Tagged: HIV

The state of Michigan today awarded $2.5 million for HIV-AIDS prevention and intervention in urban communities throughout the state.

Some of the cities that will directly benefit from the fund include: Detroit, Kalamazoo, Dearborn, Ypsilanti, Saginaw, Lansing, Ferndale, Grand Rapids, Muskegon, and Flint.

A new $21 million grant will establish a Center for HIV RNA Studies at the University of Michigan.

The National Institutes of Health grant will be distributed over a five-year period and is intended to help researchers better understand the virus on a molecular level.

From the University of Michigan:

I can only imagine, thinking you might have been exposed to HIV might be one of the scariest things of a person’s life.  Am I infected?  Will I get AIDS? 

Even more traumatic, is contracting it because you were sexually assaulted.

David—not his real name— says he was at a bar one night late in 2009.  He was hoping for a ride home.  He ended up at another man’s house and they had sex.  David says it was unwanted, that it was sexual assault.

“He doesn’t think he assaulted me.  So, uhm.  But, he was going to against my will.”

Clean Works Needle Exchange began ten years ago. At the time it was very controversial for Grand Rapids city commissioners to adopt local laws that would give drug users access to clean syringes.

Tami VandenBerg leads the non-profit that runs the Clean Works Needle Exchange. She says they provide clean needles for about 600 people a year.