Archive for the ‘News’ Category
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Effort to curb HIV/AIDS in India
ndian scenario, new trends, efforts to curbThe HIV/AIDS incidence in India is a cause of concern. About 4.58 million adults in the country are estimated to be infected with the disease. The infection is not just confined to high-risk groups and the trend is to spread from urban to rural communities. The government of India has given high priority to prevent the epidemic and several organisations are engaged in various activities.
The Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS), with a network of 650 district branches, is in a unique position to curb the spread of the infection. Recently, the IRCS is piloting a project which is geared to supporting HIV+ women and pre-school children of HIV+ families, preventing the spread in communities and addressing stigma in the society. The projectThe project is in Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu state. Namakkal is well known for truck industries, poultry and associated commercial activities. The truck drivers and the migrant casual workers, predominantly in the villages, are transmitting HIV infection to their women partners.
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India still under siege of AIDS epidemic
India's claim that its HIV/AIDS epidemic has stabilised was questioned by leading epidemiologists at the 17th International AIDS conference in Mexico City.
Experts say that evidence shows that new high risk communities have emerged who may give a completely different picture to the epidemic.
Migrant workers, men who have sex with men and transgender - form the new face of India's AIDS epidemic.
Epidemiologists tracking the disease say emerging data shows that these high risk groups, who are beyond the government's radar, can derail the country's fight against the disease.
Dr Geoffrey P Garnett, professor at Imperial College, UK said, "It is wrong to believe that the epidemic has stabilised. What has happened is that new infections equal deaths, so it seems that the numbers have plateaued."
Mohuya Chaudhuri, for NDTV.com -
Personalized HIV therapy developed
WASHINGTON: A research team from Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), along with researchers from Universite de Montreal have developed a personalized immunotherapy to fight HIV/AIDS.
Scientists have long been finding it difficult to create an AIDS vaccine due to high genetic variability of the HIV virus.
"Our approach is unique in the world: no one else has yet developed customized immunotherapy using the virus from individual patients," said Dr Jean-Pierre Routy, from MUHC.
"This experimental technique remains long and costly for the moment, but we're hoping it will hold the promise of a completely innovative and widely available treatment in the future," he added.
The Times of India -
‘Elite’ HIV woman holds key to vaccine
WASHINGTON: A woman who has never shown symptoms of infection with the AIDS virus may hold the secret to defeating the virus, US researchers said.
Infected at least 10 years ago by her husband, the woman is able somehow to naturally control the deadly and incurable virus - even though her husband must take cocktails of strong HIV drugs to control his. She is a so-called "elite suppressor", and studies of her immune cells have begun to offer clues to how her body does it, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said on Tuesday.
"This is the best evidence to date that elite suppressors can have fully pathogenic virus," said Joel Blankson, who led the study. "The feeling was initially that they had defective virus," Blankson added in a telephone interview.
But the couple has been monogamous for at least 17 years, Blankson said, and tests show they are infected with the same strain of virus. What is different is the immune system of the wife, who cannot be named for privacy reasons.
The Times of India -
HIV patients try to ‘bat out’ the associated stigma in Kolkata
Kolkata, Aug 12: HIV and Thalassaemia affected people took part in a cricket practice session ahead of the Red Ribbon Cup organised under the banner of Thalassaemia and AIDS Prevention Society in Kolkata.
More than 15 HIV patients have decided to fight their own battle by 'batting out' the discrimination in the society and reduce the attached stigma.
Sporting T-shirts with 'AIDS' quotations and messages written on them, the members are all set to spread awareness about the commonly dreaded disease.
DailyIndia.com -
The Acquittal in Mumbai of Paedophilia Case Raises a Number of Questions.
The Freddy Peats case in Goa in 1991 first brought the term "paedophilia" into public discourse in this country. Since then, there has been acknowledgement, reluctantly though, that child sexual abuse (CSA) exists in our society whether within or outside the confines of the family, and steps have been taken to punish the offenders.
But now the Mumbai High Court has acquitted two Englishmen accused of sexually abusing boys in the shelter that they ran in the city. Their acquittal raises a number of questions about the legal and social complexities involved in dealing with child sexual abuse in general and paedophilia cases involving foreigners, in particular.
In 2006 the two men (Duncan Grant set up the shelter, Anchorage, in 1995 and Alan Waters was a frequent visitor) were sentenced to six years rigorous imprisonment by an additional sessions judge on charges of sexual abuse based on the evidence of five boys.
The high court while acquitting them noted that there were discrepancies between the statements made by two complainants before the police and in the court, that it was "unnatural" that the victims did not complain for several years, that the investigation had been done by the amicus curiae rather than by the police and that the prosecution had not been able to prove the guilt of the accused beyond a shadow of doubt.
Economic & Political Weekly (EPW) -
A first: Kerala reserves post for HIV positive
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: This is a quota that is unlikely to be embroiled in a debate about merit dilution and fairness. Kerala became the first Indian state on Tuesday to reserve a government job for HIV positive candidates, marking a new sensitivity for those afflicted with the killer virus.
The Kerala State Aids Control Society (KSACS) announced that it had reserved a vacancy in its office for HIV positive candidates with the hope that the presence of such a person will improve coordination and communication with groups at risk and ensure effective prevention.
"We have issued advertisements inviting applications to the post of coordinator, People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA), only from candidates who are HIV positive. Earlier, we had set this as a desirable factor, but then we decided to make it an essential one," KSACS project director and special secretary, health, Usha Titus told TOI.
"Right now in Kerala, we have what is called 'drop-in centres'. They work to facilitate grouping or association of people with HIV/AIDS. The belief is that when they come together, they would get to share their problems and it would be a great relaxing factor," Titus said.
Times of India -
3 pharma cos to make AIDS drugs affordable
MUMBAI: Under sustained pressure from AIDS activists, three multinational pharma companies have frozen price of certain AIDS drugs.
Cipla, which has played a singular role in setting the global benchmark for cheaper AIDS drugs and has forced MNCs to revise prices, is all set to lower the prices of its AIDS drugs for the domestic market. Late last week, Merck garnered some goodwill in the AIDS community with price-freezes and discounts on its HIV drugs.
Merck agreed to freeze till 2010, the price of its novel HIV drug at $9,900 a year, its launch price. Separately, Merck also agreed to offer discounts of up to 40% on other AIDS drugs in Mexico. This decrease comes in the wake of price reductions by Gilead Sciences and Boehringer-Ingelheim.
Amrita Nair-Ghaswalla, for TNN -
India’s writers tell Aids stories
Some of India's best-known writers have come together in a unique anthology of writing which tells the human stories behind HIV/Aids in the country.
India has one of the largest numbers of HIV-positive people in the world and they suffer serious social stigma.
Aids Sutra: Untold Stories from India has been published in collaboration with Avahan, the India Aids initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a leading HIV prevention project.
Roughly $2 from the proceeds of each book sold will go to support children affected by HIV/Aids in cities which have a high prevalence of the disease.
For the project, 16 writers travelled across the country to talk to housewives, vigilantes, homosexuals, drug addicts, policemen and sex workers - and served up engaging essays on the disease and its fallout in India.
BBC News
© 2008 Wake Up Pune.
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