Health Highlights: Sept. 30, 2015

Health Highlights: Sept. 30, 2015

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Treat Newly Diagnosed HIV Patients Immediately: WHO

Treatment should begin immediately after a person is diagnosed with HIV infection, the World Health Organization says in newly-revised guidelines.

That advice puts the WHO in line with what is recommended in the United States and many other developed nations, the Associated Press reported.

The new guidelines could prevent 28 million new HIV infections and 21 million AIDS deaths worldwide by 2030, according to the WHO.

Previously, the U.N health agency advised doctors to delay treatment until people infected with the AIDS-causing virus showed signs of immune system problems, the AP reported.

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Ads Linking STDs and Tinder, Grindr Under Fire

An ad campaign that links the dating apps Tinder and Grindr with the spread of sexually transmitted diseases is being defended by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

The ads that appear on billboards and bus benches in Los Angeles remind people about the risks of casual sex and offer free STD tests, the Associated Press reported.

“In many ways, location-based mobile dating apps are becoming a digital bathhouse for millennials wherein the next sexual encounter can literally just be a few feet away – as well as the next STD,” Whitney Engeran-Cordova, the foundation’s senior public health director, said in a statement.

However, Tinder and Grindr are are unhappy about the ads. Tinder sent a cease and desist letter to the foundation, saying the campaign falsely associates the location-based dating app with the spread of veneral diseases, the AP reported.

And Grindr — a similar app for gay men — removed commercials paid for by the foundation that promote free STD testing.

In its response to Tinder, the foundation said it did not disparage the company and refused to remove the ads’ reference to the app, the AP reported.

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