Nurse Falsely Outs Gay Man as HIV-Positive to Patients

A gay man has received an apology after a nurse announced that he was HIV-positive in front of a crowded waiting room of other patients, as well as the man's boss.

Liam Taylor, of Christchurch, New Zealand, said that he had gone to his dentist's office for a root canal earlier this year, and during the procedure, a dental assistant pricked herself with a needle. According to The Dominion Post, Taylor was asked to take a blood test to ensure that he had not transmitted HIV or another blood-based illness to the dental assistant

When he arrived at St. George's Hospital for testing, Taylor went to a nurse supervising the desk to clarify the details on the incident report.

"I took it back up to the desk and the nurse said I had filled out the wrong section of the form," he said in the article. "She said I needed to fill out the 'source' section, not the 'recipient' section because I was 'the source of the HIV or AIDS.' I was just totally shocked when she said that."

Taylor's boss accompanied him to the clinic, and overheard the nurse's statement. "The nurse then said, 'sorry, I mean the potential source of HIV or AIDS.' I was so embarassed, All these people were in the waiting room, and she said it loudly...and the first thing that came to my mind was, 'is she just assuming that I have diseased because I'm gay?'

Taylor tested negative for HIV.

After he told the dental office what happened, they reduced his bill by $150. A staff person at the lab also called Taylor to apologize for the incident.

Physician Fails To Inform Transgender Man of Cancer Diagnosis

Transgender man Jay Kallio is shining a light on LGBT discrimination in the medical community -- after his own physician failed to inform him of a cancer diagnosis.
When Kallio, 56, underwent a medical exam at a major New York hospital, he claims that the surgeon appeared bewildered by his patient's body. Though the doctor ordered a mammogram, he failed to inform Kallio that the lump on his breast had tested positive for cancer.
Kallio, who transitioned from female to male six years ago, learned of his condition "accidentally" when a lab techician called to inquire about the diagnosis. "Which diagnosis?" Kallio asked, bewildered as well.
"I kept hitting this stone wall of non-acceptance," Kallio told the New York Daily News. "It's a systemic problem. It was at all levels of providers, from doctors to housekeeping to the nursing staff. People need to be aware that this discrimination will not be tolerated."
Although the doctor later apologized, Kallio told the Daily News that the time spent to find new physicians has put his health in greater danger.
"It delayed my care past the therapeutic window for chemotherapy," said Kallio. "You should have chemotherapy within three months of cancer therapy. Because I had to change providers and kept encountering discrimination, it delayed the care. So much of cancer care has to do with early treatment."
The Affordable Care Act, passed by President Obama in 2010, prohibits physicians from discriminating against LGBT patients. But according to activists, many medical centers are unaware of their lawful obligations.
"Our community needs medical providers to know what their obligations are and passing a law is the strongest and clearest way to do that," said Mara Keisling, director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, to ABC News.
"It's incredibly important to me that this not happen to other transgender people," said Kallio. "To have all this added stress and rejection and to be denied care from providers was daunting - it was awful."

A Drug That Prevents HIV?

The Food and Drug Administration in July approved the prescription drug Truvada for use in HIV prevention, making it the first medication OK’d for preventing, not just treating, HIV. Truvada is already widely used to treat HIV, but studies have indicated that it can help keep people from contracting the virus. The FDA approved its use by HIV-negative people who are at high risk of acquiring HIV.

“Today’s approval marks an important milestone in our fight against HIV,” said FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg, MD. “Every year, about 50,000 U.S. adults and adolescents are diagnosed with HIV infection, despite the availability of prevention methods and strategies to educate, test, and care for people living with the disease. New treatments as well as prevention methods are needed to fight the HIV epidemic in this country.”

The FDA is changing the warning literature boxed with Truvada to emphasize that those using it for prevention need to be confirmed as HIV-negative and tested for the virus every three months. The agency is also starting a training and education program to help doctors inform their patients about the necessity of adhering to the recommended dose, engaging in safer-sex practices, receiving counseling, and getting tested regularly as well as their small but real risk of still contracting HIV while on the drug.

Some doctors have already been prescribing Truvada off-label for prevention to the HIV-negative partner of an HIV-positive person, but they did so at their own discretion. FDA approval now allows its maker, Gilead Sciences, to explicitly market the drug for the purpose of prevention. Truvada, a combination of the drugs Emtriva (emtricitabine) and Viread (tenofovir), is one of the class of drugs called nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, so called for the way in which it suppresses replication of HIV in infected people.

AIDS activists and service providers were not universally enthusiastic about Truvada’s approval for preventive use, expressing concerns about adherence, side effects, and declining condom use. Michael Weinstein, president of the Los Angeles–based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, issued a statement calling the action “completely reckless and a move that will ultimately set back years of HIV prevention efforts.”

Numerous others, however, said Truvada for prevention is a necessary additional weapon in the fight against HIV. It “won’t end AIDS by itself, but we certainly can’t end the HIV epidemic without it,” San Francisco AIDS Foundation spokesman James Loduca told the San Francisco Chronicle.