Brandon Plain is a photographer, poet, culinarian, and most importantly an advocate. As Executive Director and Founder of Artists for Advocacy International, he has created a non-profit organization whose mission is to utilize the ARTS to educate and advocate for world dilemmas. He founded AFAINT in 2006 in memory of his uncle Lonnie Terry Plain who passed away from complications he suffered from HIV exposure.
After experiencing such a lost he decided there would be no better way to use his creative talents and fervrent desire to help others than to create a coalition of artists, art professionals, educators, and facilitators who would combine their talents to create awareness and implement solutions to aide the poor and sick. To the left see what he has to say about HIV/AIDS, Malaria, hunger and thirst.

To view some of Brandons artistic work please go to http://afaint.org/#/artists.html.

September 5, 2010

HIV SET FREE In Virginia

Imagine if one day you woke up and the very medication you were taking which was not only keeping you healthy but keeping you alive would no longer be available to you?Imagine that you had fostered up the courage to even take an HIV test, be a responsible citizen, and while taking charge of your life you learned that the medication you needed wouldn’t be available for months or that you would have to pay thousands of dollars for a single medication?

It is happening all over the country and thousands yes thousands of people who are HIV positive and recently diagnosed are being put on waiting lists for HIV medications and medications associated with being positive. For the first time in twenty years there has been a dramatic shortfall in Virginia’s ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program). Virginias ADAP is worth 21.6 million dollars and the state funds roughly 10% of the program while the other 90 % is funded by the governments Ryan White CARE ACT. The AIDS Drug Assistance program roll back has forced Virginia’s low-income, uninsured HIV and AIDS patients to dramatically limit who it serves. Like several other states, Virginia’s Department of Health (VDH) has struggled to accommodate increased need, which has been driven by a slow recovering economy, increased HIV testing, and patients living longer on available anti-retrovirals. So this is where we stand to date: VDH has haulted the enrollment of HIV/AIDS infected people from its A
DAP program, leaving the brunt of the patients to rely on possible Medicaid assistance and assistance from drug company assistance programs known as PAPS (Patient Assistance Programs). The program changes started in November 2010 and the ADAP program is currently only enrolling children 18 and younger, pregnant women, and individuals receiving treatment for an active opportunistic infection. Early approximations state that 400 new clients a year who would have qualified will be placed on the waiting list while an estimated 760 of the patients with more stable immune systems will transition from Virginia’s AIDS Drug Assistance Programs all together. Also adding the crisis is the ADAP formulary that once had medications that serviced opportunisitic infections and co- morbidities have been nearly cut in half leaving case Managers, state workers, and other social advocates scrambling trying to help these individuals live a healthy life with one of the most dangerous viruses our Earth has encountered.

Allow me to go a bit further as an social advocate to let you know why this is a serious problem for a person who is positive. You see, the human immune deficiency virus known as HIV starts to build a resistance to a medication very soon after a carrier starts taking the ARV’s (anti-retrovirals). Therefore a person who is currently taking medications puts themselves at serious risk for building up resistances to a medication that could help keep them healthy for ten plus years. Secondly, for newly diagnosed patients the fear and stigma is hard enough, so imagine not being able to receive medication upon finding out the fate of being HIV+, devastating! This is what the state of Virginia

and many other states are dealing with right now.

The good news for 2011 is that VA’s General Assembly Session ended Feb. 27th and in the final budget for this year there is another 3.5 million added to the 3.4 million to be used before June 30, 2011. What this means is that social advocacy works and that we as consumers, advocates, and general people that care can make a difference by calling our Senators and delegates and letting them know that the people on the bottom are not going to go down without a fight! We hope that as we continue to advocate for these social dilemmas that affect people every day you will stand with AFAINT and other organizations to lift your voices and speak out!

about how such a small number of straight black men can infect a large number of black women! Now the Heterosexual Men of Color Coalition in collaboration with other organizations such as AIDS Foundation Houston, the Campaign to End AIDS, Community Education Group and Artists for Advocacy International just to name a few , are starting this dialogue. I have the pleasure of serving as a Chairperson for the Heterosexual Men of Color Coalition and our vision and mission is to create a national dialogue that addresses the need of racial minorities and to raise awareness about health issues and disparities among men of color.

To even indulge on a dialogue though we must dispel some myths about African American men! In the arena of black HIV/AIDS there is a conversation taking place about sexual identification when it comes to African American men and the so called down-low. The down-low is based on a subculture where men who were identifying as straight but secretly have sex with men started to confess their private lifestyle. The problem with this is that it has never been backed up by ANY epidemiological data! Dr. Chandra L. Ford of Columbia University in New York City, did an interview with Reuters Health and stated, "Part of what has happened as a result of that initial burst of stories reporting the 'down low' is that those stories often tied the down low to high rates of HIV infection among African-American women, which was not supported by epidemiological data," Ford added. "There were a lot of assumptions; there were a lot of leaps of faith that led to that." We must first ask ourselves the immediate question are black men the only demographic who identify as straight and secretly have sex with women. You would be a fool to think so. Men who have sex with men and women have always defied race and even gender. Here is one actual fact; AIDS is the number one killer of black women between the ages of 24-35. Now here is another, researchers from the Public Health Management Corporation recently completed a study that found that men who identify as down low do not pose any higher risk of spreading HIV to female partners than openly bisexual men. The term has been thrown into the black community and not only did we catch it, we held on to it, as to try and explain why HIV rates among African American women were so high yet low in contrast to straight black men.

I believe this can be figured out with a simple HIV 101 lesson and a minimal education in sociology! HIV is more difficult to contract when the women is positive and the man isn’t, being that the virus must make its way through the urethra of the penis, this is not an easy task. The urethra of the penis is extremely tight and basically only opens through insertion and ejaculation. Also HIV exists in semen not sperm and men make deposits of semen (pre-cum) into the women’s vagina nearly the entirety of intercourse.

The sociological reasons are just as simple. HIV is a social disease which enjoys the fruits of social-economically deprived areas. For instance African American communities continue to experience higher rates of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) compared with other racial/ethnic communities in the US. The presence of certain STIs can significantly increase the chance of contracting HIV. Additionally, a person who has both HIV and certain STIs has a greater chance of infecting others with HIV. The socioeconomic issues associated with poverty, including limited access to high-quality health care, housing, and HIV prevention education, directly and indirectly increase the risk for HIV infection and affect the health of people living with and at risk for HIV infection.

So here we are, black women make up 61 percent of all new HIV cases. Dr Kevin Fenton who is the director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an interview with National Public Radio stated it is crucially important to bear in mind that there are a range of risk factors which face black women in the United States today. Therefore, you need to look at the risk factors which are far more prevalent in the community - having multiple sexual partners with unprotected sex with heterosexual partners, injecting drugs. Those are going to be factors which are far more prevalent in the population and are driving risks.

All in all we know that data drives funding! One of the goals of HMOCC is to address the CDC in how they acquire research and provide data and services that address straight black men who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. When you go to the CDC website you will find an array of great HIV/AIDS statistics on all races, injection drug users, and genders but when you try to find the numbers on heterosexual black men they are absent. As stated before, data drives funding, so proper research on the demographic that fuels the HIV epidemic of African American women is the best way to fight the disease. The CDC has multiple HIV programs and funding opportunities but little to none for heterosexual males of any color. For example there is the Act Against AIDS Campaign a 16,000,000 million campaign designed to address HIV domestically and the hardest hit areas-MSM’s, the Expanded Testing Initiative, $55,000,000 to the Young Men of Color who have sex with Men and Young Trandsgenders, WILLOW that works with gender pride, Sister to Sister and SIHLE which works to empower to women of color, D-UP (Defend Yourself) which address social, cultural, and religious norms, promote condom use, and assist black MSM in recognizing and handling HIV risk-related racial and sexual bias. Lastly there is Nia. Nia educates African American heterosexual men about HIV/AIDS and its effect on their communities and motivates risk-reduction behaviors by effective condom use. Nia is a skilled based motivational based video small group intervention, hardly enough to tackle the problem of HIV in the black heterosexual community.

I try not to speculate why African American straight men have been left out of the HIV equation but the lack of funding and programs to reach this demographic has left me baffled. Recently, at the United States Conference on AIDS HMOCC gathered together to have a national dialogue with any interested parties about the HIV/AIDS epidemic . The goal was to create and improve the network of heterosexual male groups, create and implement a strategy targeting straight men to get tested, get educated and create awareness about their own demographic. What transpired was a huge desire and appreciation by gay, straight, and women centered organizations and individuals excited about heterosexual men coming to the table. What we found is that there are actually some heterosexual male organizations already pounding the pavement looking for partnerships to help fuel the conversation about heterosexual males. Now the task is use this motivation to unite and push organizations like the CDC to include straight black men in the areas of funding , prevention and care.

The CDC has an interesting statistic stating that black men accounted for 70% of all new infections among all blacks, then goes on to later state that 73% of all black male infections were by MSM’s. Well with a little math you can come to a conclusion, that 27% of those new infections in 2009 were heterosexual black men. As far as African American women are considered, because 70% percent of all black infections were men of any preference that should leave 30% as women. Now here is the kicker, 85% of black women contracted HIV through heterosexual contact which means that 27% of positive straight black men more likely passed the virus on to 85% of black females in 2009, yet no one is sounding the alarm to fund, or generate a conversation

SEPTEMBER 5, 2011

HIV SET FREE IN VIRGINIA

Imagine, if one day you woke up and the medication you were taking which is not only keeping you healthy, but keeping you alive, would no longer be available to you? Imagine, that you had fostered up the courage to take an HIV test, be a responsible citizen, and you learned that the medication you needed wouldnt be available for months. Just as bad could you imagine that you would now have to pay thousands of dollars for a single medication that once was free?

It is happening all over the country, and thousands yes of people who are HIV positive and recently diagnosed are being put on waiting lists for HIV medications and medications associated with being HIV positive. For the first time in twenty years there has been a dramatic shortfall in Virginias ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program). Virginias ADAP is worth 21.6 million dollars and the state funds roughly 10% of the program while the other 90 % is funded by the governments Ryan White CARE ACT. The AIDS Drug Assistance program roll back has forced Virginias low-income, uninsured HIV and AIDS patients to be put on waiting lists for their anti-retrovirals. Basically speaking, HIV+ individuals are losing their ability to have access to free medications.

Like several other states, Virginias Department of Health (VDH) has struggled to accommodate increased need, which has been driven by a slow recovering economy, increased HIV testing, and patients living longer on available anti-retrovirals. So this is where we stand to date: VDH has haulted the enrollment of HIV/AIDS infected people from its ADAP program, leaving the brunt of the patients to rely on possible Medicaid assistance and assistance from drug company assistance programs known as PAPs (Patient Assistance Programs). The program changes started in November 2010 and the ADAP program is currently only enrolling children 18 and younger, pregnant women, and individuals receiving treatment for an active opportunistic infection. Early approximations state that 400 new clients a year who would have qualified will be placed on the waiting list while an estimated 760 of the patients with more stable immune systems will transition from Virginias AIDS Drug Assistance Programs all together. Also, adding to the crisis is the ADAP formulary that serviced opportunisitic infections and co- morbidities have been nearly cut in half leaving case managers, state workers, and other social advocates scrambling trying to help these individuals live with one of the most dangerous viruses our Earth has encountered.

Allow me to go a bit further as an social advocate, the reason why this is such a serious problem for a person who is positive. You see, the human immune deficiency virus known as HIV starts to build a resistance to a medication very soon after a carrier starts taking the ARVs (anti-retrovirals). Therefore a person who is currently taking medications puts themselves at serious risk for building up resistances to a medication that could help keep them healthy for ten plus years. Secondly, for newly diagnosed patients the fear and stigma is hard enough, so imagine not being able to receive medication upon finding out the fate of being HIV+, devastating! This is what the state of Virginia and many other states are dealing with right now.

The good news for 2011 is that VAs General Assembly Session ended Feb. 27th and in the final budget for this year there is another 3.5 million added to the 3.4 million to be used before June 30, 2011. The Govenor of Virginia Bob Mcdonell only proposed the 3.4 million even though VDH met with the JCHC (Joint Comission on Health Care) and told them the state needed at least 10,000,000 to service the thousands of people infected in with HIV in Virginia! So we are glad that the state has heard our cry, or at least for now. What all of this means is that social advocacy works and that we as consumers, advocates, and general people that care, can make a difference. So continue to call your state senators and delegates and letting them know that the people on the bottom are not going to go down without a fight! We hope that as we continue to advocate for these social dilemmas that affect people every day you will stand with AFAINT and other organizations to lift your voices and speak out!

November 5, 2011

"Heterosexual Men of Color Coalition and the Forgotten Demographic"

Ever wondered why the conversation concerning HIV in the areas of data and funding is centered around african american women and homosexual men? With alarming HIV rates from MSM’s (Men who have sex with men) and heterosexual African American women there may be a legitimate reason, yet nevertheless heterosexual African American men are overshadowed, overlooked, and underserved. It appears in the realm of HIV, heterosexual black men have become the forgotten demographic. I have become personally aware of this merely because of the the difficulty in finding research on HIV diagnoses concerning black straight men. When trolling for hours through HIV/AIDS statistics you will notice the way the statistics are collected are specifically by race and gender. You will find countless records that indicate that African Americans represent 14% of the population but account for 44% of all new infections in 2009.

1/15/12

Are We There Yet?

After over 30 Years of HIV eluding the world’s leading scientists and virologists, the public is still left asking, do we have a vaccine, and are we there yet? Not quite. Are we close? Maybe! There has been a lot of talk lately about Pre and Post Exposure Prophylaxis. Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PeP) is antiretroviral drug treatment that is prescribed within 72 hours after someone is thought to have been exposed to the Human Immune Deficiency virus known as HIV, which causes AIDS. The goal and purpose of this form of treatment is to allow the immune system a chance to provide protection against the virus before it can be established (seroconversion) into the person’s body. The widely used combination of post-exposure prophylaxis is zidovudine, lamivudine and nelfinavir. (Epivir, Retrovir, and Viracept). These three medications, also categorized as a cocktail, are usually administered as a month supply and can cause serious side effects from nausea and vomiting to headaches, so many do not finish the thirty day course.

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is a treatment administered before exposure to HIV in an attempt to prevent the individual from becoming HIV positive. The antiretroviral drugs in current trial phase for PrEP treatment are Tenofovir and Emtricitabine (Truvada) or Tenofovir alone. Studies have shown that administered once a day, these drugs have very little side effects and limited association drug resistance.

It is my belief that the highly sensationalized news of PrEP has been over stated and after 31 years of, in many ways fighting a losing battle against HIV, we are looking for any sign of good news. There are many reasons to be hesitant on becoming too excited about the use of PrEP. Of course the first thing to look at is will it work, preferably, all the time? It has shown extremely positive result in trials on animals such as the Macaque monkey and mice but when administered to humans you run into ethical battles I’m not so sure the public will so easily stomach. For instance, a treatment like this could decrease condom-use, which is the most effective form of protection thus far, and increase risk of drug-class resistance. Next, there have been various problems with efficacy of how the trials are being administered because like in any double blind study placebos are given, which some feel directly place trials participants in harm’s way! Nevertheless, the results are good but in the terms of life and death, infection and non-infection, we need a success rate better than 63%.

It is being touted that pre-exposure prophylaxis could have enormous impact on the worldwide HIV-1 epidemic, but my question is how can this be when the majority of the people living with HIV worldwide live in Africa and Asia, where infrastructure, corruption, stigma, and inequality run rampid? How is this the great drug hope for the world? PrEP’s benefits are for the modern world not third world nations. The only way to significantly reduce the spread of HIV, every geographical area must have their own multipronged approach to stopping the spread of HIV. This includes advocacy, medication access, access to testing, and infrastructure to name a few.

Now for those modern-world sero-discordant couples, the approach of PrEP in complete collaboration with condom use is huge. I pray, if this approach is possible to become mainstream, serodiscordant couples and the like, take it and run with it. For my African brothers and sisters I can only hope that one day you have the same benefits of government and infrastructure the modern world has so these benefits can create the same joy in your hearts, until then...

WILL BE PUBLISHED/STAY TUNED