**********************************************************
SAATHII Electronic News Letter
HIV NEWS FROM INDIA

SOURCE: The Times of India, The Indian Express, www.theindiancatholic.com,
www.ndtv.com and The Chennai Online.

Posted on: 11/06/2007

COMPILED BY: Randhir kumar,B. Vilasini and L Ramakrishnan
SAATHII Chennai office.

Note: this compilation contains news items about HIV/AIDS
published in the Indian media, as well as articles relevant to
HIV/AIDS in India published internationally. Articles in this
and previous newsletters may also be accessed at
http://www.saathii.org/orc/elibrary

===============================================================

1. WHO prescribes HIV testing for all.(Mumbai)
The Times of India, June 3, 2007.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Mumbai/WHO_prescribes_HIV_testing_for_\
all/articleshow/2093269.cms

2. NACO funds dry up, AIDS control programme suffers.(Kolkata)
The Indian Express, June 7, 2007.
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=240036

3. India: Nuns help AIDS patients in Bihar state, despite scarcity of
...(New Delhi)
www.theindiancatholic.com, June 7, 2007.
http://www.theindiancatholic.com/newsread.asp?nid=7797

4. AIDS stigma: Kerala kids turned away.(Thiruvananthapuram)
www.ndtv.com, June 7, 2007.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070014805&ch=6/8/2007%\
208:07:00%20AM

5. India isn't AIDS No 1, study shows just half of UN estimate.(New Delhi)
The Indian Express, June 8, 2007.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/33137.html

6. India to fight AIDS with World Bank loan.(Chennai)
The Chennai Online, June 8, 2007.
http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7B2C5BF346-6A21-466A-A\
923-58F4071C2318%7D&CATEGORYNAME=HEAL

===============================================================

1. WHO prescribes HIV testing for all.(Mumbai)
The Times of India, June 3, 2007.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Mumbai/WHO_prescribes_HIV_testing_for_\
all/articleshow/2093269.cms


Mumbai: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has rolled
out a new recipe to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic: doctors should urge
all their patients to undergo the HIV test rather than recommending
it only to a few. Of course, people who don't want to undergo the
test can choose to opt out.

On Wednesday, the WHO unveiled its latest recommendation- a far cry
from its older module of seeking voluntary testing for HIV/AIDS-ostensibly
to identify the 'silent epidemic'. Persons who don't know they are
infected (and WHO believes there are millions who don't) will thus
know their status, take steps to not infect others and seek timely
help, goes the new WHO logic.

In New Delhi, NACO (National AIDS Control Organisation) secretary
K Sujatha Rao welcomed the new guidelines. "We are positive about it.

What is wrong with doctors advising patients to test for HIV?" she asked.
"We can't stretch the confidentiality clause to the point that it
affects the patient's health." Indian patients reach hospitals too late
for any help to be provided. "Such a recommendation would only help us
treat patients," she added.

While NACO now brainstorms on how to roll out the new recommendations
and tackle the ethical issues, many public health experts in India are
not sure about the mandate. "We have to use such guidelines
intelligently," says Dr R D Lele, who is credited with identifying and
treating the first HIV-positive patient of India over 20 years ago.

"We only have to target sexually-active persons in the age group of
16 to 45 years, drug users and patients who have undergone blood
transfusions," he says. "What is the point of asking a 65-year-old patient
with cough and cold to undergo the test?"

Moreover, as Dr Lele points out, if the test is offered routinely to
all patients, there is a danger of false positives. "The HIV test is known
to give false positive in case of patients suffering from malaria or
chronic liver disease."

In India, there also is the problem of stigma attached to the HIV diagnosis.

In Africa, the attitude is different considering that the epidemic has wiped
out tens of thousands in their productive age group. In the US, the
government is trying to implement the Centers for Diseases Control
recommendation for annual testing for people in the age group of
16-35 years.

But in Kolkata, the staff of the Calcutta Medical College Hospital refused
to touch the body of a young AIDS patient who died there two days ago.

The extent of stigma attached to the HIV/AIDS tag is still immense.
"A couple of months back, a pregnant woman died outside a government
hospital in Indore.

In Lucknow, a renal failure patient who was HIV-positive
had to wait for 16 hours before activists could get him a hospital bed,"
pointed out HIV rights activist-writer Bobby Ramakant from Lucknow.

Experts recommend that India should first put in place the many checks
advised in the WHO guidelines: counselling before and after the HIV tests,
introduce universal precautions such as double gloves for doctors and medical
staff treating HIV/AIDS patients, etc. "We first have to work towards reducing
the stigma towards HIV/AIDS in healthcare settings," says Ramakant.

Akila Shivdas from the Centre for Advocacy & Research (CFAR), which has been
working in the field of HIV/AIDS advocacy, felt WHO's new recommendations
are a sureshot prescription at normalising the epidemic.

"The WHO idea is that by not according HIV/AIDS a special category,
the epidemic can be normalised. But this normalisation process can't
begin from the top, it has to start from within the community," she advised.

She points out to Thursday's news about the emergence of new HIV/AIDS hotspots
in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. "We now have small towns and villages with 1%
incidence of HIV in pregnant women. This is considered high. If the testing
is made mandatory in such areas without the proper buildup, it can have a
disastrous effect."

The WHO team agrees that the shift from voluntary testing to provider-driven
testing is drastic. "This is radical in the sense that things have to
change," said WHO HIV/AIDS director Kevin De Cock. "Across the world,
people with HIV are flowing through healthcare settings, not being diagnosed
and not being offered the advantages of knowing their status."

===============================================================

2. NACO funds dry up, AIDS control programme suffers.(Kolkata)
The Indian Express, June 7, 2007.
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=240036


Kolkata: NACO funds dry up, AIDS control programme suffers

* For the past three months, Ramen (name changed) an HIV positive and
65 others like him are not getting their salaries. He has been forced to
discontinue the supportive medicines for himself and his wife, also an HIV
positive, school fees for their 10-year-old son and his house rent. Ramen works
as a coordinator in one of the NGOs working on the HIV-AIDS project with the
state government.

* For the past three months, sex-workers in the state are not getting their
regular supply of free condoms. It is hampering the safe sex practice.

* Buladi, the longest running and most successful HIV-AIDS campaign in the
state, has stopped. No new hoardings, no messages on prime-time channels or the
radio. Pamphlets and awareness campaigns are also stalled along with
the village
programmes.

* Stocks of blood bags and blood testing kits are dwindling, there is no money
to buy fresh stocks.


The HIV-AIDS control programme in the state has taken a severe beating, with
the annual funds from National AIDS Control Organisation being frozen for the
past three months.

The NACO fund is the mainstay of the programme.

The government had asked for Rs 55 crore as this year's funds, which
was scheduled
to come in April.

To add insult to injury, the third National AIDS Programme Implementation Plan
(NACP III), scheduled to start from April, is also stalled.

"We are yet to start NACP III and the various projects associated with
it, since
there is no money. We have no other way but to wait," said R S Shukla, special
secretary of state health department and project director of State
HIV-AIDS Prevention
and Control Society. Of the 57 clinics for counselling and sexually
transmitted diseases,
34, supported by NACO, have been shut.

"Our emergency stocks for blood bags and testing kits will last for
another week. We need
to buy fresh stocks or the blood safety system will break down," said
an official of
the Central Blood Bank.

"The staff members of our NGOs have not been paid for the past three
months. Many of
us are running the household on loan. The care and support programme
for HIV positives
is also hurt. When we got to Swastha Bhawan, they tell us there is no money,"
said Tarit Chakraborty, president BNP an NGO working with the state government.

"It is a procedural delay. The Union finance ministry took some time
to ratify the
funding. However, we are trying to release the funds as soon as possible,"
said Sujata Rao, director general of NACO.

===============================================================

3. India: Nuns help AIDS patients in Bihar state, despite scarcity
of..(New Delhi)
www.theindiancatholic.com, June 7, 2007.
http://www.theindiancatholic.com/newsread.asp?nid=7797


New Delhi: Nuns help AIDS patients in Bihar state, despite scarcity of funds

The elderly couple sat near the hospital bed where their 28-year-old
son lay staring
blankly into space. The father, his wrinkled cheeks drenched with
tears, softly whispers,
"We only wait for him to die."

The parents, both in their 70s, are witnessing the last days of their
AIDS-afflicted son
at Nazareth Hospital, the first center in Bihar state to treat victims
of the dreaded
disease.

It is in Mokameh, about 90 kilometers east of Patna, Bihar's capital. Patna is
about 1,015 kilometers east of New Delhi.

The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, based in Kentucky, United States,
have managed the
hospital since 1948. The nuns opened the AIDS ward in March 2004.

Hospital rules forbid the AIDS affected and their parents from
disclosing personal
details to media. But they may reveal their surnames someone insists,
and the couple
told UCA News they are Jha, a high caste Brahmin surname.

The son came to the hospital in December 2006 after he was declared a
full blown
AIDS case. Now reduced to bones and skin, he often sits in a
wheelchair, and his
father said his son does not respond to medicine.

The elder Jha said he initially wanted to run from his son, "but the
father in me
prevailed, and even my wife refused to run away."

The nuns inspired him. "Their loving behavior stirred my conscience," he said.
"They know my son may die any moment, yet they never show that in
their gestures.
They wipe even his nasal excretions and stool with their own hands."

The son's neighbor, surnamed Yadav, is in his early 30s. He, his wife and their
two teenage sons came to the hospital in January after they tested
HIV-positive.
Yadav came dissatisfied with treatment given by a Patna government hospital and
now testifies to the nuns' "motherly care of the patients."

Nazareth Sister Usha Saldanha, the AIDS ward supervisor, says the nuns
create the
"best ambience" possible since patients get human love and concern.

So far, the hospital has treated 545 men, 248 women and 31 children. A
few have died
in the hospital, and some return home after learning to "cope with HIV
vagaries,"
Sister Saldanha pointed out to UCA News.

The nuns inform the affected that their disease is incurable but can
be controlled
with medicines and precautions, such as Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART).
The hospital
asks patients who can afford to buy ART to do so.

"But the poor remain vulnerable," Sister Saldanha said, so the
hospital now refers
critical cases to Patna Medical College. Nazareth Sister Nirmala
Mulackal, the hospital
administrator, added that "99 percent" of patients at Nazareth
Hospital are poor, and
the men from most families work beyond Bihar.

The government hospital, Yadav said, should provide free ART, "but the
truth is that
nothing is given free there. They take money under the table."

Moreover, the state and federal governments do not provide Nazareth
Hospital with funds
for ART. According to Sister Saldanha, such medicine is "a must" for
critical HIV/AIDS
cases.

The health ministry refuses to help, she said, because a private
hospital "cannot be
trusted with the costly ART regimen."

ART aid recently arrived from Catholic Relief Services, the
social-action arm of Catholic
bishops in the United States, and the World Food Program helps the
hospital provide
nutritious food.

Even so, Sister Saldanha pointed out, such donors insist that the
hospital and her
congregation seek help from AIDS control agencies of the government.

"It is bizarre -- funds for ART abound, but patients are suffering,"
she lamented.

Meanwhile, Yadav and other patients complain that the government
hospital treats them
shabbily, and its ART supply is erratic.

The government reportedly spent 45 million rupees from April 2006 to
March 2007 to combat AIDS, but Sister Mulackal insists that the
government seldom releases funds, even for ordinary medicines.

When UCA News told Bihar's Health Minister Chandra Mohan Rai about
this on May 30, he promised a probe and ensured the money would reach
the nuns soon.

Sister Mulackal dismisses the minister's assurances as "mere paper
tigers" and concludes, "We have to hope against hope and continue
serving."

===============================================================

4. AIDS stigma: Kerala kids turned away.(Thiruvananthapuram)
www.ndtv.com, June 7, 2007.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070014805&ch=6/8/2007%\
208:07:00%20AM


Thiruvananthapuram: Six HIV-positive children have been turned away
from a school in
Kerala for the second time.

But latest reports say the state Health Minister PK Sreemathy assured that the
children will get the education they deserve.

The children aged between five and 11 were first removed from the
school in December
last year after parents of other students complained.

''The headmistress of the school called me and said they would allow
the students to
appear for the exams. But after the exams, they did not inform me of
the results,''
said Fr TC Yohannan of Ashakiran Orphanage.

''When I contacted, they said the students have qualified but they would not be
in a position to allow them to continue in the school in the face of opposition
from parents of other children.

They were infact repeating old rhymes''.

The Kerala government is now trying to convince the school to change its mind.
State Education Minister MA Baby said the government would not tolerate such
attitude.

The United Nations says India has the world's largest HIV caseload with an
estimated 5.7 million people living with the deadly virus.

AIDS activists say widespread stigma and discrimination have contributed to
paranoia about the virus.

===============================================================

5. India isn't AIDS No 1, study shows just half of UN estimate.(New Delhi)
The Indian Express, June 8, 2007.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/33137.html


New Delhi: Which has been repeatedly accused of denying the size of its AIDS
epidemic, probably has victims fewer by millions than widely believed,
according to a
new but still unreleased household survey.

The survey was carried out under international supervision with
American financing.
If it is correct, India is no longer the world's supposed leader —
with 5.7 million people
infected with the virus, according to the official UN 2006 estimate —
but is again
behind South Africa, which is believed to have more accurate survey
results and has an
estimated 5.5 million cases, and possibly other countries as well.

Early analysis of the figures suggests that India really has between 2
million and 3 million
victims, according to several sources, including American
epidemiologists who know the data and the Union Health Ministry here.

How the rates are calculated has been a subject of debate, with some
experts contending
that the rates in many places may be exaggerated. "Everyone transiting
through here says,
'This is a pandemic'," Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said.
"But I'm very confident that we will not turn into a generalised
epidemic."

The lower figure for India would imply that India has managed to keep
its epidemic more
like that of the US, within high-risk groups. In India's case, these
are prostitutes and
their clients, especially truckers; men who have sex with men; and
people who inject drugs.

That is exactly what some ex perts on AIDS surveillance techniques
have been arguing for
years, saying that Indians do not have the same kind of sexual
networks that are common in southern and eastern Africa, in which both
men and women often have two or more occasional but regular sexual
partners over long periods of time.

Also, outside of prostitution, "transactional sex" between teenage
girls and older
men in return for money, food, or clothes is much less common in Asia than in
Africa.

===============================================================

6. India to fight AIDS with World Bank loan.(Chennai)
The Chennai Online, June 8, 2007.
http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7B2C5BF346-6A21-466A-A\
923-58F4071C2318%7D&CATEGORYNAME=HEAL


Chennai: India will use around one-fourth of the $ 3.8 billion loan
received from
World Bank this year to improve healthcare services for women and
children, besides
fighting HIV/AIDS and TB.

The bank had sanctioned $ 3.8 billion to India for the year ending
June 20 - making
it the single largest borrower - of which around $ 922 million would
be spent on
various initiatives like providing proper healthcare facilities to
children and women
and the poor.

Out of $ 922 million, $ 502 million would be for child and
women-specific healthcare
schemes, World Bank Executive Director Dhanendra Kumar said.

"Various programmes have been introduced to address the healthcare
needs of women and
children but these are not enough to help those in need," he said.

He said the infant mortality rate was still very high in India and the
problem of
malnutrition was very serious here.

"Indian government is paying attention to improve public health
infrastructure but this
is not the real challenge. The real challenge does not lie in creating
sufficient
infrastructure but the real challenge is in managing the existing ones
efficiently,"
Kumar said.

The multilateral financial institution is already assisting the
Karnataka government
in addressing the healthcare needs of women and children.

Kumar said, $ 420 million of the loan, to be allocated by June this
year, will be
utilised to fund programmes to fight against HIV/AIDS and TB.

According to the bank, there are 5.2 million HIV patients in India,
while 1.8 million
people are affected by TB each year.

===============================================================

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in the above articles
are those of the respective newspapers, not those of
SAATHII.