HONG KONG (Reuters) -
Nearly 40 percent of Nepalese women and girls rescued after being forced into
prostitution in India are HIV positive, a study by the Harvard School of Public
Health has found.News (Updated August 5, 2007)
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BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has called on China's commercial media and other private businesses to do more to combat HIV-related stigma and discrimination in China.
"In order to break the stifling cycle of stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS, the influence of commercial media and advertisement sector on society needs to be productively harnessed," said Subinay Nandy, director of UNDP China.
"Commercial media is a major source of information for the general public with strong and persistent influences on people's behavior and attitudes. They should be the main force in our fight against AIDS," said Ru Xiaomei, an official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC).
Stigma and discrimination have been significant obstacles to universal access to HIV prevention programs, treatment, care and support.
A survey conducted earlier this year in 12 universities in Beijing, considered to be some of the most enlightened in the country, showed that nearly a quarter of students would object to having HIV positive classmates, and four percent said HIV carriers should barred from jobs.
The survey shows China's university students still consider it a "challenge" to shake hands with or embrace an HIV carrier. Once they finally do it, they regard it as a "breakthrough".
"Everyone is responsible for fighting AIDS. A company should not avoid its social responsibilities," said Tang Lixin, president of EPIN Media, which plays anti-AIDS ads for free on over 300 trains in China.
"We get from society, so we should give. We are good at public relations, so we start from here," said managing director Clair Rong of Clair PR, which has joined campaigns to fight AIDS.
"Young people listen to what MTV says," said Marilyn Zhu, director of MTV China, adding that the channel had already made several anti-AIDS advertisements airing for one minute everyday on prime time.
The HIV/AIDS awareness messages were not targeted enough and there was not enough media saturation, said Filip Noubel, country director for Internews Network, adding that media should bring in more humanity and personality to their anti-AIDS efforts.
The message of HIV/AIDS awareness have been spreading around the world for 20 years.
Henk Bekedam, WHO Representative in China, said only 28 percent of the country's population were fully aware of HIV/AIDS.
China had 183,733 officially reported HIV/AIDS cases in 2006, but experts estimated there were more likely 650,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in China.
2007-07-27
CHANGSHA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Central China's Hunan Province is planning to make HIV tests compulsory for people working at recreation venues in an effort to arrest the rise in HIV/AIDS cases in the province.
The province had reported a total of 4,379 HIV/AIDS cases by June 30, ranking eighth among the country's provinces or regions, said Chen Xiaochun, deputy director of the provincial health department.
Experts estimate the actual number of the province's HIV/AIDS cases may be 20,000 to 30,000.
The department said 57.8 percent of the HIV infections in Hunan were caused by drug users sharing needles, but that cases of the disease being transmitted by sexual behaviors have been on the rise.
"The main cause of the increase of sexually-transmitted HIV cases is the increase in the number of migrant workers who have contracted the disease via sex," said Chen Xi with the provincial disease prevention and control center.
The percentage of HIV infections caused by unprotected sex was only 10 to 15 percent prior to 2006, but it rose to 31 percent in 2006 and 38.7 percent in the first half of this year, the department said.
In the first half of this year, the province reported an increase of 656 HIV carriers.
China had 183,733 officially reported HIV/AIDS cases in 2006, but experts estimated there were more likely 650,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in China.
Thu Aug 2, 2007 1:26 PM ET
By Muchena Zigomo and Bate Felix
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The prevalence of HIV/AIDS among pregnant women in South Africa has fallen for the first time in eight years, pointing to a possible decline across the entire population, the health minister said on Thursday.
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, speaking at the release of an annual report that tracks infection among pregnant women, said its findings suggested young people were changing their behavior, increasingly adopting the principles of abstinence, faithfulness and condom use.
The report showed that 29.1 percent of the pregnant women who visited antenatal clinics last year were infected with HIV, down from 30.2 percent in 2005. The 2006 survey sampled 33,034 women, more than double the 16,510 surveyed in 2005.
"There is a decrease in the prevalence of HIV among pregnant women who use public health facilities, suggesting that this may be a beginning of a decline in the HIV prevalence rates," Tshabalala-Msimang said.
Pregnant women are used internationally as a barometer for the level of infection in the overall population.
South Africa has one of the world's highest rates of HIV infection, and after being widely criticized for being too slow to stem the HIV/AIDS epidemic, it unveiled a program only a few months ago that sets targets for treatment, under the guidance of Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The critics' main target has been Tshabalala-Msimang, whose emphasis on traditional remedies over more widely accepted modern medication to fight HIV has drawn global outrage.
"An encouraging observation is that the HIV prevalence trends among pregnant women under the age of 20 continued to show a decline, from 16.1 percent in 2004 to 15.9 percent in 2005 and 13.7 percent in 2006," the report said.
The survey showed South Africa's overall HIV infection rate fell slightly to 11.5 from 12 percent of its 47 million people.
Researchers say that every day, an average of 1,000 people in the country die from AIDS, and 1,500 new HIV cases are reported -- the majority of the new cases women under 20.
The minister told an earlier briefing that the government's post-apartheid health strategy of providing free health care for pregnant and lactating women had begun to pay off.
She said the government hoped its national strategic plan for HIV and AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections would sustain the decline in infections across the whole population.
Dubbed "Dr. Beetroot" for her promotion of food nutrients as a treatment for HIV/AIDS, the health minister insisted that work on incorporating traditional medicines in health care would continue.
"I must emphasize here that our work on traditional medicine is much broader than the response to HIV and AIDS. We believe that traditional medicines have an important role in the health care delivery system," she said.
Wed Aug 1, 2007 8:16 PM BST
GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) - In Chechnya, a society built on traditional values that has been fighting a separatist war for a decade, even talking about AIDS has been taboo.
But faced with a growing HIV/AIDS problem, the leadership of the Russian republic is being forced to confront the problem.
At a public ceremony on Wednesday, senior Chechen officials inaugurated an AIDS centre in the capital Grozny.
"Of course, the mentality of the Chechen people does not allow us to speak about problems such as AIDS and drug addiction because Chechens never faced such problems," said Kheda Aidamarova, chief doctor of the clinic.
"The traditions of the Chechens did not allow people to lead a dissipated lifestyle.
"But today, as a result of the war, there is chaos in society which has led to problems like AIDS and drugs and people exhibiting low moral standards."
The Caucasus nation is based on close-knit clan ties, Muslim faith and rigid norms of morality combined with a centuries-old tradition of blood feud.
Official data show Chechnya has 719 people infected with HIV but the actual number may be much larger. The number of HIV-infected Russians exceeds 400,000 although specialists estimate the actual figure may be as high as 1.3 million.
"We must... not turn away from people who have problems like AIDS," Aidamarova said. "Our aim is that people should not keep their problems to themselves but that they should feel support."
Chechnya's president, Ramzan Kadyrov, was the first to break the taboo and to discuss the AIDS issue openly. Street billboards for the AIDS centre advertise a healthy lifestyle and urge people to help those infected with HIV.
Not everyone is eager to have an HIV test, however, and only a few of the infected dare to confess to their relatives and loved ones they are ill because the stigma on their clan could stick forever.
"None of my relatives knows I am infected," said a Grozny resident who requested anonymity.
"And why should they? All the same, I am incurable and I must not spoil their life with my problems. Let them believe I am ill with some other disease."
Tue Jul 31, 2007 9:07 PM BST
HONG KONG (Reuters) -
Nearly 40 percent of Nepalese women and girls rescued after being forced into
prostitution in India are HIV positive, a study by the Harvard School of Public
Health has found.
Appearing in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study highlights concerns over India's HIV/AIDS problem and shows how it may be spilling into neighbouring countries.
One in seven Nepalese in the study was trafficked into sexual servitude before the age of 15 and the HIV infection rate exceeded 60 percent.
"The high rates of HIV we have documented support concerns that sex trafficking may be a significant factor in both maintaining the HIV epidemic in India and in the expansion of this epidemic to its lower-prevalence neighbours," said Jay Silverman, an associate professor at HSPH.
India has around 2.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS, the world's third highest caseload after South Africa and Nigeria, and about 40 percent are women.
Nepal has a far lower but rising number of cases and the World Bank has cited the trafficking of Nepalese women and girls to India as a risk factor for HIV transmission in the region.
Up to 800,000 people are trafficked across the world each year, 80 percent of them women and girls, according to the U.S. State Department. Of these, 150,000 are trafficked annually within and across South Asia with the majority of them destined for major Indian cities.
Silverman and his team studied medical records of 287 girls and women who were rescued and repatriated after being sex-trafficked from Nepal to India between 1997 and 2005; and 38 percent of them tested positive for HIV.
Of these 287, 225 had full documentation of their trafficking experiences and their median age at the time of trafficking was 17. The youngest was 7.
The mean time served in brothels was 25.8 months and 17.3 percent reported being forced to work in multiple brothels.
Most were tricked into leaving Nepal with promises of domestic or restaurant jobs, offers of marriage and others were drugged and kidnapped.
More than half were trafficked by people known to them, such as friends, sex partners and family.
Thirty-three girls, or 14.7 percent, were trafficked before they were 15.
"Girls trafficked prior to age 15 had an increased risk for HIV, with 60.6 percent infected among this youngest age group. Risk was also associated with being trafficked specifically to Mumbai," the researchers said.
The researchers said the higher incidence of HIV among the younger girls may be due to a widespread myth that sex with virgins could cure HIV/AIDS, which resulted in them being kept longer in brothels than the older girls.
Tue Jul 31, 2007 12:11 PM BST
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India launched a drive on Tuesday to supply drugs to tens of thousands of mothers and newborns to stop HIV transmission to infants.
India has the world's third highest HIV caseload, after South Africa and Nigeria, with around 2.5 million people living with the virus -- of whom around 70,000 are under 15 years old.
The government said at least 21,000 children are infected each year through mother-to-child transmission of the virus.
"One of the constraints is the higher number of home deliveries, making access a problem," said Health Secretary Naresh Dayal, at the launch of an anti-AIDS policy aimed at pregnant women, mothers and children.
More than half of Indian women deliver at home, the vast majority without help from medical professionals.
Since its first reported HIV case in 1986, the Indian government has given drugs to around 20,000 women and newborns to prevent HIV transmission.
Officials say they aim to push up the number to nearly 76,000 by 2010 by expanding health services in rural areas in order to determine the HIV status of a greater number of pregnant women.
If untreated, roughly one-in-four newborns get the virus from their infected mothers, either during birth or soon after.
Across the world, around 2.3 million children are living with HIV.
Yet only around 10 percent of those who need treatment receive it, UNICEF says, adding that the others face a "bleak and short-lived future."
India is providing around 6,500 children with pediatric drugs to combat HIV and says is involved in the "difficult task" of trying to identify thousands more who may be in need of drugs.
It is also planning to introduce long-pending legislation this year to prevent HIV discrimination, as several cases of schools refusing admission to HIV-positive children or asking those enrolled to leave have been reported.
Other children have been told by relatives they would not inherit family property because of their HIV status.
"Anybody who hesitates to reach out to somebody with HIV is truly ignorant and should be labeled as such," Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury said.
Mon Jul 30, 3:50 AM ET
An HIV-positive Indian prisoner has threatened to infect inmates and officials if he is not given special privileges, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported on Monday.
The 24-year-old man -- charged with attempted murder, robbery and assault -- has been threatening to injure himself and touch jailers if they do not serve him better food, give him cigarettes and allow him more time outside his cell, it said.
"This is his usual modus operandi. Officials fear going near him," said Sunil Gupta, an official at New Delhi's Tihar jail, Asia's largest prison.
"I guess jail officials will now also have to be trained in handling cases where patients take advantage of their illness to act on their whims and fancies," he said.
India has the third largest number of people in the world living with HIV after South Africa and Nigeria. Ignorance about the virus is common and many people believe it can be transmitted by sharing utensils and shaking hands.
Fri Aug 3, 12:50 PM ET
An appeals court in Kazakhstan Friday upheld prison sentences for 21 people convicted after 118 children and 14 mothers were infected with HIV in public hopsitals and nine deaths.
But the court said four of the women would only begin serving their sentences once their children turned 14 years old.
Two of them would start their jail terms in 2018, another in 2014 and the last, who is currently eight months pregnant, would only start her sentence in 2021.
The heaviest sentence passed by the court in Shymkent at the end of June was eight years in jail for three of the defendants.
The scandal shocked the oil-rich Central Asian country and revealed alarming corruption in hospitals, leading to the firing of the health minister.
Three paediatricians at the hospitals where the infections occurred got eight-year sentences and 14 others were given jail terms ranging between nine months and seven and a half years.
Four of the accused, including the former head of the regional health ministry, Nursulu Tasmagambetova, were given suspended sentences.
Most of those infected with the virus, which can lead to AIDS, fell victim during blood transfusions, often involving unsterilised medical equipment, the prosecution said.
Hospitals were also found selling equipment meant for single-use only, including needles for syringes, obliging doctors to employ used and badly-sterilised needles.