AIDS Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

New blood donor guidelines opens door for gay, bi men

By Rachel Sun October 6, 2023

More gay and bisexual men are now eligible to donate blood. Health reporter Rachel Sun explains that’s thanks to updated screening questions that are used for all patients, regardless of sexuality. Continue Reading New blood donor guidelines opens door Read More

TV REVIEW: ‘It’s A Sin’ Series, Set During AIDS Epidemic, Resonates During COVID-19

By NPR News February 17, 2021

It's a Sin follows a cast of characters (Omari Douglas, Lydia West, David Carlyle, Callum Scott Howells and Nathaniel Curtis) in London as they deal with the emergence of the AIDS epidemic. CREDIT: Ben Blackall/HBO Max

The emergence of AIDS provides the impetus for It's a Sin, a hit British series about five young people who share a London apartment over the years from 1981 to '91. The show is the semi-autobiographical brainchild of Russell T. Davies, a writer best known for creating Queer as Folk and resurrecting Doctor Who. With his gimlet eye for the pop jugular, Davies turns the Read More

13,140,000 Minutes: It’s Been 25 Years Since The First Performance Of ‘Rent’

By NPR News January 25, 2021

Daphne Rubin-Vega played Mimi in Rent. "It was a lot of fun to actually be able to practically apply my research of partying ..." she says. "I knew these people. I knew this world." She's pictured above with Adam Pascal in New York Theatre Workshop's 1996 production of rent. CREDIT: Joan Marcus

On Jan. 25, 1996, a new rock musical by a little-known writer, Jonathan Larson, gave its first performance. Friends and family filed into a small off-Broadway theater to see Rent. The show was a retelling of La Boheme, set on the Lower East Side of New York, as people were dying of AIDS. It became an international phenomenon, winning the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award, Read More

5 Years After Indiana’s Historic HIV Outbreak, Many Rural Places Elsewhere Remain At Risk

By NPR News February 16, 2020

Ethan Howard was among 235 people in the southern Indiana community of Austin, Ind., to be infected with HIV in an outbreak that hit in 2015. It was fueled by injection drug use. CREDIT: Luke Sharrett/Kaiser Health News

Fewer than a third of the 220 counties deemed by the federal government as vulnerable to similar outbreaks have active syringe exchange programs which can stop the spread of the infection. Continue Reading 5 Years After Read More

American Anthem: ‘I Will Survive’ Saves Marginalized People A Spot On The Dance Floor

By NPR News September 25, 2019

Gloria Gaynor originally recorded "I Will Survive" as a B-side, but swiftly after its release in October 1978 it became a worldwide hit. CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Recorded after a traumatic period in the singer's life, Gloria Gaynor's disco hit quickly found its true audience: LGBT communities, survivors of domestic violence and others pushed aside by society. Continue Reading American Read More

What Federal PrEP Drug Plan For Uninsured Americans Means For The Spread Of HIV

By PBS Newshour May 14, 2019

Truvada is the only FDA-approved drug to prevent HIV infection

Top HIV/AIDS researchers and public health advocates say the Trump administration’s new deal to provide uninsured Americans with free drugs to prevent HIV infection is a promising step in America’s fight against AIDS. But actually reaching the very people most in need of the medication — like men who have sex with men and people who use injection drugs — and convincing Read More

Washington HIV Infection Rates Stay Steady, Except for Yakima County Anomaly

By Esmy Jimenez December 6, 2018

Inside New Hope Clinic, quilts like this one adorn the hallways. Often they’re made by the families of HIV and AIDS patients. This one was used as coffin cover for Bobby Joe, a patient who died in 1997. CREDIT: ESMY JIMENEZ/NWPB

The Washington State Department of Health released its annual report on HIV and AIDS this week, pegged to the Dec. 1 World AIDS Day. According to the report, 14,000 people are HIV positive in Washington, on par with past years. Continue Read More

‘I’ll Always Remember Him.’ Yakima Nurse Reflects On Serving Patients Ahead Of World AIDS Day

By Esmy Jimenez November 30, 2018

Angeles Pulido has been a nurse for 18 years, inspired to get trained and work with HIV/AIDS patients in Yakima after reading a Time magazine article. She remembers patients like one of her first: “Deep black, deep black. To see those eyes. I’ll always remember him. He was one of the first patients I had the opportunity to be with.” Read More

Record High Number Of STD Infections In U.S., As Prevention Funding Declines

By NPR News August 28, 2018

A tinted transmission electron micrograph of Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria (light purple/black) inside a cell. Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the U.S., with more than 1.7 million reported cases in 2017. Biomedical Imaging Unit, Southampton General Hospital/Science Source

For the fourth year in a row, federal health officials report that there has been a sharp increase in sexually transmitted diseases in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tallied nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in 2017 — an increase of 200,000 cases over the previous year, and a record high. Read More