Gay Dating App To Offer Reminders For Users To Get Tested For HIV
“For a company of this magnitude to do this is groundbreaking,” said Dr. Jeffrey D. Klausner, a former chief of sexually transmitted disease prevention in San Francisco. Meanwhile, health providers are are applying their hard-won victories and lessons learned from treating HIV patients to their primary care patients.
The New York Times:
Grindr, Popular Gay Sex App, To Offer H.I.V. Test Reminders
In an effort to shrink the global AIDS epidemic, the world’s largest gay dating app is changing its software this week to urge millions of users to get frequent H.I.V. tests. Grindr, which claims to have 3.3 million daily users from every country in the world, will send men who opt into the service a reminder every three to six months, and simultaneously point them to the nearest testing site. It will also let clinics, gay community centers and other testing sites advertise for free. (McNeil, 3/26)
The Desert Sun:
Health-Care Providers Apply Lessons From HIV Survivors To Primary Care
When celebrated author and alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra visited Palm Springs in early February, he had an epiphany. Invited to be a featured speaker in the Palm Springs Speaks lecture series, he visited Desert AIDS Project before his event that evening. While touring the campus Chopra realized he was seeing the real-life manifestation of what he’d been advocating for decades. “For 35 years I’ve talked about health and well-being, a holistic approach, integrative approach — this is it,” Chopra said in a video interview with D.A.P. CEO and President David Brinkman and Chief Medical Officer David Morris. In the soft-spoken yet authoritative voice he’s known for, Chopra described an “amazing experience” exploring D.A.P.’s housing complex; sexual health clinic; acupuncture, yoga and meditation services; and more. (Dean, 3/26)
In other public health news —
KPBS:
Opioid Crisis Gripping More Addicts Before Adulthood
According to the last national survey on drug use and health, one in four young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 are using illicit drugs, much of it in the form of painkillers. The crisis stretches across the country. In San Diego County there were 400 overdose deaths last year. (Hindmon, 3/26)
Los Angeles Times:
By Going Vegan, America Could Feed An Additional 390 Million People, Study Suggests
More than 41 million Americans find themselves at risk of going hungry at some point during the year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says.But it doesn't have to be this way. New research suggests the country could feed all 327 million Americans — plus roughly 390 million more — by focusing on plants. If U.S. farmers took all the land currently devoted to raising cattle, pigs and chickens and used it to grow plants instead, they could sustain more than twice as many people as they do now, according to a report published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Kaplan, 3/26)