Every year, many women raise money for their favourite charity by participating in the Flora Women's Mini Marathon. This year's event will take place on Bank Holiday Monday 4th June 2012.

It is a great opportunity to get fit and healthy and raise money for a charity of your choice. Entry for the 2012 Flora Women's Mini Marathon will open on Wednesday 22nd February 2012.

At The GUIDE Clinic we are looking for anyone who might consider running on our behalf. Please share this post with your friends and help us enter a team in this the 30th Women's Mini Marathon.

Any enquiries can be directed to Billy O'Keeffe email: billy@guideclinic.ie

MORE than seven out of ten students have had unprotected sex but have never been tested for a sexually transmitted infection (STI), according to research.

The Union of Students in Ireland found 38pc of students said either they or a sexual partner have had to take the morning after pill.

More than 1,000 young people were surveyed ahead of Sexual Health Awareness and Guidance (SHAG) week in colleges and universities across the country.  Read the full story here

The number of young men living with HIV in Ireland continues to rise, according to figures from the Health Service Executive's protection surveillance centre.

HIV diagnoses have continued to increase significantly among men who have sex with men in the last number of years, in particular among younger men aged 18-29 years.

Figures show that 152 new cases of HIV were diagnosed in the first half of this year.

Read the full news story here

NEW RESEARCH into adults diagnosed with HIV/Aids in Ireland has recorded a marked improvement in outcomes for those in treatment.

However, there has been an increase in frequency of cases among gay men, while fewer men in rural areas are being tested.

The study, which is the first analysis of its type on the demographic data of Ireland’s adult HIV-diagnosed population, was conducted across six infectious disease treatment clinics between July 2009 and July 2010.

It identified 3,254 patients who had sought access to HIV specialist outpatient care at one of the State’s six centres – three in Dublin (St James’s Hospital, the Mater and Beaumont) and one each in Cork, Limerick and Galway.

Read the full story here

Join us for 'The Christmas Concert' in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, at 8pm on Thursday December 1st - World AIDS Day

All Tickets €20 each

UPDATE - The Three Tenors Ireland have just confirmed their appearance at the concert which will also feature

GLORIA - Dublin's Gay & Lesbian Choir
Beating Time, The Gospel Project, Julie Feeney, Marie Therese McCartin & Sean Boylan

Proceeds go to The GUIDE Clinic at St James's Hospital & The Bone Marrow Trust for Leukemia

For Credit Card Bookings Telephone 01 4738314 or 01 4284395

OR email billy@guideclinic.ie

The STI clinic in St James's has seen it all and is expert at treating sexually transmitted diseases as well as putting patients at ease, writes JOANNE HUNT

"WE'VE SEEN it all and we've heard it all, we're not in for any surprises," says Dr Fiona Lyons of her work at the sexually transmitted infections clinic at St James's Hospital.

As a consultant in genitourinary medicine at the hospital's specialist STI unit, the Guide Clinic, every day she meets people who she knows would rather be anywhere else.

"One of the most rewarding things for me is the ability to make something that is really big for somebody, less big,' says Lyons. "Very often people have a huge amount of anxiety."

In the clinic waiting room late morning on a Friday, there are certainly one or two anxious faces, but the staff here are all about putting people at ease.

Read the full story at www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2011/0927/1224304791695.html

A support group for people who are HIV + begins in September 2011 at The GUIDE Clinic.

The group runs for six weeks and is free of charge and you will meet other positive people in a confidential setting.

The meetings will deal with issues such as anxiety & stress management, problem solving, support, building self-esteem, increasing self-confidence, relaxation, living with HIV and healthy living.

For more information contact Neans or Deirdre in GUIDE Social Work on (01) 4162143 or socialworkgu@stjames.ie

It has been three decades since the discovery of HIV and Aids, and in that time it has had a horrifying global impact. Diagnosis might no longer mean a death sentence, but the thousands of Irish people with the virus still suffer from stigma and discrimination. Here, some of them tell their stories to CIAN TRAYNOR

HANGING BEHIND AN unmarked door in Dublin's inner city is a sign with a simple code: "What I see here, what I hear here, let it stay here."

Read the full story at www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/magazine/2011/0806/1224301746425.html

Two leading consultants in infectious diseases have expressed serious concern at the rise in Ireland of new HIV cases in men who have sex with men (MSM).

This follows the newly reported cases of HIV/AIDS in 2010 recorded by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, which show that homosexual sex among men is now the predominant mode of HIV transmission in Ireland, taking over from heterosexual sex (see Irish Medical Times, June 17).

As Dr Catherine Fleming, Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Galway, and Prof Colm Bergin, Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases, St James's Hospital, raised concern, it also emerged that there was a 5 per cent increase in first time attendees at the Gay Men's Health Service (GMHS) STI Clinic in 2010.

Read the full story at http://www.imt.ie/news/latest-news/2011/07/concerns-over-rise-in-new-gay-hiv-cases.html

Thirty years after the HIV virus was first documented, the red ribbon is the ubiquitous symbol of support for those living with the illness. Who thought of it and how did it get so big?

In the sparse surroundings of a former classroom on a spring day in 1991 - a decade after the rise of Aids - a group of 12 artists gathered to discuss a new project.

They were photographers, painters, film makers and costume designers, and they sat around in the shared gallery space known as PS122 in New York's East Village.

Read the full story at www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13597312