Greece Reinstates Forced HIV Testing -WTH?

Greece's health minister has reinstated a draconian measure that allows mandatory HIV testing, detention, and even

eviction.

BY DAVID ARTAVIA

Health minister Adonis Georgladis has reinstated Public Health Decree 39A, a 2012 measure that allows police to detain people suspected of being HIV positive and force them to be tested, according the Greek news outlet ENET. The measure also urges landlords to evict tenants who are HIV-positive (as a public health threat).

How does the World Health Organization (WHO) Define AIDS and HIV Case in different Countries?

Since 1982, many different definitions have been used for national and international reporting. The following list

of documents, mostly in PDF format, gives an overview of the most commonly used definitions. We have also included an Excel file with a list of WHO Member States with definitions they are currently using.

• 1982: CDC AIDS Case Definition
  pdf, 19kb
• 1985: WHO Bangui AIDS Case Definition
  pdf, 921kb
• 1986: WHO/CDC AIDS Case Definition
  pdf, 638kb
• 1987: WHO/CDC Revision of AIDS Case Definition
  pdf, 759kb
• 1989: Caracas AIDS Case Definition
  pdf, 931kb
• 1993: CDC Expanded Surveillance AIDS Case Definition
  pdf, 63kb
• 1994: WHO AIDS Case Definition for AIDS Surveillance
  pdf, 548kb
• 1995: European AIDS Case Definition for Children
  pdf, 3.40Mb
• 1997: WHO Overview of AIDS Case Definitions Used in Countries
  xls, 28kb
• 2000: CDC Guidelines for National HIV Case Surveillance, including Monitoring for HIV and AIDS

HIV Cure Has Long Way to Go Before the Clinic

KUALA LUMPUR -- The science of an HIV cure is in its infancy but scattered cases of remission -- so-called

"functional" cures -- give hope that it is possible, experts said here.

But if the tempo of development is similar to that of anti-HIV drugs in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a useful strategy is still some years away, according to Steven Deeks, MD, of the University of California San Francisco.

"I think we're in 1987," Deeks told MedPage Today -- a period when no drugs were yet available and researchers were just learning such basic things as how to measure HIV in blood and what viral targets for drugs existed.