The Department of Public Health is encouraging gay men to get regular HIV and STD testing by offering them coupons to businesses in the Castro district.
The six-month Get a Test, Get a Discount program runs through the end of October, according to health officials.
Men who come into one of six participating community-based organizations for an HIV or STD test will receive a coupon to be redeemed at a neighborhood store, restaurant or coffee shop.
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As new cases of sexually-transmitted diseases continue to rise in San Francisco, there may be an unlikely culprit behind infection rates that well exceed the national average: The City’s success in combating the spread of HIV and AIDS.
Infection rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis among San Francisco residents have been steadily rising since 2007, according to the Department of Public Health.
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Police and prosecutors in San Francisco will no longer use condoms as evidence when arresting and charging sex workers, according to an agreement announced Tuesday between The City’s law enforcement agencies and the Human Rights Commission.
The agreement followed a six-month trial period in which condoms were not used as evidence in cases.
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A vaccine designed to fight or prevent HIV infections and spur further research in the fight against AIDS was pulled from testing in San Francisco and elsewhere Thursday after researchers found it didn’t prevent the spread of the virus.
Researchers had hoped the vaccine would prevent new HIV infections as well as reduce the viral load of patients who did end up contracting the disease. But it failed to do either.
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TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Health officials on Thursday urged thousands of patients of an Oklahoma oral surgeon to undergo hepatitis and HIV testing, saying unsanitary conditions behind his office's spiffy facade posed a threat to his clients and made him a "menace to the public health."
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Those working to combat the spread of HIV in San Francisco say that if The City does not restore millions of dollars in federal cuts they would lose ground in the fight against the disease.
Since the HIV epidemic began in the 1980s, San Francisco has developed a system of care with the Department of Public Health and nonprofit groups. The system relies on federal funding to offer prevention services and ensure people are tested and properly treated.
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Mike Smith is the executive director of the AIDS Emergency Fund, a San Francisco-based organization that helps fund living expenses for people who have HIV or AIDS. On Sept. 14, Macy’s annual Glamorama fashion show — formerly Macy’s Passport — will benefit the organization.
What got you interested in helping out people diagnosed with HIV and AIDS?
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While new cases of HIV have continued to decline, other documented instances of sexually transmitted diseases are on a continuous multi-year rise in San Francisco and across California.
Some local clinics are attempting to combat the spike with additional testing methods for syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia that involve checks of the throat and rectum — steps not currently endorsed as essential by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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HIV-positive individuals in San Francisco who lack steady access to nutritious food are hospitalized and visit emergency rooms at a high rate, according to a study released Wednesday.
The study by UC San Francisco researchers, published online in the Journal of General Internal
Medicine, focused on 347 HIV patients who are poor. Of those,
56 percent are considered to be food-insecure.
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One year after a UC San Francisco research team tested for and administered treatment to nearly 200 adults infected with HIV in Uganda, many showed few signs of having the disease.According to the research — known as SEARCH, or Sustainable East African Research in Community Health — if testing for the deadly disease became routine and treatment became more immediate, the threat of HIV and AIDS could essentially end.
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