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Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971
START study supports early HIV treatment
Vol. 45 • No. 23 • June 4-10, 2015
SF makes headway on LGBT senior issues
Honoring those no longer here
by Liz Highleyman
by Matthew S. Bajko
L
ong-awaited results from the START study, released ahead of schedule, show that people with HIV who start treatment early have a significantly lower risk of illness Liz Highleyman and death than those who wait. Dr. Diane Havlir Specifically, people who were randomly assigned to start antiretroviral therapy (ART) while their CD4 T-cell count was above 500 had a 53 percent lower likelihood of AIDSrelated and non-AIDS events and deaths compared to those who delayed treatment until their CD4 count fell below 350. “We now have clear-cut proof that it is of significantly greater health benefit to an HIVinfected person to start antiretroviral therapy sooner rather than later,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci said in the May 27 announcement. “These findings have global implications for the treatment of HIV.” Other AIDS experts also weighed in. “The study confirms that starting antiretroviral therapy early and not waiting – even when people feel well – is beneficial for an HIV-positive person’s health,” Dr. Diane Havlir, chief of the Positive Health Program at San Francisco General Hospital, told the Bay Area Reporter. “START provides more data for remaining skeptics about the benefit of early therapy.” Project Inform officials noted that the study findings support existing guidelines. “Even in San Francisco, which has some of the highest HIV treatment and viral suppression rates in the country, we struggle to get everyone on treatment who needs it,” said Project Inform’s David Evans. “The START study findings support the long-standing guidelines that early treatment benefits everyone and merits the developing strategies of the city’s Getting to Zero campaign.” That campaign’s goal is to cut HIV transmissions by 90 percent by 2020.
San Francisco leads the way
Several observational studies have found that starting HIV treatment sooner is associated with better outcomes. But until now the optimal timing of early ART has not been confirmed by randomized, controlled clinical trials – the “gold standard” for medical evidence. It is well known that starting treatment before extensive immune system damage reduces disease progression and death. Once See page 12 >>
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Rick Gerharter
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t the ride out Sunday, May 31, at the Cow Palace, AIDS/LifeCycle participants joined in wheeling a riderless bike through the waiting cyclists as they paid tribute to those who have died. Now in its 14th year, the 545-mile journey to Los Angeles includes 2,350 riders who raised a
combined $16.3 million to fight HIV/AIDS. The funds are divided between the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. SFAF officials said the amount raised this year is a record, shattering last year’s total by more than $800,000. The ride wraps up Saturday in southern California.
hen San Francisco officials were formally presented last April with a plan to address the needs of the city’s fast growing LGBT senior population, they vowed not to allow it to collect dust on a shelf in the bowels of City Hall. Thirteen months later, much headway has been achieved in tackling the 13 areas of concern listed in the 120-page document, titled “LGBT Aging at the Golden Gate: San Francisco Policy Issues and Recommendations.” It included 40 specific steps the city could take that would benefit its LGBT senior population, estimated to number nearly 20,000 residents age 60 or older. “My personal view is a lot has been done,” said Bill Ambrunn, a gay man and attorney who chaired the LGBT Aging Policy Task Force, which disbanded once its report was complete. “I think we absolutely achieved our goal of not producing just another report that collects dust.” See page 8 >>
Out prosecutor oversees SF’s white-collar cases by Seth Hemmelgarn
T
he prosecutor who’s part of the San Francisco District Attorney’s task force investigating allegations of abuses by sheriff ’s deputies and who’s overseeing the case against the Uber ridesharing company said recently, “What I love about my job is that every day I get to wear the white hat.” June Cravett, 57, a lesbian, who serves as chief of DA George Gascón’s white-collar crime division, said, “Whether it’s running a fraudulent business out of town and getting restitution to victims who have been defrauded of their life savings, or prosecuting public corruption cases, at the end of the day my job is simply to do what’s right and to do justice. Not many attorneys can say that about their job.” Cravett, who joined the DA’s office in March 1996, took over the white-collar crime division five years ago after overseeing that team’s units dedicated to protecting consumers and the environment, among other posts. As division chief, Cravett also oversees the public integrity unit, which includes everything from election fraud to officer-involved shootings; elder financial abuse, high tech crime, and welfare fraud, and other units. Among the widely known cases Cravett is involved with is the DA’s task force investigating law enforcement scandals that erupted this year.
In March, Public Defender Jeff A 1982 graduate of the UC Davis Adachi announced allegations that School of Law, Cravett, who’s origisheriff ’s deputies had made inmates nally from Brooklyn, New York, fight – and gambled on the bouts. joined the San Mateo County DisAnother case that’s been investitrict Attorney’s office in 1983. gated by Cravett’s unit involves gay She stayed for three years, before ex-police officer Mike Evans. Allegaeventually starting her own civil tions emerged in February that Evans practice, where she represented had embezzled more than $16,000 plaintiffs and then defendants on from the department’s Pride Alliance cases such as medical malpractice. for LGBT officers. According to at Assistant Chief Cravett joined the San Francisco least one alliance member, Evans has District Attorney DA’s office in 1996 after she learned paid back several thousand dollars. of an opening for a consumer fraud June Cravett The DA’s office is expected to anattorney. nounce soon whether it will file charges in the Besides Cravett, who lives in Oakland with case. The Bay Area Reporter hasn’t been able to her partner Kimberly Reifel, 50, the white-colreach Evans. lar division includes 15 lawyers and 13 investiCravett declined to comment on any of the gators, who Cravett praised. cases she or her division is currently examining, With advances in technology, “evidence is but she said the public integrity work is “one of going to be found in all types of devices,” and the most important things we do.” many crimes are committed online, Cravett said. “To the extent that there’s anybody in law “When everything moves to the Internet,” enforcement or in the criminal justice system ... whether it’s getting a cab or an apartment, who might be abusing their position, it’s criti“crime moves there, too,” she said, and investically important there are folks who are spend- gations take different kinds of expertise. ing as much energy as possible making sure In December, the DA’s office and Los Angethey don’t do it, and if they do it, they are made les County District Attorney Jackie Lacey anaccountable for that,” she said. nounced a civil consumer protection lawsuit Cravett is intimately familiar with the inner against Uber Technologies Inc., for allegedly viworkings of agencies dedicated to enforcing the See page 9 >> law.
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