The Year in HIV

March 17: The Mississippi Department of Corrections announced on they ended their policy of segregating HIV-positive prisoners. The change enables inmates with HIV to participate in jobs, training programs, and other services to which they were previously denied. Alabama and South Carolina are now the only states that segregate HIV-positive prisoners. March 23: The contentious health-care reform bill was signed into law by President Obama (pictured). Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin pushed for specific provisions, including the Early Treatment for HIV Act, but they were not included in the legislation's final version. The bill will benefit HIVers by offering relief for those on Medicare who are currently paying exorbitant prices for medication. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the legislation's official name, also prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions, like HIV. March 31: An article from the New England Journal of Medicine wowed the media with news that a 42-year-old HIV patient with leukemia continues to show no signs of HIV in his blood, two years after a stem cell transplant. The transplant was from a donor with a gene mutation that confers natural resistance to the virus that causes AIDS. Doctors cautioned that the treatment is too dangerous to be used routinely, but it showed promise for the further development and use of gene therapies.

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