Archive for the ‘News’ Category
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Condom ringtone, ads push sales in India
NEW DELHI-A media campaign featuring a mobile phone ringtone that sings "condom condom" has pushed up sale of the contraceptive by 85 million in six months, India's AIDS control body said Friday.
The campaign, which included television and radio advertisements, reached 150 million men, especially migrant workers who frequent sex workers.
"There are still huge problems in promoting condom usage. Sex workers tell us that men would rather pay more than use a condom," Sujatha Rao, the chief of National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), told reporters.
India has an estimated 2.5 million people living with HIV, according to the United Nations.
Health officials are targeting sales of three billion condoms annually by 2010 from the current 1.7 billion as well as the use of female condoms by improving the retail network.
"Our biggest barrier is the lack of a proper marketing network," NACO's Rao said.
Inquirer.net
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Information Technology and AIDS Epidemic
In Transit - India has time to reverse its HIV epidemic:
INDIA SHOULD use its legendary IT skills to drive its health sector programmes, including HIV/AIDS information and treatment. "The world learned from India when its pharma companies saved over 3.5 million people from sure death by providing affordable AIDS medicine. India should similarly use its IT skills for its own health sector and ensure everyone everywhere has access to information and healthcare facilities," said Jeffery O'Malley, director, HIV/AIDS group, Bureau of Development Policy, UNDP, in an exclusive to Hindustan Times.
India still has time to reverse its HIV epidemic, with states already showing results. IV prevalence in the general population in Maharashtra dropped from 0.80 per cent to 0.74 per cent in 200506, and in Tamil Nadu, from 0.47 per cent to 0.39 per cent. "Unlike in Africa, HIV infection in India is driven by a small identifiable proportion of the popula- tion-female sex workers, migrants, injecting drug users and MSMs-and working with them is very effective," said O'Malley.
India has 2.5 million people living with HIV, with infection being a high 5.69 per cent among Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) and 5.38 percent Female Sex Workers (FSWs). Most government programmes target female sex workers and their clients through condom promotion and information campaigns.
Issues related to gay rights have been a real disaster in India, as in the rest of the world, said O'Malley.
"Governments the world over find it easier to talk about female sex workers than men who have sex with men. Even when the Gates Foundation started HIV interventions in India, the focused on female sex workers and injecting drug users. To their credit, they now work with men who have sex with men (MSMs), though it's mostly with commercial MSMs. While infection is reversing in sex workers in states like Tamil Nadeu and Andhra, it is increasing among MSMs across the country," he said.
With California voting to ban same-sex marriages through a referendum that circumvents its own Supreme Court ruling in May that legalised same-sex marriages, discriminating laws exist against MSMs are many countries. "The HIV epidemic among MSMS will go underground unless legal and social issues related MSM are not addressed," he said.
AIDS in India
People with HIV and AIDS: 2.5 Million
Men: 61%
Women: 39%
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India’s crackdown on a sexual menace
Under rightwing and leftwing governments alike, India has prided itself on its status as the world's largest democracy. Civic freedoms, an independent judiciary, and basic political rights for citizens are part of that promise. But in India and far too many other democracies, rights that are arguably even more basic - to be who you are, to live freely in your body, even to call yourself a citizen if society despises you - are a different matter.
Early on October 20, Bangalore police arrested five hijras - a traditional cultural identity for working-class transgender people who, born as men, identify as women. Such arrests are sadly routine. Throughout India, many hijras cannot get identity papers: the state will not let them change their legal sex and denies them IDs if their appearance does not match their birth gender. As a result, they often cannot work, go to school, find jobs, vote, or even move around freely. Social prejudice against "men" or "women" who are not "masculine" or "feminine" enough makes them ready victims of violence.
Denied viable opportunities for work, hijras are forced to resort to begging or demanding goodwill funds during marriage or birth celebrations. That way of life has been part of several regional Indian cultures, where blessings of a hijra were considered a good omen. But as these traditions erode, many hijras have had to survive as street beggars or sex workers. In both cases, police slap them with fines, jail them, sometimes physically or sexually abuse them.
But on October 20, the five hijras, who were apparently begging but not soliciting sex, were charged with "extortion" - a crime which, unlike begging, allowed the police to hold them without bail.
In India's vibrant civil society, a growing number of NGOs support the sexually - as well as politically and economically - disenfranchised. A crisis intervention team from the Bangalore-based organisation Sangama, which works to protect and advance the rights of sexual minorities, arrived at the police station to help. The group is trained to assist hijras in fending off barrages of minor charges. But this time, the police jailed the five members of the crisis intervention team as well, beating and sexually abusing some of them.
Dipika Nath, for guardian.co.uk
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Civil society protests police violence against hijras and human rights defenders
In response to the call for a national day of action by the Campaign for Sex Workers and Sexual Minorities Rights,community groups and civil society organizations ( Sahara Transgender Project, Delhi Network of Positive People, Naz Foundation (India) Trust, Savera, Voices Against 377, Breakthrough, Sharan and Youth Parliament and Lawyers Collective) in Delhi staged a dharna at Karnataka Bhavan to protest against the police excesses against hijras and human rights activists in Bengaluru.
A hundred people including transgenders, kothis, people living with HIV and other rights activists, gathered outside Karnataka Bhavan at Chankyapuri, shouting slogans and demanding action against erring officials.
Two transgenders - Dilfaraz and Savitha who were abused in the incident in Bengaluru were also present.
On 20th October, Bengaluru Police arrested 42 persons including hijras, kothis and human rights activists on charges of unlawful assembly, rioting and obstructing government officials in performing their duty.
All 42 were kept in police custody for 2 days. Many detainees were beaten and sexually violated. They were released on bail on 22 October 2008.
After the protest, a delegation met the Resident Commissioner - Mr. Arvind Risbund and handed over a memorandum demanding:
Lawyers Collective -
Being HIV-positive
Ed. Note: Aleefia Somji is a member of "Wake Up Pune."
Many of you may have seen me with a big black T-shirt screaming the words "HIV-POSITIVE" on it. Some of you have given me dirty looks and others have exclaimed, "But Aleefia, you're not HIV-positive!" "No? Maybe I am. What does an HIV-positive person look like?" "Oh, they must be a slum dweller, or they're definitely a slut." And there we have it: the stigma and discrimination that surrounds HIV/AIDS. In many places people are still unaware that there are four stages of HIV; AIDS is the fourth and fatal. Today, you can live with HIV. I had dinner with a 42-year old man who was HIV-positive, married and had four children-all HIV-negative. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) has deemed HIV a chronic condition, much like diabetes. Sadly enough this is not the case in India. Stigma kills.
There are numerous articles where families have been excommunicated and considered "untouchable." There are cases where children who are HIV-positive are blamed for their parents' actions. They are often punished, and in some cases even burned. This does not have to be the case. So Wake Up Pune was founded.
Wake Up Pune (www.wakeuppune.org) is an organization comprised of non-governmental organizations, companies and interested individuals working to create awareness and reduce stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV/AIDS.
Aleefia Somji, for Mount Holyoke News
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Global financial crisis and it’s implications for HIV response
"A careful monitoring of the situation is needed and efforts should be taken to protect, particularly the poorest among the population groups who are vulnerable to HIV infection and made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS" (Asian People's Alliance to Combat HIV/AIDS)
Asian People's Alliance to Combat HIV/AIDS (APACHA) Statement on the Global financial crisis and it's implications for HIV response.
Currently, global markets are experiencing severe economic turmoil, characterised by dented faith in global economic regulatory institutions, severe credit crunch, and depletion of asset values. Many fear that the current crisis may lead to a synchronized economic recession in the major world economies in the near future. Such a scenario has wide reaching implications on all aspects of modern human society. However, it has severe implications on health and well-being of economically and socially vulnerable sections of society, particularly individuals and communities vulnerable to HIV and made vulnerable by HIV infection.
Asian People's Alliance to Combat HIV/AIDS (APACHA) call all the key stakeholders to focus attention on the global financial crisis and it's implications for HIV response in general and specially on economically and social weaker sections of the society who are infected, affected and made vulnerable by HIV.
The health-financing models in many developing countries rely heavily on direct state support and individuals own resources for health care and related support services. Even a slight financial downturn in such countries may have implications on health and well being of already vulnerable populations.
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Women’s groups launch new drive against AIDS
BANGALORE: "An HIV positive, I am not taking anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs for the past 13 years. Having the disease should not stop us from living with dignity," said Shanti, a sex worker.
She wants to spread this message to other women affected with HIV.
Shanti is a key person involved in the new project 'Baduku' (Life) launched by Swathi Mahila Sangha (SMS) on Monday. For the past five years, she has been working with SMS.
The project is done in co-ordination with Vijaya Mahila Sangha and Jyothi Mahila Sangha, two other organisations working for the empowerment of sex workers.
The programme aims to fight against the stigma attached to these women and the discrimination they face.
The project is supported by the World Bank which has granted Rs16 lakhs for technical support for 18 months.
Sunitha Rao R, for DNA
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New TB vaccine offers glimmer of hope to HIV positive people
A new Tuberculosis vaccine that can reduce the risk of HIV-infected people falling sick with TB, has been developed by a U.S. National Institutes of Health-sponsored trial in Dar-es-Salaam. Announcing the results of the Dar Dar trial of the prime boost Mycobacterium vaccae (MV) vaccine at the 39th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris recently, Executive Director of the International Union Against TB and Lung Diseases (IUATLD) Nils Billo said the re sults were among "the most exciting and promising for people living with HIV in recent times."
The trial was a collaboration between the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania and the U.S. Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) and cited by the investigators as a fine example of North-South cooperation in responding to an international health problem.
The seven-year study enrolled about 2,000 HIV positive volunteers who had received childhood BCG and whose CD4 count was 200 or more cells per microlitre of blood. The CD4 is a white blood cell that plays a critical role in the immune response and is normally above 800 cells per microlitre. Half the volunteers received five doses of the Mycobacterium vaccae two months apart over a year. The other half acted as a control arm receiving a dummy vaccine or placebo. Dr. Ford von Reyn, Professor of Medicine, DMS and principal investigator of the study said, "the vaccine was found to boost lymphocyte counts and protect against all forms of definite TB among 20 of the 1,000 who received it. There is no risk of getting TB infection from the vaccine itself as it is an inactivated form. The technology used to create the vaccine is low cost and that will help ensure its affordability in those countries where it will be needed most."
Jaya Shreedhar, for The Hindu -
HIV-infected men get lifer for raping, murdering minor
BANGALORE: A Mumbai sessions court on Friday awarded life imprisonment to four HIV-infected men for raping and murdering a three-year-old girl.
They had committed the crime under the misconception that a sexual union with a child would cure them of the dreaded virus.
Mohammed Sameer (19), a newspaper vendor, and his three friends committed the crime at Shivaji Nagar in Mumbai in March a year ago.
Sameer, who was picked up on suspicion, underwent a narco-analysis test in Bangalore in November the past year, during which he admitted to the crime.
"We had a misconception that we could get rid of HIV if we had sex with children," Sameer said during the narco test. He also revealed that he was a paedophile who kidnapped children of homeless migrants and raped them. Despite this confession, police have not yet received any complaints against him in this regard.
Kunal Chatterjee, for DNA
© 2008 Wake Up Pune.
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