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Sleeping with the enemy
Nearly 98 per cent of women with HIV have been infected by their husbands, says the AIDS Society of India Secretary General, Dr I S Gilada, who has been studying the disease for over 20 years. He revealed this startling statistic on the sidelines of a recent panel discussion on HIV/AIDS held at the American Information Resource Centre.
There are those who would say the good doctor was exaggerating, but the fact is, he was only fleshing out a study from the world's leading medical journal Lancet which attributes the transmission to unprotected sex between promiscuous, unfaithful men and sex workers.
If that's not bad enough, a new AIDS threat is rising in India's call centres, where young staff are increasingly having unprotected sex with multiple partners, Dr Suniti Solomon, who detected the first HIV case in India in 1986, told the International Congress on Infectious Diseases in Malaysia recently.
Ronita Tarcato, for Deccan Herald -
Father Tomy Knows Best: Healing with love
Panchgani: For most people, Panchgani perhaps is all about a picturesque getaway; for others, good residential schools; and for still others, fresh, red, shining strawberries. But at Bel-Air Hospital, located in the heart of this scenic town, red takes on a different hue: It signifies the colour of blood and HIV.
Yet, once in this place, life with HIV no longer appears to be bleak.
The love, care and acceptance at Bel-Air more than prepare patients to live with HIV. Many who come to this hospital looking for a peaceful death find themselves on a miraculous road to recovery with the care that they are provided here.
"Look at this Gorakh. It is a miracle that he survived. His CD4 count was five when he was admitted. But tomorrow he is all set to go home," says Dr. Bhavna Lonkar, a doctor at Bel-Air. Gorakh is not the only one to have shown such recovery from a point where most people go into AIDS- related illnesses and eventually death.
Dipti Raut, for INDIAN CATHOLIC
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Ranbaxy Denies Allegation That It Sold Substandard AIDS Drugs
July 15 (Bloomberg) -- Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., India's largest drugmaker, denied that it had sold substandard AIDS drugs to HIV-infected patients in Africa under a U.S. government- sponsored relief plan.
Ranbaxy stopped selling some AIDS drugs after it learnt that there 'were issues related to bio-equivalence data provided to Ranbaxy and other companies by an outside contractor, Vimta Laboratories,' the company based in Gurgaon, near New Delhi, said in an e-mailed response to a query today.
The Indian drugmaker faces allegations that it made adulterated AIDS drugs that were given to thousands of patients in Africa, the Wall Street Journal reported, without citing where it got the information. Ranbaxy was paid millions of dollars through U.S. government contracts to provide low-cost anti-retroviral drugs under the president's emergency plan for AIDS relief, the Journal reported.
Saikat Chatterjee, for Bloomberg.com
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Indian-origin scientist claims to uncovering Achilles Heel of HIV
Washington, July 16 (ANI): An Indian-origin researcher studying Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston claims that his team has uncovered the Achilles heel in the armour of the HIV virus.
Sudhir Paul, Ph.D., has found that this weak spot is hidden in the HIV envelope protein gp120. This protein is essential for HIV attachment to host cells, which initiate infection and eventually lead to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS.
Normally the bodys immune defences can ward off viruses by making proteins called antibodies that bind the virus, but no HIV preventative vaccine that stimulates production of protective antibodies is available.
The Achilles heel, a tiny stretch of amino acids numbered 421-433 on gp120, is now under study as a target for therapeutic intervention.
Thaindian News -
Mumbai’s gay community rallies for freedom
August 16 will see Mumbai's largest gay pride parade ever
Weeks after three other metros stole a march on Mumbai to commemorate the anniversary of 1969's Stonewall riots in New York, our own city's gay community plans to come out in a show of national pride on August 16.
Singing, dancing and walking under banners screaming Queer Azadi, gays, lesbians, eunuchs, bisexuals, kothis, transsexuals and a several others of alternative sexual orientations will don pink Gandhi topis and other fabulosities in their own long walk to freedom.
The event kicks off at 4pm at August Kranti Maidan and ends with a candlelight vigil at Chowpatty. It is being described as an attempt to cast off the shackles of an outdated legal system. Queer is an inclusive term that unifies people of alternative, or non-heterosexual, sexualities, and this event brings together nearly a dozen disparate human rights and advocacy organisations towards a common goal.
"This is pride as it relates to India's freedom struggle," says gay activist Ashok Row Kavi, of the organisation Humsafar. "We may be free from the British, but we are not free from their outdated laws."
Keith J. Fernandez, for DNA -
Move Over, Moods
SIXTY ANIMATORS and about 3,000 women are ushering in a revolution in controlling unwanted conception and the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) in Uttar Pradeshs Moradabad division. Their tool: the female condom - a 6.5 inch long polyure thane sheath with flexible rings at both ends - popularly known as the FC. This is the first initiative of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and Hindustan Latex Family Planning and Promotion Trust (HLFPPT) to introduce female condoms outside its initial target audience of sex workers.
In December 2007, the programme was kicked off in Moradabad, Jyotiba Phule Nagar and Bijnor districts, in partnership with the Bhartiya Grameen Vikas Sansthan (BGVS). So far, 2,500 female condoms have been sold to women members of Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the area at Rs 5 per piece. In each district, 20 animators were deployed to reach out to approximately 40-50 women each. The result, BGVS operation manager Arvind Kumar says, has been positive, adding, "We have ordered for 4,000 more condoms."
Narain Kaur and Savita, both 38-year-olds, and residents of village Mehmadpur Patti, 10 kilometres from Gajraula in Western UP, are trained animators. Their task entails educating women about the usage of the female condom and its subsequent benefits. Savita recounts that the first time she talked about female condoms to a group of SHG members, they went red in the face. "The foremost step, I told them, was to shed their inhibitions. We (animators) used it before any of the other women in the area did."
Today, a total of 420 women in the three districts use the condoms regularly. According to the women, the FC gives them a sense of control over their life and health. When 21- year-old Shashibala got married four years back, the concept of a female initiated method for contraception and HIV prevention was alien. However, today, the mother of two revels in her freedom to exercise the choice of safe sex. "Earlier the responsibility lay only with my husband. Now I too share it," she says.Shobhita Naithani, for Tehelka Magazine
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Delhi home to over 32,000 HIV/AIDS patients
New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) The Indian capital is home to over 32,000 HIV/AIDS patients and at least one million more are very much vulnerable to the deadly disease, the Delhi State Aids Control Society (Delhi SACS) said Thursday.
'Though Delhi is low HIV prevalence state, it is highly vulnerable to the deadly disease as the high risk population is spread across the city. Of the total population of 16 million, at least one million are high-risk groups,' said B.S. Banerjee, project director of Delhi SACS.
'The east, north, northeast and central districts of the state are more vulnerable,' he told IANS on the sideline of a HIV/AIDS programme. He also cited the floating population, number of trucker, people living away from homes and cheap sex as the primary reasons behind the disease.
Banerjee said while nearly 77 percent of the spread of disease is through unsafe sexual practices, Intravenous drug use (IDU) is responsible for 8.79 percent of the cases and infected blood transfusion causes 7.14 percent of cases.
Yahoo! India News -
HIV among Mumbai cops increases
Sunday, June 29, 2008 (Mumbai)
The number of police personnel who have tested positive for HIV-AIDS from January this year has increased by 4.4 per cent.
According to the statistics prepared by the Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre (VCTC) of the police hospital, from January this year till date, the number of police personnel have tested positive for HIV has gone up by 4.4 percent.
In 2007, the percentage for the whole year was only 5.6 per cent, states the VCTC centre statistics.
From January this year, the VCTC had tested 521 police personnel for HIV, out of which 23 were tested positive after having undergone the specified tests.
Commissioner of Police Hassan Gafoor observed that this was an alarming statistics.
NDTV.com -
Church and Indian Government are Partners in Fight against TB, HIV and Diseases
Catholic Bishop's Conference of India (CBCI), the third largest Bishop's Conference in the world and is the apex body of the Catholic Church in India. On HIV/AIDS the CBCI advocates 'Cooperation, Collaboration and Networking to contain the virus effectively'.
The CBCI has organized 2 day (July 8 - 9, 2008) National Consultation, "Church's Contribution towards Universal Access to Prevention, Care and Treatment for HIV and Related Diseases: Sharing Best Practices, Lessons Learnt and the Way Forward".
The Consultation was inaugurated by Mr. Oscar Fernandes, Minister of State for Labour and Employment (Independent Charge), Government of India & Chairman, Parliamentarians' Forum for AIDS. Addresses by speakers like Rev. Dr. Bernard Moras (Chairman, CBCI Health Commission & Archbishop of Bangalore), Rev. Dr. Thomas d'Aquino Sequeira (Deputy Secretary General, CBCI) and Dr. Rabia Mathai (Senior Vice-President, CMMB) stressed on strengthening partnership in achieving the goals.
Rev. Dr. Alex Vadakumthala (Executive Secretary, CBCI Health Commission) presented the CBCI's infrastructure with 5,000 hospitals (including dispensaries and health centres) as the access points for disease prevention, treatment, and control.
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