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HIV vaccine ‘allows drug breaks’
Scientists are testing a vaccine designed to give HIV patients a prolonged break from their regular medication without side effects.
The Aids 2008 conference in Mexico City was told 345 patients in 21 centres in the US and Europe will take part in the largest-ever trial of its kind.
The vaccine has been developed by a biotechnology company based in Norway, Bionor Immuno.
Results from the trial are due by the end of 2009.
BBC News
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Indian Radio Show Tackles Stigma on HIV/AIDS
In a world where misconceptions and stigma still cloud discussions of HIV/AIDS, a recently-launched radio program in southern India offers a refreshing take on HIV/AIDS dialogue. True to its name-Ini Oru Vidhi Seivom (From Now On We Will Make Our Own Destiny)-the program has taken matters into its own hands, providing accurate and helpful information that might otherwise be hard to find. More importantly, Ini Oru Vidhi Seivom incorporates listener input to respond to what the community really needs.
The program debuted simultaneously on eight stations of the state broadcaster, All India Radio, in Tamil Nadu and Paducherry in April of this year, and reaches an estimated five million listeners. The talk show hosts were trained by Internews Networks Local Voices project in India, in partnership with the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS).
The talk show combines a four-minute news feature primarily focusing on prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) and public service announcements on HIV/AIDS, with a fifteen-minute live phone-in session. The phone-in sessions feature a studio guest-usually a doctor, a person living with HIV/AIDS, a counselor, or an NGO representative.
Listeners are invited to write in their own questions and to answer the weekly prize question. An FM radio set is given away for the correct answer to each prize question.
Internews
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Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention: From Evidence to Action
Introduction and Male Circumcision Prevalence
Introduction
An estimated 2.5 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2007, of whom two-thirds live in sub-Saharan Africa. In the context of the urgent need for intensified and expanded HIV prevention efforts, the conclusive results of three randomized controlled trials (RCT) showing that male circumcision reduces the risk of HIV acquisition by approximately 60% are both promising and challenging. Translation of these research findings into public health policy is complex and will be context specific. To guide this translation, we estimate the global prevalence and distribution of male circumcision, summarize the evidence of an impact on HIV incidence, and highlight the major public health opportunities and challenges raised by these findings.
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Doc living with the fear of AIDS
After an accidental jab, Nair hospital resident in search of a miracle drug
MUMBAI: It was just a jab of the needle, but its going to haunt this 28-year-old doctor for months, years and, perhaps, the rest of his life.
Four days ago, resident doctor Anil Patil (name changed) was trying to inject an Aids patient when he accidentally jabbed himself. Unfortunately, the incident occurred while Patil was trying to locate a vein and the needle had already pricked the woman a few times. Since then the resident doctor of BMC-run BYL Nair Hospital has been running from one hospital to another in search of a miracle drug that can protect him from the deadly virus.
Though they treat scores of HIV positive patients every day, Patil and his colleagues got extremely jittery after Mondays incident and began making frantic calls to senior doctors. Thats because the patient is suffering from multiple ailments like meningitis and tuberculosis and, most importantly, she has not been responding to any Hiv/Aids drugs of late.
"She is suffering from the resistant type of the virus and we got really worried that Patil would contract the virus," said one of the resident doctors from the medicine department.
Sumitra Deb Roy, for DNA -
Action against corrupt AIDS officials
BANGALORE: The state government is awaiting a report from the CBI, after which it will take action against officials of the Karnataka AIDS Prevention Society and 14 NGOs. They are facing charges of corruption.
The Society has also been accused of violating guidelines related to Public Private Partnership in NGOs. The World Bank had expressed its dissatisfaction over this.
Out of 23 NGOs engaged in AIDS control programme in Karnataka, 14 NGOs were put under the scanner due to their conduct. The Society gets grants from the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).
Times of India -
India Learns from Uganda: New AIDS Strategy to Focus on Abstinence, Fidelity
NEW DELHI, July 31, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - One of the only national programs ever to effectively combat HIV/AIDS was the Ugandan ABC program, which focused on abstinence and being faithful to one partner. Now the Indian national AIDS committee is adopting this same approach in their effort to curb HIV/AIDS rates.
A spokesperson for India's National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) told the media yesterday that sex-education taught to students will focus on abstinence and fidelity, not condoms and 'safer sex.'
This announcement came after a meeting involving officials from NCERT and the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), who, under the guidance of director-general Sujatha Rao, have advocated fighting AIDS with values, not condoms.
Tim Waggoner, for LifeSitenews.com -
Faulty Swiss Commission advice on HIV misleading
LONDON: Researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have warned that infection with HIV could be four times higher in certain populations if people with HIV follow potentially misleading advice contained in a statement from the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV/AIDS.
According to experts from the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV/AIDS, people with HIV receiving effective antiretroviral treatment can''t transmit the virus to their HIV-negative partner through sexual contact.
Now, the new study, conducted by UNSW''s National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR), has cast a doubt on these conclusions.
NewIndPress.com
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What’s wrong with ITPA Amendments?
Contrary to perceptions that Amendments to the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 is a protective legislation, the Bill flouts women's rights and does little to support survivors of trafficking. Besides threatening HIV prevention, the Bill remains deficient on several other counts. The Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit submits the following critique.
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Shri Manmohan Singh
Honb'le Prime Minister of India
7, Race Course Road, New Delhi
Honb'le Prime Minister,
We draw your urgent attention to Official Amendments to the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2006 ("ITPA"), which are due for Cabinet approval in the coming days. Proposed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) in response to Recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee and subsequent deliberations by a Group of Ministers (GoM), the revised Amendments fail to address concerns raised time and again over the amending sections.
Despite consideration, the ITPA Amendment Bill remains flawed on many counts:
Lawyer's Collective -
Separate classes for boys and girls on sex education?
NEW DELHI: Co-educational schools may soon have an all-girls and an all-boys class once a week.
This special 30-minute session will discuss sexually transmitted infections and HIV and forms part of the recommendations made by India's first official sex education manual, which is now open for public scrutiny.
While male teachers will teach the boys, girls will be enlightened by lady teachers about how HIV is spread, what are the precautions one can take, is abstinence a good option to save yourself from the virus and what are the symptoms of a sexual transmitted infection.
Koutenya Sinha, for TNN
© 2008 Wake Up Pune.
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