Nadja Benaissa infected her boyfriend

SHE is Germany's fallen angel: a pop star named Nadja Benaissa who is accused of infecting at least one lover with HIV.

At a court in Darmstadt, the 28-year-old singer from the girl group No Angels told her infected former boyfriend: "I am sorry from the bottom of my heart."

Her five-day trial is likely to set new standards in dealing with celebrities and to raise legal questions about determining responsibility for the consequences of unprotected sex.

Benaissa was arrested last year and charged with causing grievous bodily harm by having unprotected sex while knowingly suffering from HIV. She faces up to 10 years in jail.

It is not clear how Benaissa contracted AIDS. In a statement, she said: "I had been told that there was an almost zero possibility of infecting anybody or of full-blown AIDS breaking out.

"So I didn't tell my friends. I didn't want my daughter to be stigmatised."

She did, however, tell her fellow band members, who have been called as witnesses. No Angels have been hailed as the most successful girl band in continental Europe, with four No 1 singles and three No 1 albums.


According to the state prosecutor, Benaissa was told of her HIV infection in 1999. She was 17 at the time and is, therefore, being tried by a youth court.

In a television interview in July last year, the singer, who admitted being addicted to crack cocaine when she was 14, talked about living with being HIV positive. "I can't just go anywhere I like and be free and be a normal person. I now have this stamp," she said. "I am actually completely healthy, not sick."

She allegedly slept with three men on at least five occasions between 2000 and 2004 without making her condition known.

One of them, a 34-year-old former boyfriend, was infected in 2004 and was in court as a co-plaintiff. Her defence team will suggest there is no way of establishing whether the virus was passed to the former boyfriend by Benaissa or another of his sexual partners.

AIDS campaigners say it was not the singer's sole responsibility to ensure her partners used protection. "I would like to know from the prosecutor the exact scope of a man's responsibility when conducting unprotected sex," Gisela Friedrichsen, of Der Spiegel magazine, said.

German law considers failure to disclose HIV before sex a crime, but intention to harm must be proven. The verdict is due on August 26.

Source

Obama and AIDS: National HIV/AIDS Policy 2010

OBAMA is THE Orator. He speaks about such a sensitive topic in a diligent way. The way he hypnotizes the crowd on such a topic that the crowd could not utter a word, but just listen to him.

His National HIV/AIDS policy wants ONLY three things

THREE Primary goals for the NHAS he stresses are:

1.  Reducing HIV incidence (new cases)
2.  Increasing access to care and optimizing health outcomes
3.  Reducing HIV-related health disparities

Source

HIV infected man takes a "Diffcult Decision"

Obama and AIDS

Female Condom: What the heck is that?

Will a new version of the female condom catch on?
Officials in HIV-ravaged Washington, D.C., certainly hope so. They've launched a citywide campaign to get women and their partners to think about giving the new and improved disease- and unwanted pregnancy buster a try.
The original version was a bit of a dud. At about $3.60 apiece, it was expensive.
Some said the material, polyurethane, reminded them of a doctor's examination glove and sounded like a crinkling plastic bag during sex. And some women didn't like the way it looked, as part of it hangs out of the vagina.
The new condom, which was approved by the FDA last year, is made of d nitrile, which is reportedly less noisy. It's also less expensive - about $2 - though that's still more expensive than a male condom. Like the old version, it's a flexible pouch wider than a male condom but similar in length.
According to a new ad campaign being used in Washington to promote the new condom, it has  "pleasure points for her and him - to tease, please and protect."
 Washington, D.C. has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the country. A 2009 study found that about 3 percent of the city's population over the age of 12 has HIV or AIDS. That's a severe epidemic, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which considers an epidemic "severe" when more than 1 percent of residents are affected.
The push involves ads on buses, a website, and the handing out of 500,000 free female condoms at beauty salons, barber shops, churches and restaurants.The condoms are also being sold in Washington drugstores.
The FC is reported to be as effective as male condoms in preventing pregnancy and HIV, and because it covers more area, it may provide broader protection. It can be inserted up to eight hours before intercourse.
Most important, it allows a woman to be in control of whether protection is used.

Source

Vanessa Hudgens enacts HIV infected stripper

Source

Vanessa Hudgens shakes off her Goody Two-Shoes image - to play an HIV-infected stripper in a raunchy stage musical.
The 21-year-old left her Disney role as squeaky-clean Gabriella in High School Musical behind to star as Mimi in the hit show Rent.
And her sexy performance wowed an audience including High School co-star and boyfriend Zac Ephron at Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl.
 Source