H.I.V. Tests Urged for 800 Million in India

Despite India’s enormous population, it would be cost-effective to fight its growing AIDS epidemic by testing all 800 million sexually active adults in the country every five years and treating all those infected, a new statistical study has concluded.

The study, published online in May by PLoS One, notes that testing there costs only $3.33, and that first-line antiretroviral therapy is about $100 a year. The World Health Organization measure for a medical intervention’s cost-effectiveness is whether it saves one year of life for less than three times the per capita gross domestic product. In India’s case, that is $3,900 per year-of-life saved.

Sex Education and Children

The beginnings of sexual awareness

"Daddy, why is the sky blue?" "Mummy, where does the sun go at night?" And then suddenly, like a bolt from the blue - "Mummy, where do babies come from?"  This question usually leaves parents squirming with embarrassment and trying to pass the buck to the other parent. Teaching children the facts of life, telling them about the birds and the bees, is something that most parents are not very comfortable with. Actually, this is a very narrow view of sex education.

Sex Education In India

SEX, a word which has a taboo attached to it when it comes to India. Most of us do not talk openly about the “S” word in presence of our adults. But there are certain things that the youth of our country needs to know.

Justice Verma Committee favours introduction of sex education in schools

The Justice Verma Committee wants introduction of sex education in a clinical manner in schools through trained teachers and child Counsellors, saying there is no basis to say sex education leads to early sexual initiation by children.

HIV has killed 25m and infected 60m so far: UN report

Almost 60 million people have been infected by HIV and 25 million killed by causes related to the virus since the epidemic started, according to new data published by UNAIDS.

While prevention programmes have helped to cut the infection rate by 17% over past eight years,the total number of people living with HIV continued to rise in 2008. By the end of 2008, a total of 33.4 million people or 20 percent more people were living with the epidemic compared to in 2000, The UN figures say.

"The continuing rise in the population of people living with HIV reflects the combined effects of continued high rates of new HIV infections and the beneficial impact of anti-retroviral therapy." said UNAIDS in its report.

Sub-Saharan African remains the most affected region, as it is home to 67% of those living with the human immunodeficiency virus. In south and South-east Asia, 3.8 million people are living with the Infection, added UNAIDS.

HIV's "Mising link" in chimps

Source TOI July 24 , 2009

Scientists believe they have found a "missing link" in the evolution of the virus that causes AIDS. It bridges the gap between the infection that does no harm to most monkeys and one that kills millions of people. That link is a virus that is killing chimpanzees in the wild a disturbingly high rate, according to a study in Nature.

Chimpanzees are the first primates besides man shown to get sick in the wild in significant numbers from a virus related to HIV. The discovery of disease killing chimps may help doctors come up with a workable vaccine for humans.

The monkey version of the virus that causes AIDS is called simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), but most apes and monkeys that have it show no symptoms or illness. So "if we could figure out why the monkeys don't get sick, perhaps we could apply that to people", said lead author BEAtrice Hahn, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The study found chimps infected with SIV had death rate 10 to 16 time higher than uninfected chimps. Necropsies of dead infected shows low counts of T-cell white blodd protiens that are just like the levels found in humans with AIDS. And when experts looked at a particular strain, they found that it wa closest relative possible to the virus that first infected humans.

AIDS virus weakening, says a study

LONDON: The HIV virus that causes AIDS, the fatal disease of the immune system, is becoming less aggressive, researchers have said in a landmark new study, amid surging speculation about the implications for the global fight against a pandemic that has killed an estimated 30 million people worldwide.

Researchers at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, compared HIV-1 samples from 1986-89 and 2002-03 and found that 75 per cent of the newer samples appeared less fit than those of 15 years ago both in terms of spread within individuals and transmission to others.

Speaking to TOI from Antwerp, Dr Kevin Arien, who wrote the paper and is one of the lead researchers said: "From our study, based on 24 patient HIV-1 isolates, we have observed that historical viruses were more fit than recent HIV-1 isolates".

In layman's terms, explained Keith Alcorn, Senior Editor of National AIDS Manual, the UK's best scientific reference on HIV, that means "the virus is weakening and may be in 50 or a 100 years, it will adapt to living with its human host but cause less disease".

The study, titled 'Replicative fitness of historical and recent HIV-1 isolates suggests HIV-1 attenuation over time', is published in AIDS the official Journal of the International AIDS Society.

Source: Times of India (New Delhi)