The HIV prevention landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years. In the past, most health care professionals could only support consistent use of condoms, frequent testing, and risk-reduction counseling for HIV prevention. Today, these approaches can be used in conjunction with new methods that have been developed and are now available to the public to lower risk of HIV infection. (more…)
The New York State Department of Health, AIDS Institute has awarded the Institute for Advanced Medicine (IAM) at the Mount Sinai Health System, a five-year, $5 million clinical education and training grant to help health care providers in New York State improve the outcomes of patients with HIV, hepatitis C (HCV), and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
What started as a casual observation among physicians almost a decade ago—that patients with HIV tend to develop hypertension and have a greater risk of heart attacks than the general population—has become a formal area of study and treatment within the Mount Sinai Health System.
Under the direction of Merle Myerson, MD, EdD, Director of the Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Roosevelt Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, and Director of the Cardiology Section of the Spencer Cox Center for Health, patients with HIV are being closely monitored and treated for heart disease and stroke. In fact, cardiovascular care has become increasingly critical to the overall health of HIV patients, as more of them live well into their 70s and 80s.
The only thing to fear is fear itself. So please get tested. Of the approximately 1.2 million people in the United States who are HIV positive, 250,000 don’t know it.
There are two good reasons to know your HIV status. First, there are treatments available that let people live normal lives. The earlier they’re started in the course of the disease, the better they are at protecting people against complications. Second, people who are HIV positive and successfully suppress the virus with treatment are less likely to transmit the disease. (more…)