Wanda Hernandez is one of many New Yorkers with HIV struggling to pay rent and for basic needs. Bess Adler, Metro

Every month, Wanda Hernandez considers whether to use her cash for bills, rent or possibly medical care.

Having lived for 15 years with HIV, Hernandez, 50, has chronic pain blocking her from work. But the largest chunk of her disability assistance goes toward the $1,000 rent for her 1-bedroom in the Bronx, near Arthur Avenue.

“I have to choose between paying my Con Ed or my rent, basically,” she told Metro.

She is one of many HIV patients who use have to use more than 70 percent of their disability income on rent, according to a new study by VOCAL-NY, which helps people with HIV/AIDS, and the Urban Justice Center’s Community Development Project.

As a result, thousands become homeless, unable to afford rent checks, the Friday report said.

Study organizers say that a state bill would protect them by ensuring they pay no more than 30 percent of their disability income toward affordable housing rent.

In the study, more than two-thirds of people said they decided between rent and necessities like medical care in the six months before losing their apartment.

And one in three struggled to pay medical expenses, the study revealed.

“Those living with HIV/AIDS should not have to choose between their medication and housing,” Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez said.

After rent, Hernandez has about $340 monthly, she said, or about $12 a day — scraped together for food, utilities and unexpected expenses like recently dropping her phone in the toilet.

She can’t get to her medical appointments sometimes because she can’t afford the Metrocard.

Con Ed shut off her lights last week, she said, and she faces a hearing Tuesday about possible eviction.

“I am very petrified,” she said. “I don’t know what the outcome is going to be.”

Before, she worked two places, going from an administrative assistant position to a bar job at night. Now, she is not sure how to move forward.

“I haven’t broken down yet,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that I’m superwoman, but I do have my point, when I break down.”

The post HIV/AIDS patients in NYC forced to choose between paying for rent or basic needs appeared first on Metro.us.

Cops should not be confiscating condoms, some are telling state officials this week.

Anti-trafficking advocates are in Albany this week to push for a law that would bar cops from confiscating condoms and using them as evidence in prostitution accusations.

Metro has previously reported that some transgender people in Queens say cops stop them and accuse them of prostitution, using any condoms they may have as proof.

Advocates say that police officers confiscate condoms, which are later used as evidence in prostitution cases. They want legislators to pass the No Condoms as Evidence Bill.

When condoms are confiscated, it discourages trafficking victims and LGBTQ people from carrying them, which could lead to increased HIV rates, they said.

Advocates point out that condoms keep New Yorkers safe, and that confiscating them is a waste of the roughly 40 million condoms given out each year.

“Using the presence of condoms on people or premises to arrest prosecute anyone puts everyone’s lives at risk,” said Mitchyll Mora at Streetwise and Safe, which works with LGBTQ youth.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice banned the use of condoms as evidence in prostitution cases earlier this year, saying the public health impact of losing condoms was not worth the “limited courtroom gain.”

The post Advocates push for law barring condoms as prostitution evidence appeared first on Metro.us.

A new report from the New York Women’s Foundation shows that women in New York are 30 percent more likely to die during childbirth than they were 12 years ago, the NY Daily News reported.

In the late 1990s, the maternal mortality rate for black women was around 40 per 100,000 live births. Last year, there were 79 deaths to every 100,000 live births. The rate for white women remained steady at 10 per 100,000 live births over that same period.

According to the report, Brooklyn is the “epicenter” of new HIV diagnoses for women, with 32 percent of New York women with new HIV diagnoses living in Kings County.

30 percent were from the Bronx.

Citywide, about 65 percent of the women with new HIV cases were black, and 30 percent were Latina.

NYWF President Ana Oliveira said that shame associated with HIV prevents people from seeking care, which contributes to the high rates of new cases.

“There is a lot of fear and stigma,” Oliveira explained. “People not only have to deal with the physical reality, but the social stigma.”

The report recommends investing in more job training and development programs for women in “high-demand” fields and industries with higher salary potential, as well as establishing programs to raise high school graduation rates among low-income girls.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

The post More NY women dying in childbirth appeared first on Metro.us.

After news that 7,000 patients were potentially exposed to HIV from a dental office, a community in Tulsa is reeling in shock, fear and horror at the possibility of a health crisis.

Joyce Baylor, 69, visited W. Scott Harrington, the oral surgeon at the center of this horrific nightmare, to have a tooth removed a year and a half ago, and never imagined her health could be in jeopardy. She said she didn’t notice anything unusual about the office’s cleanliness during her visit, but it was only because she wasn’t on guard about sanitation, trusting that a certified doctor like Harrington would be taking the right precautions.

“I am devastated now that this has come about,” Baylor told Metro from her home in Tulsa. “I always felt comfortable when I go to doctor, never thinking anything negative because you are in a doctor’s office and they took an oath to take care of [their patients], but apparently something went wrong.”

Baylor made an appointment to be tested for hepatitis and HIV this coming Monday after learning from the local news that she could be at risk. She has already heard of one person in her community testing positive for HIV since news broke that Harrington’s patients as far back as 2007 may have been exposed.

“I can’t understand. He is a doctor — I’m sure he makes money,” Baylor said. “Why would he need to use rusty needles? I can’t understand why he would allow this. It’s unbelievable.”

Investigators said they uncovered horrific conditions inside Harrington’s dental office after learning that someone may have contracted hepatitis C there. Dentistry board members said they felt sick to their stomachs after observing unsanitized tools and rusty needles. It’s also alleged that unlicensed employees were performing intravenous sedation on patients.

Harrington told investigators many of his patients had HIV. He has since surrendered his dental license. The health department is in the process of notifying by letter more than 7,000 of his former patients that they should be tested.

For now, Baylor must anxiously await the results of her HIV and hepatitis tests. She said this entire experience has made her question visits to other doctors. Baylor said she is sorry to see this happen to Harrington, but that he should face consequences under the law.

“This is negligence – so whatever charges that apply to what he has done, I suppose he should pay the price,” Baylor said.

“Who can you trust if you can’t trust your doctor?”

The post Tulsa patient speaks out after potential HIV exposure at ‘shop of horrors’ dental office appeared first on Metro.us.

At the 2013 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta today, Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins University announced that a two-year child in Mississippi had been cured of HIV.

The child had stopped taking antiviral medications at 18 months but was brought back into treatment at 23 months. Once back in treatment, the child’s viral load was unnoticeable, and follow-up tests showed that the disease was no longer present.

Dr. Persaud is a grantee with amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, and was able to work on the case thanks to a grant she received with fellow physician Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts in September.

“We are proud to have played a leading role in bringing this first pediatric HIV cure to light,” said amfAR CEO Kevin Robert Frost. “The case is a startling reminder that a cure for HIV could come in ways we never anticipated, and we hope this is the first of many children cured of HIV in the months and years to come.”

This is the second documented case of someone being cured of HIV. The only other case was “Berlin patient” Timothy Brown, who underwent a stem cell treatment for leukemia that ended up eradicating his HIV.

On Tuesday, Brown released a statement about the cure on behalf of his HIV-fighting organization, The Timothy Ray Brown Foundation.

“Yesterday the world learned that an HIV-positive baby in Mississippi may have been cured of HIV. It is hard for me to put in words how happy and emotional I am right now, knowing that a child may be cured, too. This strongly reinforces how immediate the need is to fulfill my foundation’s sole mission: to do everything possible to advance AIDS cure-related research. I want to see everyone, young and old, who is living with this dreaded disease to be cured. I am committing my body, mind and soul to this mission.”

The post Mississippi child cured of HIV, amfAR says appeared first on Metro.us.