-
City’s HIV positive youths get a forum
Mumbai, July 16 Network of Positive people in Mumbai will provide emergency medical care, need-based advocacy
As the name suggests, its a positive step that will go a long way in enabling the citys HIV positive people fight the stigma and get emergency medical care. The Network of Positive people in Mumbai (NPM), a first such forum in the state, was launched by a group of 16 HIV positive youths, aged between 18 and 25 years, on July 11.
"A few months back, an HIV positive man suffered a severe paralytic attack. There was no one from his family to take him to the hospital. A few neighbours took him to the hospital but as soon as his status was revealed, they deserted him," said Bharti Sonanwane, president of the NPM.
"It was then that we realised that it is very important that someone should take up the responsibility of providing emergency healthcare services to people suffering from HIV. The forum will help those who need hospitalisation, an will take care of the admission formalities and other basic requirements," said Anand Ishware, the project manager.
Jinal Shah, for ExpressIndia.com -
Grim reality: A survey of sex workers
These are shocking statistics that belie the close to 10% growth rate of the national economy and tell the story of a community that isn't. As per the law.
More than 41% women sex workers in the Capital's GB Road enter the profession because of sheer poverty, 39% of their own free will. Only 50% use condoms and the social welfare department says despite their best efforts health and hygiene standards cannot be improved too much beyond the occasional anonymous checks by mobile vans as the law does not recognise the existence of these women.
All the anti-trafficking laws notwithstanding, almost the entire population of GB Road comprises women, who have come from other states, Andhra Pradesh topping the list with 28.7% sex workers hailing from that state. These are the findings of a first-of-its-kind survey of Delhi's sex workers done by the Delhi Commission for Women.
The study - 400 commercial sex workers from G B Road were studied and inputs were also taken from the rescued women in government homes even if their numbers were not included in the sample size - aimed at a need assessment of Delhi's sex workers and their children and also to draw up a demographic and health profile of the neglected community in order to draw up a comprehensive policy for prevention of trafficking and incidence of HIV-AIDS.
The study found that the work is mainly conducted through the kotha malkins who pockets a large percentage of the income so that for an average sex worker the monthly income is quite low, 72.5% earn between Rs 3,000-5,000 and 20.7% earn more than Rs 5,000.
State social welfare minister Yoganand Shastri said: "The study which is the first of its kind, will help us get a perspective on the extent of the problem and formulate policies accordingly. But there are inherent dichotomies in the system that make things difficult.
Abantika Ghosh, for The Times of India
-
HIV positive woman ostracised in WB
KOLAGHAT (WB): A 30-year old woman and her family have been ostracised by residents of her village near Kolaghat after she tested HIV positive.
Tuku Singh, the mother of a seven-year-old daughter, was diagnosed to have been affected three months ago and underwent treatment for about two-and-half months at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital.
She returned home to her parents at Mahish Gate near the Kolaghat Thermal Power station on June 30 and was socially boycotted by the villagers, the family said.
The Times of India -
Senate passes $48B global AIDS relief bill
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate has approved spending $48 billion over the next five years to treat and prevent the spread of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa and elsewhere around the world.
The legislation more than triples the current $15 billion program that has brought lifesaving drugs to some 1.7 million people with HIV/AIDS.
The bill passed by a vote of 80-16. That sets up negotiations with the House on a final compromise. President Bush has been a strong advocate for the global AIDS program.
Jim Abrams, for The Associated Press
-
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
-
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
-
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
© 2008 Wake Up Pune.
Articles are copyright of their respective authors.
'Paragrams' by WPSHOWER
