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NYKS Scrutinizing Role of Youth in HIV Campaigns
Around 150 rural youth ambassadors from ten states gathered at the National Integration Camp here on Sunday to share their experiences of creating awareness on HIV/AIDS among other children.
The programme is an initiative of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, under the Ministry of Sports and Youth Welfare , Government of India. On this occasion they organized Youth parliament on Sexual Reproductive Health, STI and HIV and AIDS. These children are peer educators - children who themselves learn how HIV/AIDS transmitted and what are the ways to prevent it - and then share that knowledge with other children. They also shared their experience with Dr. Avnish Jolly Resource Person, NYKS on Adolescent and Mr. Umesh Baurai, Project Coordinator, FXB India Suraksha.
The workshop looked at training these Young Ambassadors in four important aspects of the awareness project - how to better their knowledge, how to better their communication with other children, what are the difficulties in teaching other children about HIV/AIDS and how to overcome them. Now under the National policy the resource team stressed upon ABC and step wise and advocates accordingly:
A - Abstinence
B - Be faithful to your partner
C - Use Condom -
HIV is most prevalent among gays because of Section 377
Legislation criminalises sex between men
In an eye- opener for the ministry of home affairs, a new assessment by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) reveals that HIV has maximum prevalence among men who have sex with men (MSM).
According to the NACO data, HIV prevalence among MSMs is about 7.4 per cent. It is willing to present the report to the home ministry to draw support for a change in Section 377 of Indian Penal Code, which in its current form, criminalises unnatural sex. This section makes it difficult for non- governmental organisations to work with such men. Interventions such as condoms, to prevent spread of the virus, do not reach most MSMs. -
India loses funds for fighting HIV/AIDS
VISAKHAPATNAM: Noted physician in city Padmasri Kootikuppala Surya Rao has lamented that India lost an opportunity to get global funds to control HIV/AIDS due to its failure to send an official delegate to the 2008 high level meeting on AIDS held in New York last week.
Talking to the media persons here on Wednesday, he said that if only the Health Minister or an official of the Government attended the meet held on June 10 and 11, India could have impressed the high level UN meet in which great personalities like former US president Bill Clinton were present, to get some funds for the cause of HIV/AIDS victims in the country, he felt. "I can understand the austerity measures. But you can't have the same yard stick for all things. Had our Health Minister or someone attended it, it would have helped a great deal for AIDS patients here," he stated. -
UN calls for lifting travel restrictions on HIV carriers
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called for an end to discrimination against people carrying the AIDS virus, including travel restrictions imposed on them by some countries.
"I call for a change in laws that uphold stigma and discrimination, including restrictions on travel for people living with HIV," he said at the opening of a two-day, high-level meeting in the General Assembly on UN targets set in 2001 to roll back the disease worldwide.
"Halting and reversing the spread of AIDS is not only a goal in itself, it is a prerequisite for reaching almost all the others (poverty-reduction Millenium Development Goals by 2015)," he added.
He said that 60 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted, "it is shocking that there should still be discrimination against those at high risk, such as men who have sex with men, or stigma attached to individuals living with HIV." -
Coalitions Support HIV World Bank Whistleblower
(Washington, D.C.) - The World Bank announced this month that it will significantly reform standards, and that it will further investigate disclosures involving the distribution of defective HIV/AIDS test its, mass purchased as part of a health care project in India. Dr. Kunal Saha first informed the Bank's Department of Institutional integrity (INT) that HIV kits distributed by the World back were defective.
Dr. Saha explained the World Bank corruption in a session of the International Association of Whistleblowers (IAW) May 16, 2008.He had gathered evidence that defective kits were purchased with World Bank funds and supplied by the Indian government to hospitals and blood banks across the country. The kits, distributed by Monozyme, Ltd., gave 'false negative' results: HIV-contaminated blood was not reliably detected by these kits and could therefore be accepted for use in transfusions. -
India’s approach on HIV/AIDS policy and programmes: The big questions
The Centre for Communication and Development Studies, Pune, and Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit, Mumbai, invite you to a discussion of important questions related to India's HIV/AIDS policy and programmes. These are questions that need more public debate:
• Is HIV a major public health problem or does it get too much attention?
• Will the National AIDS Control Programme III make a difference?
• Where does the money for AIDS programmes come from, and how is it spent?
• Are NGO programmes and government policy at loggerheads?
• How have things changed for HIV-positive people in the last 22 years?
• What are the experiences of people seeking treatment for AIDS?
• What is the government doing to ensure access to new drugs?
• What is happening to the HIV/AIDS Bill?
Date: Saturday, June 21, 2008
Venue: YWCA International Guesthouse, Opposite Regal Cinema, Colaba, Mumbai.
Time: 10 am to 5 pm
Speakers
Dr Kamakshi Bhate, department of preventive and social medicine, KEM hospital, Mumbai
Dr R Gangakhedkar, deputy director, National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Pune
Prof Ramesh Bhat, dean, school of business management, NMIMS University, Mumbai
Ms Meena Seshu, general secretary, Sangram, Sangli
Mr Ashok Row Kavi, chairperson, Humsafar, Mumbai
Dr Eldred Tellis, director, Sankalp, Mumbai
Dr Alaka Deshpande, department of medicine, JJ Hospital, Mumbai
Mr K Gopakumar, Centre for Trade and Development, New Delhi
Mr KK Abraham, Indian Network of Positive People, Chennai
Mr Naresh Yadav, UP Network of Positive People, Lucknow
Ms Ujwala Kadam, Soudamini Network of Positive People, Pune
Ms Daksha Patel, Gujarat Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, Surat
Ms Kalpana Gaikwad, Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit -
India to roll out oral substitution therapy to reduce risk of HIV transmission
NEW DELHI: A single pill taken every day for nine months will now help the country's intravenous drug users (IDUs) kick the habit.
India has finally decided to roll out the ambitious Oral Substitution Therapy (OST) from September, to reduce the risk of HIV transmission among the country’s highly vulnerable IDU community.
The National AIDS Control Board, headed by health secretary Naresh Dayal, has sanctioned Rs 136 crore for the OST programme, which hopes to cover 40,000 IDUs by 2012.
Under the programme, substance abusers will keep an oral pill of Bupernorphin under their tongue for five minutes every day in front of a supervising doctor. This will cut their desire for addiction.
Kounteya Sinha, for Times of India. -
Vast distances a barrier to combating HIV/AIDS in India
New Delhi, June 3: Vast distances are a major hurdle to India's efforts to curb its soaring HIV rate.
India, which has the world's third largest HIV-positive caseload, gives drugs for free to HIV/AIDS patients. But doctors say this is not enough to stop the spread of HIV which is making inroads in rural India, especially among women infected by itinerant husbands, and also children.
For three days a month, Sambit squeezes into a crowded and often filthy train for a three hour journey to Delhi to receive HIV treatment.
"There's no seat and I am very weak," said the 30-year-old former tailor, who asked that his full name not be revealed. He can't afford lodging in Delhi and can barely afford the train tickets. "I need to borrow money from my family for all these trips," he said.
Many patients in the same position simply give up treatment, an anathema in HIV therapy as it gives rise to drug resistance. These patients may then need more powerful second line treatment, which is not freely available in India.
Reuters, for Indian Express. -
NEW! Resource Collection of Free Materials on HIV/AIDS and Women
Women, Ink, a program of the International Women's Tribune Centre, has compiled a collection of materials entitled "HIV/AIDS and Women: Resources to Support Policy and Advocacy." Comprising some 50 action-oriented tools as well as analyses, reports and case studies, this resource pack was assembled to support informed participation on issues of women and HIV/AIDS at the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS 2008.
Articles are copyright of their respective authors.
'Paragrams' by WPSHOWER
