Archive for the ‘News’ Category
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Addiction is a way of life with city youth: survey
Chandigarh, September 19: Consumption of alcohol or drugs is indicative of maturity, feel nearly 53 per cent of youngsters living in the city. A recent survey conducted by Dr Avnish Jolly, resource person with UNAIDS India, Godwin Society and Theatre Age, found that only 2 per cent of the youth were aware of the potential addictive nature of painkillers, sleeping pills and cough syrups.
The survey was conducted on 500 youngsters in the city in the age group of 18 to 20 years.
The format of the survey was based on the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Dr Jolly says: "Painkillers or sleeping pills are commonly available at home. Youngsters tend to consume these without realising that they can get addicted. Parental guidance is essential as they should check whether their child is consuming these medicines in excess."
Khushboo Sandhu, for expressindia.com -
Pune: A Positive City
Thanks to Pune’s youngsters, the AIDS campaign has moved beyond slums and red-light areas to the streets, multiplexes and restaurants...
It’s a given for parents to object to attires of their college-going kids. But the Sangitianis definitely seemed to have a point when they demanded to know why their daughter Shweta was going out donning a T-shirt that said “HIV Positive”.
In another part of Pune, similar shock waves were being emitted from a group of youngsters who formed a part of the crowd waiting outside a movie hall at a swanky multiplex. In a loud and crystal-clear voice, one of the guys had just informed his friends that he’d discovered he’s HIV positive and was now giving details about how he contracted the virus.
And in the city’s upmarket Koregaon Park area, a family was debating over whether to sit down for a meal at a table where the coasters read "Be HIV Positive…about educating yourself and others about HIV and AIDS" or then "Sex workers protect themselves, why don’t you?" To add to their dilemma, a waiter came over and handed them a brochure that listed the FAQs about AIDS.
If it’s in-your-face, it’s because that’s exactly what it’s meant to be. A clutch of collegians in the student city of Pune have decided that it’s time people learnt to talk openly about AIDS and HIV. They have also learnt that since lectures are antediluvian and nothing succeeds like shock when you want some undivided attention, they need to redefine the rules about spreading the good word.
Sunanda Mehta, for Indian Express. -
In blast times, eunuch goes to donate blood, is turned away
Stories of callousness of hospitals is not new. Refusing beds to the terminally ill, denying care to the sick, making them wait for hours for an appointment…the list is endless.
And now, in blast times, if a recent incident at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital is to be considered a case in point, there is discrimination against those who want to help, also.
After the blasts, many people came forward to help and donate blood. Among them was Sita-a eunuch. After hearing of the plight of the victims of Saturdays blasts, Sita wanted to help and went to RML Hospital where the doctors refused to accept her blood and turned her away.
This, apparently, at a time when the hospital would have needed as much blood as possible!
Metro Now
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Condoms@call centres: Why single them out?
They are a familiar sight at railway stations and on college campuses across India. Now condom vending machines may find a niche in call centres too.
Earlier this week, the Andhra Pradesh State AIDS Control Society (APSACS) announced that the authorities have asked call centres and BPO companies to install condom vending machines. "This is underway. The machines will be installed soon," APSACS project director RV Chandravadan told a news conference in Hyderabad. The Mumbai District Aids Control Society (MDACS) had made a similar announcement in June this year.
Campaigners for HIV awareness are cheering. But its not a problem solved, by any means. Chandravadan unwittingly underlined one of the main hitches in the scheme when he declined to name companies and share details of call centres.
He told journalists that IT companies would not want their names to be made public as this could bring them a "bad name". It was proof, if any were needed, that for a majority of people, condom vending machines continue to be both taboo subject and shameful object.
Pallavi Srivastava, for The Times of India -
‘Sexy’ pictures on condom packs to stay, orders SC
NEW DELHI: 'Sexy pictures' on condom packs will remain, at least for the time being, the Supreme Court said on Monday. It stayed a Madras high court order which had virtually banned such pictures on condom packets, terming them as "indecent, obscene" and an affront to Indian ethos.
The HC order had left Hindustan Latex, the largest manufacturer and marketer of contraceptives and condoms, so worried that it requisitioned the services of solicitor general G E Vahanvati to get it out of the sticky situation. Other private condom manufacturers were more than eager to join hands with the PSU in appealing against the HC order.
The SG said, "To promote the usage of condoms in a customer friendly manner, Hindustan Latex has adopted the strategy of attractive sales and marketing policy. This strategy has resulted in remarkable sales."
Dhananjay Mehta, for The Times of India -
Aging HIV Patients Face Complicated Health Issues
There was a time when Lee Chew was so sick, he'd lost all feeling in his lower body-forcing him to wear diapers and get around by wheelchair. At 6 feet 2 inches, the once-robust actor was a skeletal 135 pounds, with severe pain in his hands that prevented him from even holding a fork. It was 1996, nearly 10 years after his diagnosis, and AIDS was all around him: friends, lovers, even his doctor, all died of the disease. Funerals were a monthly ritual. "In a way, living through the AIDS crisis of the 1980s was like living through our own version of the Holocaust," he says. "It was a nightmare."
Chew slowly began to wake from that nightmare with the approval of a new antiretroviral drug, Crixivan, that would help nurse him back to health. Slowly but surely, he went from wheelchair to walker, walker to cane, and finally, back to the gym. Today, Chew, a New Yorker, by way of Roanoke, Va., is happy and healthy, tan and fit. At 59, he looks about 40. "I can be pretty vain," Chew jokes. "I like to make sure my pecs look good."
In reality, Chew worries about a lot more. He is a social worker for aging HIV-positive gay men, so AIDS remains a constant character in his life. And though he's healthy, Chew is getting older-which brings a whole new set of worries. His is the first generation to age with HIV. As he ages, there are changes in how his medications will interact. And doctors and researchers are only beginning to figure out what, exactly, that means.
Jessica Bennett, for Newsweek -
India Witnessing Growth of ‘High-Price’ Commercial Sex Workers
A new group of "high-price" commercial sex workers is emerging in India and "servicing India's nouveau riche and the throng of foreign businessmen drawn to a booming economy," Reuters reports. Although the group largely constitutes educated women from middle-class families who consider sex work a "lucrative and even glamorous profession," many sex workers in India -- which has the world's third highest HIV/AIDS caseload -- are HIV-positive and are forced into the work by "crushing poverty," according to Reuters.
kaisernetwork.org
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Social exclusion and lack of prevention puts MSM at risk
The invisibility of men who have sex with men (MSM) in many low and middle-income countries has contributed to the inadequacy of resources aimed at preventing HIV among them, delegates at the 17th International AIDS Conference were told today.
The criminalization of male-to-male sex, prejudice, social hostility and human rights abuses targeted at MSM have encouraged the spread of HIV, according to the International AIDS Society (IAS).
"Homophobia continues to fuel the spread of HIV in countries with concentrated epidemics and in countries with generalized epidemics alike," IAS Executive Director Craig McClure told conference delegates.
"This must change. Research has demonstrated over and over again that reducing the social exclusion of [MSM] through the promotion and protection of human rights is not only consistent with, but a prerequisite to, good public health. IAS considers it a major priority to put this evidence into practice - everywhere and now," McClure said.
MSM have on average a 19-times greater chance of being infected with HIV than the general adult male population in low and middle-income countries. In some states MSM are more than 100 times more likely to be infected than other men.
Henry Neondo, for HealthDev.net -
HIV-positive couple assaulted
Muzaffarnagar: An HIV positive couple, undergoing treatment in the district hospital, were allegedly assaulted by seven people for not leaving the village. The couple, residents of Rehakra village in the district, were allegedly beaten up, SSP B.D. Paulson said, adding they were also threatened with dire consequences if they did not leave the village.
© 2008 Wake Up Pune.
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