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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. -
FDA bans dozens of Ranbaxy-made generic drugs
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Health officials have banned dozens of drugs made by Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd after the generic drugmaker failed to fix numerous record-keeping and other operational problems, although the medications themselves are considered safe.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it would block more than 30 generic drugs from entering the United States following ongoing procedural violations in manufacturing at Ranbaxy's Dewas and Paonta Sahib plants in India.
It also will not approve any new drugs made at the plants until the problems are resolved, the FDA said.
The violations concerned the manufacturing process and not the drugs themselves, the agency added, urging patients not to stop taking any medications and to talk to their doctors.
A sampling of products made at the two plants showed no concerns, they added.
"This is a preventive action taken to protect the quality of the drugs used each day by millions of Americans by ensuring that the process used to make the drugs adheres to the FDA standards for quality manufacturing," said Douglas Throckmorton, deputy director for the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and research (CDER).
The move is the latest blow against India's leading drugmaker, which is also the subject of a separate criminal probe by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly bringing adulterated and misbranded medications into the United States.
Susan Heavey, for Reuters -
Over 500′ Indian troops have HIV
More than 500 soldiers belonging to an elite paramilitary force in India are infected with HIV, the chief of the force has said.
Seventy troops of the 173-year-old Assam Rifles have died of the infection in the past 10 years, according to Lieutenant General Karan Singh Yadava.
Many of the Assam Rifles troops are posted in north-eastern India and are engaged in fighting local insurgencies.
India has one of the highest numbers of people with HIV in the world.
Lt Gen Yadava said the force is organising sex education lessons for troops.
"We have asked our men to curb the menace (of HIV infections) with full strength," he said.
The Assam Rifles are recruited and deployed in the north-east of India - where they help maintain security or quell insurgencies in states such Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland.
They are posted in areas close to the Burmese border which have some of the highest rates of HIV infection in India.
Subir Bhaumik, for BBC News -
R.E.A.C.H. Now 2008 – Youth Conference on HIV and AIDS
Received from Save Lanka Kids:
'R.E.A.C.H. Now 2008' is a three day conference on HIV and AIDS for youth. The theme of this conference is to Rise for Equality and Act for Change and Hope. This conference will enable them to join hands in one forum to network with each other, discuss pressing issues, fill in gaps and formulate a feasible youth response regarding this epidemic.
Venue: Waters Edge, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Dates: 19-21 October 2008
Interested parties and potential speakers can contact the organisers at hivoutreach@gmail.com. -
Preparedness for AIDS vaccine trials in India
India bears a heavy disease burden of HIV/AIDS infected and affected people. A safe, effective and accessible preventive AIDS vaccine, used along with other preventive interventions, is urgently needed to stem the epidemic. This review highlights the extensive preparedness activities undertaken from 2002 by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), its Indian government and non government partners with the Indian scientific, political, media and community stakeholders and the capacity building process, before the conduct of the first ever AIDS vaccine trials in India in early 2005.
Issues addressed included mistrust of clinical research due to past history of some unethical trials, transparency, community involvement, stigma and discrimination, provision for care and treatment of participants, informed consent, gender considerations, approval process, and operational aspects.
http://www.icmr.nic.in/ijmr/2008/june/0605.pdf -
UNAIDS Poster Competition for World AIDS Day
We at UNAIDS are back with this exciting effort at mainstreaming the issues of sexual minorities in our country. We now announce the highly popular poster competition for World AIDS Day (WAD) this year.
This is what you can do if you are a MSM, transgender or lesbian/bisexual women's group of any sexual orientation (except heterosexual) or any gender identity. This year you will notice that we are bringing in the lesbian/bisexual women into the ambit of this poster competition in an effort to make visual their issues in mainstream society.
How you go about winning this competition:(From UNAIDS)
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