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MS. K. SUJATHA RAO TO BE SECRETARY HEALTH & FAMILY WELFARE

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Ms. K.
Sujatha Rao, IAS (AP : 74), presently Secretary, Department of AIDS Control,
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as Secretary, Department of Health and
Family Welfare, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare vice Shri Naresh Dayal,
IAS (UP : 72), who is retiring on 30th September, 2009.

http://www.pib.nic.in/release/rel_print_page.asp?relid=52819

India betters world in meeting HIV target
Sanchita Sharma, Hindustan Times

Late to start but India is now ahead of the rest of the world in providing
treatment to people with HIV.

In less than four years, the number of people on free antiretroviral therapy
(ART) to treat HIV that causes AIDS has risen 12-fold — from 20,000 adults in
2006 to 270,000 in August 2009.

It took the rest of the world five years to register a 10-fold increase, with 4
million people having access to HIV drugs, reports the World Health
Organisation's Towards Universal Access 2009 report released on Wednesday.

In India, 30 per cent of the HIV patients in need of treatment are provided free
medical aid by the government. Though it is short of the 40 per cent coverage
globally, the rapid scaling up of the treatment programme has earned the country
praise from UNAIDS.

India started treating people much later than the rest of the world but was
already exceeding treatment targets, said Dr Charles Gilks, country coordinator,
UNAIDS India.

"India's ART programme is like a juggernaut, slow to start,  but if the
financial momentum is met, it will be unstoppable."

An estimated 2.3 million people in India have HIV. Globally, 33 million people
have HIV, 2 million of who are children.

India has 16,500 children under 15 on paediatric doses, and another 644 adults
on second-line treatment, meant for people who become resistant to first-line
treatment drugs.

"With National AIDS Control Organisation's (NACO) target to treat 300,000 people
by 2012 almost reached, we plan to scale up the project to treat 600,000 people
by 2016," said Sujatha Rao, director general, NACO. Rao will takes over as the
Union health secretary on October 1.

India's ART programme is now rolled out from 223 centres.

"We are tracking 800,000 people registered at these centres," said Dr B.B.
Rewari, National Programme Officer (ART), NACO. They are regularly tested and
put on treatment as soon as they need it.

ART drug prices have dropped significantly during the past year. The second-line
treatment, though, remains expensive.

"First-line drugs cost Rs 4,500 per person per year, but second-line therapy
costs Rs 60,000 per person per year. One third of NACO's Rs-11 billion budget
goes into treatment," said Dr Rewari.

The rising budget, warned Gilks, had become a big challenge. "As treatment cost
goes up, prevention gets left."

To control the spread of HIV, comprehensive prevention as well as treatment is
needed, he said.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-betters-world-in-meeting-HIV-target/H1-Artic\
le1-459981.aspx

EMPANELMENT OF CONSULTANTS/CSOS FOR TRAINING IN MAKING IDU/FIDU PROGRAMMING
GENDER SENSITIVE AND FEMALE FRIENDLY

Background

UNDP-funded project for capacity-building CSOs implementing programs for female
IDUs and/or female partners of male IDUs to develop a gender sensitive and
female friendly approach within IDU programs across Asia

The International HIV/AIDS Alliance Regional Technical Support Hubs in India and
Cambodia have successfully secured funding from the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) for a one-year project aimed at reducing HIV and drug use
through the provision of treatment, care and support to women who use drugs, and
their families.

The grant will be used to develop the capacity of civil society organizations
(CSOs) and Governments in Asia to develop more gender sensitive approaches to
IDU programs, by focusing on programs that target women who use drugs and female
partners of men who use drugs.
Research shows that in most parts of Asia, women who use drugs are often
rejected by their families and as a result resort to sex work to finance their
drug addiction, increasing their vulnerability to infection.

While precise statistics on women drug users at a pan-Asia level are hard to
come by, country-wise data suggests the situation is indeed concerning. The
Indian National AIDS Control Programme estimates that there are 24,000 – 26,800
persons who use drugs in Manipur, of which it is estimated that around 7 percent
are women (approximately 1,600 – 1,900[1] women). In China, in the provinces of
Yunnnan and Guangxi, women who use drugs constitute 16 – 25 percent of all drug
users in HIV/AIDS treatment (World Bank 2000, Health Department Guangxi 2000,
Yunnan Provincial Health Bureau 2001).

The project will start with a community needs analysis in India, Cambodia and
Bangladesh to identify gaps in current HIV IDU programming and advocacy, as well
as sexual and reproductive health services for women and men who use drugs. This
will help assess the requirements for technical support in these countries and
elsewhere within the region.

Following the research, the project will go on to identify at least 15 civil
society organizations (CSOs) and networks in these three countries to receive
technical support from technical support providers who will receive training on
gender-sensitive and female-friendly IDU programming. The project will also
target government agencies, particularly National AIDS program officials, SACS
(State AIDS Control Societies) and officials from the Ministries of Social
Justice and Empowerment.

The pool of individual technical support providers selected from these 15 CSOs
for capacity-building will receive training and undertake learning exchange
visits to Alliance linking organisations HASAB in Bangladesh and SASO in India. 
Both of these organisations have considerable experience of working with women
who use drugs.

Following the training, the technical support providers will be funded to
deliver 120 days of technical support in the region.  This support can be
commissioned, via the Alliance Regional Technical Support Hubs in India and
Cambodia, by governments, UN agencies, regional technical support structures and
civil society organisations delivering IDU programs throughout the Asia region.

Lessons learnt from the program will be synthesised into a good practice report
which will be disseminated across the region, and virtual ‘communities of
practices’ will be established in order to connect stakeholders involved in
delivering IDU programs across the region to share knowledge and learning.

Towards identifying the 15 CSOs and their consultants to receive training, the
International HIV/AIDS Alliance in India solicits applications from consultants
representing Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working on IDU issues that are
interested in building their capacity and that satisfy the criteria given below:

Nationality or geographical location

Can belong to any country in the South Asia region with a valid passport

Work experience

• Minimum 7 years of work experience in development sector agency especially
drug-related programmes and also extensive field experience in working on health
projects

• Background in providing technical support and consultations in the past

Other desired skills

Fluency in written and verbal English is essential
Fluency in other regional languages would be an advantage.
Proficiency in computers

Current employment status

Freelance or employed with an organisation that may allow consultancy days and
frequent travel and association with the India HIV/AIDS Alliance Technical
Support Hub during the programme period and after completion of the tenure

The role requires a strong commitment to HIV and a strong interest in and
understanding the relevant issues

Alliance India operates rigorous recruitment and selection procedures and checks
that reflect our commitment to the protection of children from abuse. The Child
Protection Policy will be made available to the short-listed candidates for
mandatory endorsement prior to commencement of work.

Candidates are requested to mail detailed up-to-date CVs along with a brief
background on the work their organizations are engaged in to:

India HIV/AIDS Alliance
Second Floor, Kushal House, 39 Nehru Place, New Delhi 110 019
Tel: (011) 4163 3081
Email: recruit@...
Website: www.aidsalliance.org

Closing date for receipt of complete applications: 15th October, 2009

Please write ‘UNDP FIDU’ in the subject line of your email.


Women candidates are especially encouraged to apply

Please note that we will not be able to notify all applicants. Only short-listed
candidates will be notified within one week of the closing date.




Pankaj Anand
e-mail: <anandpankaj@...>

National Consultation - Domestic Violence and its Impact on the Health and
Wellbeing of the Families of the Uniformed Services - A Public Health
Perspective

Venue: The Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses (IDSA)
1, Development Enclave, (near USI)
Rao Tula Ram Marg, New Delhi 110 010. India

Date: 1stOctober 2009, Time: 9.00 AM to -6.00 PM

National Consultation- Domestic Violence and Uniformed Services: A Public Health
Perspective

9:00 -9.30 AM Registration

9:30 -10:15 Inaugural  Session
• Welcome Remarks by Winnie Singh, Executive Director, Maitri
• Dr. GirijaVyas, Chairperson, NCW (Chief Guest)
• Dr Ravi Verma, Regional Director, ICRW - Overall view/ Magnitude/ Determinants
- Keynote Address
• Dr Ulf Kristoffersson (Guest of honor)

10:15 – 10:30 Tea Break

10:30 to 12:30 PM Plenary –Response of Wives Welfare Associations and Uniform
Services
• ITBP  DIG, JAG, Mr G S Virk  - Peculiarity of Circumstances of the Uniform
Service
• Himachal Police IGP - Mr. Sita Ram Mardi (Enforcement of Legal provisions in
Police pertaining to Domestic Violence)
• Delhi Police Women Cell – Jt. Commissioner of Police MrYadav
• Chair – Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Bhopinder Singh

12:30 to 1:15 Discussion

1:15 – 2:00  Lunch

2:00 – 3:00  Government Perspective
• Dr PM Nair, IPS – Linkages of Domestic Violence to Health including HIV in
Uniformed Families
• Ministry of Woman and Child: Kiran Chadha, IAS

3:00 – 4:30 Session III –Domestic Violence: Civil Society / UN Agencies
• UNFPA – Dr Amita Pitre
• UNAIDS Response to Uniformed Families Domestic Violence & Health Issues -
Sarita Jadav
• Tahnee Singh, Stanford University, Maitri Ambassador in San Francisco
• Gender, Violence and  HIV - Nandita Batla, ICRW
• Chair - Dr. Ulf Kristoffersson

4:30– 5:00 Tea

5:00  Valedictory
• Kiran Bedi - Hidden Epidemic
• Indira Jaisingh - A Perspective on the Domestic Violence Act
• Way Ahead and Conclusion: Dr. Joe Thomas
• Vote of Thanks



Winnie Singh

Executive Director, Maitri
106, Aradhana RK Puram Sector 13
New Delhi 110066, India
Mobile: +91.98.101.32908         +91.98.101.32908
Tel:    +91.11.26111559         +91.11.26111559
Email: Winnie.singh@...
url: http://www.maitri.org.in

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licensed, on September 18, 2009, the
Abbott Prism HIV O Plus assay, a new screening tool designed to detect the
presence of antibodies to the two types of the virus that causes AIDS, HIV 1 and
HIV 2. Both types can be transmitted by sexual contact, through blood, and by
mother to child transmission.

 
The new assay is one of five assays that run on the fully automated Abbott Prism
System.
 
HIV type 1 consists of various subgroups, including group M, the most common
subgroup of the virus in the United States, and group O, found primarily in
Cameroon and other areas of West Africa.
 
HIV type 2 is found mostly in West Africa. Both types have been detected in the
United States and Europe.
 
The Abbott Prism HIV O Plus assay detects antibodies to HIV type 1, groups M and
O, and HIV type 2. It is the second donor screening test licensed for the
detection of antibodies to HIV type 1, group O.

The Abbott Prism HIV O Plus assay is licensed to screen donated blood and blood
specimens from other living donors (e.g., organ or tissue donors) for these
specific types of HIV and subgroups of HIV type 1.

The assay is also licensed to screen specimens from organ donors when specimens
are obtained while the donor's heart is still beating and from cadavers.
Positive results from the screening test require confirmation from supplemental
tests. 
 
The Abbott Prism HIV O Plus assay and the Abbot Prism system are manufactured by
Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill. 

Richard Klein
Office of Special Health Issues 
Food and Drug Administration 

Kimberly Strubl
Division of Antiviral Drug Products 
Food and Drug Administration


U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA)
e-mail: <fda@...>

This 12-minute documentary was filmed and produced in Kenya by Population Action
International (PAI). The film explores some of the complex realities of married
women, and how the challenges of HIV prevention in this group defy simple
solutions.

According to the producers, the film urges a broader, integrated approach to
preventing HIV, which includes confronting damaging
social norms that put all people - men and women alike – at risk. It is designed
to raise awareness of the risk of HIV transmission within marriage and
illustrate the particular challenges facing married women.

It also shows that traditional approaches to HIV prevention do not meet the
needs of married women, because practicing abstinence is unrealistic, wives
cannot control the faithfulness of their husbands, and because they find it
difficult to negotiate condom use.

The producers say that there are steps that can be taken to reduce the
vulnerability of married women and men to HIV infection, including stronger
policies, better prevention strategies, and changes in harmful social norms.

These steps can include:

- educating men and women about social norms and how those norms
    negatively impact men and women’s health;

- building political will to enact and reform policies to reduce women's
vulnerability;

- ensuring legal protections for women’s property and inheritance rights;

- enacting and enforcing laws against domestic violence and rape,
    including marital rape;
- achieving equality in girls’ education at all levels;

- increasing HIV counseling and testing focused on couples;

- developing programmes that promote condom use among married couples; and

- integrating HIV services with family planning and reproductive health services
to reach more married women with information and support (such programmes also
have a history of increasing male involvement in reproductive health decision
making).

This film is intended to be used as an advocacy tool to inform, provoke
discussion, and mobilise political and financial support for evidence-based HIV
prevention, sexual and reproductive health and rights programmes, and broader
social and economic policies to improve the lives of women and their families.

The film is accompanied by fact
sheets <http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?m=1172eb709d508a335095d63b49d26278>

that can be downloaded from the website and used at organised screenings.

Click here to access this film online.
<http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.populationaction.org%2F\
silentpartner%2F>

Publisher Population Action
International

<http://www.comminit.com/en/node/296801/347>

Cost Free to download
Languages

English
Contact  Population Action International

1300 19th Street, NW Suite 200
Washington DC
20036-1624
United States
Tel: +1 202 557 3400
Fax: +1 202 728 4177
  Population Action International
website<http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.populationaction\
.org%2FAbout_PAI%2FIndex.shtml>
Web-based contact
form<http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.populationaction.or\
g%2FAbout_PAI%2FContact_Us.shtml>
  <http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=>
  pai@...

--
Dr RK Sood
(Masters in Applied Epidemiology)

drrksood@..., dapokangra@...
District AIDS Project Officer, # 402 C, ZH Dharmashala, HP. 176215, India +91
9418064077, +91 1892-225559

'Tatte Girao, Hijra Hattao'

Response to Farrukh Dhondy's article in Asian Age

'Tatte Girao, Hijra Hattao' was written in response to Mr Farrukh Dhondy's
article ' The male eunuch & other chromosomes'. Mr Dhondy's article appeared in
the Asian Age newspaper of August 29th, 2009. The article 'Tatte Girao, Hijra
Hattao' has not been accepted by the editor of Asian Age and is therefore being
circulated on relevent e-lists.

Apologies in advance for cross-postings.

NOTE: 'The male eunuch & other chromosomes' can be read at:
http://www.asianage .com/presentatio n/columnisthome/ farrukh-dhondy/ the-male-
eunuch--other- chromosomes. aspx

Satya Rai Nagpaul
------------ --------- -

Tatte Girao, Hijra Hattao

Caster Semenya's record breaking run in the Berlin World Athletic Games this
August, not only raised doubts in the organisers about her 'real sex", but back
home, has precipitated our very own Mr Farrukh Dhondy's jounalistic activism to
save our boys from falling into any possible sexual/gender ambiguity.
His prescription:  Get 'the apparatus' and you shall be a 'man'!

If the medical and legal communities were not enough, we have now to fight our
so called "progressive" journalists who write columns about  'so called
eunuchs', who their medical friends tell them 'were not eunuchs at all'.

The transphobia, gender essentialism and high moral ground in Mr Dhondy's
article couldn't have been more naked. What appears throughout the article as
his well meaning and sympathetic concern, finally reveals its true face in that
last draconian sentence: 'Make hijras history'. How could the corporeal
realities of the hijra be so lost on a journalist [and one who is himself a
minority, being a parsi, as stated in his article] that he can wish for the
wiping out of an entire way of life? Instead of espousing their human rights, he
wishes them not to exist at all?!

Mr Dhondy's statement that all hijras suffer from Cryptorchidism, and that it is
a simple medical procedure that will make men out of them, not only reveals his
journalistic smugness but also that he has been completely absent from all
discourses on sex/gender emerging ever since the years of the second world war.
The binary conceptualisation of sex/gender is long dead in cutting edge academia
and even the medical sciences have begun to open out their sex/gender categories
to the new conceptualisations.

Crytorchidism could become an opportunity for the person & the family to revisit
& reimagine the category sex, but what Mr Dhondy recommends is a reinforceing of
the binaries of male & female. The old guard of medical practitioners tell us
who we are and who we should become and our journalists, having completely
bought into this medicalisation of sex, carry further these prescriptions in
their columns. But of course all this mess about 'categories', whether athletic
or otherwise, appears to Mr Dhondy, as one 'dilemma' and of course it 'bores
him'.

This intellectual apathy and gender puritanism pushes the already difficult
lives of hijras and all those who lie outside the binary of male and female,
further into the margins and into the closets.

We have also learnt, haven't we, that Mr Dhondy never uses his  'own being as
ironic instrument to raise the price of  [his] own meal' ?  Only, he is not
telling us he won't be found at the traffic lights; he has more sophisticated
junctures to sell his stuff at.

Since Mr Dhondy, on his own admission, has already lived a long time without
finding out the 'precise' difference between sex and gender, he could do three
if not more things: refrain from putting pen to paper on something he does not
know about, and then, not sit next to an idiot box and blame it for telling him
what to think! And if  'Diwan Hijro' still visits his dreams, that brilliant
mathematics teacher will also tell him that 2+2 does not make 4 in most other
subjects.

' a very brief sojourn in the changing room would [not] settle the matter'. A
brief sojourn into the life of a hijra, may.


Satya Rai Nagpaul
Transman, Cinematographer.
5th September, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The male eunuch & other chromosomes
Farrukh Dhondy

"She never reads for truth
But only for sensation
I placed a bet on love and lost
On Casablanca station".

From The Love Song of
J.P.X. Jaganbhai by Bachchoo

Augest.29 : I have lived a long time without asking myself what the precise
difference between sex and gender is. I am now told — I can’t help but hear,
because it is loudly proclaimed from the speakers of TV sets and radios — that
"gender" is a purely grammatical concept whereas sex is — Well! — the real
thing!

The distinction is being proclaimed because a young South African athlete, who
spectacularly set a new world record for the women’s 800 metres race in the
current Berlin World Athletic Games, is under suspicion of really being a man.

One would have thought that a very brief sojourn in the changing rooms would
settle the matter. But no!

Poor Caster Semenya, the "woman" in question, was asked if she was a man, but no
examination of the obvious sort took place. Instead the world was told what, to
my untutored mind, came as something of a surprise.

The spokesman for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF),
one Nick Davies, says that the tests necessary to determine the sex of Ms
Semenya involve "an extremely complex procedure involving doctors, scientists,
gynaecologists and psychologists".

Apparently this is because there are a variety of sexual states in between what
we know of and accept as the "male" and the "female".

Most people’s sex awareness begins with a comparison of the apparatus one
possesses with that of a member of the opposite sex.

One naturally takes what one possesses to be the universal state of being and
then notices that a sister, a cousin or some other child, seems to be the proud
possessor of alternative arrangements.

I don’t think it ever occurred to me, surveying as an infant my female
cousin’s properties, that the complementary contrasts were unexpected or
shocking. Girls were girls and boys were boys and there were differences to
explore and celebrate. Obviously, at that age one didn’t know how the
apparatus fitted together or what it was for.

The other great lesson in sexual identity was provided by the backwardness of
India. In my home town of Pune (then "Poona") there was Dastur School, founded
by Parsis for the benefit of the general community but with a Zoroastrian ethos,
attended predominantly by Parsi children. I didn’t go to that school though
several of my friends from the neighbourhood, including Kishan Abhichandani, a
Sindhi, did.

The reputedly brilliant mathematics teacher of the school was a Parsi gentleman
called Mr Diwan. He was slightly obese, had very distinct formations of breasts
which showed through his shirt, circular hips and, though he was easily 40 when
I became aware of his existence, no facial hair and so no necessity to shave.
The male pupils of the school referred to him in Gujarati as "Diwan Hijro!"
openly calling him a eunuch.

Even in my innocence I knew that shouting this epithet at him when he passed us
in the street was rude and unacceptable, even though I didn’t know anything
about the intermediate sexual state to which it referred.

In India hijras were (and still are!) everywhere, and one of them made me
conspicuous in my crowd of friends when he/she crossed the street and caressing
my cheek said, "Salim hein Salim!" and clapped with the hollows of his/her palms
ringing. I had to live the name down. We always thought of hijras as "eunuchs"
and I often wondered what sort of sexual apparatus they possessed.

A doctor friend enlightened me. These so called eunuchs, the hijras, were not
eunuchs at all, they were "cryptorchids".

They were born with male genitalia but as infants their testicles were trapped
inside a peculiar bone formation of their crotch. A very simple medical
procedure could release these testicles and allow them to drop as those of all
males normally did. The paucity of medical attention and supervision in the
country resulted in these growing boys having their testicles trapped and
crushed instead of developing in the male way.

So while "hijras" possess a little boy’s penis, the machinery that would have
made them preponderantly male with testosterone dominating their hormonal
production has been crushed and they develop the secondary sexual features of
males and females. Parents who observe their sons growing in this way give them
away to be adopted by tribes of "their own kind". Here, dear Indian reader, is a
sadness that could be legislated away.

In the West you don’t have gangs of hijras at traffic lights begging for a
living, clapping and parodying themselves, using their own being as ironic
instruments to raise the price of a meal!

A simple medical procedure allowing the testicular drop, makes men of these, to
me, unfortunate boys.

It is unfortunate that the athlete Ms Semenya will soon be the subject of tests
to determine which chromosomes she carries, whether she has had a sex operation
to change from being a boy to a girl while retaining some of the hormonal
characteristic of boys which give oomph to the running muscles… etc.

I saw her and heard her speak on TV and she does possess a muscular frame, the
lean hips of a lad and a deep voice. All these could be the characteristics of
any one of the intermediate sexual forms that seem to have gained scientific
morphological recognition. The sports committees and the Olympic associations
have a problem. Should there be racing categories for each of these intermediate
sexes? So there would be the Men’s 100m, the Women’s 100m, the XXY
Chromosomic 100m, the XYY chromosomic 100m, the 70:30 testesterone: Oestrogen
100m… and so on and on.

Sorry, though I am for Ms Semenya and what she must be going through after
assuming that she was what everyone thought of as a girl, the larger athletic
dilemma bores me. Let the Olympic committeewallahs, with their fat salaries,
come up with the solutions.

I am much more concerned that cryptorchidism be abolished forever from India,
South Africa and everywhere and in my own yard that the Indian government passes
a law to get doctors to examine and remedy, if bone structure necessitates, male
child. Make hijras history!
_______________________________

Satya Rai Nagpaul
e-mail: <ekdoorbeen@...>

Dear Loon,

Re: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS-INDIA/message/10786

As per the present NACO guidelines, the regime mentioned by you is all right and
the same needs to be continued as prescribed.

I have discussed the issue with the ART care providers.

Out of the national programme,TDF along with 3TC would have been an appropriate
option as both TDF and 3TC are effective against both HBV and HIV with a
resultant reduced risk of resistance to HBV in future.

You would appreciate than under any activity as per the national programme, the
treatment cannot be individuallized as the programmatic activity has been
developed in accordance with the good of the community at large in the best
feasible and most cost effective manner.

Continuation of the the presecribed medication, therefore, should be fully
acceptable to the gentleman and the service providers.

Best wishes,

Dr.Rajesh Gopal.

Dr. Rajesh Gopal,MD
Gujarat State AIDS Control Society (GSACS),
Gujarat State Council for Blood Transfusion(GSCBT),
Block O/1 Block,New Mental Hospital (NMH) Complex,
Opposite National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH),
Meghaninagar,  Ahmedabad,   Gujarat,  India.    PIN   380016
Phone(O)91-79-22680211--12--13,22685210 Facsimile 91-79-22680214

Dear Dr Sugata,

Re: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS-INDIA/message/10777

I fully agree with you. We have to see the trend of  VDRL reactivity among
antenatal cases which were taken as general population samples from NACO annual
sentinel surveillance data from the year of commencement till 2009.

This will provide a lot of information to formulate our strategy in future.

Regards.

Dr (Prof.) H K Kar

Consultant & HOD
Department of Dermatology, STD & Leprosy
P.G.I.M.E.R. and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital
Baba Kharag Singh Marg
New Delhi-110001
E-MAIIL: hkkar_2000@...>

Dear Rrespected Madam Dr Sugata Mukhopadhyay,

Re: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS-INDIA/message/10777

Considering the issue GSACS --- part of NACO started compulsory VDRL/RPR for
syphyllis screen along with PPTCT in the same blood samples at free of cost to
all patient attanding anc clinic with pptct program this is the move since last
>1year

Nitin Raithatha
e-mail: <dr_nitin_raithatha@...>

Dear Forum,

My friend, who is newly diagnosed with HIV, starts his ARV treatment
(3TC+d4T+NVP) in one of Delhi's ART Clinic. He is also HBV positive and his HBV
VL is >50,000, LFT is within the range. His CD4 is 22 when he starts ARV and is
responding well, he gain 10 kgs within 3 weeks after ARV (from 60 to 70 kgs.)

Some doctors says he doesn't need to be on TDF, while some says he needs to be
on TDF in addition to 3TC otherwise soon he will develop 3TC resistance.

What would be the ideal or the right treatment (considering his HIV and HBV) for
persons like him? Is 3TC only is enough or do he needs to adds TDF in order to
control his HBV? Is his ARV regimen is OK or not? Any guideline or
guidance?Please advice.

Rregards,

Loon Gangte
e-mail: dnpplus@...

Dear friends,

This is in response to Dr. Sugata Mukhopadhyay's email.

Re: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS-INDIA/message/10777

The good news is that all Government hospitals at least in Delhi routinely
conduct VDRL test for all women registering themselves for hospital delivery.

I think these guidelines are issued to all Government hospitals throughout the
country. May be this may be confirmed from the Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare.

Siddhartha,
AIDS Awareness Group (AAG) Phones 91-11-2618 7953 and 54
e-mail: <aag94@...>

Dear All

Greetings from Brijesh

RNP+ a network of positive people started its activities towards the uplifment
of these Section by minimizing the stigma and discrimination attached with them
and to improve their quality of life. In order to start bridging the vast needs
of PLWHA and to ensure their participation in all HIV/AIDS related programs.

Our aim is to improve the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS by
minimizing stigma & discrimination carry with them and bring them towards the
main streams of the society with more confidence and dignity.

Despite the numerous promises and provisions made by the Indian government, the
state of many of the country's children continues to be pitiable.. Statistics
reveal that there are close to 13 million child laborers, about 3 to 5 lakh
children are forcibly engaged in prostitution and at least 18 million children
live on the streets in India. Coupled with child abuse and poverty figures, the
picture is far from pretty. A little help on your part can and will bring these
numbers down!

Many countries that had previously seen child-survival rates rise, as a result
of improved healthcare, are now seeing these rates fall again. It has been
estimated that without AIDS, Botswana’s under-5 mortality rate would have been
31 per 100,000 in 2002 compared to 107 with AIDS. By 2010, the country’s
under-5 mortality is expected to have increased by 100 deaths per 100,000 as a
result of AIDS.

Most regions of the world, including African regions, have seen a decline in
child mortality but in Southern Africa, the area most affected by HIV, under-5
mortality has increased.

In Africa, studies suggest that one in three newborns infected with HIV die
before the age of one, over half die before reaching their second birthday, and
most are dead before they are five years old.7

Conversely, in developed countries, preventive measures ensure that the
transmission of HIV from mother to child is relatively rare, and in those cases
where it does occur, a range of treatment options means that the child can
survive – often into adulthood. This shows that with funding, trained staff
and resources, the infections and deaths of many children in lower-income
countries might easily be avoided.

Children affected by AIDS

It can be argued that every child growing up in an area with high HIV prevalence
is affected by the epidemic regardless of whether they, or a close family
member, are infected.

HIV can damage a child’s life in three main ways: through its effects directly
on the child, on that child’s family, and on the community that the child is
growing up in.

The direct effects of HIV on children

Many children are themselves infected with HIV

The effects of HIV on a child’s family

Children live with family members who are infected with HIV.

Children act as carers for sick parents who have AIDS.

Many children have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and are orphaned.

An increasing number of households are headed by children, as AIDS erodes
traditional community support systems.

Children end up being their family’s principal wage earners, as AIDS prevents
adults from working, and creates expensive medical bills.

The effects of HIV on a child’s community

As AIDS ravages a community, schools lose teachers and children are unable to
access education.

Doctors and nurses die, and children find it difficult to gain care for
childhood diseases.

Children may lose their friends to AIDS.

Children who have HIV in their family may be stigmatized and affected by
discrimination.

Dear all you must be aware that the present scenario of children's infected and
affected is getting from bad to worse where as we are not so serious about them
RNP+ is successfully running a care home of 35 orphan Chaldean's by aids without
any support

without any support I  have taken the OATH that by 2010 at least 100000
Children's will be sponsored for their Educational need
to make them a responsible citizen of this great NATION INDIA
 
Therefore let us join hand to make the Children's future Better
NO DONATION PLEASE ADOPT OR SPONSOR

Brijesh
 
RNP+ 

Mahadev Nagar, Chitrakoot,
Vaishali Nagar, Jaipur-302021
Ph:+91-141-2353469, 4030861, Mob: 09351538722
E-mail: rnpplus@...

Rajasthan Network for People Living With HIV/AIDS
64, Mahadev Nagar, Chittrakoot,
Vaishali Nagar, Jaipur-302021 (Rajasthan)
Phone: 0141- 2353469, 4030861
Fax : 0141- 2353469

Will the HIV vaccine be accessible to millions of poor, and women and
children in particular? - Mainstreaming Resource Unit, ActionAid Orissa

Echoing the views of former UNDP director Tony Klouda, the participants of a
State Level Workshop in Orissa on mainstreaming of HIV and AIDs agreed that even
if a bottle of pure drinking water were to work as a total vaccine against HIV,
it would still be unavailable to large numbers of poor and marginalised people
in India. The statement assumes significance in the wake of the recent
development of a partially effective vaccine against HIV.

Of late, ActionAid Orissa has been organising series of workshops to
press home the point that a medical solution to HIV is not enough;
addressing core development problems like poverty and gender inequality is of
paramount importance if the spread of the virus is to be halted and reversed.

For this to happen, all sectors including government departments, civil society
and the corporate sector need to come together and act on the problem in a
multi-pronged manner.

At the workshop, ActionAid Orissa argued that the rapid spread of HIV
could not be explained by 'high risk activities' alone; poor social and economic
conditions are often responsible for forcing people to live in 'high risk
environments' that add to their vulnerability. The poor and women in particular
usually have weak immune systems due to
malnourishment and are thus more vulnerable to the infection.

Lack of schooling often results in unemployment, forcing people to end
up in occupations that entail high risk transactions. Sex becomes a key
resource, especially for girls and women, thereby increasing their
vulnerability to unsafe sex. Men migrate for work, stay away from homes and
families, and end up with multiple partners.

Poverty, disempowerment, gender inequality, poor public services, and
finally weak health systems are thus much more responsible for making
people vulnerable to the infection and its subsequent impact, said the
resource persons at the workshop.

"The fact that large numbers still fall prey to 'perfectly curable'
diseases like hepatitis, malaria, and cholera proves beyond doubt that a medical
vaccine is no answer. Ensuring holistic development for all is the best vaccine
against HIV", stated Niraj Mishra from Orissa AIDS Solidarity Forum.

"The larger question is how many women, and how many poor, can afford
the vaccination? Aren't there too many impediments like issues of
access, decision making, side effects, and finally cultural and
traditional barriers?" says Christy Abraham, who leads ActionAid's work on HIV
and AIDS in India.

"Further, when will the vaccine be available in the market and at what
cost? And will it, in a practical sense, be more effective than an easy tool
like condom?" adds Christy.

If everyone had equal access to opportunities and benefits, if everyone were
well nourished, and if good public services were available to all, then HIV
would not have spread to its current extent, nor would the impacts of AIDS be as
severe, claimed the delegates at the workshop.

The workshop, held during 18-22 August 2009, was organised by the
Mainstreaming Resource Unit (MRU) of ActionAid Orissa in collaboration
with the OSACS with an aim to develop a pool of resource persons who
would help government departments identify and initiate planned measures to
contain the virus.

The event witnessed the participation of doctors, social workers,
academicians, lawyers, Persons Living with HIV and senior responsibility holders
from various government departments. The workshop ended with the development of
a list of possible actions that could be taken up by the five departments of
Health, Labour, Law, Education and Women & Child Development.

September witnessed two more workshops in the districts of Balangir and Bhadrak
to advocate with the District Collectors and departmental heads to pay attention
to addressing the causes and effects of HIV. Four more workshops are in the
pipeline in the districts of Ganjam, Khurda, Angul and Balasore.

ActionAid Orissa has been commissioned by the NACO and the UNDP to work closely
with the Orissa State AIDS Control Society (OSACS) and advocate with key
government departments of Orissa to mainstream planned responses to HIV and AIDS
in the course of their usual work.


Santosh Padhy

Mainstreaming Resource Unit
Actionaid Orissa
e-mail: <santosh.padhy@...>

HIV/AIDS, security and conflict, a new agenda for action

Joe Thomas

According to a recent report, "HIV/AIDS, security and conflict, new realities,
new responses"   from the joint, Security and Conflict Initiative (ASCI)  of the
Social Science Research Council (SSRC)  and Clingendael Institute for
International Relations in The Hague, HIV/AIDS presents new and different
security threats and the report proposed a  new agenda for action.

First time in the global history of response to a health challenge, the UN
Security Council linked HIV as a security challenge. In its resolution 1308, on
17 July 2000, the UN Security Council had, among other things, encouraged Member
States to consider developing, in cooperation with the international community
and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), effective long-term
strategies for HIV/AIDS education, prevention, voluntary and confidential
testing and counselling, and treatment for personnel as an important part of
their preparation for their participation in peacekeeping operations.

On it's resolution number 8450 of 2005, the security council reaffirmed it's
commitment to prevent HIV/AIDS in  the international peacekeeping operations in
the context of its responsibility in the maintenance of international peace and
security.

However, the alarmism of an immanent HIV crisis among the uniformed services
perpetuated decade ago has dissipated. Yet, linking HIV to security has provided
a gainful paradigm, which enhanced the perception regarding a host of issues
that still we need to address as an effective response to HIV.

Such issues include, the challenges of fragile states to address the HIV
challenge, violence against women in conflict situations and the role of sex
industry in the post conflict situations. In reassessing the links between
HIV/AIDS and security, ASCI puts forward 10 policy recommendations and five
broadly defined mechanisms for advancing its principal recommendations.

Policy recommendations.


1) Align HIV and sexual violence prevention and response.

2) Develop command-centred approaches to HIV prevention and AIDS treatment and
care  in the uniformed services.

3) Integrating HIV prevention and response into the design and command of peace
support operations.

4) Integrate HIV and AIDS prevention and response into disarmament,
demobilization and reintegration programmes.

5) Reframe the testing debate.

6) Integrate HIV prevention and response into policing and law enforcement.

7) Increase focus on HIV and AIDS across borders, and in relation to traffic and
trade.

8) Increase continuity of HIV and AIDS responses during post-conflict
transitions.

9) Address HIV and AIDS in fragile states: strengthen local government,
community and  family care arrangements.

10) Rethink the tools of measurement.

The action plan

1) National assessments — Provide technical and financial support for national
militaries, police, other security sectors and local government authorities to
carry out institutional audits and operational as¬sessments of HIV risks in the
context of post-conflict transitions.

2) Policy development — Provide technical and financial support for policy
development on VCT-TCP, command-centred approaches to HIV and AIDS management,
conduct and disciplinary policies and enforcement mechanisms, law enforcement
practices, HIV and AIDS in post-conflict transitions, and the management of
local government under stress due to the epidemic.

3) Regional collaboration — Promote collaboration among and within uniformed
services to harmo¬nize VCT-TCP policies, facilitate the study of trafficking
routes and support HIV-related resource mobilization.

4) Information collection and data analysis — Reassess and reformulate standard
epidemiological and behavioural models of HIV transmission risk (and related
survey instruments) to incorporate factors relating to gender, violence,
population movements and access to services; support macroeconomic modelling and
health-sector reforms that take into account the costs and consequences of
increased care burdens; reassess state fragility indices to reflect the impact
of HIV and AIDS on human resources and service delivery; and develop security
risk assessment tools for use in mission areas.

5) Emerging themes — Support exploratory and new policy research on emerging
trends and priorities. Through planning meetings, case-studies, data collection
and policy assessments, support is need¬ed to catalyze interdisciplinary and
comparative research and policy development in a number of areas: policing,
sexual violence, psychosocial factors, masculinities, DDR/SSR, decentralization
and trafficking.

http://www.ssrc.org/workspace/images/crm/new_publication_3/%7Be2090d2b-72a8-de11\
-9d32-001cc477ec70%7D.pdf

Condoms are cool in the Capital

Fri, Sep 25 06:20 PM
India, Sept. 25 -- From desktop applications to "condom parties" - condoms have
gone from the most embarassing six letter word to possibly the coolest word in
town.

It started when a condom brand launched www.sendsomerubber.
com, a site that lets you send an application to friends which ensures that,
whenever your friend chats about sex online or types out "sexy" words such as
'69' or 'horny', a condom drops onto the screen with a message to promote safe
sex. Peter McCann of Ansell Ltd, who is associated with the project, explains,
"Sendsomerubber is an initiative to bring forth a message of safe sex.

" With 66,648 online rubbers already sent, the application seems to be a hit. On
Facebook, an application named 'Send Your Friend A Condom' has over 30,000
users.

That's not all. Recently, a 'Cocktails and Kondoms' party was held at a popular
nightspot in Delhi, with an aim to create awareness for safe sex among
partygoers.

And, actor Ronit Roy, launched 'LOVE Condom', a campaign to promote AIDS
awareness, in the Capital a few months ago. He said this generation is open
about talking about sex and protection, "I've seen people go to chemists and ask
for condoms in a hushed tone, but this generation is different".

Kaminey's Fatak song, which had actor Shahid Kapoor dressed up as a giant
condom, has also been hailed for its message of safe sex.
Rahul Sabharwal, Hindustan Times

http://in.news.yahoo.com/32/20090925/1074/tod-condoms-are-cool-in-the-capital.ht\
ml

Invitation:

Seminar on Domestic Violence and its Impact on the Health and Wellbeing of
Uniformed Families

"Violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power
relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and
discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of the full
advancement of women..."

The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women
General Assembly Resolution, December 1993

While Domestic Violence is a universal phenomenon, it uniquely affects those who
are married to a member of the uniformed personnel. There are approximately 25
lakhs uniformed personnel in service, 80% of which are married. Uniformed
personnel usually get married at a very young age, often as soon as they get
recruited. The training of the service is aggressive and teaches its members to
act without pity, fear or remorse.

The uniformed personnel stay away from home for the better part of their
service, serving in terrorist and insurgency prone areas. The stress and
training can make them respond in their personal lives with the same emotions
they would in the field. At times, it can be difficult for uniformed personnel
to differentiate between their home and work environments, which can impact not
only the general health but also the sexual and reproductive health of their
wives.

Maitri has the unique distinction of being the only known NGO in India and one
of the few in the world that is committed to working with uniformed personnel
and their families. Project Samvedana aims at understanding the various forms of
domestic violence, especially in the context of uniformed families and their
vulnerability to diseases which include STIs, TB & HIV.

The project explores the patriarchal and cultural norms that accelerate the
violence in domestic life and focuses on the attitudes of uniformed personnel
that encourage exhibition of dominating and violent behaviour. Project Samvedana
also offers workshops, education, and support to the wives of men in the
uniformed services. The project's workshops include training that enables women
to identify and respond to domestic violence.

Maitri seeks to empower women with skills such as how to effectively sensitize
their husbands to their emotional and physical needs and to inform them about
the need for education, literacy, and financial independence in their families.
Our training workshop includes discussion of sexual health, reproductive issues,
and "taboo" sexual issues like STIs and HIV.

Date: 1st October 2009

Venue: The Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis (IDSA),
1, Development Enclave (Near USI), Rao Tula Ram Marg, New Delhi 110010

Time: 9:30 AM- 4.30 PM

For participation, please contact MAITRI at:

(011): 2412-2692, 65178288
981-895-1512, 999-975-7438,
989-128-7159,  989-128-7159


Winnie Singh
Executive Director, Maitri
106, Aradhana RK Puram Sector 13
New Delhi 110066, India
Mobile: +91.98.101.32908
+91.98.101.32908

Tel: +91.11.26111559, +91.11.26111559
Email: Winnie.singh@...
url: http://www.maitri.org.in

APACHA Press release: The result of Thai HIV vaccine trial.

Asian People's Alliance for Combating HIV and AIDS (APACHA) welcome the result
of the Thai HIV vaccine trial with cautious optimism.

APACHA particularly congratulates Dr. Supachai Rerks-Ngarm, M.D., of the Thai
Ministry of Public Health's Department of Disease Control,  the principal
investigator of the study which was sponsored by the U.S. Army in collaboration
with NIAID, Sanofi Pasteur and GSID.

While acknowledging the importance of  the need for sustained clinical trials, 
it is unfortunate that the detail of the outcome of the trial, including the
data and methods of such an important study is not  widely available in the
public domain for review and further analysis

The news about the result of the Vaccine trial should not distract the efforts
of the governments and the civil society to address the vulnerability of people
who are at the greater risk of HIV infection and real issues faced by the people
living with and affected by HIV.

An HIV vaccine will definitely add additional ammunition to our fight against
the social determinants and social consequences of HIV infection.  However, HIV
vaccine will not provide a- single magic bullet- solution to HIV epidemic.

APACHA Believes, the real heroes of this trial are the 16,402 men and women who
participated in this trial and the researchers lead by Dr.  Supachai
Rerks-Ngarm.   The patent rights and the intellectual rights of the data and
other potential outcome of this trial should be shared with the trial
participants as well.

The result of the study is a very important step towards the fight against HIV.
However, we are concerned about the lack of public access to the scientific data
of this study said, Prof, Joe Thomas. Chair person of APACHA.

APACHA believes, normally such a discovery should have been presented for a
publication in peer reviewed journals and the press release should have done
when the findings of the study is published. So that the data and method of the
study should have been in the public domain for analysis and review.

We overwhelmingly applaud the news about the result of the clinical trial. We
may be writing to the Ministry of Health of the Royal  Thai   Government , 
requesting to take necessary steps  to present the data of this trial in the
public domain". Said,  Dr. Noor ul Zaman Rafiq Co Chairperson of APACHA.

It seems, the trial focused on B and E subsets of the viral strain that are
common in Thailand. APACHA would like to see, the efficacy of the present
vaccine combination being tested among other population groups exhibiting
different viral epidemiology.

Due to lack of access to the trail data in the public domain, many aspects of
the trial results are unclear.  Researchers must explain to the general public
on how the drug combination worked and whether one part was more effective than
the other and will the same combination of the vaccine is effective to other
viral subtypes as well?.

We request the concerned UN agencies to acknowledge the work of Dr. Supachai
Rerks-Ngarm, the principal investigator of this study and to ensure that the
data and the details of this study is available in the public domain at the
earliest so that independent review and analysis of the data could be done.

APACHA request UNAIDS, to urgently develop certain minimum standards  for their
press releases- reporting the findings of such important discoveries in the
field of HIV response in future.
_______________________
APACHA is the largest multi sectoral,  civil society network of  HIV &AIDS
response in Asia. www.apachanet.org

For further details please contact. Dr. Anita Manandhar  Interim Coordinator of
APACHA

APACHA International Secretariat
Madhur Marg, Chun Devi
House no 23 P O Box : 7647
Kathmandu, Nepal
Phone : 00977-1-4721277, 4721278, 4720926
Email:secretariat.asia@...

Vaccine against AIDS welcome, but ensuring treatment and addressing the causes
still the topmost  priority - Mainstreaming Resource Unit (MRU) ActionAid Orissa

News of a successful HIV AIDS vaccine trial is welcome, but treating
existing infections and fighting the underlying causes including the
epidemic of violence against women remain more important priorities,
warns Mainstreaming Resource Unit (MRU) of ActionAid in Orissa.

Early HIV vaccines with modest levels of efficacy should be used as
complementary tools to promote changes in social norms entrenching
gender inequality and violence against women, ActionAid believes.

Underlying the persistent spread of HIV and AIDS is an epidemic of
violence against women which no vaccine will stop. We need governments to take
strong steps to guarantee the rights of women and empower them against chronic
abuse and coercion by men, says the MRU Orissa.

According to the BBC, it is the first time a vaccine has been shown to give even
this limited protection against the virus that causes Aids.

The vaccine was tried out on 16,000 volunteers in Thailand. The vaccine trial,
which was funded by the US army, involved a combination of two vaccines that
individually had proved ineffective.

The World Health Organisation says it offers the promise of a safe vaccine
eventually becoming available for people around the world.

Which means the vaccine is only partially effective at the moment, says
ActionAid and warns that the false news of a "silver bullet" against AIDS may
lead men to resume risky and coercive sexual practices, unless governments
expand prevention and education programmes.

"Vaccine breakthroughs, although hugely exciting, must not distract
attention from the lives being lost every day to existing infections.
Already, in the wake of the global recession, there are reports of ARV
stock-outs and caps on enrolling new patients in treatment programmes," states
the Orissa Mainstreaming Resource Unit.

Majority of the affected are women and girls, who still lack access to treatment
and the human and economic cost of this shocking neglect is intolerably high.

Mainstreaming Resource Unit

ActionAid Orissa

Santosh Padhy
e-mail: <santosh.padhy@...>

Dear Friends,

WHO estimate says, every year, globally, 12 million people get affected by
syphilis, 2 million pregnancies get affected with 25% of them end in still-birth
and 25% of the newborn are born low birth weight or with serious infection.

Congenital syphilis is a preventable and treatable disease. This can be
eliminated by regularized ante-natal screening of syphilis and timely treatment
of the infected pregnant women. The interventions are cost-effective and can be
easily managed at primary healthcare level.

Unfortunately, very unfortunately, other than WHO, there is no global level
advocacy to sensitize the countries for elimination of congenital syphilis,
where, the picture is so completely contrasting in PMTCT programs. Syphilis is
lacking the ‘HIV glamour’ in it and continues to stay back in the dark
forgotten corner of the ‘neglected’ diseases.


In India, the picture is not different. Elimination of congenital syphilis is
yet to find its place neither in RCH II nor NACP III as one of the key
strategies.

I like to know the response and comments of the learned members.
 
Regards,
Sugata
 
Dr Sugata Mukhopadhyay
New Delhi
e-mail: <sugataids@...>

Massive AIDS Vaccine Study a "Modest" Success

September 24, 2009

By Jon Cohen

A large clinical trial of an AIDS vaccine has, for the first time, yielded
positive results. But researchers immediately questioned the relevance of the
data, which indicated that the vaccine offered only modest protection against
infection by HIV.

The controversial trial, conducted with more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand
over the past 6 years, tested the effectiveness of two AIDS vaccines used
together as a one-two punch. Researchers randomly assigned an equal number of
participants who were at average risk of becoming infected by HIV to receive
either the two vaccines or a saline placebo.

At the end of the study in June, 51 of the vaccinated people had become infected
within 3 years of receiving their last shot, compared with 74 people in the
placebo group. The p value, which indicates whether results are due to chance,
was less than 0.039, just below the widely accepted but arbitrary "significance"
cutoff of 0.05.

Surprisingly, the vaccine did not appear to suppress levels of the virus in the
51 people who became infected. No serious adverse events were seen in either
group.

Many AIDS vaccine researchers had predicted that the study would fail, and its
sponsors are thrilled by the efficacy, marginal though it may be. "Although the
level of protection was modest, we think the study is a major scientific
advance," said Colonel Jerome Kim, HIV vaccines product manager for the U.S.
Army, which collaborated with the Thai Ministry of Health to conduct the
efficacy trial. "We were all pretty energized by the results." The U.S. military
and Thai officials will announce the results of the trial, the largest ever held
of an AIDS vaccine (see table on other AIDS vaccine trials after the jump), at
press conferences today in Thailand and the United States.

Several longtime critics of the study, which cost $105 million, were
dumbfounded-and circumspect-when they learned the results.

"Wow. Wow," said AIDS vaccine researcher Ronald Desrosiers, head of the New
England Primate Research Center in Southborough, Massachusetts. "Looking at the
numbers, it's underwhelming to me. But I want to sit tight and get a bunch of
people to do analyses and see whether the protective effect holds up under
greater scrutiny."

Dennis Burton, an immunologist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego,
California, had a similar reaction. "It's very early days," said Burton. "People
should be enormously cautious now." In an editorial published in Science

<http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/303/5656/316>  shortly after the
trial began (16 January 2004, p. 316), Desrosiers, Burton, and 20 other
prominent AIDS researchers argued that the study never should have been
launched.

Skepticism about the study stemmed from previous lackluster results of the
vaccines, tested separately and together, in smaller clinical trials. In the
just-finished trial, vaccinated individuals first received "priming" from a
preparation, made by Sanofi Pasteur based in Lyon, France, that contained a
canarypox virus that researchers had engineered to contain HIV genes. A
"booster" shot contained a recombinant form of HIV's surface protein, gp120,
made by VaxGen, a company in South San Francisco, California. VaxGen sold the
rights to develop the product to Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases after
the product failed in large efficacy trials when tested alone

<http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/299/5612/1495> . Both vaccines
were based on HIV strains that are circulating in Thailand.

Even though the data are positive, U.S. military researchers stress that many
discussions must still take place before anyone decides to use vaccines with
such modest efficacy. Still, Colonel Nelson Michael, director of the U.S.
Military HIV Research Program, said he hopes the results will help researchers
finally untangle which immune responses correlate with protection, and then
build on that information to design more effective vaccines. "These results at
least are telling us that walking down this road is worthwhile," said Michael.

"From a scientific viewpoint, I pray this will begin to inform our arguments. So
much of what people have said in absence of a clinical hit like this is
theology. We finally have an argument that will be suffused with data rather
than theories."

Michael and his colleagues plan to present the data more fully at an AIDS
vaccine conference in Paris
<http://www.hivvaccineenterprise.org/conference/2009/index.aspx>  on 19-22
October. "This is certainly going to stir up the field," Desrosiers said.

<http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/pastedGraphic.jpg>
<http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/pastedGraphic.jpg>

India's health scenario grim, says former secretary

HERALD REPORTER PANJIM, SEPT 11

India's health indices continue to remain poor and are sadly inferior compared
to other developing countries like Argentina and Brazil. In many parameters of
health, India even lags behind countries like Indonesia, Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh.

Making a not-too-good statement about the health scenario in the country, former
health secretary, Government of India, Javid Chaudhary, highlighted the need to
increase financial allocation in the public health sector where expenditure was
found to be lowest globally.

Chaudhary made a presentation on `Governance of Health Sector in India: Has the
State Abdicated its Role?' at the 35th Annual General Body Meeting of the
Voluntary Health Association of India held in the city on Friday.

The former health secretary said here was no focus on allocation of resources
and management of health promotion and preventive initiatives were miniscule.
"Allocation of resources should be 50 per cent more in States where health
facilities are poor. A policy decision in this regard is required," he
highlighted.

Chaudhary said even States have to change their patter of allocation of
resources. The UPA Government had assured it would increase allocation of
financial resources in the health sector, but despite that in 2009-10 the
allocation remains below 1 per cent, he rued.

He further pointed out that in India the availability number of qualified
doctors was less than that of a country like Cuba. He said the health system in
the country was unregulated and in this regard some measures were required from
the Government.

State Chief Secretary, Sanjay Srivastava, who was the chief guest at the
meeting, highlighted several initiatives of the Goa Government like 108
emergency service, universal Mediclaim scheme, etc and said the State showed
better health parameters compared to States in the country.

On the occasion, Voluntary Health Association of Goa, which hosted today's
meeting, felicitated Dr Wilfred de Souza for his contribution to the State's
health sector.

Speaking after his felicitation, Dr de Souza commended VHAI for its grassroots
in the health sector and called point to add valuable inputs in framing the
country's health policy.

VHAI honoured Anshu Prakash, commissioner (IAS), for his efforts in making a PPP
model of health delivery system workable in the difficult terrain of Arunachal
Pradesh.

http://oheraldo.in/pagedetails.asp?nid=27198&cid=26

Dear friends,

If you haven’t heard already, you will likely hear soon that there has been
exciting news in the AIDS vaccine field. The U.S. Military HIV Research Program
and the Thai Ministry of Public Health have just announced that a prime-boost
combination of two AIDS vaccine candidates has shown partial efficacy in a phase
III efficacy trial in Thailand. The prime-boost combination appeared to be about
31% effective at preventing infection with HIV. The vaccine candidates,
developed by Sanofi Pasteur and VaxGen (now Global Solutions for Infectious
Diseases), had no effect on the viral load of individuals who became
HIV-infected after vaccination.

The outcome of protection against infection represents a significant scientific
achievement. It is the first demonstration that a candidate AIDS vaccine
provides benefit in humans. Until now, we’ve had evidence of feasibility for an
AIDS vaccine in animal models. Now, we’ve got a vaccine candidate that appears
to work in humans, albeit partially. At the very least, the trial results give
researchers a platform on which to improve and to validate animal models and
assays. This advance will likely attract new investment and creative energy to
the field of AIDS vaccine R&D.

The outcome also demonstrates the vital importance of testing AIDS vaccine
candidates in human trials. Because HIV causes AIDS only in humans, we can only
learn so much from animal models. We could not have learned what this study will
teach us any way other than through a trial, and we expect to learn a great
deal.

The sponsors of the trial, the partners who conducted it, and the many
volunteers who selflessly devoted themselves to the study are to be
congratulated on the successful completion of the trial.

According to the trial sponsors, who plan to release more comprehensive data on
October 20 at the AIDS Vaccine Conference in Paris, the future of the AIDS
vaccine combination tested in Thailand has not yet been decided. Next steps will
be discussed among policymakers, regulators, scientists, community members, and
the trial partners. More information on the trial results is available from the
U.S. Military HIV Research Program at www.hivresearch.org.

The AIDS vaccine mission has been waiting for just such a development as this:
positive data in humans from a vaccine trial. It is now the job of all of us in
this field to recommit to the mission, to learn everything possible from these
results in order to design even better vaccine candidates so that we can one day
achieve the vision of a world without AIDS.

If you have any comments or questions about this or any other matter, please be
in touch.

Sincerely yours,

Seth


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dr. Seth Berkley
President & CEO
The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
110 Williams Street, 27th Floor
New York, NY 10038
P 212-847-1100 direct
P 212-847-1102 Carolina Seguin, Special Assistant
P 212-847-1111 switchboard
F 212-847-1101
http//www.iavi.org
E-Mail: <SBerkley@...>
Imagine a world without AIDS
-----------------------
Forwarded by

  Dr.Ashok Rau
  Executive Trustee/CEO
  Freedom Foundation-India, Nigeria, and Botswana
(Centers of Excellence- Substance Abuse & HIV/AIDS)
Head Office: 180, Hennur Cross, Bangalore - 560043, India
Senior Research Fellow, TheTerry Sanford Institute of Public Health,Duke
University(USA)
Visiting Faculty, Yale University (USA)
Adjunct Faculty, Drexel University College of Medicine (USA)
Phone (O) +91 80 25440134, 25449766, 25430611, (Direct) 25443114
Fax (O) +91 80 25440134
email:freedom@...



_________________________________________________________________
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HIV Vaccine Shows Promise for First Time, Study Shows
2009-09-24 10:16:53.53 GMT

By Simeon Bennett

Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- An experimental vaccine prevented
HIV infections for the first time, a breakthrough that has
eluded scientists for a quarter century.

A U.S.-funded study involving more than 16,000 volunteers
in Thailand found that a combination of ALVAC, made by Paris-
based Sanofi-Aventis SA, and AIDSVAX, from VaxGen Inc., of South
San Francisco, cut infections by 31.2 percent in the people who
received it compared with those on a placebo, scientists said
today in Bangkok. Neither vaccine had stopped the virus that
causes AIDS when tested separately in previous studies.

The finding represents a revival in a campaign that
appeared to stall just two years ago when use of Merck & Co.'s
experimental Ad5 vaccine boosted some people's chances of
infection in a study. The latest result will transform future
research, said Mitchell Warren, director of the New York-based
AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition.

"Wow," said Warren, who was not involved in the study, in
a telephone interview today. "We are in a new place in the
search for an AIDS vaccine. It's safe to say that the scientific
community is caught off-guard."

The findings don't mean the vaccine can be delivered
worldwide, because of the complexity of the process and the fact
that it's based on old technology, Warren said. Instead they
will serve to spur scientists to look for better combinations in
more user-friendly regimens with higher success rates, he said.

Different Strategies

The Thailand study looked at whether different infection-
fighting strategies devised by Sanofi and VaxGen could be
combined into a two-pronged attack. It was conducted by
Thailand's Ministry of Public Health over six years, and led by
researcher Supachai Reks-Gnarm.

"What is exciting is that this has provided a proof of
concept, that we can do this," said Cate Hankins, chief
scientific officer at UNAIDS, the United Nations AIDS-fighting
agency. "Anything is possible now, it feels. It is a scientific
breakthrough," Hankins said by phone from London.

Sanofi's ALVAC uses a canarypox virus that's been disabled
so it doesn't cause sickness in humans to smuggle three HIV
genes into the body. It's designed to coax the immune system to
make so-called T-cells, protectors that hunt and kill infection
deep inside the body.

The AIDSVAX shot contains an HIV protein called gp120
that's used by the virus to enter human cells. It is designed to
encourage the body to produce neutralizing antibodies to destroy
HIV viruses before they can infect healthy cells.

No Cure

The search for a vaccine to prevent HIV has eluded
scientists since the early 1980s. AIDS, the syndrome linked with
HIV, infects about 6,800 new people globally every day. While
there are treatments for HIV that limit the virus in the body,
holding AIDS at bay for years, there is no cure.

"This is the first concrete evidence, since the discovery
of the virus in 1983, that a vaccine against HIV is eventually
feasible," Michel DeWilde, senior vice president of research at
Sanofi Pasteur, the French drugmaker's vaccine arm, said in a
statement today.

An international test of the Ad5 vaccine made by Whitehouse
Station, New Jersey-based Merck in about 3,000 people was halted
in September 2007, when 49 HIV infections occurred among those
who received it compared with 33 among those who got placebo
shots. That suggested the product may have raised HIV risk among
people exposed to blood or semen containing the virus.

In 2004, a group of U.S. AIDS researchers said in a letter
to the journal Science that the combination trial would probably
disappoint, and shouldn't be allowed to proceed because of the
failure of the two previous studies.

Highest HIV Rates

In a telephone interview from Oxford, England, before the
results were reported, Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the World
Health Organization's Initiative for Vaccine Research in Geneva,
said, "I don't think there is a lot of expectation that the
efficacy of this vaccine will be very high. Any hint towards
identifying something which is protective in humans would be
very good news," she said.

The researchers enrolled volunteers in Thailand's Chon Buri
and Rayong provinces, which have the nation's highest rates of
HIV, according to the study Web site.

Subjects were given four doses of the ALVAC vaccine and two
of the AIDSVAX shot over six months, then monitored for three
years. They were also given advice on safe sex. There were no
serious side effects, the researchers said.

Free Treatment

Of those who received the vaccine, 51 became infected with
HIV, compared with 74 who received a placebo, the researchers
said. Those in the study who became infected with HIV during the
trial were given free access to treatment.

In another finding, the vaccine failed to reduce the amount
of virus in the blood of subjects who became infected.

Researchers had hoped that if the vaccine didn't prevent
infections, it would at least cut the virus to levels so low it
couldn't be transmitted.

"Although the results were modest, with an efficacy of
31.2 percent, this is a very important scientific advance, and
gives us hope that a globally effective HIV vaccine may be
possible in the future," said Jerome Kim, a deputy director of
science at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, which
sponsored the trial. "It has already caused us to change some
of our ideas," Kim told reporters.

The researchers don't understand exactly how the vaccine
prevented infections or why it didn't reduce viral load.

'Slew of Studies'

"We need to find out a lot more about how it went about
reducing HIV risk," said UNAIDS's Hankins. "There's a whole
slew of studies being planned now and meetings being planned to
discuss the significance of the results, and to go into detail
on the data."

The same vaccine may not necessarily have the same effect
in other parts of the world, such as Africa, where different
strains of HIV circulate, Hankins said.

VaxGen, spun off in 1995 from South San Francisco,
California-based biotech company Genentech Inc., stopped
developing AIDSVAX in 2003 after a trial showed it didn't
prevent people from getting HIV. The Global Solutions for
Infectious Diseases, a South San Francisco-based non-profit
organization, acquired the rights to the product.

The Thailand trial was funded by the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Institutes of
Health and the U.S. Army Medial Research and Materiel Command.

--Editors: Reg Gale, Phil Serafino.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Simeon Bennett in Singapore at +65-6212-1574 or
sbennett9@....

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reg Gale at +1-212-617-2563 or
rgale5@...;
Lena Lee at +65-6212-1892 or
llee42@...

Shalom cares for AIDS patients in Delhi

Monday, 21 September 2009, The home of a family impacted by HIV-AIDS is often
full of bitterness, anger, shame, regret, and hopelessness. The SIM
International Shalom Delhi project steps into that situation bringing the hope
of the Gospel.

Home-based care staff make regular visits to the homes of families enrolled in
the program. They partner with other NGOs to provide medical, material, social,
and spiritual support. They teach family and friends how to care for AIDS
patients. Shalom Delhi also partners with other NGOs to provide medical
referrals, food, and education for children.

The program targets widows, single adults, and families who have minimal support
from their extended family. It serves families in Delhi, Ghaziabad, and Gurgaon.

Cities are crucial for HIV prevention because the disease often spread from
cities to rural districts. More than 1 million permanent and seasonal migrants
enter Delhi every year. Many move on to other locations, carrying HIV with them.
Many truck drivers also carry the disease.

The adjacent states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are very heavily populated, and
inadequate government health campaigns have done little to slow the spread of
HIV/AIDS.

Shalom Delhi targets Delhi's satellite city of Faridabad with its
prevention/awareness program. The program runs in schools for 1-3 months,
teaching kids about basic hygiene and health care as well as AIDS-related
issues. Sometimes the program also runs through church or community groups.

Other prevention programs target adolescents and truck drivers. Shalom Delhi
also works with pastors, mobilizing churches to help widows support their
families. In addition, it runs the Shalom Critical Care Center.

http://in.christiantoday.com/articles/ministry-cares-for-aids-patients-in-delhi/\
4531.htm

Karnataka to set up homes for HIV hit children

These homes will address issues and problems of the AIDS-HIV infected orphaned
children

Published on 9/22/2009 3:30:40 PM
By Maitreyee Boruah

Bangalore: Karnataka will soon provide special homes, to address issues and
problems, of the AIDS-HIV infected orphaned children. Five such homes will be
set up in north Karnataka.

"The homes are likely to come up in a couple of months. We'll soon decide on the
places in north Karnataka where these homes will be established," Karnataka
State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS) Consultant Suresh Shastri said.

"Along with taking care of food and shelter, the homes will also provide
education to the inmates," Shastri said.

The homes are the brainchild of the state's Women and Child Welfare Department
in association with the KSAPS.

"Around 60 children will be sheltered in each home. A sum of Rs one crore will
be spent on each home," Shastri said.

The homes will provide orphaned HIV- infected children special counselling,
including sex education, to prevent further spread of the disease.

National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has marked Karnataka as a "highly
prevalent state".

The state has 250,000 HIV-infected people and 33,000 suffering from AIDS, as
stated by KSAPS. But only 22,000 members are registered under the society.

According to experts at KSAPS, around 30 per cent of children born to HIV
infected mothers are at risk of contracting the disease if they are not part of
the Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission (PPCT) programmes.

"Sixty percent of HIV-infected mothers in the state have no access to PPCT," a
KSAPS official said.

An estimated 2.5 million people in India are said to be living with HIV-AIDS,
the third largest AIDS figure in the world.


http://www.igovernment.in/site/Karnataka-to-set-up-homes-for-HIV-hit-children/

Media Should Spread Proper Information About HIV/AIDS
By Nava Thakuria, September 22,2009


The media, while avoiding sensationalism in reporting on HIV/AIDS, should play a
proactive role and disseminate the proper and correct information regarding
different aspects of the sensitive issue, argued V.S. Bhaskar, IAS (Commissioner
& Secretary to Health & F.W. Department, Government of Assam). Inaugurating a
State level advocacy workshop at Guwahati Press Club on 22nd September, he
however appreciated the role of media in making people aware of HIV/AIDS in
Assam.

The day long media workshop was organized by the Assam State AIDS Control
Society (ASACS) in association with the press club, where good number of media
persons took part and participated in the interaction programmes.

"Assam is a low prevalence state, but it has more vulnerability," Bhaskar
asserted adding, "Being the gate way to the Northeast, Assam witnesses more and
more people coming here from high prevalence neighboring States for various
regions."

He of course claimed that because of the government efforts and media support,
the awareness level among different sections of people in the society is
increasing. The senior official expected continued media engagement to make more
people aware of the HIV/AIDS issue.

V.S. Bhaskar, IAS, Commissioner & Secretary to Health & F.W. Department,
Government of Assam, is seen inaugurating the advocacy workshop in Guwahati
Press Club on Tuesday morning.
Mentionable that Manipur and Nagaland, both bordering Burma (that way the heroin
producing Golden Triangle of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand) have high rates of
HIV/AIDS cases. The entire Northeast with around 5 crore population has
thousands of HIV Positive people. The HIV Positive persons have to fight against
the infection as well as the social stigma and discrimination.

Addressing the gathering Ms M. Hagzer Barman, IAS (Project Director, ASACS)
informed about the State government scheme of free transportation to the HIV
infected people for attending the Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) centre.

"Under this scheme the government bears the travel expenditure of the HIV
infected persons who come to the ART centre for treatment," she said.

Ms Barman also requested the media to spread the information about the
Integrated Counselling & Testing Centre (ICTC) and Prevention of Parent to Child
Transmission (PPTCT) centers, which are being empowered to function for the
respective causes.

Participating as a resource person, Ms Rakhi Chakravorty (Consultant CSM, ASACS)
highlighted about various activities of the society. She revealed that a total
number of 3,308 persons have been detected as HIV Positive in Assam, and over
900 people are diagnosed as AIDS patients. She insisted for more people coming
to the Voluntary Blood Testing centers and hence expected media's sustained
support.

"The HIV Positive persons have the same right to leave a dignified life like
others in the society. So the society should provide proper care & support to
the infected and affected HIV persons," Ms Chakravorty insisted.

Talking about voluntary blood donation programme, Dr. N.N. Tishya (Deputy
Director, ASACS), said that any healthy person of age 18 to 60 years with more
than 45 kg weights can donate blood without any problems. He advocated for
voluntary blood donation practices among the people such that the safe and
sufficient blood can be ensured in need.

Dr. N.N. Sonowal (Assistant Project Director, ASACS) suggested for frequent
media awareness programmes and appreciated the imitative of Guwahati Press Club,
while offering the vote of thanks.

Nava Thakuria is a Guwahati, Northeast India based independent journalist and
contributes to various media outlets throughout the world. Contact him at
navathakuria@...

http://newsblaze.com/story/20090922112504nava.nb/topstory.html

Dear Sir,

Does anyone know the method how to obtain the concession and How confidentiality
will be kept. Why not 100%. Then a pass issued once can be used each time.
Travel for treatment is most difficult and we can save at other exenses to pay
here.

If we suggest to goverment to make it free we can also suggest how to save
money. The group can discuss wasteful spending and request it is be stopped.

Any idea? on this and how we can save and how we can suggest to goverment.

Thank you

John
e-mail: <johnkala89@...>