Update on the battle against AIDS

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(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Hour 1

The International AIDS Conference starts this weekend in Washington D.C. and there is some good news to celebrate. Last year, 8 million people in poor countries received life-saving AIDS medications and infection rates among children continued to decline. But in the United States, the epidemic has remained stubbornly unchanged and is even spiking in certain communities: 1.2 million Americans are HIV-positive and there are still 50,000 new infections each year. This hour, we’ll take a look at the AIDS epidemic in our region and discuss some of the roadblocks to education, prevention and treatment. We’ll also get an update on some of the medical advances in the fight against AIDS, including the new HIV home-test kit and the preventive drug Truvada. Guest host Maiken Scott talks to IAN FRANK, director of the Clinical-Therapeutics Program of the Penn Center for AIDS Research; NURIT SHEIN, executive director of the Philadelphia-based Mazzoni Center; and AMY NUNN, assistant professor of Medicine at Brown University and Director of a new HIV-testing campaign in Southwest Philadelphia called “Do One Thing.”

Listen to the mp3

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[audio: 072012_100630.mp3]

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