STUDY: New HIV Infections Drop In All US Groups Except Young Gay & Bisexual Men

According to an AMA study published this weekend, over the last decade new HIV infections have dropped by one-third. The decline was seen in all demographics except young gay and bisexual men.

The study is based on HIV diagnoses from all 50 states’ health departments, which get test results from doctors’ offices, clinics, hospitals and laboratories. The data span a decade, making this a larger and longer look at these trends than any previous study, said another study author, Amy Lansky of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings: 16 out of every 100,000 people ages 13 and older were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2011, a steady decline from 24 out of 100,000 people in 2002. Declines were seen in the rates for men, women, whites, blacks, Hispanics, heterosexuals, injection drug users and most age groups. The only group in which diagnoses increased was gay and bisexual men, the study found. The diagnosis rate is a direct measure of when people actually tested positive for the virus. The diagnoses may be identifying infections that happened recently or years before.

According to the CDC, only 45% of American adults have ever been tested for HIV.

50 More Prop 8 Briefs Filed

Another 50 Supreme Court briefs have been filed in support of the overturn of Proposition 8.  Many of the briefs have multiple sponsors, so I'll just pull out a few of the names from the list compiled by the press office of San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera.

National Women's Law Center
Williams Institute
Gay & Lesbian Medical Association
Lambda Legal
National Center for Lesbian Rights
California Medical Association
American Medical Association
American Sociological Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Academy of Pediatrics
Equality California
Anti-Defamation League
American Jewish Committee
United Church of Christ
Metropolitan Community Church
Survivors of Sexual Orientation Change Therapies
Family Equality Council
GLSEN
GLAD

Many more names and the full briefs are at the link.

Medical And Psychological Groups File Amicus Brief In Support Of DOMA Suit

Read it here. (Tipped by JMG reader Bernie)

AMA Denounces Photoshop

The American Medical Association says that image manipulation programs like Photoshop are helping push young women into eating disorders.

The use of photo retouching doesn't just make for unrealistic images – it can also be bad for your health. The American Medical Association has taken a stand against the Photoshopping of images since "such alterations can contribute to unrealistic expectations of appropriate body image – especially among impressionable children and adolescents, according to a decision announced this week. The AMA has adopted a new policy that encourages ad agencies to work with agencies devoted to child and adolescent health to develop guidelines for ads.

AMA Comes Out For Marriage

In response to the vote in the New York legislature, the American Medical Association has issued a call for the marriage equality across the United States. Via press release from Freedom To Marry:

With the New York State now the sixth – and largest – state to end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a policy position declaring that excluding same-sex couples from marriage is “discriminatory” and reaffirming existing AMA policy to support relationship recognition of gay and lesbian couples as a means of addressing health disparities faced by those couples and their families. “With this deliberate policy statement by the American Medical Association, the nation’s doctors diagnose the pain and injury that exclusion from marriage inflicts on lesbian and gay couples, their children, and loved ones – and make clear that ending marriage discrimination is the cure,” said Evan Wolfson, founder and President of Freedom to Marry. “The AMA now joins every other mainstream public health organization in America in making the case for providing the freedom to marry – and the critical safety-net that comes with marriage – to loving, committed same-sex couples.”

No To Public Insurance: AMA Will Oppose Obama's Health Care Reforms

The American Medical Association (AMA) says they plan to oppose Barack Obama's health care reform plan to create a public health insurance system.

In comments submitted to the Senate Finance Committee, the American Medical Association said: “The A.M.A. does not believe that creating a public health insurance option for non-disabled individuals under age 65 is the best way to expand health insurance coverage and lower costs. The introduction of a new public plan threatens to restrict patient choice by driving out private insurers, which currently provide coverage for nearly 70 percent of Americans.” If private insurers are pushed out of the market, the group said, “the corresponding surge in public plan participation would likely lead to an explosion of costs that would need to be absorbed by taxpayers.””

The NYT points out that the AMA does not speak for all doctors and that some doctors groups do support a single-payer insurance system.