The post New York state could end its AIDS epidemic by end of 2020, governor says appeared first on MyMedicPlus.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says the state is ‘on track’ to end its AIDS epidemic by the end of 2020.

In 2018, New York had an all-time low of 2,481 new HIV diagnoses, an 11 percent decrease from 2017 and a nearly 30 percent drop from 2014.

Additionally, 32,000 New Yorkers are now taking a daily pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) pill, which drastically cuts the chances that someone who is still healthy becomes infected from risky sex or injection drug use.

More than 100,000 New Yorkers have died from AIDS-related causes since the 1980s, according to the social service organization Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

‘Five years ago we launched an aggressive, nation-leading campaign to end the AIDS epidemic in New York and to ensure every person living with HIV or AIDS gets the support they need to lead a full and healthy life,’ Cuomo said in a statement.

‘This new data shows we are on track to meet that goal and continue our historic progress to finally bend the curve on an epidemic that has taken too many lives for too long.’ 

In 2014, Cuomo and the state launched the Ending the Epidemic initiative, which receives about $20 million in funding annually.

The plan has a three step approach: identifying people with HIV who are undiagnosed; making sure people diagnosed with HIV keep up with their healthcare; and stopping HIV transmissions completely for people at high risk with PrEP.

PrEP users take a pill every day. The pill contains two medications, which help prevent HIV from establishing permanent infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Almost 32,000 New Yorkers filled at least one prescription for PrEP in 2018, a 32 percent increase from 2017. 

Starting on January 1, New York will require health insurance plans to cover PrEP without co-pays. 

In the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, New York City was one of the hardest hit cities in the US due to its large gay community and population of intravenous drug users.

At the height of the epidemic, there were 12,719 AIDS diagnoses in one year in 1993, according to data from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Today, that number is close to 1,000.

In the US, more than 1.1 million people are infected with HIV. Nearly 40,000 new infections were diagnosed last year.

Once a person contracts HIV, the virus sets about attacking and destroying immune cells that normally protect the body from infection.

In the last decade, doctors have gained a much improved understanding of how to control HIV.

The rate of deaths from the disease has plummeted since the peak of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s.

The CDC recommend everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 be tested for HIV at least once.

Those who are at higher risk, including men who have sex with men or those who have a sexual partner who is HIV positive, should be tested as often as once a year or more.

Although HIV is treatable, the infection has no cure.

Cuomo is not the only politician to vow to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump announced his campaign to end HIV transmissions in the US by 2030 – about 10 years later than Cuomo’s goal.

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Preventing HIV just got cheaper for many New York residents.

The state Department of Financial Services has directed health care insurance plans to cover the full cost of pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, which can prevent HIV infection during sex or shared needle use.

PrEP involves taking the pill Truvada daily and seeing a doctor for testing every three months. It can lower the chances of infection from sex by more than 90 percent and from shared needle use by more than 70 percent, said Emma Corbett, vice president of marketing, communications and engagement for Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson, which offers PrEP.

The new policy means that people at risk for HIV infection covered by state-regulated health plans won’t face copayments, co-insurance or deductibles to receive the care. And that removes one of the biggest barriers that keeps people from using PrEP, Corbett said.

“Whether or not you can afford your medication is often a reason patients decide not to seek care or discontinue existing care,” she said in an email. “We’re encouraged by this action and are grateful that the governor has taken steps to ensure there is adequate insurance coverage for medications like PrEP because financial barriers hinder access for patients that are taking preventative steps to protect themselves.”

Copayments for people in employer-sponsored, health exchange and individual market plans tend to average around $60 a month for Truvada, said Steve Wood, director of insurance programs for ACR Health, which offers PrEP. And many plans have deductibles that must be met before drug coverage begins, he said. Truvada costs $2,000 for a 30-day supply, he said.

“If you can get if for free, … that’s great,” he said. “That opens it up for tons and tons of people.”

But money isn’t the only reason everyone at high risk isn’t on PrEP or isn’t using PrEP in a way to provide maximum protection, Wood said.

“I think without support and without a good consistent medical provider or some good social supports, I’m not sure how compliant people are with it,” he said. “It’s a difficult medicine to take. It has side effects that you’re going to have to live through for a couple weeks or a couple months. And it’s an everyday pill.”

But it’s worth it for those who stick with the regimen, he said.

“The reality is PrEP is going to save your life. It’s going to keep you from becoming infected with HIV,” Wood said.

Wood said he doesn’t know how many good candidates for PrEP actually choose to go on it in the first place. He did say the two most compliant groups seem to be injection drug users — who are used to taking a drug every day — and gay men over age 50 who, he speculated, remember all the deaths during the AIDS epidemic.

But HIV is not an issue of a particular group or two.

“The impact of HIV is felt by all communities and people of all backgrounds,” Corbett said in her email. “The disease does not know race or gender or sexual orientation. Especially in a time where so many Americans are struggling with addiction and other elevated risk behaviors, it is important to be proactive and PrEP is an effective tool for staying HIV-free.”

But Corbett reminded patients that PrEP does not prevent other sexually-transmitted diseases, and they should still use external or internal condoms during sex.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in 2014 a campaign to end AIDS in New York by the end of 2020. This new policy is in line with that initiative.

At the same time, the state announced the new rules for PrEP coverage — that insurers must now issue member ID cards making it clear whether the plan is subject to state regulations and consumer protections. And the financial services department is putting out consumer information to help transgender New Yorkers understand and access their coverage for gender-affirming care.

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Liposuction is that the gold commonplace methodology to produce permanent spot reduction and contour improvement in areas laid low with excess fatty deposits. Your fat cells are distributed throughout your body early in life, as determined by your biology. Fat cells cannot migrate or multiply, and once they’re removed, they cannot return. Therefore, any contour improvement achieved with liposuction is a permanent improvement and can persist, not with standing a patient gains weight.
Suction-assisted reconstructive surgery typically takes an hour or 2; however the time needed could vary significantly — from thirty minutes to many hours, betting on the area and quantity being suctioned.

Liposuction is a cosmetic procedure that’s accustomed trim and reshapes hassle areas of the body that diet and exercise can’t appear to focus on. Liposuction removes excess fat deposits, leading to an additional ideal body contour.

To begin the procedure, this clinic makes a tiny low incision, simply massive enough to permit the insertion of a hollow tube known as tubing. The alternative finish of the tubing is hooked up to a machine that makes a powerful vacuum. The doctor manipulates the tubing deep at intervals the fat layers underneath the skin, calling it quits the fat and suctioning it out. Generally further incisions are required to get rid of all areas of fat.

If you have had local anaesthesia, you will feel some vibration and friction throughout the procedure. You’ll additionally feel a stinging sensation because the tubing moves nearer to the muscle.
Liposuction is a perfect resolution for folks of traditional weight UN agency simply can’t appear to shed the previous couple of pounds or have resilient deposits of fat in sure areas of the body. The procedure will improve not solely one’s figure, however vanity further.
Unlike diet and exercise, liposuction will target specific areas of the body. a number of the foremost common areas treated with liposuction are:
• Inner and Outer Thighs
• Hips and Buttocks
• Mid-section (Including the Abdomen and Waist)
• Upper Arms
• Love Handles and different Back Areas
• Inner Knee
• Chest
• Face (Cheeks, Chin and Neck)
• Calves and Ankles

How will you have a tendency to get pleasure from having Liposuction in New York?

There are several edges to having liposuction in New York that include:

• Provides another to additional invasive cosmetic surgery procedures by eliminating fat from specific areas just like the abdomen, thighs or chin, or enlarged male breasts (gynecomastia) while not massive incisions (scars).

• Balances Anout-of-proportion habitus, as an example reducing the saddlebags on the thighs of a “pear shaped” body or reducing abdominal girth in men.
• Enhances facial surgery procedures like face elevate by removing pockets of fat from underneath the chin.

• Can amplify diet and exercise by contouring the stubborn areas that don’t answer these efforts.
Our New york liposuction procedures offer effective and satisfying results for the proper candidate, however it’s ne’er a replacement for correct diet and regular exercise.
Liposuction isn’t an efficient treatment for the mark skin that normally forms and seems as fatty tissue on the thighs and buttocks. Liposuction additionally won’t tighten skin that’s excessively loose and lacks important snap.

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A New York man died while undergoing liposuction at a clinic in the Dominican Republic on Monday. 

Manuel Núñez, 29, a restaurant worker living in New York City, traveled back to his native land for his third liposuction. 

His mother Teresa de Jesús Batista Ramírez  told Dominican outlet CDN: ‘[I told him] “Do not do that lipo, you’ve already done two. Don’t you have anything else better to do with your money,” and he told me, “mom, I have my doctor.” 

‘I told him give it to me better so that I can eat with it and what he did was that he stuck his tongue out and told me goodbye.’ 

Núñez showed up early for his scheduled 9am appointment at Caribbean Plastic Surgery in Santo Domingo with Dr. Oscar Polanco, who since 2015 has had three other patients die while undergoing surgery with him.

Family members, including his mother, were informed by the staff approximately at 6pm local time that Núñez was still unconscious, according to Telemundo 47.

The physicians tried to ease the family’s worries by telling them that it was ‘normal’.

Batista Ramírez knew her son was in danger when his skin turned yellow.

Hospital director Dr. Martha Vargas said in a statement that Núñez suffered respiratory problems after ‘the patient underwent body liposculpture plus fat transfer to the gluteal region’ and that the staff ‘immediately proceeded to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation.’

The family is left looking from answers from a doctor who had two women die within a one-week period in 2015 at a separate practice that he once ran and has since been shut down by authorities.

Polanco was charged with involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of Ely Peña, 24, and Sara de los Ángeles Martínez Rodríguez, 39. 

However, the case was dismissed because there was not sufficient evidence. But he was ordered to pay the families $2million Dominican pesos or $450,000 USD.

The doctor, who had been denounced by the Dominican Society of Plastic Surgery for falsely operating as a surgeon, was accused in 2016 in the death of Ramona Franco Cruz, 24, during another plastic surgery. 

The Public Health Ministry is investigating Núñez’s death. No arrests have been announced.

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Post-pregnancy “mommy makeover” procedures — a plastic surgery combo of liposuction, tummy tuck and a breast lift or augmentation — have been popular for years, but now men of a certain age are shelling out for what some experts are dubbing the “daddy do-over.”

For “dad,” the surgeries typically include liposuction of the chest, abs and flanks (sides and back), and it’s becoming more popular with New York men trying to get an edge at work — and on the beach. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports that more than 1.3 million cosmetic procedures were performed on people identifying as male in 2018, an increase of 29% since 2000. While this study doesn’t confirm that any of these men are actually “dads,” the demographics suggest these men are experiencing the effects of “dad bod” and want a fix — stat.

“For women, they are obviously experiencing the physical changes that come with pregnancy and having a baby, but for men, it’s more about the change in lifestyle that having children brings, as well as the typical factors that come with aging,” Dr. Alan Matarasso, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, tells The Post. “At around age 35, fat distribution in both genders changes. Even if your weight stays the same. Being a parent exacerbates it.”

Matarasso says he’s seen more men at his Upper East Side practice requesting all sorts of cosmetic procedures. In 2018, according to the report, the most popular procedures for men were injectibles (toxins and fillers), breast augmentation, liposuction, tummy tucks, rhinoplasty (nose jobs) and eyelid surgery.

“After having kids, your life changes,” Matarasso says.”Maybe you used to go play basketball every Sunday and burn 1,000 calories and now you’re at the Central Park Zoo on Sunday instead. Without those basketball Sundays, you could gain a pound a month and it becomes harder and harder to lose it later in life. Some of my patients won’t even put on a T-shirt. They tell me they feel like they have a B-cup. That’s why we’re calling it the ‘daddy do-over.’ ”

One of Matarasso’s patients, a 57-year-old Hell’s Kitchen restaurateur who asked to be identified only as Russell, says he wanted to look good at the beach.

Russell had Botox and fillers in the past but never invasive surgery until January, where he underwent a version of the “daddy do-over,” with liposuction of the chest, flanks and abdomen. Although he says he was never a heavy guy and was always in good shape, he started to notice weight around his waist that wouldn’t go away. The doctors told him the full results wouldn’t appear for five months, but just three weeks after surgery, he was shirtless on the beach and says, “I look better than I did when I was 30.”

He wants to do his neck next.

“I want to age gracefully while spending $30,000 a year on cosmetic treatments,” Russell says with a laugh.

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