on HIV Data with:

• Its most recent report, 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic (Almost all statistical accounts of the worldwide epidemic use this report for their raw data)
• The most recent AIDS Epidemic Update (which explores new findings and trends)
• Fact sheets on The Epidemic by Country

The World Health Organization (WHO) has a page of Data and Statistics.  Be aware that many reports and data sets here are identical to those of UNAIDS linked above, as WHO is a co-sponsor of UNAIDS.

The U.S. Census Bureau has its own webpage of Global HIV/AIDS Surveillance.  This includes a link to the Census Bureau’s HIV/AIDS Surveillance Database, which includes maps, summary tables, and the option to generate custom reports.

The University of California, San Francisco’s HIV InSite has a page on the epidemic by Counties and Regions. The basic data is drawn from the UNAIDS report linked above, but each page is also filled with links to reports, organizations, and other resources on that county or region.

HIV/AIDS Statistics by Population and by Risk Behavior

For U.S. statistics by age, race, and transmission category, see the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) webpage on Basic Statistics.

For more detailed reports on different populations and risk behaviors, see the CDC’s Surveillance Factsheets.

For statistics on HIV/AIDS disparities among different populations, see the Office of Minority Health & Health Disparities webpage, Eliminate Disparities in HIV and AIDS.

For collections of resources on 22 different populations, many with statistical information, see HIV Insite’s Population Links.

For a collection of reports on youth, see the CDC’s webpage on Healthy Youth: Sexual Risk Behaviors.

For populations worldwide, see the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS’s webpage on Key Populations.

Information About HIV/AIDS Statistics

For definitions of HIV/AIDS terms and abbreviations, see the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services AIDSinfo Glossary.

For assistance reading and getting the most out of HIV/AIDS statistics, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has webpages on:

• The basics of HIV/AIDS Surveillance
• Technical Notes on surveillance
• Explaining the 15% Increase in HIV Diagnoses from 2004-2007

The Kaiser Family Foundation has some resources for better understanding HIV/AIDS statistics:

• A narrated slideshow on Understanding HIV/AIDS Surveillance Data in the United States
• A report on Understanding the New UNAIDS Estimates
• A narrated slideshow on The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the United States (an introductory survey with a strong emphasis on statistics)

People sometimes have statistical questions about how likely it is to become infected with HIV from a certain behavior.  Columbia University’s Go Ask Alice! Service has a webpage, Confused About HIV Transmission Statistics that helps explain why these statistics can’t be precisely calculated.

HIV/AIDS Education Resources

June is AIDS Education month!  Here are some resources you can use to educate about HIV/AIDS in June or any time of the year.

Click here to learn more about Philadelphia FIGHT’s activities for AIDS Education Month.

CURRICULA

There are some full lesson plans available online.

The Hispanic leadership organization ASPIRA has an extensive HIV Curriculum with facilitator scripts, activities, and other tools.  The entire curriculum is available in Spanish as well.

The New York City Department of Education’s HIV/AIDS Curriculum is available its entirety.  It’s broken down by grade, from K through 12.  That page also includes Brochures and Letters for Parents (available in 10 different languages) of kids who are being educated.

The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States creates www.SexEdLibrary.org, which includes a page of HIV & AIDS Lesson Plans, all free to download.

The non-profit Advocates for Youth has a page of HIV/AIDS and STIs Lesson Plan, all free to download.  They emphasize youth, but may be useful for education among people of all ages.

The Vermont-based Center for Health & Learning has six pages of Curriculum Activities that Support the Use of HIV Positive Speakers.

The British non-profit AVERT has an HIV & AIDS Education page with lesson plans, activities, and quizzes on HIV/AIDS, as well as on general sex education with HIV components.

The University of California, San Francisco’s Center for AIDS Prevention Studies has a page of Intervention Curricula, including a program for people living with HIV, a prevention program for men who have sex with men, and an adherence program for HIV+ homeless people.

The CDC’s HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Synthesis Project has a page of “Best-Evidence” Interventions. Folks designing programs can read about them there.  Be aware, though, that many of the materials for these interventions are not available for free.

The CDC publishes guides for educators and administrators developing HIV/AIDS education programs.  These are not curricula, but advice on creating and evaluating curricula.

• Guidelines for Effective School Health Education to Prevent the Spread of AIDS
• Handbook for Evaluating HIV Education

The non-profit Partners In Health has a curriculum for outreach workers, and a handbook for Community-Based Treatment of HIV in Resource-Poor Settings, both of which can be downloaded freely.

CURRICULUM SUPPLEMENTS

For people who are designing their own program or curriculum, but want supplements, there are materials to draw on all over the web.

For facts about different aspects of HIV/AIDS, we always point to a few different sets of factsheets (short documents that summarize an issue).

• For factsheets on the epidemic in the United States, see the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Factsheets page.
• For factsheets on the epidemic around the world, see the UNAIDS Factsheets page.
• For factsheets on the nature of the virus, its transmission, and its treatment, see the University of New Mexico’s AIDS Info Net.
• For factsheets specifically on HIV prevention, sorted by demographics, risk behaviors, and more, see the University of California, San Francisco’s HIV Prevention Factsheets.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a page of AIDS Info Graphics and another of AIDS Awareness Posters.

The PBS series Frontline has a documentary called The Age of AIDS that’s available to watch online.  It’s four hours long, but it’s broken up into chapters that could be good for showing to classes or groups.

The TEACH program at Philadelphia FIGHT has a YouTube channel of educational videos on many HIV/AIDS topics.

The United Nations AIDS Multimedia Gallery has a collection of videos (including PSAs), photo slideshows, and audio presentations and interviews, mostly focusing on the epidemic worldwide.  UNAIDS also publishes a current Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic with more charts, slides, graphics, and multimedia materials.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has a Global HIV/AIDS Timeline.  AVERT also has a History of AIDS with a list references to learn more about any particular era.

For a collection of news articles about HIV/AIDS going back to 1983, see the New York Times AIDS/HIV page.

If any of these sites use terminology that’s unfamiliar, we recommend the San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Glossary of HIV/AIDS Terms.

EDUCATING HEALTH PROVIDERS

AIDS Education is for the pros too!

The AIDS Education & Training Center provides targeted Education Programs for Health Providers treating people living with HIV.  They have slide sets and full curricula on adherence, cultural competence, testing, “prevention with positives,” women, and many more topics.

The Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative has published an HIV Curriculum for the Health Professional, which can be downloaded in its entirety or by topics.

Family Health International has a training manual for health professionals on Contraception for Clients with HIV.

The International Training & Education Center on HIV provides materials to support the development of International HIV health Programs.

HIV/AIDS Across Languages, Cultures, and Continents

CONNECTING LANGUAGES

Language can be a barrier to prevention, care, and community outreach.  This Australian website has factsheets on HIV/AIDS in 23 different languages.

This Canadian site has information in 10 languages, plus a useful multilingual glossary that might be particularly useful if you are conversant in a language but not in its medical terminology.

Asian Community AIDS Services has information in Vietnamese, Chinese, and Tagalog, all of which are also covered by those previous sites – but they go into much more detail about larger health information such as nutrition, women’s health, and complementary therapies.  They also have factsheets on common opportunistic infections and meds.

For French, the Canadian websites Pret Pour L’Action, Stop Serophobia, and the Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange are filled with info.

The National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus website has a page of “Health Information in Multiple Languages.”

For the most common foreign language at FIGHT, let me suggest the wealth of HIV/AIDS information the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has in Spanish.

CONNECTING CULTURES

Even if language isn’t a barrier, culture can be.  For health providers dealing with cultural divisions, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health has lots of resources.  It includes

• Resources to Implement Cross-Cultural Clinical Practice Guidelines For Medicaid Practitioners
• A quick summary of laws that relate to cultural diversity and medical care
• and much more – check it out!

Georgetown University’s National Center for Cultural Competence has a wide range of original publications on diversity and healthcare, all free online, with such titles as “Bridging the Cultural Divide in Health Care Settings,” “A Guide to Choosing and Adapting Culturally and Linguistically Competent Health Promotion Materials,” and “Public Health in a Multicultural environment.”

For religious differences, TheBody.com has a page on Religion and HIV/AIDS with articles and links organized by religion.

In particular, folks might be interested to read about Islamic practice as it relates to health and healthcare at the website of the World Health Organization.  They also have a page with the full contents of a monograph called The Role of Religion and Ethics in the Prevention and Control of AIDS, also available in Arabic.

CONNECTING CONTINENTS

There’s so much information on HIV/AIDS worldwide that it would be presumptuous of me to try to index it all here.

The University of California, San Francisco’s ever-excellent website HIV InSite has collections of links to articles and resources on global AIDS.  Follow these thinks for:

• treatment access worldwide
• care, treatment, and prevention broken down by region and by country
• treatment in the developing world
• community-based care in the developing world

The United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS website has information including:

• studies of the epidemic and responses broken down by region and country
• an assessment of the impact of global HIV/AIDS funding
• a collection of reports on best practices around the world
• a multimedia section right on their homepage (including a PSA from a couple “footballers”)

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has produced many reports on HIV/AIDS worldwide all available online.  These include their detailed annual reports to Congress, but also intriguing-looking reports on such topics as food security, gender-based violence, refugees, and more – all looking at how these issues intersect with HIV/AIDS.

For those who want to learn more about our colleagues around the globe, but don’t have the six months it would take to read through all that information linked above, let me recommend a few particular things.

Featuring just one country, in China a new government study says that AIDS is the top fatal infection in China as of 2008.  The British HIV/AIDS organization AVERT has a good introduction to the epidemic in China, including history and current trends.  You can also read a scholarly assessment of the Chinese government’s free ART program from the journal AIDS.

Featuring just one issue, the global effort to gain access to medicine, the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policies page collects information and resources on the subject.  New York’s AID for AIDS’s “drug recycling” program collects unused, HIV-related medications and redistributes them in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Featuring just one organization, Partner’s in Health’s HIV Equity Initiative is one of the most innovative groups working to bring treatment and community-based empowerment to all the citizen’s of the world.  The Miami Herald just published a nice article about their ground-breaking work in Haiti.  Advocacy issues are covered at the page of their sister organization, The Institute for Health and Social Justice.

TRAVELLING WITH HIV/AIDS

Continent can be crossed with bodies, not just web-browsers.  POZ summarizes issues that folks will need to deal with if they “Travel Positively.”  For particular countries, The Global Database on HIV-Related Travel Restriction has an interactive map where you can find information on particular countries including entry and residence regulations, treatment access, and local AIDS Service Organizations.

Relationships and HIV/AIDS

DATING

For those looking to start a relationship, there are a number of good HIV+ dating websites:

Poz Personals: http://personals.poz.com/
Positive Singles: http://www.positivesingles.com/
HIVpoz.net: http://hivpoz.net/
Poz Match: http://pozmatch.com/
HIVnet.com: http://hivnet.com/

For the MSM population, the library has a documentary on the subject of online “cruising,” Hooked. You can read about the movie:

http://www.babalupictures.com/hooked/Pages/synopsis.htm

Or come down to the library and check it out yourself.

SEX IN RELATIONSHIPS

For people in relationships in which both partner is positive, it’s important to recognize that safer sex is still important. Project Inform has a good webpage of info about re-infection

http://www.projectinform.org/info/reinfection/index.shtml

That page is also available in Spanish:

http://www.projectinform.org/info/reinfection/index_sp.shtml

For people in relationships in which only one partner is positive, see the section “Serodiscordancy,” just below. The first link there includes the answers to most questions about safer sex in these situations.

The library has many books with information about safer sex. Here are just a few that may be of interest:

• The Ins and Outs of Gay Sex (with a section on STDs)
• Love and Sex After 60 (with a section on “Practical strategies for finding new relationships and solving sexual problems”)
• Hot Living: Erotic Stories About Safer Sex

SERODISCORDANCY

A big issue in relationships and dating can be serodiscordancy – when one person is positive and the other negative.

The Body publishes a series of FAQs on Mixed-Status relationships with sections on Disclosure, Testing, Safer Sex, Having Children, and more:

http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art39442.html

The Body also published a forum on Mixed-Status relationships, which is actually no longer active, but which has archived expert answers on such useful topics as “Guilt and Fear of Infecting a Partner,” “I Am HIV Positive and My Partner Won’t Get Tested,” and “One or Both of Us Are Positive and We Want to Have a Baby.” Check out the full list:

http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Couples/index.html

The UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies has published a presentation on “The Management of HIV, Sex, and Risk Among HIV Serodiscordant Heterosexual Couple.” It summarizes a study of trends and might be interesting for those who work with clients dealing with serodicordancy issues. It’s available online:

http://www.caps.ucsf.edu/projects/CApartners/CPSLAposter.php

The World Health Organization has published a study, “Gender Dimensions of HIV Status Disclosure to Sexual Health Partners: Rates, Barriers, Outcomes,” which may also be a good resource for those of us working with clients in discordant relationships who may not have told their partner their status. It also has a large annotated bibliography, for further resources. It can be downloaded here:

http://www.who.int/gender/documents/en/genderdimensions.pdf

The library has a graphic novel (also known as a comic book) about a serodiscordant couple, Blue Pills, and a book called Couples of Mixed HIV Status: Clinical Issues and Interventions.

We also have a documentary about two serodiscordant couples (one homosexual, one heterosexual), One+One, which you can read about and watch a clip of here:

http://www.newday.com/films/OneplusOne.html

Come to the library and check any of these out yourself.

NOTIFICATION

Making former partners aware of HIV status can be a challenge. Folks can do this anonymously through the website InSpot:

http://www.inspot.org/gateway.aspx

Those working with clients dealing with notifying former partners might want to read the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s report, “HIV Partner Counseling and Referral Services – Guidance.” It can be downloaded as a PDF, here:

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/guidelines/pcrs/index.htm

[**I should add that any FIGHT staff member who doesn’t feel comfortable with downloading or with using Adobe Acrobat to read PDFs should let me know. I’ll be glad to show you how to do this.**]

PERSONAL STORIES

Personal stories may be inspiring for clients dealing with relationship issues.

Online, clients can read an older man’s moving biographical sketch about his experiences with relationships and HIV:

http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art48993.html

Or an interview with a 16 year-old girl who was born positive, talking about dating and HIV:

http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art1145.html

The library has a film about women dealing with HIV and relationship

issues (among other things), All of Us:

http://www.allofusthemovie.com/aboutthefilm.php

You can follow that link to learn more about the movie, or come down to the library and check it out.

The library has a novel, Tweeds, about “both telling and loving a man with AIDS.” Recommend it to someone, or come down and check it out yourself.

Free Tax Assistance in Philadelphia

The IRS runs a program called the Volunteer Income Tax Program (VITA), which gives free tax-filing assistance to low- and moderate-income individuals and families. Here is a flyer with the basic information about VITA and a chart of all the locations that host VITA services in Philadelphia.

Remember:

1) That these sites are not VITA centers. They are places that host VITA volunteers. You ought to call the phone numbers (on the flyer) before going to any of these locations.

2) You must bring the following to VITA appointments:

· proof of ID

· Social Security card

· birth dates of all family members

· all wage and earning statements from employers (W-2, 1099)

· a copy of last year’s returns if available

· bank routing numbers and account number

· total paid for day care provider and the day care provider’s tax identifying number (the provider’s Social Security Number or the provider’s business Employer Identification Number)

· any other tax information received in the mail.

3) That, to file taxes electronically on a married filing joint tax return, both spouses must be present to sign the required forms.

If you do not live in the city, you can access the PA VITA site to see all Pennsylvania locations sorted by county, here:

http://www.dpw.state.pa.us/ServicesPrograms/CashAsstEmployment/003671773.htm

VITA also has a free hotline to locate sites anywhere in the country, 1-800-829-1040.

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Another good free tax-filing resource is that of the Honickman Learning Center, which is part of Project H.O.M.E. Their Education director created a flyer for their tax-filing services, which I’ve also attached to this post.

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One other organization offering free tax-filing is the Working Families Campaign. They have a webpage about their free tax prep service, here:

http://www.phillyfreetaxes.org/services/freetaxprep.asp

It includes a chart of who is eligible for their services. They have ten sites in Philly (including some with bilingual services), which are listed and mapped out, here:

http://www.phillyfreetaxes.org/services/findtaxsite.asp

Again, anyone hoping to use this service should call the number of the location (listed at that website) to make an appointment.

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People of low-to-middle income who are 60 or older can get free services through AARP, as part of the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) program. For more information on what TCE offers, call 1-800-829-1040. To locate the nearest AARP Tax-Aide site, call 1-888-227-7669, or search for a site online, here:

https://locator.aarp.org/vmis/sites/tax_aide_locator.jsp

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Everyone should be aware of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which helps people who work but make low salaries reduce their tax payment or get a refund. The IRS has a page all about EITC eligibility, with a quite a few useful resources linked from it, here:

http://www.irs.treas.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=178069,00.html

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For people who would like to do their return themselves The Benefit Bank offers a free online tax service for anyone who has a 2008 Adjusted Gross Income of $56,000 or less:

https://selfserve.thebenefitbank.com/

This is designed to be a self-serve service, but the Benefit Bank also offers a Help Desk at 1-866-887-6060.

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For people who would like to do their taxes themselves using paper forms, all tax forms are eligible for free online.

Here’s the IRS’s site for downloading Federal forms: http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html?portlet=3

Here’s the PA Department of Revenue’s site for State forms: http://www.revenue.state.pa.us/revenue/cwp/browse.asp?A=190&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=35637

Here’s a map for finding forms from other states: http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/link/forms.html

Here’s the Philadelphia Department of Revenue’s site for City forms: http://www.phila.gov/revenue/Form_2008.html

You can also call the IRS at 1-800-829-3676 to order forms by US mail. They can order up to 10 forms (or other IRS publications).

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Philadelphia also offers a 28-page “Plain Talk Tax Guide,” available here as a PDF:

http://www.phila.gov/revenue/Plain_Talk_Tax_Guide.html

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If you have questions about your rights regarding taxes, consult the IRS webpage on Taxpayer Rights, with various publications and factsheets, here:

http://www.irs.gov/advocate/article/0,,id=98206,00.html

What is AIDS? What is HIV?

Retroviridae – Lentivirus – Lentiviruses, primate – HIV-2

HIV-SIV PHylogenic Tree from Los Alamos National Laboratory

From time to time even the most experienced case managers might get thrown a curve ball. Since HIV-2 is very uncommon in the United States, an American HIV/AIDS Case manager is likely to be surprised when a client gets an HIV-2 diagnosis. Fortunately the AIDS Library is here to dig up both technical and non-technical background information on this understudied virus which is also leads to AIDS.

An article from the journal AIDS, published in 2001, offered the broadest review that I could find. Unfortunately, the article isn’t on the “visible web“. You can chase the citation yourself, or ask your local librarian.

Paul J. Bock and David M. Markovitz “Infection with HIV-2″ AIDS 2001Vol. 15 (Suppl. 5): S35-S45

We of course tracked it down and sent it to the case manager.

If you’d like to read abstracts of more recent research, I suggest searching PubMed (http://www.pubmed.gov). The following search string will return highly relevant results:

(“HIV-2″[MAJR] ) NOT (“HIV-1″[Mesh])

The above “search string” makes use of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) which are worth investigating if you want to become a skilled searcher of the scientific medical literature.

Here’s a couple of abstracts from the above search which looked interesting to me:

Expert Rev Vaccines. 2008 Apr;7(3):319-31.

Tenets of protection from progression to AIDS: lessons from the immune responses to HIV-2 infection.

Leligdowicz A, Rowland-Jones S.

Medical Research Council Laboratories, Fajara, Atlantic Road, PO Box 273, The Gambia, West Africa. srowland-jones@mrc.gm

In the past 25 years, life survival curves of many countries have been remodeled owing to HIV infection. Both HIV-1 and HIV-2 can cause AIDS, yet patients infected with HIV-2 fare much better clinically and most will never experience detrimental effects of the infection. Despite over two decades of comprehensive research into vaccine development, a prophylactic vaccine is not yet realized. An essential missing link in the innovation of a successful vaccine strategy is the description of a favorable immune response that abolishes virus replication. Lessons learned from studying the role of the immune system in the long-term nonprogression characteristic of HIV-2 infection will offer insight into how a balanced immune response can protect from the destruction of the immune system associated with chronic HIV-1 infection.

Braz J Infect Dis. 2003 Feb;7(1):7-15. Epub 2003 Dec 2.

Diagnosis, antiretroviral therapy, and emergence of resistance to antiretroviral agents in HIV-2 infection: a review.

Hightower M, Kallas EG.

Infectious Diseases Discipline, Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and type 2 (HIV-2) are the causative agents of AIDS. HIV-2 is prevalent at moderate to high rates in West African countries, such as Senegal, Guinea, Gambia, and Cape Verde. Diagnosis of HIV-2 is made with a positive HIV-1/HIV-2 ELISA or simple/rapid assay, followed by one or two confirmatory tests specific for HIV-2. Following CD(4)(+)T cell counts, HIV-2 viral burden and clinical signs and symptoms of immunodeficiency are beneficial in monitoring HIV-2 disease progression. Although non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors are ineffective in treating HIV-2, nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors can be effective in dual and triple antiretroviral regimens. Their use can decrease HIV-2 viral load, increase CD(4)(+)T cell counts and improve AIDS-related symptoms. HIV-2 resistance to various nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors, including zidovudine, lamivudine, ritonivir and indinavir, has been identified in some HIV-2 infected patients on antiretroviral therapy. The knowledge of HIV-2 peculiarities, when compared to HIV-1, is crucial to helping diagnose and guide the clinician in the choice of the initial antiretroviral regimen and for monitoring therapy success.

On the “Open Web” I found HIV-2 addressed by a few trustworthy government and non-profit websites. I’ve quoted a few interesting parts and included the full links below each extract.

What about HIV-2? When did that get passed to humans?

Until recently, the origins of the HIV-2 virus had remained relatively unexplored. HIV-2 is thought to come from the SIV in Sooty Mangabeys rather than chimpanzees, but the crossover to humans is believed to have happened in a similar way (i.e. through the butchering and consumption of monkey meat). It is far rarer, significantly less infectious and progresses more slowly to AIDS than HIV-1. As a result, it infects far fewer people, and is mainly confined to a few countries in West Africa.

In May 2003, a group of Belgian researchers led by Dr. Anne-Mieke Vandamme, published a report¹² in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. By analysing samples of the two different subtypes of HIV-2 (A and B) taken from infected individuals and SIV samples taken from sooty mangabeys, Dr Vannedamme concluded that subtype A had passed into humans around 1940 and subtype B in 1945 (plus or minus 16 years or so). Her team of researchers also discovered that the virus had originated in Guinea-Bissau and that its spread was most likely precipitated by the independence war that took place in the country between 1963 and 1974 (Guinea-Bissau is a former Portuguese colony). Her theory was backed up by the fact that the first European cases of HIV-2 were discovered among Portuguese veterans of the war, many of whom had received blood transfusions or unsterile injections following injury, or had possibly had relationships with local women.

http://www.avert.org/origins.htm

Is the clinical treatment of HIV-2 different from that of HIV-1?

Little is known about the best approach to the clinical treatment and care of patients infected with HIV-

2. Given the slower development of immunodeficiency and the limited clinical experience with HIV-2,

it is unclear whether antiretroviral therapy significantly slows progression. Not all of the drugs used to

treat HIV-1 infection are as effective against HIV-2. In vitro (laboratory) studies suggest that nucleoside

analogs are active against HIV-2, though not as active as against HIV-1. Protease inhibitors should be

active against HIV-2. However, non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) are not active

against HIV-2. Whether any potential benefits would outweigh the possible adverse effects of treatment

is unknown.

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/PDF/hiv2.pdf

Not all of the drugs used to treat HIV-1 infection are as effective against HIV-2. In particular, HIV-2 has a natural resistance to NNRTI antiretroviral drugs and they are therefore not recommended. As yet there is no FDA-licensed viral load test for HIV-2 and those designed for HIV-1 are not reliable for monitoring the other type. Instead, response to treatment may be monitored by following CD4+ T-cell counts and indicators of immune system deterioration. More research and clinical experience is needed to determine the most effective treatment for HIV-2.²⁵

http://www.avert.org/hivtypes.htm

In the past 25 years, life survival curves of many countries have been remodeled owing to HIV infection. Both HIV-1 and HIV-2 can cause AIDS, yet patients infected with HIV-2 fare much better clinically and most will never experience detrimental effects of the infection.

http://www.aidsmap.com/cms1032123.asp

In a recent small study from the United Kingdom, HIV-2 viremia was only detectable in patients with CD4+ cell counts < 300 cells/mm³.^[3] Data such as these would suggest that progressive immune depletion can occur at very low levels of viral replication. On the other hand, the low levels of viral replication probably explain, at least in part, the typical slow progression to clinical disease.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/412453

Researchers in Leuven, Belgium, conducted lab tests to get an idea of the activity of these drugs against HIV-2. They found that HIV-2 was generally sensitive to nucleoside analogues (nukes), such as AZT (Retrovir, zidovudine), and nucleotide analogues, such as tenofovir (Viread). However, HIV-2 was able to resist the effects of non-nukes efavirenz (Sustiva, Stocrin) and nevirapine (Viramune) and the fusion inhibitor T-20 (Fuzeon, enfuvirtide). Most protease inhibitors appeared to have some degree of activity against HIV-2.

More recently, Spanish researchers, focusing on protease inhibitors (PIs), found that the following PIs have activity against HIV-2:

• • indinavir (Crixivan)
  • lopinavir (in Kaletra)
  • saquinavir (Invirase)
  • tipranavir (Aptivus)

http://www.catie.ca/catienews.nsf/9d6a0a99ab2787c985256b9c005b053b/3545280679053d16852571240077f9f6!OpenDocument