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Knife
attack on sex worker in London
Sexually transmitted infections double in the UK
North High students cancel conference
Italian police seize scores of illegal immigrants
Mbeki
and the AIDS myth (South Africa)
Nonoxynol-9 Doesn't Work
Elton John attacks 'shameful' government spending levels
on HIV/AIDS
Tory MPs fail to stop adoption by gay couples
Prostitutes,
politicians in Rome to fight slavery
Explicit website offers HIV education
David Beckham 'to do cover shoot for gay magazine'
Knife attack on sex worker in London
Prostitute
knife attacker 'could strike again'
By Ananova
Police have warned a man who stabbed a London prostitute in the head with
a 12in carving knife could strike again.
The 41-year-old prostitute was stabbed several times after picking up a client
on the street near Kings Cross station.
Scotland Yard said it appeared she was selected because she was a prostitute.
A spokesman said: "As such we are concerned that he may try to commit
a further attack or indeed may have committed earlier attacks that were not
notified to police at the time."
The woman, who is white, picked up the client after he approached her in Brill
Place, at 3am on May 18 and she took him to a flat in nearby Polygon Road.
He attacked her within minutes, stabbing her repeatedly, and then ran off.
She raised the alarm and was taken by ambulance to University College Hospital
and discharged after treatment.
Detective Inspector Steve Morris of Holborn CID said: "This was an horrific
attack and could easily have resulted in the woman being killed.
"It is essential that anyone who might be able to assist us does come
forward. It is possible he may have had blood stained clothing."
Source : Copyright Ananova 2002 all rights reserved
23/05/02 19:13
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to top
Sexually transmitted infections double in
the UK
Sexually
transmitted infections (STI) in the UK have more than doubled in
the last five years, despite greater condom use, according to a national
survey of sexual attitudes and lifestyles published on Friday.
The Medical Research Council's survey of 11,000 people aged 16 to 44 found
one in 10 adults has had an STI. Chlamydia was the most common, especially
in women in England, where it is the main cause of infertility.
The authors suggest the surprising rise in infections is due to people having
more sexual partners and up to a quarter of people not using condoms correctly.
The latter factor may explain why a rise still occurred despite condom
use being especially high among people who had a large number of partners.
One of the report's authors, Anne Johnson from University College London,
said: "People are marrying later and so having a greater number of partners.
Our findings show more homosexual activity, more people paying for sex and
more oral and anal sex."
She added: "We must be realistic about the sexual practice in our society
and not bury our heads in the sand."Multiple partnersImportant factors
influencing an individual's sexual practices were age, gender and where they
lived. For example, the incidence of chlamydia - about three per cent - was
fairly even throughout the UK. By contrast, gonorrhoea was especially high
in cities.
"Gonorrhoea is a very fragile organism and requires a high level of partner
change for it to spread," explains another author Kevin Fenton, from
University College London and the UK Public Health Laboratory. Cities such
as London have high levels of partner change as the result of a large gay
community and of prostitution - one in 11 men has paid for sex in London.
Fenton said the rise in STIs reflects a global increase caused in part by
a
phenomenon known as "safe-sex fatigue", where people become oblivious
to
health messages.
This is exacerbated by the general increase in travel, which results in new
strains being transmitted around the globe. "Every year we see a surge
in
STIs after the summer when people return from holidays," Fenton told
New
Scientist.
But Fenton said UK immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, where STIs are
particularly prevalent, are unlikely to be adding to infections - they were
more than twice as likely to use condoms during sex.
Targeting men
The report's
authors agree that the best way of reducing STI transmission is
through better education and wider screening, particularly for men.
"Sexual health must now move beyond GUM clinics to other settings like
primary care. Every GP should be able to take a sexual history and demonstrate
how to use a condom," says Fenton. "The excuse that men are a hard
to reach group, despite making up half of the population, must be challenged,"
he adds.
Source: The Lancet (vol 358, p 1828, 1835, 1843, 1851)
AIDS
- Foreigners Screen
India's AIDS screen for foreigners staying for a year or more
New Delhi, May 17, IRNA -- Foreigners, who want to stay in India for a year
or more, will now have to undergo a mandatory check-up for HIV-AIDS.
According to the Statesman, a New Delhi-based English daily, a foreigner has
to undergo the tests at a surveillance centre of the World Health Organization
(WHO) in his country and attach a certificate-declaring him HIV negative-with
his visa application. In case of a foreigner coming to India on a short stay
and planning to extend his stay for a year or more, he has to write to the
concerned Foreign Regional Registration Office and subsequently undergo a
HIV test at the National Reference Laboratory or a counseling centre of the
National AIDS Control Organization under India's Health Ministry.
The rule, however, does not apply to foreigners living in diplomatic missions,
foreign priests, nuns and journalists accredited to the Press Information
Bureau (PIB).
India's senior health ministry official said, though the health ministry laid
down the policy way back in 1987, it had to "face repeated failures."
That the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), the nodal agency for HIV-AIDS
prevention and control, does not provide any data of foreigners who have undergone
the test, speaks for the government's lackadaisical approach during these
years. A NACO official said, "It was never implemented properly, but
now with an alarming increase in HIV/AIDS patients and mounting international
pressure to contain the epidemic, the health ministry has resolved to strictly
implement the policy."
The NACO has issued fresh instructions to its counseling centers and the National
Reference Laboratory-conducting Eliza test-and State health ministries to
enforce the policy and send compliance reports at regular intervals to the
Centre. Confidentiality of applicants would be maintained, provided there
is no statutory order by a Court to make it public.
The NACO official set aside the rumors about the government move being objected
by the WHO and the UNO. "The decision has been taken after taking these
organization into confidence," he said adding it was not taken out of
any prejudice about fear of contraction of HIV infection through foreigners.
Last week, India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee expressing serious
concern at the rapid rise in HIV/AIDS cases in the country said that this
global challenge calls for an effective response and the only solution is
to develop a vaccine to prevent the infection.
Vajpayee, while inaugurating India's first-ever International Policy Makers
Conference on HIV/AIDS said, "No country, however mighty economically
and advanced technologically, can liberate itself fully from HIV/AIDS unless
the entire human race can be so liberated."
In a two-day conference on 'Towards a World Without AIDS' with participants
from Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Brazil, Thailand, Nepal and South Africa and
leading international bodies and non-governmental organization, Vajpayee said
that the experience has shown that the best way to respond to this challenge
was to act locally and to collaborate globally. AIDS control urgently calls
for new and innovative approaches to develop effective vaccines, diagnostics
and drugs by using among other things, the modern tools of biotechnology,
he added.
With an estimated 3.86 million HIV-infected people in India, the Indian Government
earlier announced the National Policy for prevention and control of HIV/AIDS
and the National Blood Policy for safe use of blood.
In India, 70 per cent infections are reported to be among men and 85 per cent
of transmissions are through multi-partner sex-both among high-risk groups
and the general population. In the six states of Maharastra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh,
Karnataka, Manipur and Nagaland, the HIV prevalence in the general population
is more than one per cent.
India's national blood policy proposes to strengthen human resources through
appropriate clinical use of blood and its products apart from providing support
to R&D in transfusion and related technology.
Meanwhile in 1986, the number of people who were reported to be infected with
the HIV virus in India was 6. In less than 15 years, in 2001, that number
has risen to 4 million. And about 10 per cent of these are children.
Source : irna 20:07
Medicalising
sex damages relationships - Sexual behaviour and its
medicalisation: in sickness and in health
http://www.edhealth.org/welcome_news/medical.htm
12 April 2002
Overly medical approaches to sex ignore the social and interpersonal dynamics
of relationships, argue researchers in this week's BMJ. The medicalisation
of sex has resulted in surgery and drugs being used to enhance sexual pleasure,
write Graham Hart and Kaye Wellings. Viagra (sildenafil citrate) has become
the world's most popular drug ever, and gynaecological surgery is also being
harnessed to enhance female sexual pleasure and improve aesthetics.
In America, erectile dysfunction is estimated to affect half of men aged 40-70
and 70% of men over 70. This high level of sexual dysfunction may simply reflect
people's expectations and feelings of inadequacy in the light of the escalating
sexualisation of our culture, they add.
The problem with an overly medical approach to sexual behaviour is that social
and interpersonal dynamics may be ignored, say the authors. The last century
saw a considerable increase in acceptance of diversity of sexual expression.
It would be a shame if this century saw diversity replaced by uniform expectations
of performance and desire, they conclude.
Reference:
BMJ Volume 324, pp 896-900
Source: British Medical Journal
North
High students cancel conference
http://www.dailybreeze.com/content/bln/nmnorth14.html
By Renee Moilanen
North High School in Torrance (US) has canceled its award-winning Human Relations
Convention scheduled for Saturday, presumably in response to the school
board's decision to ban a gay-rights education group from speaking at the
daylong event.
Principal George Cannady said students decided not to stage the conference
- which deals with issues of diversity, discrimination and tolerance - because
of a "combination of things." He would not elaborate. "The
intention of the club is to explore other opportunities for next year and
see if we can't reinstate it," Cannady said.
District officials suspect the teens opted to cancel the event rather than
accept a school board mandate to exclude GLIDE, Gays and Lesbians Initiating
Dialogue for Equality, from the schedule of speakers. The Torrance school
board voted 3-2 in early April to ban the group from leading a discussion
about sexual orientation and harassment.
"The message (the students are) sending is `If you don't play my way,
we don't play at all,"' said board member Joe Bonanno, who voted against
GLIDE. "I think it's a very negative message on the part of the students.
They had a very good program lined up."
In lieu of the convention, about 60 students from the school's Human Relations
Commission and conflict-resolution group will hear a presentation from motivational
speaker Selina Jackson called "What Does It Take to be No.1?" Jackson
was scheduled to be the Human Relations Convention's keynote speaker.
This year's convention was expected to draw about 170 students from throughout
Los Angeles County and feature 10 seminars on topics ranging from Latino segregation
to black/brown relations. Speakers were to have included representatives from
the Anti-Defamation League, National Conference for Community and Justice
and professors from local universities. The voluntary event is presented on
a nonschool day.
In 1998, the first year of the convention, North High received the John Anson
Ford Award from the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations for outstanding
work in human relations in education.
Controversy erupted last year when students scheduled PFLAG (Parents and Friends
of Lesbians and Gays) to speak about harassment issues. The school board narrowly
approved their request despite outrage from some parents and residents.
The November election brought two new faces to the school board, which was
key in this year's decision to ban GLIDE. Newcomers Maureen O'Donnell and
Bonanno sided with Heidi Ashcraft in voting against GLIDE. Ashcraft stressed
the board did not reject the entire conference - just one group. "It
is a shame the whole rest of it was canceled," she said. "My feeling
is we're there to teach tolerance and that's where the group (the Human Relations
Commission) should move into the forefront and do it."
Zero in on workplaces
Thursday 16, May-2002
by Mike King
CABINET MINISTER Glyne Murray (Barbados) says HIV/AIDS prevention and control
programmes must target workplaces if the fight against the global killer
disease is to have any success.
Murray made this call before representatives of governments and master of
ceremonies, Miss Universe 1998, Wendy Fitzwilliam, on the opening day of a
regional HIV/AIDS conference at Sam Lord's Castle, yesterday. "It is
vital that prevention and control programmes target the world of work,"
said Murray, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, who was standing
in for Prime Minister Owen Arthur.
"For the stark fact is that a country's economic development is heavily
dependent on the contribution of healthy and productive persons. So that a
deficient labour force as a result of HIV/AIDS, reduces both productivity
and consumer demand.
Given the age group affected, it is highly unlikely there will be many working
environments left where one or more persons are not infected or have an acquaintance,
family member or close friend who is infected."
Noting that the most productive element of the workforce - those between 20-49
- was being affected and infected, Murray pointed out that everyone suffered
when workers were infected.He said the African country Uganda was proof that
prevention programmes had worked.
"Uganda is one such success story. That country has been successful in
reducing prevalence rates through strong prevention campaigns and a climate
of open debate encouraged from the highest political levels - from the president
downwards," he said.
Murray also said the aim of Government's expanded national programme was to
achieve a 50 per cent reduction in the mortality rate of AIDS in the next
three years and a 50 per cent reduction in the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS
over the next five years.
He told dozens of ILO and Ministry of Labour delegates Government had already
disseminated copies of the ILO Code of Practice of HIV/AIDS and the World
of Work to guide employers on developing a code of practice in the workplace.
Murray looked forward to the day when Barbadians would no more think of stigmatising
and discriminating against HIV sufferers, "than they would persons with
other chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer".
Italian police seize scores of illegal immigrants
ROME (Reuters)
- Italy launched a nationwide crackdown on crime on Thursday, arresting scores
of illegal immigrants in what Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called a fight
between good and evil.
While parliament votes on a bill to tighten immigration laws, police raided
houses across the country, targeting foreigners suspected of drug trafficking
and prostitution.Berlusconi announced that some 350 Albanian and North Africans
would be deported, saying the police operation aimed to "place a good
army
between people and the evil army."
"This should give our citizens further faith, not just in the government's
desire but also in its ability...to defend its citizens, their life, their
physical safety and their property," Berlusconi told reporters.
The police crackdown netted 560 pounds of drugs and some 240 people were arrested
-- 159 of them immigrants. Many more foreigners have been detained recently
as part of the sweep. "The operation aims to...prevent and repress crime,
especially by foreigners," police said in a statement.
Berlusconi's center-right government has made law and order one of its priorities
and has vowed "a serious reduction" in the three million crimes
registered in Italy each year. It is also pushing legislation through parliament
that will make it much more difficult for immigrants to enter the country
or obtain work papers.
Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Mbeki
and the AIDS myth (South Africa)
In a letter
to The Guardian, Malusi Mahluho, of the South African High Commission in London,
says it is wrong to repeat the widespread myth that President Mbeki denies
the link between HIV and Aids and that the South African government has clearly
stated its strategy is based on the premise that HIV causes Aids.
AIDS threat grows in the Caribbean as victims squeeze resources
The Caribbean has the world's second highest incidence of HIV/Aids infection
after sub-Saharan Africa, according to figures from the United Nations. About
one in 50 of the population are infected. The government has said there is
a widening gap between the resources available and those required to deal
adequately with the problem. Washington is sending experts to the region and
will raise money internationally to help fight the disease.
Mbeki accused of smearing AIDS experts
South Africa's pre-eminent black Aids scientist has accused Thabo Mbeki's
office of waging a campaign of coercion and vilification against medical researchers
who challenge the president's unorthodox views on HIV. Professor Malegapuru
Makgoba, president of the Medical Research Council In Cape Town, has revealed
to The Guardian the extent of the pressure after an official investigation
cleared him of 'leaking' his own organisation's research, suppressed for months
by the cabinet because it concluded that almost 6m South Africans would die
of Aids by the end of the century.
Burmese soap opera suggests change of policy about AIDS
A Burmese television channel is showing a soap opera in which the transmission
of HIV is part of the plot, suggesting that the ruling junta may be changing
its policy of ignoring the danger from Aids.
Nonoxynol-9
Doesn't Work
ANTWERP, Belgium -- A contraceptive many hoped would protect against sexually
transmitted diseases, including AIDS, offers no such benefits, according to
a review of studies on the issue presented Monday.
The first-ever meta-analysis of studies on the protective benefits of nonoxynol-9
against HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases found that the spermicide
offered no significant protection against any such infections, said Dr. David
Wilkinson, a professor of rural health at the University of South Australia
in Adelaide who conducted the analysis. "Nonoxynol-9 doesn't work. It
doesn't prevent HIV," said Wilkinson, one of 650 scientists attending
a conference this week on microbicides -- gels and creams that many researchers
believe could significantly enhance AIDS-prevention efforts.
Researchers had hoped that nonoxynol-9, which is said to increase the effectiveness
of condoms but is considered a poor contraceptive when used alone, would be
the first effective microbicide against HIV and other sexually transmitted
infections. "The story is over. Nonoxynol-9 is over as a microbicide,"
Wilkinson
said. "That's the bottom line."
The analysis confirmed the results of a widely reported 2000 study that showed
that nonoxynol-9, the most commonly used spermicide in the world, offered
no protection against HIV. But it differed from that study in one important
respect: The 2000 study said that nonoxynol-9 increased the risk of HIV, while
the new analysis on all available studies suggested the product doesn't increase
risk of HIV
infection.
Ward Cates, president of the research organization Family Health International,
said the study "is not even the nail in the coffin. This is putting the
tombstone in.
"The field has moved far beyond N-9," he added. Nonoxynol-9, which
condom manufacturers say is contained in 45 percent of condoms sold commercially,
does increase risk of genital lesions, according to the analysis, which reviewed
27 studies of a total of 5,096 women. Such lesions have been associated with
increased risk of AIDS.
The study also found that nonoxynol-9 seemed to increase risk of Trichomonas,
parasites that are frequently sexually transmitted, and of bacterial vaginosis,
a common vaginal infection. "The data on genital ulcerations is worrying,"
Wilkinson said. "That we see increased genital ulcerations is not good
news, but it doesn't
seem to increase risk" of HIV.
But Wilkinson added that because most of the women in the studies were commercial
sex workers who used nonoxynol-9 multiple times daily, the risk of lesions
was likely much lower for women who use it twice a day or less often.
The implications of the analysis on use of nonoxynol-9 for contraceptive purposes
are unclear, but within the next few weeks the World Health Organization will
issue recommendations on the topic, said Timothy Farley, who is coordinating
the agency's response.
Wilkinson implied that health officials are concerned about
nonoxynol-9's effectiveness as a contraceptive. "As for pregnancy, it
doesn't do a whole lot against that, either," Wilkinson said.
Source: WIRED NEWS Monday, May 13, 2002 Jordan Lite
Will Microbicides
be Accepted?
Accepting what? Acceptance based on fact or perception? Acceptance by
whom?
Sitting through a Track C [behavioural and social science] session on "Acceptability"
at the Microbicides 2002 Conference, we heard report of a number of on-going
or recently ended studies - independently or in conjunction with microbicides
trials - to assess the likely "acceptability" of a microbicide once
it hits the market. They were discussed as 'theories' and 'in practice'.
Ethel Quama from South Africa discussed beliefs and perceptions of sex-workers
from the Durban COL 1492 Phase III trial where a Nonoxynol-9 containing product
was tested against HIV. Results from this post-study survey showed that despite
the factual information women received on the product being tested, and knew
that some of them were receiving a placebo - they made-up beliefs and had
false perceptions, negative and positive, about safety, pleasure, hygiene,
and lubrication with no significant differences between the placebo and N-9
groups. By far the pervading perception was of being protected by the product/placebo.
Quama said that despite showing us that these false perceptions are a challenge
as we continue to study various products, the results display how desperately
and urgently microbicides are needed.
Various research methodologies were discussed - even an audio computer-assisted
self-interviewing tool, ACASI, used to check the 'lie factor' on how much
study participants lied about their sexual activities and use of the study
gel when interviewed during the trial. The presenter, Abigail Turner from
the Carraguard trial in South Africa, said that it had been estimated that
about 10% of women 'lie' on trials but the ACASI results looked more like
36%.
One of the more interesting 'lies' was that some women exaggerated their unsafe
sex acts and underreported their use of the study gel alone. One reason suggested
is that even though women were given condom-use prevention messages, they
also knew the purpose of the trial was to test the gel - so there were mixed
message on what they thought they were actually meant to do.
It touches on other discussions on informed consent. If women are told to
use condoms but know the study objective is to study the gel - what do they
think you 'really' want them to do?
Hoffman spoke on the ensuing confusion of the Nonxynol-9 (N-9) trial results
amongst health-care providers in New York, and the backlash that could be
experienced by microbicidal research and development in general and by future
products. 'The legacy of the trial's findings,' she writes in her abstract,
'and the lack of detailed guidelines post-Durban may be a potential barrier
to promoting an effective microbicide once it becomes available.' We could
not agree more and await the final trial results and guidelines on N-9 use.
The presenter recommended that information on the COL1492 study and guidelines
on N-9 be immediately distributed. She also recommended that we involve health
providers, educating them on new products being studied.
Besides highlighting the far-reaching damage of the N-9 trial on perceptions
about microbicides in general, her study shows the importance of assessing
the acceptability of products to health-care providers as it will determine
how they present them to their patients.
Julie Pickering talked about a Phase II safety study of dextrim sulphate where
insisting on 100% condom use was a barrier to participant recruitment. When
questioned on the logic of such an unrealistic expectation for behaviour and
for the actual study, she responded that as it was a safety and not efficacy
trial - they felt it reasonable and important to ask for.
It poses questions on ethics of trials and also on the unreal contexts we
sometimes test products in.
One interesting - albeit strange in the context of unscheduled and off-the-wall
presentation - theory came from Alain Giami. He said that by focusing - incorrectly
in his view - on giving more options to women for control of their sexual
health, that we were actually "dissimulating" men and blaming them
for all difficulties that women face in their sexual lives. He suggested that
some of the most risky behaviour occurs in the context of relationships we
feel most safe in - marriages and long term relationships. It is people you
don't trust or know well that you take most protection with - therefore are
'safer' relationships a determinant of unsafe sex? Love puts you at risk?
So do we teach women to mistrust if we teach them to take care of themselves?
What we did not learn at these sessions, however, were the perceptions of
young women and adolescent girls or women living with HIV or AIDS on microbicides.
In one reported study the researcher, S. L Rosenthal, spoke to paediatricians
in Texas who see and treat young people - but we did not hear the young people's
own perceptions only what health providers thought. Stephen Weiss reported
on a study from Uganda that involved HIV-positive women, and although we learnt
of their behaviours, did not hear of their own beliefs and perceptions.
Many conference participants felt disappointed by this because while we continue
to insist that young women and adolescent girls are at highest risk of infection
for HIV, we are not adequately looking at the potential acceptability of a
product that may, one day, be able to help them. Nor are we looking at the
potential acceptance rate among women who are already infected but may wish
to use a microbicide to protect themselves against other STIs, or to get pregnant
without further risk of cross - or re-infection. We have heard of endorsement
by HIV-positive women and of
future work, but the vast majority of current work seems to ignore the needs
and concerns of HIV-infected women and their partners.
Moreover, there is a huge gap in the discussion on sexuality as it relates
to human behaviour. We hear in great detail about the various sexual organs
- size, shape, biological makeup and so on, but almost nothing about how people
relate to one another or about the fact that sex can be a pleasurable experience.
Will a microbicide be acceptable for pleasurable safe sex?
The microbicides discussions seem to be lagging behind those of HIV/AIDS in
regards to healthy sexuality. As one delegate stated "it'll be interesting
in a few years, but for the moment it's a sloppy discussion on sexual practices
and behaviour."
We are all here in Antwerp to discuss a potential product that will ultimately
be used during sexual relations between individuals - not between lab animals
in clinical settings. Why then are we not framing our research in this context?
Young women and women living with HIV have sexual lives and must be included
in the research.
We need to know, next time, the answer to one delegate's question: "who
is evaluating women's own feelings for themselves?" This will be the
data that will tell us if a microbicide will - or will not - be accepted once
it becomes available.
SOURCE : HDN Key Correspondent
Microbicides 2002
E-mail: correspondents@hdnet.org
Documentary -
Microbicides: A Weapon Against AIDS?
Gertrude O'Sullivan and Alan Spaulding from Aspire Pictures, USA, are making
a documentary for the layperson to be able to understand the concept of Microbicides
and position it as a tool for advocacy groups all around the world.
They estimate that the documentary may be ready for the International AIDS
Conference in Barcelona, Spain, July 2002.
Speaking to the producers at Microbicides 2002 in Antwerp about the theme
of the film - Alan says that "better informed individuals will choose
a safer route when it is made available and these same individuals might be
motivated to speak up in support of a product that could save their lives
and the lives of their loved ones. This initiative is to produce a versatile
educational, advocacy and publicity package that will have different components
available in order to maximize the output." Alan says that this documentary
will be in two formats - a ten-minute version and an hour-long show.
Gertrude says that this will cover issues like: what is a microbicide, how
it is supposed to work, and portray the status of microbicide research and
its future potential. By explaining transmission-prevention possibilities
and its positive effects - it would demonstrate the urgency to increase funding
for microbicide research. And with enough information on how people can become
involved - it is hoped that it will motivate people to become advocates for
microbicide research.
They already have airing commitments from Connecticut Public Broadcasting
Corporation, Hartford Public Access Television, Cox Communications Public
Access, Nutmeg Public Access Television, Cable Positive Inc to name a few.
They are interested in further input and invite feedback and suggestions from
others working in the field.
All those interested in giving an input to complement their efforts, in terms
of sharing and working together on story line, sending video footages of the
work they are doing on microbicide advocacy and research, or likewise, may
get in touch with them at:
Gertrude O'Sullivan
E-mail: osullivan_@hotmail.com
and
Alan Spaulding
E-mail: alan@aspirepictures.com
"We do hope that this documentary will help better understanding and
be a potent tool to those who work on community preparedness for microbicide
advocacy."
SOURCE : HDN Key Correspondent
Microbicides 2002
E-mail: correspondents@hdnet.org
Elton
John attacks 'shameful' government spending levels on HIV/AIDS
Elton John yesterday said that the government should be 'thoroughly ashamed'
of its record on spending to fight the threat of Aids. The singer, whose own
foundation has raised £24m for prevention and treatment of the disease,
was
'disgusted' by what he saw as a failure to fund NHS measures against Aids
and HIV.
SOURCE : The Gaurdian, May 2002
back
to top
Tory MPs fail to stop adoption by gay couples
SOURCE : The Times 20.05.2002
Conservative MPs failed again yesterday in their attempt to bar gay couples
from adopting children.
Prostitutes,
politicians in Rome to fight slavery
By Shasta Darlington
ROME (Reuters) - Hundreds of former prostitutes flocked to Pope John Paul's
general audience at St. Peter's Square Wednesday as leaders from around the
world met to try to step up the fight against modern-day slavery.
The pope greeted the young African, East European and Asian victims of the
global trade in human beings at the end of his audience."While I assure
you that you have my prayers, I encourage you to faithfully follow the path
of freedom, the basic foundation of human dignity," the pope said as
one of the women, a young Albanian, knelt before him.
The former prostitutes, all proudly donning a wide yellow sash, were in Rome
to participate in the two-day meeting on "21st Century Slavery - The
Human Rights Dimension to Trafficking in Human Beings" that kicked off
on Wednesday. Religious and political leaders from 35 different countries
gathered at the Pontifical Gregorian University to hammer out cross-border
proposals that they hope will help stop the fastest growing international
criminal activity.
Some 700,000 people, mostly women and children, are forced into slavery every
year in what the United Nations says is a $7 billion dollar business. Most
of them are obliged to prostitute themselves and many face extreme physical
violence.
"We have to make people outraged enough about this huge problem to do
something about it," said Jim Nicholson, the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy
See and the principal organizer of the conference."We are going to exchange
information but we are also going to go home energized and outraged enough
to fight for the abolition of this slavery."
In Search of a New Life
Much of the trafficking in human beings involves immigrants who flee poverty
in their own countries in the hopes of jobs and a new life in richer countries.They
are easy prey for crime rings that force them to work as prostitutes, house
servants, farm hands and construction workers to "pay back" the
cost of the voyage. In the United States alone, 50,000 women are forced into
slavery every year.
"The trade in human persons constitutes a shocking offense against human
dignity and a grave violation of fundamental human rights," the Pope
said in a message read to the conference by the Vatican's foreign minister,
Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran.
The Pope urged the conference to promote legal tools and economic solutions
to fight the trade in both the countries that slaves come from and the ones
where they are exploited. While many countries have signed a U.N. protocol
to fight the trade,
few countries have adequate prevention and protection programs as well as
specific laws on human trafficking. And when they do, they are not always
implemented.
One of the biggest problems that the conference hopes to address is the socio-economic
situation in "source" countries that make it easy to lure people
into bondage.
Nancy Ely-Raphel of the U.S. State Department's Office to Combat
Trafficking in Persons said one part of the solution is in education
and in pressuring countries into responding.
The United States last year started issuing an annual report on human trafficking
in the hopes that low marks will spur countries into action, a measure that
it says has already worked with South Korea and Israel.
"They responded to last year's report, they were shocked. They hadn't
taken the problem seriously but they have started working with the United
States," Ely-Raphel said.
Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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Explicit website offers HIV education
http://www.kikass.com
HIV infections
are growing among young people
As HIV cases rise among the young, a safe-sex promoting website with a frank
approach to the subject has been launched. The UK-based site contains sexual
imagery and language which might be judged offensive by many. However, the
site's creators, a London charity, say this is essential in order to get the
message across to teenagers. They even choose not to promote it through schools
- seeing "word of mouth" among young people as a far more effective
tool than than traditional sex
education.
The site includes a Flash platform game which involves collecting condoms
and avoiding booze in order to "win" a sexual encounter.
Finance backing
This is tied into graphic information about the relative HIV risk of various
types of sex - again presented in a highly colloquial way.
Nick Almond, the chief executive and founder of K-Generation, the group behind
the site, says that existing sex education sites aimed at this age group were
not working. He told BBC News Online: "I remember one of them had three
A4-sized pages of information on whether oral sex was safe or not. "What
person of that age is going to read all of that?"
Backers of the site include two leading financial institutions.
K-Generation is also working on ways to send out HIV information directly
to teenagers by text message to their mobile phones.
Message success
Mr Almond told BBC News Online that its research suggested that they were
getting the message across. He said: "At least 50% of users we surveyed
had spent at least 3.5 minutes looking at the information on the site - not
just playing the game. "35% said they were less likely to have unsafe
sex as a result."
The site is primarily aimed at the 16 to 23 age group, and has the endorsement
of Stephen Twigg, the new Young People and Learning minister. He said: "This
game is a first for safe-sex education. "It shows how new media and a
fun approach can reach young audiences."
Risking death to stay
alive
HDN Key Correspondent
AIDS 2002 Conference
Barcelona, July 7-12, 2002
A third of all women canvassed at three ante-natal clinics in a study in Soweto,
South Africa, admitted to having had "transactional sex" in return
for food, clothing, transportation, school fees, cash or gifts for their children
- and were HIV positive.
In Uganda, a law prohibiting any form of prostitution has led to an increasing
vulnerability among sex workers to HIV-AIDS through violence, rape and other
forms of sexual and human rights abuse by clients and security personnel.
These were some of the key findings reported by researchers delivering papers
in a session entitled, "Turning Tricks: Sex Work and AIDS."
Violence was found to play a key role in both cases.
University of Michigan epidemiologist Kristina Dunkle, who is working for
the Gender and Health Group of South Africa's Medical Research Council, reported
that many of the respondents taking these risks had a history of violence
in their partnerships.
Dr Simon Sentumbwe, Director of Kampala's Centre of Peace Research, said that
56% of 500 commercial sex workers his team interviewed believed that the penal
code played a role in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS.
They said that this happened when they were forced into unprotected sex by
clients (84%), that they had no legal recourse to rape and abuse (70%) and
that the law itself undermined efforts to design and implement interventions
among prostitutes (22%).
None of the 1,395 Sowetans perceived themselves as sex workers. They said
they saw themselves as leading ordinary lives, doing the best they could to
survive and feed their children.
Among the 64% of women who reported ever taking casual partners, those who
reported hunger in their households were more likely to report transactional
encounters.
In another presentation to the session, Augustine Ankomah of the Society for
Family Health in highly religious Nigeria conducted focus groups in eight
brothels in four cities and found the faith of sex workers to have potentially
lethal consequences.
He said they believed that they would never get infected because of their
faith and dismissed condoms as irrelevant because "only God can protect
an individual from infection."
A related finding was a strong belief in predestination and that those who
would die from AIDS had already been numbered, so taking preventative measures
made no sense when one's fate had already been decided by God.
HDN Key Correspondent
Health & Development Networks
AIDS 2002 Conference
Email: correspondents@hdnet.org
Web: http://www.hdnet.org
David
Beckham 'to do cover shoot for gay magazine'
David Beckham has reportedly agreed to an interview and cover shoot for gay
lifestyle magazine Attitude.
He is scheduled to appear in next week's edition of the publication.
If it goes ahead, the interview will be seen as a significant shift in
attitudes towards homosexuality in football and the media.
According to the Media Guardian, David has agreed to the deal with the owner
of Attitude, Richard Desmond, with whom he is good friends.
Story filed: 11:05 Friday 24th May 2002
SOURCE : Ananova:
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_594689.html?menu=
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