by yoursl | Oct 22, 2015 | Breast Cancer |
Not all pink is created equal. Breast cancer awareness month is a wonderful opportunity for charities benefiting breast cancer patients and research to gain traction and land extra donations. Before purchasing a pink or ribbon-bedecked product, read the product label to ensure dollars spent are going where promised. Samantha King, author of Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy, was quoted in a recent Time magazine article about breast cancer charities. King suggests consumers avoid getting lured into the pink-ribbon marketing campaigns of companies. “If you want to give, give directly to the breast cancer organization,” King advises consumers. An added bonus for giving directly to a charitable organization is that the consumer will get the tax deduction and not the corporation selling pink products. If donors are not sure which organization to support, a quick internet search can help guide them to a charity they feel comfortable supporting. I used Charity Navigator, Charity Watch and the Better Business Bureau to compile this brief list of the current top breast cancer charities in America. All tax-exempt organizations, including charities, in the United States must fill out and file a version of a 990 form. This form is often used by charity-rating organizations as one standard of measurement to find out if a charity is actually doing what it claims. Financial records, including amounts spent on fundraising and compensation of executives, is another factor used to determine the health of these organizations. Having an “open-book” policy on disclosure of financials and other data is often used in scoring these organizations as well. Some of the top-ranking charities listed...
by yoursl | Oct 8, 2015 | HIV and AIDS, LGBT, Men's Sexual Health, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Women's Sexual Health |
At the end of September, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against a Subway franchise located in Sheridan, Indiana. The lawsuit alleges that employee John Doe was hired to work at the store on January 1, 2015. Twelve days later, the employee disclosed his HIV-positive status to the store manager. Doe reported to the EEOC that, on February 14, his supervisor called him at home to fire him, telling Doe he might be a liability to the company. The day after the lawsuit was filed, Indianapolis-based radio station 103.3 invited its listeners to call in during a morning show to voice their opinions over the air about the lawsuit. I listened to part of this broadcast and was blown away by some of these callers and their sheer ignorance of HIV in terms of how the virus spreads and how long the virus lives outside the body. Feeling inspired by this radio broadcast, I have created this HIV transmission fact sheet using information obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), AIDS Vancouver Island and online resources aidsmap.com and aids.gov. There are three stages of HIV infection. The first stage is acute infection, in which large amounts of the virus are being produced in the body. Within 2 to 4 weeks of initial infection, many people develop flu-like symptoms, which is the body’s natural response to HIV infection. The second stage of HIV infection is clinical latency, in which the virus reproduces at very low levels, although it is still alive. With proper HIV treatment, people can live with clinical latency for several decades. The...
