In that moment my life as I knew it was gone. Those were the words of one victim as he described how a dalliance with Adam Hall had left him facing homophobic abuse at work after he contracted HIV.
Tens of thousands of Floridians are facing a life or death scenario as Ron DeSantis' administration revokes funding for HIV medication. The Florida Department of Health has gutted the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) after supposedly failing to find $120 million in the state budget to cover the cost. The program provides assistance to low-income people living with HIV, meaning that over 10,000 people could lose access to life-saving medication if funding isn't restored.
Mountain View Police Department Detective Lauren Riffel was the lead investigator into accusations that Sarceño Orla drugged and sexually assaulted at least 19 men while working as a barber. "When you have more than one, that's crazy enough," Det. Riffel said. "When you have more than 5, 10, going all the way up to over 60 people - talking to 60 humans that were victimized in a certain population, it's terrible to have to hear these stories over and over again."
Drug users have found a dangerous and cheap way to get a high that is fueling a surge in HIV diagnoses. Called 'bluetoothing', the practice involves injecting yourself with the blood of another drug user in an effort to share in their high. Already common in Fiji, the practice has driven an 11-fold surge in HIV cases on the Pacific island nation in just a decade.
After he became a hot young movie star, he began relying on the services of escorts, provided to him by his friend, Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss. There also were nights at the Playboy mansion and flings with men while high. During his very public flameout in 2011, he boasted about his tiger blood and two live-in girlfriends, who in turn told the New York Post about their big shared bed and triple-decker sex life.
Tens of thousands of HIV patients could soon to be offered a monthly pill to control the virus and keep the virus at bay. Results from a landmark trial show the drug was as effective as the daily cocktail of pills patients currently take. Experts claim the new pill, known as a nucleoside reverse transcriptase translocation inhibitor (NRTTI), could fulfill an 'unmet need' and replace the daily pills, improving compliance.
In December 2023, his conviction for causing serious harm to two partners by intentionally or recklessly infecting them with HIV was quashed by the Supreme Court.
"I didn't physically take care of him, and I wasn't a nurse or anything like that, but I definitely helped, certainly after the accident. I helped organize and sort of focus Chris on a different set of priorities than he probably had before his accident."
It seemed like it was all just for nothing. Dozens of health trials across Africa were forced to grind to an abrupt halt in late January after US President Donald Trump pulled the plug on millions of dollars in funding without warning.
