Prince diagnosed with AIDS before sudden death—reports

Medical examiners have yet to determine the actual cause of Prince’s untimely death last week, but multiple reports have surfaced that the ‘Purple Rain’ singer was already suffering from AIDS, six months prior to his passing.

The 57-year-old’s weight plummeted to just 80 lbs by the time of his death and “had been preparing to die for a while,”  according to an article from National Enquirer on Thursday.

The report said doctors had reportedly warned Prince that his blood count was unusually low in recent days, and his body temperature had dropped dangerously below the normal 98.6 degrees to 94 degrees—which were early signs of the disease.

“He was totally iron-deficient, very weak and often disoriented. He rarely ate and when he did, it all came right back up,” the report quoted an unnamed source as saying. “His face was yellowish, the skin on his neck was hanging off and the tips of fingers were a brownish-yellow”.

Earlier reports stated  his heart stopped while experiencing influenza—an illness which could prove fatal to an AIDS sufferer due to their weakened immune defenses.

However, the iconic artist reportedly refused treatment for his crippling condition and believed that God will cure him instead, the reports said.

Anonymous police reports also revealed that they found prescription painkillers on him and inside his Minnesota home.



Meanwhile, the music legend was publicly diagnosed with HIV in the mid-90’s, which reports say developed into AIDS at the tail-end of last year.

His wild sexual foray during the height of his career was no secret to the public, but his family said that he changed his ways as he grew older.

The dreaded disease is most commonly caught through unprotected sex, but can also be transmitted by sharing needles.

In the meantime, representatives for Prince have yet to respond to the bold allegations, as of this story’s writing. Khristian Ibarrola, INQUIRER.net

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Dating app fires back at billboard linking it to STD spread

LOS ANGELES— A popular dating app is telling a Los Angeles-based AIDS health care group to take down a billboard that links dating apps with sexual diseases.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation said Monday that it received a cease-and-desist letter from Tinder that claims the billboard falsely associates the dating app with venereal diseases.

The foundation’s billboard shows a silhouette of a man labeled “Tinder” face-to-face with a woman labeled “chlamydia.” A silhouette of a man labeled “Grindr,” a gay dating app, faces a male silhouette labeled “gonorrhea.”

The foundation says it sent a letter to Tinder saying it will not take down the billboard.

The foundation provides health care to HIV and AIDS patients and says its campaign is designed to remind dating-app users about the risk of casual sex.

source: technology.inquirer.net

US porn actors must wear condoms—court

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood porn film actors must wear condoms on set, a federal appeal court said Monday, throwing out their claims that it breaches US First Amendment rights.

The ruling upholding a Los Angeles County law, which was approved by a referendum in November 2012 as so-called Measure B, requires adult film producers to obtain a public health permit, follow all health and safety laws including condom use, and pay a permit fee.

Porn film companies claimed their industry already regulates itself sufficiently to protect actors against AIDS/HIV and other diseases. It also violates the First Amendment right to free expression, they said.

But that argument was rejected by a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld a decision taken in August last year.

Measure B “was narrowly tailored to achieve the substantial governmental interest of reducing the rate of sexually transmitted infections, and left open adequate alternative means of expression,” they said.

Porn film makers in California were forced to suspend production temporarily in 2011 after an actor tested positive for HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, in the latest such disruption to the multi-billion-dollar industry.

The industry is primarily based in the San Fernando Valley north of LA.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net