Strangest but Truest Posts of 2008 in TheBody.com’s “Ask the Experts” Forums

December 9, 2008
We're nearly 30 years into the HIV pandemic, yet a shocking number of
people still appear not to know the first thing about HIV. We get to
see some of that ignorance firsthand in our "Ask the Experts" forums,
where we're sometimes amazed at just how paranoid some folks are about
whether they've been exposed to HIV.

We scoured our "Ask the Experts" forums and nominated 10 posts we feel
are the "best of the worst" of 2008 (or the worst of the worst,
depending on how you look at it). They're some of the oddest, most
nonsensical questions we've seen people ask about HIV this year.
Some are shocking, some are sad, many are hilarious -- and they're all
reminders of how far we still have to go to educate the world about
HIV.

The Body  

HIV patient forced to live in isolation

Sangli (Maharashtra), Dec 11 (ANI): In yet another bizarre case of ostracizing AIDS victim, an HIV-positive tested woman was rescued from a secluded place in the remote rural area of Sangli district of Maharashtra where she was forcibly locked.

Kavita (name changed) feels sad that she had been forced to lead such a wretched life, staying in a dingy storeroom for a long time until the police rescued her.

NewsTrack India  

Pune, Chennai trials for Aids vaccine await nod

East India’s gay rights guru

Crime against Women

INCIDENCE RATE

2006 : 1,64,765 2006 : 14.7

2007 : 1,85,312 2007 : 16.3

. Andhra Pradesh reported 13.3% of total such cases in the country
(24,738 out of 1,85,312). Tripura reported the highest crime rate
(30.7) closely followed by Andhra Pradesh (30.3) as compared to the
National average rate of 16.3.

NCRB

Kolkata AIDS care centre project shelved after protests

Kolkata, Dec 3: A bid to set up a community care centre for HIV-
positive people here has been temporarily shelved following
objections from nearby residents who wrongly believe that the virus
might spread to them also, officials said Wednesday.

The West Bengal State AIDS Prevention and Control Society planned to
set up the 10-bed community care centre for the HIV-affected at
Amherst Street area in north Kolkata. The officials rented a house in
October and started furnishing the rooms for the centre when
residents began resisting, saying that AIDS is contagious.

NEWKERALA.COM

Towards a better life: Sex workers take charge

With the help of 15 NGOs, sex workers across Mumbai have started a
self-help movement through which they solve their problems

Mumbai: When Kusum's three-month-old son was kidnapped six months
ago, she was convinced she would never see him again. A commercial
sex worker from Koperkhairane, she felt she wasn't "privileged''
enough for the police to help her out. But by the eighth day, the
police had tracked down her son, who had been sold to a childless
couple.

Malathy Iyer, for Times of India

Homosexuality needs to be curbed as it spreads HIV/AIDS: Centre to HC

NEW DELHI: Justifying criminalisation of homosexuality in the country, the Centre has pleaded before the Delhi High that it is one of the main reasons for spread of HIV/AIDS and needs to be curbed.

In a written submission filed by Additional Solicitor General P P Malhotra, the Centre said that legalising Men having sex with Men (MSM), as pleaded by gay rights activists, would lead to spread of the dreaded disease and placed reports of various countries to substantiate its stand.

"In Zambia, one in three (33%) surveyed men who have sex with men tested HIV-positive. In the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, 43% of men who said they had sex only with other men were found to be living with HIV," the government said, quoting the United Nations report on Global AIDS Epidemic, 2008.
"In Bangkok, HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men rose from 17% in 2003 to 28% in 2005 and it is estimated that as many as 21% new HIV infections in Thailand in 2005 were attributable to unprotected sex between men," the Centre said.

Times of India

Man kills wife, kids fearing AIDS

GURGAON: It was a confession that shook even the most hardened law-
keepers. Naresh (name changed), the accused in the triple murders in
Shikohpur

village near Gurgaon, said he killed his wife and two minor children
because he feared they were suffering from AIDS. Naresh was arrested
last week. He remained in police remand for three days and was
produced in court on Tuesday.

On December 16, 2008, Naresh allegedly killed his 27-year-old wife,
seven-year-old daughter and five-year-old son by strangulating them
at home, 14 km away from Gurgaon. Police registered a case under
section 302 of IPC against Naresh, his father and brother after
Naresh's father-in-law implicated the trio. Though his brother and
father were arrested immediately, Naresh went absconding. He was
arrested later from Jodhpur, Rajasthan, said the SHO of Kherki Daula
police station.

Sumi Sukanya, for Times of India