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Move Over, Moods
SIXTY ANIMATORS and about 3,000 women are ushering in a revolution in controlling unwanted conception and the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) in Uttar Pradeshs Moradabad division. Their tool: the female condom - a 6.5 inch long polyure thane sheath with flexible rings at both ends - popularly known as the FC. This is the first initiative of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and Hindustan Latex Family Planning and Promotion Trust (HLFPPT) to introduce female condoms outside its initial target audience of sex workers.
In December 2007, the programme was kicked off in Moradabad, Jyotiba Phule Nagar and Bijnor districts, in partnership with the Bhartiya Grameen Vikas Sansthan (BGVS). So far, 2,500 female condoms have been sold to women members of Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the area at Rs 5 per piece. In each district, 20 animators were deployed to reach out to approximately 40-50 women each. The result, BGVS operation manager Arvind Kumar says, has been positive, adding, "We have ordered for 4,000 more condoms."
Narain Kaur and Savita, both 38-year-olds, and residents of village Mehmadpur Patti, 10 kilometres from Gajraula in Western UP, are trained animators. Their task entails educating women about the usage of the female condom and its subsequent benefits. Savita recounts that the first time she talked about female condoms to a group of SHG members, they went red in the face. "The foremost step, I told them, was to shed their inhibitions. We (animators) used it before any of the other women in the area did."
Today, a total of 420 women in the three districts use the condoms regularly. According to the women, the FC gives them a sense of control over their life and health. When 21- year-old Shashibala got married four years back, the concept of a female initiated method for contraception and HIV prevention was alien. However, today, the mother of two revels in her freedom to exercise the choice of safe sex. "Earlier the responsibility lay only with my husband. Now I too share it," she says.Shobhita Naithani, for Tehelka Magazine
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Delhi home to over 32,000 HIV/AIDS patients
New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) The Indian capital is home to over 32,000 HIV/AIDS patients and at least one million more are very much vulnerable to the deadly disease, the Delhi State Aids Control Society (Delhi SACS) said Thursday.
'Though Delhi is low HIV prevalence state, it is highly vulnerable to the deadly disease as the high risk population is spread across the city. Of the total population of 16 million, at least one million are high-risk groups,' said B.S. Banerjee, project director of Delhi SACS.
'The east, north, northeast and central districts of the state are more vulnerable,' he told IANS on the sideline of a HIV/AIDS programme. He also cited the floating population, number of trucker, people living away from homes and cheap sex as the primary reasons behind the disease.
Banerjee said while nearly 77 percent of the spread of disease is through unsafe sexual practices, Intravenous drug use (IDU) is responsible for 8.79 percent of the cases and infected blood transfusion causes 7.14 percent of cases.
Yahoo! India News -
HIV among Mumbai cops increases
Sunday, June 29, 2008 (Mumbai)
The number of police personnel who have tested positive for HIV-AIDS from January this year has increased by 4.4 per cent.
According to the statistics prepared by the Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre (VCTC) of the police hospital, from January this year till date, the number of police personnel have tested positive for HIV has gone up by 4.4 percent.
In 2007, the percentage for the whole year was only 5.6 per cent, states the VCTC centre statistics.
From January this year, the VCTC had tested 521 police personnel for HIV, out of which 23 were tested positive after having undergone the specified tests.
Commissioner of Police Hassan Gafoor observed that this was an alarming statistics.
NDTV.com -
Church and Indian Government are Partners in Fight against TB, HIV and Diseases
Catholic Bishop's Conference of India (CBCI), the third largest Bishop's Conference in the world and is the apex body of the Catholic Church in India. On HIV/AIDS the CBCI advocates 'Cooperation, Collaboration and Networking to contain the virus effectively'.
The CBCI has organized 2 day (July 8 - 9, 2008) National Consultation, "Church's Contribution towards Universal Access to Prevention, Care and Treatment for HIV and Related Diseases: Sharing Best Practices, Lessons Learnt and the Way Forward".
The Consultation was inaugurated by Mr. Oscar Fernandes, Minister of State for Labour and Employment (Independent Charge), Government of India & Chairman, Parliamentarians' Forum for AIDS. Addresses by speakers like Rev. Dr. Bernard Moras (Chairman, CBCI Health Commission & Archbishop of Bangalore), Rev. Dr. Thomas d'Aquino Sequeira (Deputy Secretary General, CBCI) and Dr. Rabia Mathai (Senior Vice-President, CMMB) stressed on strengthening partnership in achieving the goals.
Rev. Dr. Alex Vadakumthala (Executive Secretary, CBCI Health Commission) presented the CBCI's infrastructure with 5,000 hospitals (including dispensaries and health centres) as the access points for disease prevention, treatment, and control. -
Buladi campaign comes a cropper
TAMLUK, July 8: The litany of woes related to HIV/AIDS continues unabated in the rural fringes of West Bengal. Though, the state health department often claims that its AIDS awareness mascot, Buladi has been a success, but her campaign seems to have fallen flat even in the urban areas of Midnapore East district with the victims of the deadly disease being socially ostracised.
This was proven recently, when a 27-year old woman and her family were ostracised by their neighbours at their village near Kolaghat after she tested HIV positive
This comes at a time when one of the themes of Global AIDS Week of Action (GAWA) in India for this year includes the lack of progress on the HIV Bill 2006. In this regard, the Bengal Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (BNP+), a state-level network run by and for people living with HIV/AIDS in West Bengal has teamed up with Human Right Law Networks (HRLN) to hasten ratifying the HIV Bill by taking public opinions through seminars and meeting across the state.
According to the family members, the victim, mother of a seven-year-old daughter, was diagnosed to have been infected three months ago and underwent treatment for about 75 days at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital. She returned home to her parents house near the Kolaghat Thermal Power station on 30 June and was socially ostracised by the neighbours.
Statesman News Service -
Infected with HIV, young man fights for justice
Ludhiana, July 8
A Haryana-based youth, who was infected with the deadly HIV virus either by a local nursing home or a public laboratory, is not only fighting the fatal disease but also police inaction in bringing the guilty to book.
Gulshan Kumar (22), who is also suffering from renal failure, tested HIV positive in June, 2005, after he underwent a surgery for kidney stones in a local hospital and received blood from a public laboratory in April, 2005.
He claims he was infected with HIV either after getting blood from the hospital or from the laboratory. He has moved from pillar to post to get an inquiry conducted into the case so that the deadly virus is not transmitted to anybody else just due to carelessness of health institutes.
Kanchan Vasdev, for Tribune News Service -
Hybrid HIV strain found in N-E
Pune, July 6: In a significant finding, scientists at the Pune-based National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) have, for the first time, found a novel 'recombinant' strain of the HIV virus in the North East region of the country. Not only does it resemble the strain from Thailand, but scientists have expressed caution that surveillance measures need to be taken for checking the emerging strains across the country.
Presently the sub type C strain of the HIV virus is prevalent in the country. The HIV epidemic in the country has been primarily driven by sexual transmission and this finding now complicates the attempts towards defining intervention strategies, particularly in developing anti-AIDS vaccines.
Scientists at NARI have documented in the journal AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, published in the January and February 2008 issues, novel instances of B/C recombination in HIV-1 circulating in India where the origin of two subtypes, clade C and clade B differed and resembled a form that had established a foothold in Thailand.
Anuradha Mascarenhas, for The Indian Express -
Empower them
There is a lot of information on HIV now. What is there to be afraid of, asks Geeta Rao.
Geeta Rao Gupta, global authority on Women and AIDS and President of the Washington-based International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW), was in Delhi recently. Challenging stigma associated with HIV and integrating HIV programmes with other devel opment programmes are critical for an effective response, she says in an interview.
Women and AIDS has been a major area of research for ICRW in recent years. What has your research shown?
The HIV epidemic affects men and women differently. While policies look at mens realities, they are not looking at womens realities to the extent they should. Women are dependent and, therefore, more vulnerable whether it is negotiating condom use or having sex for money.
It is important that economic empowerment programmes go together with HIV treatment and care programmes.
Sumita Thapar, for The Hindu -
Village Health Workers – Get rapid HIV Testing Kits across India
Village health workers across India will soon be equipped to conduct pre and post test Counseling and HIV/AIDS tests through rapid HIV test kits, which need just a prick on a persons fingertip and the results are known in 20 minutes. Currently India have around 2.5 million People Living with HIV/AIDS and there are nearly 4,500 ICTC centres.
Ajay Khera, Joint Director , National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) shared that we have recently adopted the Whole Blood Fingerprick Testing Technology (WBFTT) and have piloted the project in a few districts. We hope it will be rolled out across the country by early 2009.
NACO is National agency under the Health and Family Welfare Ministry, GOI to control and treat HIV/AIDS. It spreads awareness among people about HIV/AIDS though information and education campaigns and also providing care and support to the People Living With HIV.
Dr. Avnish Jolly, for The India Post
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