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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 -
Airport red tape strangles HIV+ Mizo girl’s last wish
MANGALORE/KOLKATA: A 22-year-old HIV-positive Mizo girl - counting her last breaths - tried desperately to reach home to see her parents, but airport red tape strangled her last wish. Mawii died at Kolkata airport on Tuesday after being turned away by Air India officials on Monday.
Mawii was being treated at Bangalore's Bowring Hospital and had taken a fit-to-fly certificate from there, said former Bangalore police commissioner and ex-MP H T Sangliana. But in Kolkata, AI officials wanted another fitness certificate when she tried to catch the connecting flight to Aizawl. "I tried to reason with the airline officials, but to no avail. I again got a medical fitness certificate and faxed it to them, but they still refused to relent," said Sangliana.
Mawii was booked on a Kolkata-Aizawl Kingfisher flight on Tuesday, but died before she could board the plane. AI officials maintained that they could not bend rules laid down by the Director General of Civil Aviation.
According to Sangliana, who had made Mawii's travel arrangements, she boarded a flight from Bangalore without hassle at 6 am on Monday. The connecting flight from Kolkata to Aizawl was at 11 am. But AI officials wanted a fitness certificate taken in Kolkata before she could board the flight. She went back disheartened.
Arpit Basu, for TNN
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Police purging hijras out of Bengaluru
Police subject hijras and human rights defenders to illegal detention and arrests, custodial torture and sexual assault
As India progresses, reaching out to the moon, Bengaluru has become a dangerous city for its citizens. especially the most vulnerable, and any one who dares to support them. In the last few weeks, there seems to be a drive against hijras in particular and any person without a secure place of work or livelihood security.
These vulnerable people are being arrested, beaten and harassed by the police. In an age where street dogs and cattle are being enumerated, government employees are getting massive pay hikes, the transgenders are seen as totally unworthy of any attention. There is neither any data of how many people we are talking about and a total blank on how they can meet their basic needs to survive with dignity.
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HIV tests compulsory for Punjab transport workers
The Punjab government has asked truck and taxi owners in the state to ensure that their drivers and other employees undergo tests for HIV at least once a year.
Amending the Punjab Motor Transport Workers Rules, 1963, the government has added a clause making it compulsory for all transport workers to undergo the tests at civil hospitals. The new rules also state that in case a worker is found to be HIV positive, the employer would ensure his free treatment.
Issuing a notification in this regard, the department of labour, Punjab, said it had invited objections to the amendment before finalising it. "We have not received any objection to the rules and these would come into force from the date of the notification," said Raminder Singh, states labour commissioner.
Though the amendment is timely with the National AIDS Control Programme-III focusing on reducing the risk of HIV among truckers, the State AIDS Control Society is likely to raise objections to it.The society follows the guidelines of the National AIDS Policy which do not allow compulsory testing.
Chitleen K. Sethi, for Tribune News Service
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Sex and the poor
ONE of Indias leading AIDS doctors, Alka Deshpande, did not choose her specialisation. Working as a hospital doctor in Bombay (now called Mumbai) in the late 1980s when AIDS was discovered in the city, she merely decided that she was prepared to touch the infected. Her colleagues would not do so-and perhaps still will not. According to a recent UN study, over half of Indian health-care workers thought AIDS was transmitted by touch.
In a mostly-Hindu society, which for thousands of years considered one-fifth of its members "untouchable", discrimination and ignorance of this kind have a particularly unpleasant significance. Indeed, the ways in which AIDS and Indias traditions interact are a striking feature of these essays about the disease in India, commissioned by the Gates Foundation. On a tour through the south-eastern state of Andhra Pradesh, which has a fifth of Indias estimated 2.5m HIV cases, Kiran Desai meets women of several hereditary prostitute castes, including relatively affluent beauties who are apparently not unhappy with their lot, as well as wretched sex slaves, pimped by their neighbours. AIDS haunts them all.
In Karnataka, a hilly southern state, William Dalrymple-the only non-Indian contributor to the collection-meets the inheritors of the now illegal tradition of temple prostitution. In ancient times, its practitioners included the daughters of royalty, dedicated in childhood to service the devotees of the goddess Yellamma. The modern lot almost all belong to a single caste of illiterate dalits. They are distinguishable from run-of-the-mill village prostitutes only by their early entry into the career and therefore a higher probability that they will contract HIV. Nearly 40% of Karnatakas devadasis-literally, slaves of god-are believed to be infected with the virus.
Economist.com
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HIV test kits not sub-standard, Centre tells HC
The Centre today refuted all allegations against supplying sub-standard HIV test kits to various medical centres in the country.
In an affidavit filed by National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) on behalf of health ministry in the Delhi High Court, the government said that such allegations made by Dr Kunal Shah, a US resident and member of World Bank, is baseless.
"There is no evidence to support the vague, incorrect and wrong allegations regarding the substandard kits. On the other hand, there is evidence to show that the kits are not substandard," the affidavit said.
The government's response came on a PIL filed by Dr Shah, through his counsel R Venketraman, seeking probe into an alleged racket of supplying sub-standard HIV test kits to medical centres.
OutlookIndia.com
© 2008 Wake Up Pune.
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