In This Issue

If we want to end the US HIV epidemic, we must end the epidemic among Black MSM. To do that research about gay and bisexual men must not only include Black MSM, Black MSM's realities must be central not peripheral to the study's design. Ramon Sahib Johnson reports.

What's Happening Here? Some HIV Research Continues to Miss the Mark

The Abbey, a gay bar in West Hollywood

You'd be hard-pressed to find a Lionel Richie song in a gay bar these days, but the lyrics to Richie's classic "Dancing on the Ceiling" ring just as true today as they did in the mid-1980s. "What is happening here?" Richie chants in his popular track. "Something is going on/That's not quite clear ... "

CDC Shares Resources on the Risks of Healthcare-associated Infections from Drug Diversion

Drug diversion

Quality health care is safe health care; neither patients nor providers should be at risk for acquiring HBV, HCV, or other bloodborne infections during health care encounters. Viral hepatitis stakeholders recognize that such health care-associated infections are an important public health and patient safety issue and are committed to better understanding the causes and further reducing the risk of their occurrence. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed several new resources which focus on protecting patients and workers from health care-associated viral hepatitis—priority area #6 in the updated national Viral Hepatitis Action Plan.

Mass Media Campaigns Effective for Condom Use and HIV Knowledge

Condoms

Mass media campaigns can effectively promote condom use and knowledge about HIV infection, according to results of a meta-analysis involving more than 140,000 people. Such campaigns proved more effective in countries that scored lower on the human development index score.

HMO, PPO, EPO: How's A Consumer To Know What Health Plan Is Best?

Myriad of plans

What's in a name? When it comes to health plans sold on the individual market, these days it's often less than people think. The lines that distinguish HMOs, PPOs, EPOs and POS plans from one another have blurred, making it hard to know what you're buying by name alone--assuming you're one of the few people who know what an EPO is in the first place.