HIV/AIDS Meetings Disrupted, Offices Shuttered, Advocates Targeted

BBSNews August 27, 2007 -- New York (HRW) The Chinese government's ongoing harassment of HIV/AIDS activists and intensified surveillance of AIDS support groups raise serious questions about its commitment to combating the illness, Human Rights Watch said today.

Over the past three weeks police have forced the cancellation of three separate meetings on HIV/AIDS in the city of Guangzhou in Guangdong province and Kaifeng in Henan province. Henan authorities have also ordered the closure of an HIV/AIDS support group's offices and are harassing a leading HIV/AIDS activist there.

"These individuals and groups dedicated to addressing the enormous suffering wrought by China's HIV/AIDS epidemic should not face police threats and harassment," said Joe Amon, Human Rights Watch's HIV/AIDS director. "China's grassroots HIV/AIDS activists need and deserve praise and support, not intimidation tactics by state security forces." read more

Kenya: Night HIV Tests Attract 170 People

Some 170 people have been tested for HIV in Malindi in the past three days.

The night voluntary HIV testing is spearheaded by Moonlight Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT).

A Moonlight official said those who turned up were encouraged by the "safety of darkness."

"It was surprising that a lot of men turned up for the tests. Many of them told us the night was a big incentive because few people would see them," said the official who requested anonymity.read more

5 Ways to Protect the Work Force From HIV

Compared with much of the world, Russia was late to learn about AIDS. In the 1990s, as the disease surged across sub-Saharan Africa, the number of HIV cases in Russia was relatively small.

To guarantee sustainable results, workplace education programs should be comprehensive and must consist of five key actions:

• Conduct a situation analysis and needs assessment that enables a company to create an appropriate, tailor-made program.

• Adopt a public policy that clearly states a company’s position of nondiscrimination toward HIV-positive employees.

• Organize HIV-prevention training programs for employees. Workers tend to respect information that comes from their employer, making it one of the most effective ways to achieve tangible change of behavior.

• Cooperate with local medical institutions to improve the quality of their services and care

• Evaluate and monitor the education and prevention programs.read more

Married Women Are Among Most Vulnerable To HIV

In the face of gender inequality, married women are among most vulnerable to HIV
A lively debate at ICAAP last Wednesday 22 August ended in the conclusion that in countries with high levels of gender inequality, such as Papua New Guinea, the ABC approach on its own - Abstinence, Be Faithful and Condoms - is ineffective in reducing HIV infection.

'Contributing factors which undermine abstinence include high levels of sexual violence against women and young girls, incest, and sex under the influence of alcohol and drugs, as well as the demands of daily living costs forcing women into commercial sex and extramarital sex,' said Kritoe Jinn Keleba of the PNG Institute of Medical Research at the session 'Identity in Gender and Sexuality'.
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Judge refuses bail variation in HIV case

Adelaide's chief magistrate has refused to allow a man accused of recklessly spreading HIV to walk the streets without supervision.

Stuart McDonald is charged with endangering the lives of seven men with whom he allegedly had unprotected sex between 2001 and 2006.

He was detained in April under a Health Department control order and was granted home detention bail after two months in custody.read more

Border agents arrest alleged smuggler with HIV, TB

An alleged drug smuggler who struck a Border Patrol vehicle and injured an agent has been taken into custody after a brief struggle.

A news release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection indicates agents noticed the suspect, identified only as an illegal immigrant, pull to the side of Highway 85 near Gila Bend on the afternoon of August 26.

According to the media release, the suspect told Border Patrol agents he has HIV and tuberculosis after suffering abrasions during their struggle to arrest him. He was taken to a Phoenix hospital for treatment and will be transported to the Ajo Station for processing and prosecution. read more

HIV/Aids in Africa: Open your minds

Mbekihas gone on record trying to question the link between HIV and Aids in this country, where 1,500 new cases are recorded everyday, according to latest statistics.

In his argument, he says that poverty, rather than HIV was the principal cause of the disease. He argues that while the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) could be a contributory factor in causing Aids, it could not actually cause the syndrome.

"A virus can cause a disease, and Aids is not a disease, it is a syndrome," he recently said, and declared that while he could accept that HIV contributed to the collapse of the immune system, other factors like poverty and poor nutrition were also involved.read more

Papua New Guinea Police Eye AIDS Claim

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea - Officials in Papua New Guinea are investigating claims by an HIV-positive woman that people with AIDS were buried alive by their relatives when they became too sick to care for, an official said Tuesday.

The acting director of Papua New Guinea's National AIDS Council, Romanus Pakure, said police and health workers were being sent to the Southern Highlands to investigate the claims.

Pakure conceded that the stigma against people with HIV was very strong in the countryside, where education about the disease is scarce. Similar claims of AIDS killings had been made in the past, he said, but none were verified.read more

Public sex arrests to slow AIDS spread

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle doesn't want his city be known as the AIDS capital of the nation, so he took a stand. Citing the Broward Department of Health statistics: "74 percent of new AIDS cases" in the city are in the "MSM" category – that's "men having sex with men." An estimated 500 men will become HIV positive this year in Fort Lauderdale alone, so Mayor Naugle spoke out against the illegal behavior that spreads it: Anonymous public sex. Now he's called a hater.

Yes, Mayor Naugle is a hater: He hates AIDS. The most loving thing you can do for people is to stand against the activity that spreads a deadly disease. The Broward Public Health Department reports that Broward leads the nation in the number of new AIDS cases, and now one in five men who have sex with other men is HIV positive. Care about a homosexual? Tell them that. read more

2,075 AIDS patients registered in Yemen by 2006

Some 2,075 patients infected with the HIV virus had been registered in Yemen by 2006 but the figure was mostly likely underrecorded due to inefficient monitoring, the Yemeni news agency reported Monday.

A large number of HIV carriers were not registered as they did not go to hospitals, and the real figure of affected people might reach as many as more than 20,000, Yemen's AIDS prevention authorities were quoted as saying.

The biggest obstacles for the health department to obtain an accurate figure are the inefficient monitoring and diagnosis system, and social discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients in the country.read more

Pitt gets $16M NIH contract for HIV studies

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine on Monday received a $16 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish a center to study how the virus that causes AIDS interacts with other cells.

The grant will be used to establish the Pittsburgh Center for HIV Protein Interactions, according to a news release

The center will focus on developing methods for understanding what happens to the HIV virus, both structurally and at an atomic level, immediately after it enters the cell.read more

Men with sexual illness likely to be infected by HIV: Research

New Delhi, Aug 28: Men suffering from sexual illness are more likely to be infected with HIV as their 'concerns about their masculinity' make them seek partners outside marriage, according to a latest research.

The study also showed that most of these men visit quacks, who do not possess any recognised medical degree or diploma.
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Russian Church to open hotlines on HIV, AIDS, drugs

Moscow, August 28, Interfax - A project to set up a training and consulting center and a church confidential hotline on problems of HIV, AIDS and drug abuse treatment, was launched in Russia in August.

The project is part of the Church Against AIDS program and is intended to promote the development of the church system of supporting HIV-infected people and rehabilitation of drug addicts nationwide, the Stary Svet Christian charitable foundation, an organization with 15 years of experience in this area, told Interfax on Tuesday.read more

HIV-plus people to rally in UP for rights

Lucknow, Aug 28: A rally would be taken out here on August 31 by an NGO to fight for people living with HIV/AIDS to gain acceptability in society.

'One voice for one sign - a mark to change your life' is the motto of people living with HIV/AIDS to fight for their rights.

A number of organisations working for HIV-plus people like the Uttar Pradesh AIDS Control Society are expected to participate in the rally, its organisers said. read more

Call to overcome HIV stigma

SHIMOGA: Awareness and right information is the only cure for HIV, said District Surgeon Dr Nanda Singhe. Speaking at the Promote Access to Treatment Campaign organised by Hosakirana, the district network of People Living with HIV, at San Jos Auditorium here recently, she said people living with HIV should get rid of stigma and should come out to support each other. As agents of prevention they should be in the forefront to spread awareness.

According to President of Hosakirana Aravind Victor, the treatment not just provide access to healthy life but also gives love and affection to all the positive people. Hosakirana, the district network that started in June 2006, has 186 positive members out of whom 36 require ART. read more

HIV impact on Zimbabwe less than some feared-study

LONDON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - HIV has slashed life expectancy in Zimbabwe by up to 19 years for men and 22 years for women but births still outpace deaths, according to the first study to detail how the AIDS epidemic has impacted the country's wider population.

The study, led by Simon Gregson of Imperial College London, sought to gauge HIV's impact on Zimbabwe to see if researchers got it right in 1989, at the beginning of the epidemic, when they made initial predictions about how AIDS would affect populations in sub-Saharan Africa.

Our research shows that, in spite of countless people having lost their lives to the virus, more people are still being born than are dying," Gregson said.

But Gregson's team wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the effects of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe were "substantial and still unfolding".read more

Inmate spits blood on deputy, says he’s HIV positive

CORALVILLE - A man who allegedly sent two Coralville police officers to the hospital Saturday faces new charges for spitting blood on a Johnson County deputy, telling the deputy he was HIV positive.

Inmate assault with bodily fluids is a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $7,500 fine. read more

AIDS fundraiser claims he was sacked for not being gay

In a major twist to a discrimination case, former executive director of AIDS/LifeCycle charity filed suit in a Los Angeles courthouse against two nonprofit organisations alleging that he was fired from his position because he was not gay.

The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Centre and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation are both implicated in the alleged discrimination case.

Both organisations have refused further comment, but have assured media that they have a diverse staff that consists of both straight and gay members.
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Alcohol abuse weakens AIDS fight

SHAKAWE - Alcohol abuse by youth is a major discouragement for them from participating in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Okavango HIV/AIDS men sector chairman, Mr Setimotswe Matengani, said in an interview that most of the youth in the village drank alcohol excessively, resulting in their failure to test for HIV/AIDS and know their status.

Mr Matemgani urged the youth to refrain from engaging on anti-social activities that could destroy their future but instead uplift their lives by using government programmes such as CEDA. read more

Zimbabwe receives seven million dollars to fight AIDS

Harare - The Zimbabwe government recently received 7 million US dollars from a global fund to finance health programmes in the cash-strapped country, reports said Tuesday. The recent donation was part of the 65 million dollars in grants to Harare announced by the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria late last year.

Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said in addition to buying anti-AIDS drugs the money would be used to train doctors and nurses involved in AIDS programmes, buy laboratory equipment and upgrade hospitals. read more

Angola: NGO Runs Seminar on HIV/Aids Tuesday

A seminar on HIV/Aids will be held on Tuesday in Huambo City, the capital of the province with the same name, in an initiative of the non-governmental organisation Save the Children Angola, Angop has learnt.

The three-day gathering will take place under the theme "Stigma and discrimination, inter-personal communication, facilitation techniques for the Media and Religious Leaders".


Topping the agenda are themes like introduction to HIV/Aids, origin, history of the illness in Africa and in the world, risk factors, ways of transmission and strategies of prevention, its impact and clinical diagnosis.read more

US, Viet Nam seek to bolster co-operation on drugs, HIV

Ha Noi — Co-operation with Viet Nam in the fight against the drug trade and HIV/AIDS are premier concerns of the US besides commercial ties.

The US representative said he was satisfied with the development of the bilateral relationship, and expressed his wish that the two parliaments would enhance their close co-operation for the development of the two countries’ ties.read more