Here’s some depressing HIV health news. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that three out of four of the 1.2 million HIV-positive Americans don’t receive enough medicine or regular health care “to stay healthy or prevent themselves from transmitting the virus to others”—240,000 don’t even know they’re infected. But there’s more!
Another study by the Williams Institute found that “55 percent of obstetricians, 46 percent of skilled nursing facilities, and 25 percent of plastic surgeons” in L.A. “had policies that specifically discriminated against people living with HIV or AIDS” over the past decade.
While our horrid economic climate has made it harder for pozzers to get proper medical attention, you’d think the Hippocratic oath and basic safety precautions would keep professional doctors open to at least serving the HIV-positive patients who do seek medical help.
Maybe not all doctors feel similarly and L.A. doctors are just extra douchey.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
bagooka
How much did the plastic surgeons pay to get listed as a “health care provider” in this study?
Henry
Unfortunately, this has little do with HIV and a lot to do with homophobia. Literally homophobia: a negative, fearful reaction just to touching gay people, or the thought of touching them. God forbid these gay patients get a cold and start sneezing on the doctors. They’d have to scrub for hours to get the gay germs off!
Pitou
“Pozzers”?!? Really?!?
You really are the scum of scum, Daniel.
Aki
Not surprised , medical personnel is the worst . I work in the field and there is a reason why I’m the only one who knows about the status of one of my colleagues. And I found out by accident.
TMikel
In every age and in every profession, there have been those who work with the ill and dying who have refused to deal with certain people, either because of the illness in question or the individual presenting the symptoms. I once worked with female nurses who would not interact with patients with breast cancer because, “you just never know.” The thing to do in such a case is document the mis-treatment and continue to pursue the issue until things are resolved or the individual in question is sanctioned. Yes, this takes time and courage but it needs to be done.
yaph
@Pitou: Why? poz isn’t a pejorative term for HIV+ people.
wesleyhorace
its rather insensitive to use the term “pozzers.”
Fitz
1) Everyone take a midol.
In the health care field, it’s totally appropriate to refer out someone with a specific disease to someone who is an expert. If I were a plastic surgeon who didn’t specialize in working with HIV+ people, I would be considered to be working way outside my scope to take one on. If you have HIV, see a dentist who knows how to work with people who have HIV. Thats’s probably 95% of the reason for these results. Lets not look for problems.
2) Everyone take a second midol.
I am sick to holy hell of the over-sensitivity. Pozzers is a fine term. There
is real discrimination that we need to worry about, not this BS. Stop distracting yourself.
Since when did all the homos become such wimps? In my day, we had thick hides.
Peter
I would imagine that obstetricians would discriminate against HIV patients because any HIV patient who is having a child is going to have a HIV+ child, which would probably hold a lot of stigma with the medical staff
Sol Invictus
@Peter: said “…any HIV patient who is having a child is going to have a HIV+ child…”
Not necessarily. The possibility is still there, yes, but with the proper medical care the risk of transmission from mother to child can be highly reduced.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe048128
Andy
@yaph: “poz” isn’t offensive. Neither is “pozzie”. “Pozzer” however implies an individual who spreads infection, a concern that is in keeping with the explicit bigotry of villareal and the rampant serophobia expressed by posters on this site. Telling people to “grow a thicker skin” because the term isn’t offensive is absolute bullshit, as Queerty is ground zero for the oversensitive queer. If we’re supposed to “grow a thicker skin”, we might want to start by publishing fewer stories about customer service agents calling people “faggots”, rather than screaming at people who take offense at a marginalizing word. I second the original statement, Villareal is scum.