Hiv

A 13-YEAR-OLD Delaware County honor-roll student was denied admission to the Milton Hershey School, which serves low-income students, because he's HIV positive, a federal discrimination lawsuit filed yesterday in Philadelphia alleges. The complaint came the day before World AIDS Day, noted Ronda Goldfein, executive director of the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, which filed the suit. The boy was told that his application would not be considered because "[the student's]

An article about the band Wild Flag in Tuesday's Magazine gave the wrong date for its performance this week at Union Transfer. The performance is at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19. A story Monday cited old data for the number of people infected with HIV who are not aware of it. The most recent estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is 20 percent. The Inquirer wants its news report to be fair and correct in every respect, and regrets when it is not. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, contact assistant managing editor David Sullivan (215-854-2357)

Pat Lavelle attended Philadelphia's first AIDS walk in 1987, seeking emotional support and information to help her brother, James, a cardiologist who had just been found to have the disease. Back then, people still spoke of AIDS in hushed tones. Many didn't speak of it at all. "I came to the first walk just to be in a place where the word AIDS was being said," Pat Lavelle said. Twenty-four years after that first walk, and 15 years after her brother's death in 1996, Lavelle was at the Art Museum again Sunday.

Pat Lavelle went to Philadelphia's first AIDS walk in 1987 seeking emotional support and information to help her brother, James, a cardiologist who had just been diagnosed with the disease. Back then, people still spoke of AIDS in hushed tones. Many didn't speak of it at all. "I came to the first walk just to be in a place where the word AIDS was being said," Pat Lavelle said. Twenty-five years after that first walk, and 15 years after her brother's death in 1996, Lavelle was at the Art Museum again Sunday.

SAO PAULO - Newly crowned Miss Universe Leila Lopes wants to help her native Angola further escape a history of war and impoverishment and said she plans to focus on combating HIV around the globe. Speaking early yesterday shortly after taking the crown in South America's largest city, the 25-year-old Lopes said that "as Miss Angola I've already done a lot to help my people. " "I've worked with various social causes. I work with poor kids, I work in the fight against HIV. I work to protect the elderly and I have to do everything that my country needs," she said.

LOS ANGELES - An adult film performer has tested HIV-positive, prompting a temporary shutdown Monday of adult film productions across Los Angeles until further testing can confirm the results, an industry trade group said. "Until we know for sure, we've asked the industry to have a moratorium on production," said Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, a porn industry trade group. Duke's group became aware of the possible HIV case Saturday, according to a statement released to porn industry media.

Poverty, long known to be a major factor behind the HIV epidemic in urban areas, is such a powerful force that income and related measures are better predictors of who will get infected than whether a person exchanges sex for money, according to a new federal study of heterosexuals in 24 cities. The study, published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was too small to break out findings on Philadelphia or the other cities. But it helps explain why Philadelphia has some of the highest HIV rates in the country, as Philadelphia is among the most impoverished of big cities.

Poverty, long-known to be a major factor behind the HIV epidemic in urban areas, is such a powerful force that income and related measures are better predictors of who will get infected than whether they exchange sex for money, according to a new federal study of heterosexuals in 24 cities. The study, published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was too small to break out findings on Philadelphia or the other cities. But it helps explain why Philadelphia has some of the highest HIV rates in the country: It also is among the most impoverished of big cities.

Pennsylvania has revised its HIV testing law in an effort to increase early detection and treatment of people infected with the AIDS virus. The changes - the subject of intense debate and lobbying for two years - are in line with 2006 federal recommendations aimed at making HIV screening a routine part of health care rather than a stigmatized test given to "high risk" individuals in special clinics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that a fifth of HIV-positive Americans are unaware of their infection.