AIDS In India

[Guest]

‘4 lakh AIDS deaths in India last year, highest in world’</b>
<i>UNAIDS Alarm: This shows real face of the disease in India, says UN; Govt says need to check how, its own death figure likely this month </i>

[Guest]

<b>AIDS could retard India's economy</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A UNDP report released in New Delhi studied the likely impact of the infection, which affects more than five million Indians, over a 14 year period starting 2002.

<b>"Economic growth could decline by 0.86 percentage points over the period and per capita gross domestic product by 0.55 percentage points," said the report, entitled "The Macroeconomic and Sectoral Impacts of HIV and AIDS in India".</b>

<b>According to the study, the country's GDP could decline by Rs 11,097 billion (Rs 237 billion) in 2015-16 at the 2002-03 prices, while the per capital GDP could go down by Rs 7,610 billion.</b>

The UNDP said increases in spending on health by both individuals and the government lead to a decline in savings, which in turn affects investment thus slowing down growth.

Economic slowdown, it said, was brought about also by a decline in population growth, labour supply and labour productivity of HIV-affected people.

<b>Labour supply was likely to fall by 0.31 per cent, with unskilled labour the worst hit.</b>

The government savings as a percentage of GDP were likely to fall by 0.67 per cent, household savings by 1.15 per cent and investment by 1.16 per cent, the study said.

"It is time to see policy action against AIDS as a growth-enhancing policy endeavour, and, first and foremost, dedicate adequate resources for this purpose," UNDP urged.

It identified industries using unskilled labour as likely to be hit the hardest by the spread of infection. Construction, chemicals, and mining and quarrying, capital goods and textiles were the most vulnerable.

An estimated 74 per cent of people with HIV/AIDS did not disclose their status at their workplace. Around 10 per cent of those who did so faced discrimination in the form of denial of job, loans, benefits and promotion.

The infection also had a bearing on education of children from HIV families. "Children from HIV households not only have a lower rate of enrolment than those from non-HIV households, but the dropout rates are higher and school attendance lower for those who have not dropped out."

It said most HIV-affected people were not only in their prime working age, but also the parents of young children, whose education was likely to be hit.

<b>The study covered six southern and eastern states, some of the worst hit in India and more than 8,000 households.</b>

In May Geneva-based UNAIDS said India had 5.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS -- the highest figure in the world, ahead of South Africa where the figure stands at 5.5 million.

The government says the number is 5.2 million.
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[Guest]

<!--emo&:devil--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' /><!--endemo--> ISI spreading AIDS in India through infected women!
Sonali (India-Nepal border), Sept 17 (ANI): The Border Security Forces (BSF) here along the Indo-Nepal border are taking the threat of HIV infected women, reportedly, sent by ISI agents to spread AIDS, a bit seriously.

Officials of the BSF are busy organising AIDS awareness workshops to enlighten their personnel about the deadly disease. Posters have come up all throughout the area urging people to have 'safe sex' and using condoms.

Camps are being organised consequent to the reports of ISI sending HIV infected women to border regions of India especially in the areas near army camps with an aim to spread AIDS.

"Our DG is aiming towards creating awareness about AIDS. It has being noticed that the ISI is sending the women infected with HIV near army camps. We have not seen such women near our camps until now but as a precautionary measure we are organising these AIDS awareness camps. We want our boys to know that how AIDS can destroy them and their family members' lives," said H.S. Dev. DIG, SSB Gorakhpur Division.

What else anyone can expect from "Terrorist Counrty", and I dont understand why our government is so keen in talking with these inhuman and terrorist people.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>122 cases of AIDS detected in Amritsar </b>
Pioneer.com
Jagmohan Singh | Amritsar
District health authorities are concerned over the fact that 122 persons have been detected with AIDS during a joint special medical examination survey conducted by the Gynaecology department of the Government Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, the Micro Biology Department of the Government Medical College Amritsar and an NGO, the 'Swami Vivekanand Medical Mission'. The survey is still continuing.

Out of these 122 AIDS patients, 92 are men while 30 are women, confirmed district health officer Sant Parkash Singh Dhillon. These, Dhillon said, <b>are figures of only the current year. He added that figure of AIDS patients runs into thousands.</b>

The number of such patients is expected to rise in the coming days as we are expecting results of many more test reports, said Sant Parkash Singh.
 
<b>Blood samples were collected in the joint survey from slum areas of the city like Chehertha, Islamabad, Mustafabad, Vijay Nagar, Batala Road, Sultanwind and Chattiwind.</b> After detecting the dreaded infection, blood samples of the people were collected again for confirmation. The results were the same.

Police and Health department say that the areas where patients were traced with this deadly disease are notorious for prostitution. Females were found behind the spread of this deadly disease in the city. The district health department is more worried about the female patients involved in prostitution as that is a major source for spread of this deadly virus. Police officials express their helplessness to check prostitution.

Health department officials say that they are scared that there could be more and more people affected with AIDS especially those who have been visiting prostitutes. Says Skin Specialist and advisor member of the NGO, Dr R Bharti, "The number of AIDS patients is rapidly increasing day by day particularly in the border villages of Tarn Taran, Bikhiwind, Khemkaran, Manochahal, Narli and Tarn Taran with truck drivers as a major carrier.

Dr Bharti said that <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>there was a village near the Indo-Pak border wherein majority of the inhabitants, including women, were found to be suffering from AIDS. He declined to name the village saying that it could create panic and cause problems for the affected villagers.  </span>
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Video link

<b>Bihar DIGs test positive for HIV </b>
CNN-IBN
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Bihar: They fight the Naxal menace, they have seen gangwars. Now, the Bihar Police is staring into the face of a new, dreaded enemy - one which exists within its own ranks - the HIV virus.

There are 20 reported cases of HIV positive patients in the Patna Police hospital. Concerned by the rising numbers of HIV cases in the state police force, doctors have forwarded some suggestions to headquarters.

Says police hospital doctor Dr P Ojha, <b>"I have requested the authorities to make sure that all police officials undergo an HIV test. A complete health profile should be made necessary for all." </b>

And the government is taking the issue quite seriously especially after the names of two senior DIG rank IPS officers figured in the list of HIV positive cases.

Says Bihar Home Secretary Afzal Amanullah<b>, "Doctors have reported that there has been a considerable rise in HIV positice cases among officers, not only among those ranked lower and constables, but senior officials as well."</b>

Blood samples of the two senior officers have been sent to leading laboratories in Delhi for further confirmation.

The problem lies not in the fact that two senior DIG rank officials have tested positive for HIV. <b>The real problem lies in the fact that a large number of the police force has not undergone any test.</b>

<b>The real numbers of those suffering from the dreaded virus could be mind-boggling </b>and the government's intervention is expected before the situation compeletly gets out of hand. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Gates pledges $23 mn to fight AIDS in India 
Reuters
New Delhi, October 26, 2006
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $23 million to help fight HIV/AIDS in India, which has the world's highest number of people living with the disease, the Health Ministry said.

The funds, to be disbursed over the next three years, will enhance the capacity of the government's HIV prevention response and will target high-risk groups such as homosexuals, prostitutes and drug users, a statement said.

The money is part of an additional $58 million committed to the foundation's 'Avahan' project - a $258 million five-year prevention programme launched in 2003.

According to the <b>United Nations, 5.7 million Indians are living with the virus. But activists say the true figure may be far higher </b>as social stigma forces many of those infected with the virus to keep their status a secret.
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[Guest]

सेक्स नहीं है एड्स का सबसे बड़ा कारण
[Thursday, October 26, 2006 10:04:26 pm ]

पैरिस (पीटीआई) : एक अंतरराष्ट्रीय स्टडी में चेतावनी दी गई है कि एड्स के खिलाफ लड़ाई में भारत की यह धारणा खतरनाक साबित हो सकती है कि देश में एचआईवी संक्रमण का सबसे बड़ा कारण सेक्स, खासकर वेश्यावृति, है। इसमें कहा गया है कि भारत अन्य कारणों को नजरअंदाज कर रहा है।

ब्रिटेन के प्रतिष्ठित रॉयल सोसायटी ऑफ मेडिसिन द्वारा कराई गई स्टडी में कहा गया है कि भारत में तेजी से बढ़ते एड्स का मुख्य कारण सेक्स संबंध नहीं हैं। सोसायटी की 'इंटरनैशनल जनरल ऑफ एसटीडी एंड एड्स' में अमेरिकी रिसर्चर डेविड गिसेलक्लिस्ट और मैरिएट कोरिया ने कहा कि भारत की यह धारणा अप्रामाणिक और बहुत हद तक गलत है।

गौरतलब है कि मई में जिनीवा स्थित एजेंसी यूएनएड्स ने कहा था कि भारत में सबसे ज्यादा ५७ लाख लोग एड्स से पीडि़त हैं। इस मामले में भारत को दक्षिण अफ्रीका से भी आगे बताया गया था, जहां ५५ लाख लोगों को एड्स है। हालांकि सरकारी अनुमान इस आंकड़े से मेल नहीं खाते, जिसके मुताबिक देश में एड्स मरीजों की संख्या ५२ लाख है।

भारत के नैशनल एड्स कंट्रोल ऑर्गनाइजेशन के मुताबिक ८६ फीसदी एचआईवी संक्रमण असुरक्षित सेक्स संबंधों की वजह से होते हैं। इस संबंध में अब तक कराए गए तीन सवेर्क्षणों में पाया गया कि २७ फीसदी संक्रमण के लिए सिर्फ वेश्याएं जिम्मेदार हैं।

लेकिन ताजा शोध से जुड़े विशेषज्ञों गिसेलक्विस्ट और कोरिया का कहना है कि ये आंकड़े हकीकत से मेल नहीं खाते। इनके मुताबिक संक्रमण के बारे में सभी आंकड़े अस्पतालों से मिलते हैं, जिनका लेखाजोखा अस्पताल कर्मचारी निपटाते हैं। यह गणना अस्पताल में भर्ती मरीजों की संख्या पर निर्भर करती है। लेकिन, इस बात को शायद नजरअंदाज किया जाता है कि उनमें से बहुतों को एड्स रक्त संक्रमण से भी हुआ होगा। ये विशेषज्ञ में देश में वेश्याओं और उनसे संबंध बनाने वाले ग्राहकों की अनुमानित संख्या को बढ़ाचढ़ाकर पेश किया हुआ बताते हैं। उनका कहना है कि इस बात के प्रमाण हैं कि ज्यादातर सेक्स वर्कर कॉन्डम का इस्तेमाल करते हैं और ऐसे में संक्रमण की आशंका बहुत कम रह जाती है। इन विशेषज्ञों के मुताबिक भारत में एड्स के लिए जिम्मेदार वेश्याओं की संख्या ज्यादा से ज्यादा १३ फीसदी हो सकती है। गौरतलब है कि सरकारी अनुमान इसका दोगुना है।

स्टडी के नतीजे इस बार पर जोर देते हैं कि भारत सरकार एड्स संबंधी अन्य खतरों को नजरअंदाज कर रही है। इसमें कहा गया है कि अस्पतालों में अनस्टरलाइज्ड उपकरणों का दोबारा इस्तेमाल, कॉस्मेटिक सेवाओं, दांतों के ऑपरेशन और शरीर पर टैटू गुदवाने से भी भारी संख्या में संक्रमण होता है और सरकार इस ओर ध्यान देना होगा।

[Guest]

Blood transfusion and badly sterilize medical instruments are main reason. In government hospitals they reuse syringes. Even in surgery they reuse even disposable gloves. I hope doctors have stopped using thermometer dipped in glass filled with detol.
Beauty parlors are AID death trap.

[Guest]

<b>Docs dump HIV+ pregnant woman </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The hospital says it is considering taking action against the concerned doctors.

However, some doctors continue to insist that what they did was right.

“She's a full-blown AIDS patient (sic), and she has to be kept in isolation. How can we keep her with other patients?” says gynecologist Dr Abhilasha Gupta.

Soon after the report was aired, a two-member NACO team reached Meerut to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

NACO members have recorded the statements of the victims and they have been sent to the District Magistrate.
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Why they want to punish doctor? Hospital should provide proper tools to deal with HIV/AIDs patients. I have seen myself in Meerut Hospital, doctors reuse gloves and no proper sterilization facility in Govt hospitals or in fact private hospital. They still recycle syringe.
People will be shocked to learn that cotton/dressing gauge directly goes into pillows or Rajais, ice from Morgue are used by ice cream stall outside hospitals.

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<b>Number of India HIV cases cut in half</b>

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->NEW DELHI - India has roughly 2.5 million people infected with HIV, less than half the number of cases that previous studies estimated, the health minister and international AIDS experts said Friday.

The drastically reduced numbers come from expanded surveys and an improved methodology, providing a far more accurate portrait of India’s HIV epidemic, said Health Minister Anubani Ramadoss.

An earlier U.N. study estimated 5.7 million HIV cases, which would have been the highest total in the world. According to the new data, India, which has a population of 1.1 billion, has fewer HIV cases than South Africa and Nigeria.
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[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Number of India HIV cases cut in half<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ramadoss new creation. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

They are saying they have done counting using different method. What they have done this time is they have used different sampling data or formula.
Still in India there is no centralized data collection system. Even main hospitals don't report cases forget ablout rural or remote area.
Even mid level city hospital don't have resources either to protect medical staff or patients. How many hospital provide "verified/tested" blood to patient?

I can still bet, HIV number must be triple then reported by government.

[Guest]

This doctor knew India’s AIDS numbers were highly inflated

Sonu Jain

Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 0000 hrs

His survey in Andhra’s Guntur convinced Lalit Dandona there were less than 3.5 mn cases in India. Now, Govt revises number from 5.7 mn to 2.47 mn

NEW DELHI, JULY 11: It became official last week that India’s AIDS scare was exaggerated far above the actual infection number of 2.47 million. But before that, when the country’s estimate of infected people neared 6 million, there was one man who knew government surveys were getting it wrong.

Dr Lalit Dandona, a public health specialist and now professor of international public health at University of Sydney, had first indicated in a paper presented at an AIDS conference in Canada that India could be overestimating its HIV/AIDS figures because of the estimation method used.

Investigators from his team collected blood samples from 12,617 people aged between 15 and 49 in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur — one of the worst affected areas in the state — to come to their conclusions. Their method estimated that there were 45,900 people living with HIV in Guntur, less than a half of the official number, 112,600.

He extrapolated the findings from Guntur to say that there may be between 3.2 million and 3.5 million adults with the infection in the entire country, much closer to the official figures released last Friday.

“It’s good to see corroboration of what we had suggested a year ago,” Dandona told the The Indian Express from Sydney. “I had looked at my data again and again and checked it many times over before I went to the world with it.”

Unlike the individual samples that Dandona’s team collected, the official “sentinal surveillance” method used data from ante-natal clinics, sexually transmitted infection clinics and public hospitals. The government’s estimates were inflated because the clinics are used by the segment of society in which HIV is most prevalent, said Dandona, who got his medical degree from AIIMS in New Delhi and a public health degree from Johns Hopkins University in US.

<b>At that time, though his study was widely acknowledged, officials expressed caution at arriving at an all-India figure based on Dandona’s work. But unofficially, they were convinced.</b>

He gave a presentation to National Aids Control Organisation on his methodology. By then, the National Family Health Survey Data had already been collected and were indicating the same trend as suggested by him.

He said fears that reduced numbers would mean less funds for HIV are baseless. “It is unlikely that the money for HIV will dry up. After all, two and a half million is not a small number.” Dandona said he is interested in developing a systematic evidence-base for effective health systems. “There has to be strong science behind how diseases are assessed and interventions are planned. And then assessing how they do once implemented,” he told Express.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Jul 8 2007, 11:40 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Jul 8 2007, 11:40 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Number of India HIV cases cut in half<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
[...]
I can still bet, HIV number must be triple then reported by government.
[right][snapback]70981[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Am rather suspicious myself.
You know communists are in charge in a government when all they do is just fiddle with numbers instead of doing something for the patients. Brings to mind how after Russia had gone communist (from late 1910s and after), the thereafter communist-run hospitals had <i>statistics</i> departments to keep deflating the numbers of actual cholera patients. It was considered their most important department too - imagine that, in a <i>hospital</i>. (Communist logic!) Meanwhile Russians died of the cholera in large numbers. The more it happened, the more the communists kept downing the numbers.
It's the communist way: propaganda, propaganda and more propaganda. '(Lie) To keep people from panicking' (actually, it's to keep people from doing anything and for keeping them from getting angry at communist incompetence/callousness).

Now if the Indian health dept were to have said that hundreds more centres to help AIDS patients had been built, you know the government was doing something constructive (if true). But no, all they're doing is just playing the numbers game with the help of the media - once more showing the ineptitude of congressidom. 'It's all under control. It isn't that bad really. The floodgate is open and people are drowning, it's true, but it's only a few millions - half the number you heard it was.'

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<!--emo&<_<--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='dry.gif' /><!--endemo--> ‘Sex a biological need, truckers need safe outlet’
Haryana’s unique reply on PIL against prostitution
Vishal Sharma
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 19
Governments are not particularly known for sharp replies. But the one given by the Haryana Police on behalf of the state of Haryana is bound to ruffle a few feathers.

Waxing eloquent on the need for prostitution, the Haryana additional director-general of police’s reply on a PIL against prostitution goes: “Urge for sex is a biological need and everybody is not so fortunate to find a sex partner at all times. A large number of truckers, migrant workers and traders remain away from their homes for very long times at a stretch. Rightly or wrongly, society has to provide some scope in the system where such persons are provided with safe outlet to vent their sexual frustrations.”

Not stopping at this, the reply throws up more nuggets of wisdom like “in larger interest of the society, it is desirable to accept small sins to prevent larger and wider perversions”. This is not all. The reply foresees a deluge of rapes, sodomies and abductions if the prostitution is eliminated all together. This unique reply may leave many sociologists and feminist organisations bewildered, as there is no hard scientific evidence relating prostitution to aforesaid crimes.

It further states that the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act, 1956, does not prohibit prostitution as such, but seeks to “regulate” and prevent conditions which promote prostitution. The provisions are directed mainly against those who either organised prostitution rackets by running brothels or inducted women into flesh trade.

Interestingly, the sociological and philosophical overtones of the reply also bring to fore its contradictions. While on one hand it rejects prostitution as an evil which offends elementary norms of decency and culture and involves debasement of human values, on the other, it justifies its existence. It even cites the presence of high-society call girls to buttress that poverty is not the reason behind flesh trade.

Importantly, the reply will be taken up by the Punjab and Haryana High Court for consideration on July 30, the next date of hearing on the PIL filed by advocate H.C Arora.

[Guest]

<b>AIDS will spread like ‘bushfire’ in India: UN</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India has the world's third highest caseload with 2.5 million infections. It has an estimated 200,000 intravenous drug users, many of whom are in the remote northeast region which borders the opium-producing Golden Triangle of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos.

"If we don't prevent new infections in new emerging populations like injecting drug users, it can go up as bushfires. We may see a major surge in infections," Peter Piot, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, said.

He also raised concerns about the spread of drugs in India. "<b>Drug use is moving a bit everywhere, we can see it in Bihar, UP and in Kashmir, it is kind of moving across the northern part of the country,</b>" Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS said.

"I was really shocked to hear what was going on."

<b>Official figures show that more than 10 per cent of intravenous drug users in India are infected with HIV, a higher prevalence than among prostitutes. The country's overall HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is about 0.9 per cent for those aged between 15 and 49.</b>
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All money is going into Babus pocket.