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Tolerance key to winning battle against AIDS
NEW DELHI: Calling for an attitudinal change towards those living with HIV/AIDS, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said strategies for tackling the scourge required more inclusive and less judgmental social approaches to questions of public health and personal hygiene.
"If we have to win this fight against HIV/AIDS, we have to create a more tolerant social environment. One need not condone socially unacceptable or medically inadvisable sexual practices in seeking a more tolerant approach to the problem. It is in the interests of the entire society that everyone afflicted with AIDS wins the battle against it. They deserve and have the right to live lives of dignity," he said releasing here a report, "Redefining AIDS in Asia: Crafting an Effective Response" brought out by the Independent Commission on AIDS in Asia.
Dr. Singh said the situation in India was not as alarming as it was portrayed some years ago. While it was claimed that the country might have up to five million persons affected with HIV, more recent estimates suggested that the number could be between two and three million, mainly in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
Special Correspondent, for The Hindu
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Zinc fingers bring HIV therapy a step closer
New York (PTI): A potential therapy for HIV could soon become a reality, if scientists are to be believed. In their ground-breaking study, a team at Pennsylvania University made laboratory rodents HIV resistant by sabotaging a gene in blood cells that the deadly virus normally infects, the 'Nature Biotechnology' journal reported.
In fact, they altered the gene which makes CCR5 by using a harmless virus to sneak a molecule -- a zinc-finger nuclease -- into the cells. With the help of zinc fingers, they found they could help reduce the viral load of immune deficient rodents injected with engineered T-cells.
"By inducing mutations in the CCR5 gene using zinc finger proteins, we've reduced the expression of CCR5 surface proteins on T-cells, which is necessary for the AIDS virus to enter these immune system cells. "This approach stops the AIDS virus from entering the T-cells because it now has an introduced error into the CCR5 gene," Elena Perez, one of the study authors, was quoted by the journal as saying.
The Hindu News Update Service
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AIDS to push 6 m Asian households below poverty by 2015
Unprotected, paid sex major drivers of HIV epidemic in Asia
New Delhi, July 2
Men who buy sex from women are the single most powerful driving forces in Asias HIV epidemics. They constitute the largest infected population group in the continent.
Startling new findings of the Commission on AIDS in Asia, constituted in June 2006 to assess the developmental consequences of the AIDS epidemic in the region, suggest that a high proportion of Asian men are buying sex. After every sex worker in Asia, there are 10 male clients.
Most of these are from "mainstream" society and capable of creating a critical mass of infection, as they are either married or will get married, infecting low-risk women. Already, although three out of four adults living with HIV in Asia are men, the number of infected women is rising. It has gone up from 19 per cent in 2000 to 24 per cent in 2007.
Aditi Tandon, for Tribune News Service -
Film to enlighten students on AIDS
Chandigarh, July 4
In the backdrop of an alarming increase in HIV/AIDS cases among the youth, the administration has devised a novel way to answer the queries of inquisitive schoolchildren on the issue.
Named as "Teesra Mahayudh", this 45-minute film will be shown in all government schools of the city. The CDs of this movie have been dispatched to all schools.
"If the Third World War is to be fought, it has to be against AIDS, not humanity," thats the way filmmaker V.K. Kaushik strives to attract the attention towards AIDS awareness.
It is a significant move for schoolchildren, especially those who come for evening classes of Alternate Innovative Education (AIE) centres and belong to most susceptible colonies and slum areas where the menace is shockingly high.
DPI (S) S.K. Setia believes that movies are the best medium to make the youth aware. He opined, "I have seen this film and it hits the subject matter. I have directed to send the CDs of this film to principals of all government schools and it will be shown to children," he said.
G. S. Paul, for Tribune News Service
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Decriminalise prostitution
What can the UK learn from New Zealands approach to sex workers? Quite a lot, actually. On June 25, sex workers and brothel operators mingled in parliament with a range of people Catholic nuns, public health experts, and politicians to mark the fifth anniversary of the decriminalisation of prostitution. Even the prime minster, Helen Clark, dropped in to pass comment on the success of giving rights to sex workers.
Throughout the day, participants heard from researchers who had been commissioned by the ministry of justice - included in the legislation was a requirement that a committee, appointed by the justice minister, be established to review the law and to assess its impact on the sex industry within five years. It was no surprise to me that these researchers found overwhelming evidence to contradict the wild claims of opponents to the Prostitution Reform Act. Opponents had claimed that, as a consequence of liberalising the law, brothels would create havoc in every neighbourhood, with thugs moving in to traffic women and children. Yet none of these claims came true.
One researcher surveyed 772 sex workers from across the country, while the other interviewed government and non-government stakeholders, including labour and health officials, and brothel operators, about their reaction to decriminalisation. The overwhelming response to the legislation has been positive. Police have moved from clogging courts with prosecutions for soliciting to preventing violence against sex workers. As one said: "Now, if I have any trouble, I can pull out my phone and call the cops, and they will come". -
A finger prick for HIV test
NEW DELHI: A single finger prick may soon help test Indians for HIV. With plans to test 22 million Indians every year from 2012 for HIV, the National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco) has just started trials of a new rapid testing technology that will not only tell you your HIV status within 20 minutes but will also do away with the present requirement of having to separate serum and red blood cells to test for HIV.
The Whole Blood Fingerprick Testing Technology (WBFTT), which has done wonders in Africa in increasing the number of people being tested for HIV, is being tried out at Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTC) in 10 districts of four states - Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu - to gauge its effectiveness in generating correct results.
Following the three-month trial of the technology, Naco will take a final call on whether to introduce WBFTT in its National AIDS Control Programme along with present day Serum HIV antibody rapid test.
Koutenya Sinha, for Times News Network -
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1st July, 2008, National Day of Action against ITPA Amendments
"Kill the Bill"
Sex workers, women's groups and AIDS NGOs cross the country will come together to demand withdrawal of Amendments proposed to the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 2006 (ITPA).
Enacted in 1956, the ITPA criminalizes all aspects of commercial sex without making sex work an offence per se. Since, the Act has been amended twice - in 1976 and 1986. In 50 years of its implementation, ITPA has caused severe repression of sex workers while failing to prevent human trafficking.
Changes to the ITPA were first mooted in June 2005, when the Department of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Human Resource Development, proposed to decriminalize soliciting and create a new offence of trafficking in persons. The Bill was sent to a Group of Ministers (GoM), after Renuka Chowdhury, then Minister for Tourism raised objections.
Post GoM deliberations, new amendments were proposed, which included, for the first time, penalty for visiting brothels. This provision was vehemently opposed by sex workers for scuttling livelihood and compromising health and safety.
Despite protests, in May 2006, the ITPA Amendment Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha. A Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) reviewed the Bill & suggested wider reforms including a revamp of the entire Act. Last year, Ministry of Women and Child Development proposed further revisions, ignoring key recommendations of the PSC. -
Major flaws in Immoral Traffic Amendment bill, say activists
Protesting against the proposed amendments in the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, volunteers of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) took out a rally on Tuesday through the red light areas in Budhwar Peth and Shukrawar Peth, claiming "criminalisation" of customers would make a negative impact on the livelihoods of sex workers.
The NGOs included Saheli HIV/AIDS Karyakarta Sangh, Akhil Budhwar Peth Devdasi Sanstha and DISHA - Deep Griha Society.
Tejaswi Sevekari, Director of Saheli, said there are major flaws in the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2006, which is due for cabinet approval in the coming parliamentary monsoon session.
© 2008 Wake Up Pune.
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