House Bill 265, sponsored by Rep. Mark Mustio (R-44th Dist.), was the subject of a public hearing in the House Judiciary Committee Dec. 21. The legislation, introduced in February as the HIV-Related Testing for Sex Offenders Act, seeks to institute a process by which a district attorney can request a court order to test a suspect for HIV within 48 hours of him or her being held for court.
Currently, victims may request an HIV test for an individual with whom they have had contact — either in a criminal context or not — although no formal process is in place.
Ronda Goldfein, executive director of the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, testified against the bill during the hearing, enumerating several objections she has to its provisions, mainly that it lacks an emphasis on the dispersion of accurate HIV information to victims.
“When a victim is in the emergency room after an assault, she needs to first be given information on whether there was a risk for transmission,” Goldfein said. “Rape counselors have to ask different questions about what the exposure was, if there was penetration and then, if there was, if the victim knew the assailant and knew about a possible HIV infection. That’s how you have to do the initial assessment, which is different than freaking out the victim and saying that unless you just find out the person’s status, you’re going to get HIV.”
Goldfein said the assessment helps counselors determine if the victim should be placed on a Nonoccupational Postexposure Prophylaxis, which can decrease risk of HIV transmission, and which is most effective if administered within 72 hours after exposure.
The time constraints set up in HB 265, Goldfein noted, could inhibit an accurate risk-assessment process by focusing on the assailant’s status rather than precautions the victim should take.
“This bill says that a victim may request that the DA request that the suspect be tested within 48 hours of being held in court. So that means that this guy has to be arrested, taken into custody and held for court, and in Philadelphia that can often take anywhere from seven to 10 days for the first opportunity for him to be held for court. So he would then be tested after that and the results given back to the victim, so that goes far, far beyond the 72-hour window when the victim could be started on NPEP.”
Andy Hoover, legislative director for the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union, also testified against the measure at the hearing, stating his agency opposes the bill not only because it’s considered a violation of the suspects’ rights, but also because it would inhibit proper education about HIV transmission.
“HIV diagnosis is such a personal experience that no one should ever be forced to take an HIV test,” Hoover said. “And what they’re trying to get at with this doesn’t help the victim of a sexual assault. It sends this message to survivors that if the test comes back positive, they’re going to get HIV, or if it comes back negative, they’re not going to get HIV. It’s entirely possible that the defendant could be in the initial infection period and could have a false negative and the victim could then think they’re in the clear when they should actually be continuing their care. And it’s also possible that the police arrested the wrong person, which has happened many, many times.”
Goldfein agreed that the bill runs the risk of popularizing continued misconceptions about HIV transmission.
“Not all encounters are exposures, and not all exposures lead to infection,” she said. “According to the CDC, the real risk of infection from consensual sex is one in 100,000, so even if we adjust that for trauma-related sex, you’re still looking at low odds. This law would focus on the wrong place and would be misused to institutionalize an inaccurate assessment of HIV risk, which makes every guy with HIV the boogie man.”
The only witness to testify for the bill was Dauphin County Deputy District Attorney Sean McCormack.
Goldfein said she fears the bill could lay the groundwork for the future criminalization of HIV transmission.
“District attorneys are in favor of this because, although the bill specifically says that the information about HIV status can’t be used as an element of guilt in a crime, I believe that they want to collect this information with an eye toward criminalization,” she said.
HB 265 also has a financial component.
The bill was proposed as a way for the state to be in compliance with the Violence Against Women Act, which stipulates that states receiving VAWA funding must have a statute in place that allows victims to determine the HIV status of their offenders and, without such a law, are subject to a 5-percent penalty on the money filtered into the region.
Goldfein noted that victims-rights groups she’s spoken with, such as the Pennsylvania Coalition against Domestic Violence — representatives of which testified against the bill during the hearing — have expressed a willingness to “absorb that 5-percent hit because, from their perspective, when you start talking about mandatory testing, you actually put the victims at risk.”
“No amount of money is worth putting a bad policy into place, and HB 265 is a bad policy,” Hoover said. “It’s just not worth the tens of thousands that’s lost — and that’s not much in the grand scheme of things.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is spearheading a bill in Congress that would eliminate the VAWA penalty, but Goldfein said the committee was still “pretty concerned” about the money component.
A vote on the legislation in the Judiciary Committee has not yet been scheduled.
Jen Colletta can be reached at jen@epgn.com.
Truth about AIDS as told by Dr. Luc Montagnier. AIDS can be reversed. Nutrition is the answer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQoNW7lOnT4
THE CURE for HIV/AIDS.......AMBUSH
THE IDEA that AMBUSH cures AIDS
is being proven by the more than 400 individuals who have taken a dose of 60 ml three times daily for 21 days. The result is that AMBUSH 'KILLS' the virus by causing the protein envelope to rupture and the viral particles are discarded by the white blood cells. AMBUSH is able to 'KILL' the virus that are 'hiding' in the lymph system by its 'natural radioactive' properties. This process allows the body to 'return to normal health' with a corresponding immunity to that or those strains of the virus.
What is AMBUSH ?
AMBUSH is a radioactive isotope of uranium that is found in the 'palm' plant of which there are more than 3000 species. When ingested, AMBUSH causes the body temperature in the trunk area to rise to about 102 degrees when the individual is sleeping. The preparation takes four hours per batch, which is then given to the individuals for consumption 60 ml three times daily for 21 days. AMBUSH is a herbal preparation in this form but it contains an active ingredient which is a 'NEW' crystalline substance, a drug from the 'palm plant' similarly to ASPIRIN originating from the willow tree bark
RESULTS:
After 21 days on AMBUSH, ALL the individuals experienced a decrease in viral load to undetectable, an increase in cd4, increase in RBC, an improvement in general health such as more color to the face, decrease in Buffalo hump, an increase in gluteal muscles, a decrease to having no joint pains whereby individuals can bend to touch their toes, and walk up steps are but a few examples. There is also a dramatic increase in their sexual appetite beginning after the first week of therapy
DISCUSSION:
In any plant concoction such as percolated 'tea', there are 30-40,000 compounds, whi ch would take the scientific community twenty years to isolate one particular ingredient if they knew what they were looking for. The LORD GOD has given me seven steps to isolate the active ingredient, which is soft and metallic in nature and has a carbon- uranium-sulfur-(classified)-phentolamine configuration or structure. This is similar to Federick Kekule and the discovery of the benzene ring where he dreamt the structure.
As an antiviral and 'natural radioactivity' producing agent, AMBUSH is also effective against leukemia, lupus and HPV. Here I am saying that I have 'GIVEN' AMBUSH in the same 'strength' and dosage to patients with leukemia, lupus and HPV. A 35 year old male with HIV found it difficult to impossible to urinate was put on 'green tea' and water while the doctors contemplated prostrate surgery. One of the doctors gave him my number , I sent him a supply of AMBUSH an d he has not been given any more ARV's, since taking AMBUSH 18 months ago, is in 'good' health and has expressed a willingness to be examined by HIV investigators like many others who have taken AMBUSH.
I have sent this 'IDEA' to most HIV research agencies, scientist of the field, universities, hospitals, clinics, politicians and news agencies to which it is REJECTED because the name of THE LORD GOD is mentioned. He has steered me scientifically through the processes such as which plant and how to produce the active ingredient. What are the odds of a Florida Pharmacist picking a plant would contain the CURE for HIV/AIDS ?
I have never charged any of the people for their supply of AMBUSH but a life saving has been spent on the project with NO renumeration from any sources because AMBUSH falls outside the walls of modern medicine and research.
PROPOSAL:
My proposal is that I PROVE that AMBUSH CURES HIV/AIDS by giving it to a number of END-STAGE or DRUG-RESISTANT people and the scientific community watches their recovery. This proposal addresses the problem in that I have already outlaid the results to be obtained.
This IDEA is unconventional in that the scientific community has rejected AMBUSH because I say it is GOD given. Secondly if I wrote it according to certain standards, then it might be peer reviewed. However, THE LORD GOD has also shown me that there are five enzyme systems associated with the virus, reverse transcriptase, protease, fusion and two more of which causes the virus to be AIRBOURNE. This means that without DIVINE intervention mankind and ALL warm- blooded mammals will be extinct in a number of years.
The PROOF of what I am saying is found in scientific papers wherein it is found that when the protease cuts the viral strands, it cuts it at DIFFERENT lengths EVERY time, to which it should always be a valine at the end but is a different amino acid every time. This is why it is IMPOSSIBLE to produce a VACCINE.
Since this is NOT a hypothesis but there are about 400 individuals who have taken AMBUSH, here lies a vast area in which to check, recheck and confirm that AMBUSH CURES AIDS. Let it be mentioned that during the HIV reproductive cycle, reverse transcriptase converts viral RNA into DNA compatible to human genetic materials. Thus the human DNA has been 'hijacked' and since each person has a DIFFERENT DNA, then the new viral copy is unique to that person which shows that each individual has a DIFFERENT STRAIN of the virus. Consider two HIV positive people swapping viral strains and increasing its complexity with multiple partners.
It can also be proposed that they be revisited as proof that the strain or strains that they had were 'killed' at the time of taking AMBUSH considering that a person can catch as many different strains as there are people who are infected by HIV.
I am also willing to work with the scientific community in identifying those individuals who took AMBUSH and wish to be identified with this process notwithstanding that some are stigmatized while others are jubilant,
Once AMBUSH is verified as being able to accomplish that which is aforementioned then the next stage might be the natural and artificial synthesis of the substance.
Finally, if this is accepted or not, believed or not, THE LORD GOD always wins and this is the heavenly truth to which AMBUSH was divinely given to mankind for the CURE of HIV/AIDS and it will be here forever. Apostle Shada Mishe.
apostleshadamishe@gmail.com
Here is a video taped presentation that I gave at t he Martin Luther King library in Washington
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V53D1w__Po
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPwuwlVBOV0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZejptOwMTzQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqcTgIAhrhc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7HPKcT_iwY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9iQfgiYAnw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3RzRS6tJDM