Archive for the ‘News’ Category
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National shut down on World Aids Day?
South Africa will come to a standstill at noon next Monday if government, the unions, business and civil society pull off the first ever workplace stoppage specifically for World Aids Day.
Former president Nelson Mandela, president Kgalema Motlanthe, his deputy Baleka Mbete, health minister Barbara Hogan, Cosatu president Zwelinzima Vavi, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and UNAIDS head,Peter Piot, are among those supporting the campaign.
The planned shutdown for 15 minutes midday on December 1, has been negotiated through National Economic Development and Labour Council and is being driven by the South African National Aids Council, SANAC.
Vavi said: "We have never before called on workers or organised business for a stoppage (on HIV) or had unity of all as expressed through SANAC."
Claire Keeton, for The Times -
Message of awareness
Six thousand infections every day. That's one person every time you breathe. Approximately 3000 - 5000 people estimated to be living with HIV and AIDS in Sri Lanka, of which only mere 1000 infections have been reported. 25 million lives snatched away from our presence since 1981 to the largest pandemic ever recorded in history.
On December 1, the world commemorates AIDS day. Save Lanka Kids, a youth based organization under the Community Concern Society, responsible for R.E.A.C.H '08 the first ever national youth conference on HIV and AIDS, will be carrying out the I AM HIV POSITIVE campaign consisting of various sub- campaigns throughout this day to advocate for the 33.2 million people living with HIV and AIDS and in remembrance of the lives lost to AIDS all over the world, to empower and instill responsibility amongst people of our society, especially the youth.
Positive about Education is one of the eight sub-campaigns, which targets about 2000 students of 50 schools all over Colombo. The I am HIV Positive t- shirt campaign is mainly about spreading awareness and creating hype around the city by distributing t- shirts with "I AM HIV POSITIVE" on them to volunteers and people of various organizations sharing similar views as us as they carry on their day to day lives wearing the t-shirt. Churches will also venerate this day with their congregations during services taking place on November 31, the day before which is a Sunday, by praying for people living with HIV and AIDS, observing 2 minutes of silence, showing a video based on HIV and AIDS or simply by wearing red AIDS ribbons.
Cinema's too will honor the day and help us reach out to a vast range of natives, by screening a slide with a message on HIV and AIDS before, after or during the intermission of all their shows on that day. There are also SMS and Facebook campaigns "SPMS (Short Positive Messaging Service) and "Positive Cause" aimed at 2000-2500 young people. "The Red Page" is where magazines with December issues will do their part by publishing a page in tribute to this cause. A "WE ARE HIV POSITIVE" march on streets from Borella to Maradana will wrap up the entire campaign.
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‘Outdated law’ major obstacle in tackling AIDS
New Delhi (IANS): An Indian law that criminalises sex between men is a "major obstacle" in efforts to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country, according to UN AIDS executive director Peter Piot.
"Section 377 (of the Indian Penal Code - IPC) is part of the colonial heritage and should have been abolished a long time back. It is a violation of human rights and a major obstacle in fighting HIV/AIDS", Piot told IANS during his recent visit to India.
The Hindu -
People know best how to solve own issues: Ban Pang Lao community shifting away from donor funding
In the Ban Pang Lao community, a shift is taking place. This shift from reliance on donor funding and NGO support towards greater self-sufficiency is promoting greater sustainability and the power of a community, through dialogue, to determine their own short- and long-term solutions to problems within.
"Most of our problems are external, or coming from outside our community," says a soft-spoken A-jarn (teacher) named Sumalee Wanarat. "The only thing we can do is manage and strengthen ourselves from the inside. Sometimes we have to shift our way of thinking within the community," she continues with a gentle smile.
Sumalee has lived in Ban Pang Lao, located in Maekaotom sub-district, Muang district, about 25 kms from Chiang Rai city, northern Thailand, for over 14 years. She is a relative newcomer to this community of approximately 1,500 members originally from the Isaan province to the northeast. The community is about 30 years old and comprised of mostly farmers who migrated to this predominantly Lanna area during a massive drought in Isaan.
The exposure to this new area and the increase in movement of the community itself brought new issues in focus, including HIV and AIDS, drug use, and a "brain drain" of the community's youth seeking work in larger city centres like Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, and Bangkok. According to a 2006 report on the global AIDS epidemic by UNAIDS and WHO, the prevalence rate of HIV and AIDS was 1.4 per cent in 2005, down from nearly 18 per cent in 1991 in the northern Thailand area.
Sumalee brought a unique perspective as a relative outsider to the community. She was able to see the problems that the community was facing from a more objective standpoint and help the community to start a model of community-based care and prevention for people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHIV/PHA) in 1994, especially focusing on the youth of the community in her education and information provision efforts.
The KC Team -
Abused boy tests HIV positive in Goa
PANAJI: Thirteen-year-old Rahul (name changed) could well be one of hundreds of children in Goa, full of dreams and hopes. But, sexual abuse by a neighbour, and testing positive for HIV has clouded the lads plans for the future.
Rahul, a shy smile upon his young face, reveals that his abuser was a smooth-talking neighbour, who lured him with bike rides, money and sweets and then abused him. If Rahul complained, he would be threatened. The illicit liaison, that included brutality, lasted from May to early September this year, when Rahul fell ill and tests revealed he was HIV positive.
That was when Rahuls father lodged a complaint on October 31 with the women and child protection unit alleging that his minor son had been sexually abused by a neighbour.
The accused was arrested and tests at the Goa Medical College and Hospital for STD showed that the accused was HIV positive.
"We are really hurt. Who could have imagined that a known person would actually abuse our child and threaten him. My sons innocence has been ruined and his life destroyed," said the boys father, who had heard of HIV/AIDS but knew no details about the virus until his son tested positive for it.
"I had heard about HIV but never cared to know much as I never thought that someone in my family could be infected," the father said.
Preetu Nair, for TNN -
New guidelines for HIV/AIDS reporting
New Delhi: The Press Council of India has issued a new set of media guidelines for reporting within India on people suffering from HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), revising a set of guidelines compiled in 1993.
The guidelines, released on Sunday, are likely to be controversial as they impose a whole host of content behaviours, both in print and television, including words that can't be used, as well as impose restrictions, such as the need for a signed prior-consent form on reporting about HIV-positive people.
The council is an autonomous statutory body set up with the objective of preserving freedom of the press as well as to keep a check on the news gathering and reporting practices of newspapers and agencies in India.
Because its decisions cannot be challenged in any court of law, the council has power even if it is widely seen as not being very effective in either policing or altering journalistic practices in India.
The guidelines, devised in association with UNAIDS, the United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, came out on 16 November and lay down certain dos and donts, potentially giving clarity on diverse issues such as how to photograph or interview a person infected with HIV or AIDS. The guidelines also redefined certain terminologies in reporting on the subject.
For starters, the council has mandated that HIV and AIDS are not interchangeable.
"Being a syndrome or a collection of symptoms, AIDS cannot itself be transmitted, nor is there an AIDS virus or AIDS carrier," say the guidelines. They maintain that terms such as "prostitutes" and "gays" used while referring to high risk groups should be replaced with "sex workers" and "men having sex with men", respectively.
The guidelines maintain that HIV cannot be termed a "scourge" and expressions such as "full-blown AIDS", which are often used to denote the progression of the infection, are misleading and meaningless because there are no degrees of AIDS, as a person either has or does not have AIDS.
Taru Bahl, for Livemint.com -
Peter Piot to Maharashtra CM: Lead HIV response
Mumbai, 11 Nov, 2008: UNAIDS Executive Director and Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, Dr. Peter Piot has exhorted Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr. Vilas Rao Deshmukh, to provide personal leadership to the HIV response in the state.
At a meeting in Mumbai, Dr. Piot congratulated the Chief Minister on the formation of the Maharashtra Legislators Forum on AIDS but stressed the need to strengthen it by creating a Secretariat. He also assured him of UNAIDS technical assistance and support in this endeavour.
While expressing his appreciation at the formation of a State AIDS Council in Maharashtra, Dr Piot also stressed that it should meet regularly and direct the HIV response. The meeting was also attended by Mr. Suresh Shetty, State Minister for Medical Education and the Additional Chief Secretary to the Govt, of Maharashtra, Mrs Chandra Iyengar.
UNAIDS -
Injecting drugs threaten India’s AIDS fight – UN
NEW DELHI, Nov 13 (Reuters) - HIV/AIDS infections will spread like "bushfire" in parts of India if the country fails to check a spike in the number of intravenous drug users, the United Nations AIDS agency said on Thursday.
India has the world's third highest caseload with 2.5 million infections. It has an estimated 200,000 intravenous drug users, many of whom are in the remote northeast region which borders the opium-producing Golden Triangle of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos.
"If we don't prevent new infections in new emerging populations like injecting drug users, it can go up as bushfires. We may see a major surge in infections," Peter Piot, the executive director of UNAIDS, said.
He also raised concerns about the spread of drugs in India. "Drug use is moving a bit everywhere, we can see it in Bihar, UP (Uttar Pradesh) and in Kashmir, it is kind of moving across the northern part of the country," Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS told Reuters.
Bappa Majumdar, for AlertNet.org -
HIV-positive travelers challenge countries with ‘no entry’ policy
When HIV-positive Winnie Sseruma was invited to speak on the subject at the United Nations in New York last June, she never expected that her condition would prevent her from obtaining a visa. HIV positive Winnie Sseruma was repeatedly questioned before being allowed into the U.S.
Winnie Sseruma has been living with the disease for over 20 years. Preparing for her trip, UK-based Winnie discovered that the United States was one of 70 countries worldwide that either banned or restricted inbound travel for people with HIV.
"I was told I needed to come to the U.S. embassy for an interview and bring a doctor's letter stating I was fit to travel," Sseruma, HIV coordinator for charity Christian Aid, told CNN.
"At first, the embassy told me that the first available appointment for my interview would be at a date past the U.N. High-level Meeting I was meant to attend."
Only when the U.N. intervened on Sseruma's behalf was she granted an earlier interview date.
Sseruma was relieved when she finally received her visa on time. But the hurdles were far from over. At the airport in New York, Sseruma was detained twice for further questioning.
"It was so humiliating," Sseruma said. "The immigration officers were asking me very personal questions about my health."
A month after Sseruma's ordeal, the U.S. Senate passed the re-authorization of President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), including an amendment to the ban on travel and immigration for HIV-positive non-citizens.
But the United States travel ban still remains in effect, and will continue to be the law until the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) modifies its regulations. Fifty-eight Members of Congress have sent a letter to the HHS, urging them to take action.
Anouk Lorie, for CNN.com
© 2008 Wake Up Pune.
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