Although syphilis is a curable disease, an infected person who does not seek treatment risks serious long term damage, including serious damage to the nervous system, heart, brain, or other organs, and death may result.
Recently in the Pennsylvania city of Philadelphia there has been a spike in the number of syphilis cases - infectious syphilis rose 45 percent in the city last year. Sharp cuts in state funding to Philadelphia for HIV/AIDS are presenting a challenge to public-health workers tasked with preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. A 34 percent cut in state HIV funding for the city beginning July 1 - some of the money is already gone - could hamper efforts in Philadelphia, home to more than half the HIV patients in Pennsylvania. The $2 million was used for HIV testing and prevention in minority communities, which have the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases nationwide. It would have covered tests for an estimated 8,000 people next year, and prevention and risk-reduction services for 4,000.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
UN warns HIV/Aids leading cause of death in women
UN programme on HIV/Aids says HIV has become the leading cause of death and disease among women of reproductive age worldwide.
UNAIDS reported at a ten-day conference in New York that up to 70% of women worldwide have been forced to have unprotected sex. This is one of the key issues in the development programme's new five-year action plan addressing the gender issues which put women at risk. UNAIDS says such violence against women must not be tolerated. The programme - which will include improving data collection and analysis of how the epidemic affects women, and ensuring the issue of violence against women is integrated into HIV prevention programmes - will be rolled out in countries including Liberia.
UNAIDS warns that, nearly 30 years from the beginning of the epidemic, HIV services do not respond to the specific needs of women and girls. In sub-Saharan Africa, 60% of those living with HIV are women and in Southern Africa, for example, young women are about three times as likely to be infected with HIV than young men of the same age.
By robbing them of their dignity, we are losing the opportunity to tap half the potential of mankind to achieve the Millennium Development Goals," said Executive Director Michel Sidibe. "Women and girls are not victims, they are the driving force that brings about social transformation."
UNAIDS reported at a ten-day conference in New York that up to 70% of women worldwide have been forced to have unprotected sex. This is one of the key issues in the development programme's new five-year action plan addressing the gender issues which put women at risk. UNAIDS says such violence against women must not be tolerated. The programme - which will include improving data collection and analysis of how the epidemic affects women, and ensuring the issue of violence against women is integrated into HIV prevention programmes - will be rolled out in countries including Liberia.
UNAIDS warns that, nearly 30 years from the beginning of the epidemic, HIV services do not respond to the specific needs of women and girls. In sub-Saharan Africa, 60% of those living with HIV are women and in Southern Africa, for example, young women are about three times as likely to be infected with HIV than young men of the same age.
By robbing them of their dignity, we are losing the opportunity to tap half the potential of mankind to achieve the Millennium Development Goals," said Executive Director Michel Sidibe. "Women and girls are not victims, they are the driving force that brings about social transformation."
Monday, March 1, 2010
Failure to aid drug users drives HIV spread, says study
LONDON (Reuters) - More than 90 percent of the world's 16 million injecting drug users are offered no help to avoid contracting AIDS, and governments that ignore them risk a spiraling public health crisis, drugs experts said on Monday.
67 people per 10,000 exposures to an infected source make up the estimated HIV/AIDS infections. UNAIDS estimates that around 30 per cent of HIV transmission outside sub-Saharan Africa is driven by unsafe injecting practices. Of the estimated 16 million injecting drug users worldwide, 3 million are thought to be HIV-positive, and drug users are thought to account for 10 percent of all those living with HIV.
Injecting drug use is an increasingly important cause of HIV transmission in many countries around the world. Users can spread the virus in blood by sharing needles with an HIV-infected person, and pass it on by having unprotected sex. The recent study shows a "critical health problem" is growing in places like Russia, China, Malaysia and Thailand, they said, where drug users are a neglected population in the fight against AIDS and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes it. In Russia, for example, around a million injecting drug users are living with HIV and some 65 percent of new HIV infections there are thought to come from injections.
Gerry Stimson, director of the International Harm Reduction Association, accused such states of "playing politics with people's lives" and said millions were at risk as a result. "HIV prevention treatment and care services for injecting drug users are clinically effective, but to exert a population-level effect they need to be delivered to scale," the study wrote . The current level is "not sufficient to prevent, halt or turn around the HIV epidemic among this at-risk population."
Don Des Jarlais of the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York said the poor coverage suggested some authorities should work to bring their policies "in line with scientific evidence." "Long-term sustained efforts to protect the health of individuals who use both licit and illicit drugs might require that policy makers acquire a basic scientific understanding of drug use and addiction," he wrote.
67 people per 10,000 exposures to an infected source make up the estimated HIV/AIDS infections. UNAIDS estimates that around 30 per cent of HIV transmission outside sub-Saharan Africa is driven by unsafe injecting practices. Of the estimated 16 million injecting drug users worldwide, 3 million are thought to be HIV-positive, and drug users are thought to account for 10 percent of all those living with HIV.
Injecting drug use is an increasingly important cause of HIV transmission in many countries around the world. Users can spread the virus in blood by sharing needles with an HIV-infected person, and pass it on by having unprotected sex. The recent study shows a "critical health problem" is growing in places like Russia, China, Malaysia and Thailand, they said, where drug users are a neglected population in the fight against AIDS and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes it. In Russia, for example, around a million injecting drug users are living with HIV and some 65 percent of new HIV infections there are thought to come from injections.
Gerry Stimson, director of the International Harm Reduction Association, accused such states of "playing politics with people's lives" and said millions were at risk as a result. "HIV prevention treatment and care services for injecting drug users are clinically effective, but to exert a population-level effect they need to be delivered to scale," the study wrote . The current level is "not sufficient to prevent, halt or turn around the HIV epidemic among this at-risk population."
Don Des Jarlais of the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York said the poor coverage suggested some authorities should work to bring their policies "in line with scientific evidence." "Long-term sustained efforts to protect the health of individuals who use both licit and illicit drugs might require that policy makers acquire a basic scientific understanding of drug use and addiction," he wrote.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
UN Calls for Action to Prevent Spread of HIV/AIDS in Haiti
UNAIDS, a inter-agency project providing information and support services in the fight against acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome, is calling for action to prevent the spread of the AIDS virus in the wake of the Haiti earthquake. A study by UNAIDS warns of a substantial risk of the spread of the deadly virus in overcrowded camps for Haitian survivors of the disaster.
Haiti is a country known for being the Carribean country most severely affected by the AIDS epidemic. In a disaster, resource to quality healthcare is diminished as has been proven in the wake of the Haitian earthquake. "We estimate that there were 120,000 people living with HIV in Haiti," said the Director of Technical and Country Tim Martineau. "At the end of last year, there were roughly about 19,000 people receiving treatment with a significant curve. An important concern obviously is for us to maintain treatment for that population group. But, we also anticipate that that figure will rise to about 32,000 this year. So, there is a need to maintain services, but also to scale them up." Of these figures, 53% of those affected are women, and 60% of the population living with HIV/AIDS lives in parts of the country with serious earthquake damage.
UNAIDS had requested $130 million for HIV prevention and treatment programs in Haiti before the earthquake struck. Martineau says twice that amount will now be needed this year. He says seven work priorities include rebuilding the health system, protecting displaced people from HIV, and rebuilding the local and national networks of people living with the virus.
Haiti is a country known for being the Carribean country most severely affected by the AIDS epidemic. In a disaster, resource to quality healthcare is diminished as has been proven in the wake of the Haitian earthquake. "We estimate that there were 120,000 people living with HIV in Haiti," said the Director of Technical and Country Tim Martineau. "At the end of last year, there were roughly about 19,000 people receiving treatment with a significant curve. An important concern obviously is for us to maintain treatment for that population group. But, we also anticipate that that figure will rise to about 32,000 this year. So, there is a need to maintain services, but also to scale them up." Of these figures, 53% of those affected are women, and 60% of the population living with HIV/AIDS lives in parts of the country with serious earthquake damage.
UNAIDS had requested $130 million for HIV prevention and treatment programs in Haiti before the earthquake struck. Martineau says twice that amount will now be needed this year. He says seven work priorities include rebuilding the health system, protecting displaced people from HIV, and rebuilding the local and national networks of people living with the virus.
Breach of Women's Human Rights in U.S. State of Utah
As reported by RH Reality Check and various other news sources, a Utah bill (which has passed through the legislators and awaits the signature of the Governor of Utah) will essentially criminalize miscarriages, threatening the rights and health of pregnant women: of all pregnancies, 1 in 4 - up to 25%, a whopping fourth of all pregnancies - end in miscarriage. According Lynn M. Paltrow, executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, what makes Utah's proposed law unique is that it is specifically designed to be punitive toward pregnant women, not those who might assist or cause an illegal abortion or unintended miscarriage.
In addition to criminalizing an intentional attempt to induce a miscarriage or abortion, the bill also creates a standard that could make women legally responsible for miscarriages caused by "reckless" behavior. "This creates a law that makes any pregnant woman who has a miscarriage potentially criminally liable for murder," says Missy Bird, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Utah. Bird says there are no exemptions in the bill for victims of domestic violence or for those who are substance abusers. The standard is so broad, Bird says, "there nothing in the bill to exempt a woman for not wearing her seatbelt who got into a car accident." Such a standard could even make falling down stairs a prosecutable event, such as the recent case in Iowa where a pregnant woman who fell down the stairs at her home was arrested under the suspicion she was trying to terminate her pregnancy.
The article leaves us with a fantastic quote by Paltrow on how this bill puts an end to the lie that the anti-reproductive rights movement cares about women. "For all these years the anti-choice movement has said ‘we want to outlaw abortion, not put women in jail, but what this law says is ‘no, we really want to put women in jail.'"
In addition to criminalizing an intentional attempt to induce a miscarriage or abortion, the bill also creates a standard that could make women legally responsible for miscarriages caused by "reckless" behavior. "This creates a law that makes any pregnant woman who has a miscarriage potentially criminally liable for murder," says Missy Bird, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Utah. Bird says there are no exemptions in the bill for victims of domestic violence or for those who are substance abusers. The standard is so broad, Bird says, "there nothing in the bill to exempt a woman for not wearing her seatbelt who got into a car accident." Such a standard could even make falling down stairs a prosecutable event, such as the recent case in Iowa where a pregnant woman who fell down the stairs at her home was arrested under the suspicion she was trying to terminate her pregnancy.
The article leaves us with a fantastic quote by Paltrow on how this bill puts an end to the lie that the anti-reproductive rights movement cares about women. "For all these years the anti-choice movement has said ‘we want to outlaw abortion, not put women in jail, but what this law says is ‘no, we really want to put women in jail.'"
WHO's 10 Facts on Adolescent Health include 2 on Adolescent Reproductive & Sexual Health
Two facts on the WHO's 10 Facts on Adolescent Health cover two major sexual and reproductive health issues that continue to plague the health of young people around the globe:
2. HIV and Young People Young people aged 15-24 accounted for an estimated 45% of new HIV infections worldwide in 2007. They need to know how to protect themselves from HIV and have the means to do so. Better access to testing and counselling will inform young people about their HIV status, help them get the care they need, and avoid further spread of the virus.
3. Early Pregnancy and Childbirth About 16 million girls aged 15 to 19 give birth every year - roughly 11% of all births worldwide. The vast majority of births to adolescents occur in developing countries. The risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes is much higher for adolescents than for older women. Laws and community actions that support a minimum age for marriage, as well as better access to contraception, can decrease too-early pregnancies.
2. HIV and Young People Young people aged 15-24 accounted for an estimated 45% of new HIV infections worldwide in 2007. They need to know how to protect themselves from HIV and have the means to do so. Better access to testing and counselling will inform young people about their HIV status, help them get the care they need, and avoid further spread of the virus.
3. Early Pregnancy and Childbirth About 16 million girls aged 15 to 19 give birth every year - roughly 11% of all births worldwide. The vast majority of births to adolescents occur in developing countries. The risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes is much higher for adolescents than for older women. Laws and community actions that support a minimum age for marriage, as well as better access to contraception, can decrease too-early pregnancies.
Vast majority of premature babies born in Africa and Asia
The WHO reports, unsurprisingly, that most preterm babies are born in Africa and Asia. Africa and Asia are particularly known for their lack of resource to quality sexual and reproductive healthcare and high rates of sexual and reproductive ill-health, which accounts for 20% of the global burden of ill-health for women and 14% for men.
Preterm birth is defined as childbirth occurring at less than 37 completed weeks or 259 days of gestation. Preterm is a major determinant of neonatal mortality and morbidity and has long-term adverse consequences for health. 1–3 Children who are born prematurely have higher rates of cerebral palsy, sensory deficits, learning disabilities and respiratory illnesses compared with children born at term.
The WHO estimated that 9.6% of all births were preterm in 2005, which translates to about 12.9 million births definable as preterm. Approximately 85% of this burden was concentrated in Africa and Asia, where 10.9 million births were preterm. About 0.5 million preterm births occurred in Europe and the same number in North America, while 0.9million occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Preterm birth is defined as childbirth occurring at less than 37 completed weeks or 259 days of gestation. Preterm is a major determinant of neonatal mortality and morbidity and has long-term adverse consequences for health. 1–3 Children who are born prematurely have higher rates of cerebral palsy, sensory deficits, learning disabilities and respiratory illnesses compared with children born at term.
The WHO estimated that 9.6% of all births were preterm in 2005, which translates to about 12.9 million births definable as preterm. Approximately 85% of this burden was concentrated in Africa and Asia, where 10.9 million births were preterm. About 0.5 million preterm births occurred in Europe and the same number in North America, while 0.9million occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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