Aum Gung Ganapathaye Namah

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma-sambuddhassa

Homage to The Blessed One, Accomplished and Fully Enlightened

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

AIDS

A Collection of Articles, Notes and References

References

 (Revised: Tuesday, January 11, 2005)

References Edited by

An Indian Tantric

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

- William Shakespeare

Copyright © 2002-2010 An Indian Tantric

The following educational writings are STRICTLY for academic research purposes ONLY.

Should NOT be used for commercial, political or any other purposes.

(The following notes are subject to update and revision)

For free distribution only.
You may print copies of this work for free distribution.

You may re-format and redistribute this work for use on computers and computer networks, provided that you charge no fees for its distribution or use.
Otherwise, all rights reserved.

8 "... Freely you received, freely give”.

            - Matthew 10:8 :: New American Standard Bible (NASB)

 

1 “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.

2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,

4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God

5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires,

7 always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.                                                                  

8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth--men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.

9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.”

            - 2 Timothy 3:1-9  :: New International Version (NIV)

 

6 As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

            - Hebrews 5:6 :: King James Version (KJV)

 

Therefore, I say:

Know your enemy and know yourself;

in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated.

When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself,

your chances of winning or losing are equal.

If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself,

you are sure to be defeated in every battle.

-- Sun Tzu, The Art of War, c. 500bc

 

There are two ends not to be served by a wanderer. What are these two? The pursuit of desires and of the pleasure which springs from desire, which is base, common, leading to rebirth, ignoble, and unprofitable; and the pursuit of pain and hardship, which is grievous, ignoble, and unprofitable.

- The Blessed One, Lord Buddha

 

6 For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people?

or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?

- Esther 8:6 :: King James Version (KJV)

 

Contents

Color Code

A Brief Word on Copyright

References

Educational Copy of Some of the References

 

Color Code

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Color Code                                                               Identification

 

Main Title                                                                  Color: Pink

Sub Title                                                                   Color: Rose

Minor Title                                                                Color: Gray – 50%

 

Collected Article Author                                       Color: Lime

Date of Article                                                          Color: Light Orange

Collected Article                                                      Color: Sea Green

Collected Sub-notes                                              Color: Indigo

 

Personal Notes                                                       Color: Black

Personal Comments                                             Color: Brown

Personal Sub-notes                                              Color: Blue - Gray

 

Collected Article Highlight                                    Color: Orange

Collected Article Highlight                                    Color: Lavender

Collected Article Highlight                                    Color: Aqua

Collected Article Highlight                                    Color: Pale Blue

 

Personal Notes Highlight                                     Color: Gold

Personal Notes Highlight                                     Color: Tan

 

HTML                                                                         Color: Blue

Vocabulary                                                               Color: Violet

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

A Brief Word on Copyright

Many of the articles whose educational copies are given below are copyrighted by their respective authors as well as the respective publishers. Some contain messages of warning, as follows:

Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited

without the written consent of “so and so”.

According to the concept of “fair use” in US copyright Law,

The reproduction, redistribution and/or exploitation of any materials and/or content (data, text, images, marks or logos) for personal or commercial gain is not permitted. Provided the source is cited, personal, educational and non-commercial use (as defined by fair use in US copyright law) is permitted.

Moreover,

  • This is a religious educational website.
    • In the name of the Lord, with the invisible Lord as the witness.
  • No commercial/business/political use of the following material.
  • Just like student notes for research purposes, the writings of the other children of the Lord, are given as it is, with student highlights and coloring. Proper respects and due referencing are attributed to the relevant authors/publishers.

I believe that satisfies the conditions for copyright and non-plagiarism.

  • Also, from observation, any material published on the internet naturally gets read/copied even if conditions are maintained. If somebody is too strict with copyright and hold on to knowledge, then it is better not to publish “openly” onto the internet or put the article under “pay to refer” scheme.
  • I came across the articles “freely”. So I publish them freely with added student notes and review with due referencing to the parent link, without any personal monetary gain. My purpose is only to educate other children of the Lord on certain concepts, which I believe are beneficial for “Oneness”.

 

References

Some of the links may not be active (de-activated) due to various reasons, like removal of the concerned information from the source database. So an educational copy is also provided, along with the link.

If the link is active, do cross-check/validate/confirm the educational copy of the article provided along.

  1. If the link is not active, then try to procure a hard copy of the article, if possible, based on the reference citation provided, from a nearest library or where-ever, for cross-checking/validation/confirmation.

 

References

Singer, Rena. (Thursday, November 27, 2003) AIDS creating a land of orphans. USA: The Star-Ledger.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-12/106991385932460.xml

Wardell, Jane. (Thursday, October 09, 2003) AIDS Becoming Youth Epidemic. USA: CBS News.com.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/09/health/main577290.shtml

AIDS: Millions Face 'Destruction'. (Monday, December 01, 2003) USA: CBS News.com.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/27/health/main585907.shtml

AIDS In China Hits Million Mark. (Friday, November 07, 2003) USA: CBS News.com.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/07/health/main582482.shtml

Asian Nations Lag In War On AIDS. (Thursday, November 27, 2003) USA: CBS News.com.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/30/health/main586011.shtml

HIV/AIDS patients facing stigma, discrimination. (Monday, December 01, 2003) India: DeepikaGlobal.com.

http://www.deepikaglobal.com/archives/ENG3_sub.asp?newsdate=12/02/2003&ccode=ENG3&hcode=32321

Sangli villagers in seclusion, thanks to AIDS stigma. (Monday, December 01, 2003) India: NewIndPress.com.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEO20031130125644&Page=O&Title=This+is+India&Topic=0&

UN programs threatened by spread of HIV/AIDS, say UN officials. (Friday, November 28, 2003) China: Xinhua News Agency.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2003-11/28/content_1204699.htm

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Educational Copy of Some of the References

FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Reference

Singer, Rena. (Thursday, November 27, 2003) AIDS creating a land of orphans. USA: The Star-Ledger.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-12/106991385932460.xml

 

AIDS creating a land of orphans

 

U.N. agency details the crisis in Africa

 

Thursday, November 27, 2003

 

BY RENA SINGER

For the Star-Ledger

 

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- AIDS took Tholakele Myeni's mother, father and sister. It took her dreams, forcing her to drop out of school to care for her younger siblings. And, last year, it took her life.

 

Before she died, Myeni asked a visitor to her three-room cinder block home on a dry hilltop in rural South Africa to take her six younger brothers and sisters away from "this place of AIDS." She added: "We are hungry here. We are lonely."

    

"There is no money for school, no money for food, no money for so many things," said Myeni, who was 26 at the time. "There are so many children at home. For everything they look at me."

 

The victims of AIDS in Africa are more numerous than the body counts in the morgues indicate. The legacy of AIDS orphans is devastating the nations of Africa. AIDS is tearing families apart, robbing the continent's children of their education, health and financial security and, in the process, threatening the future of the continent.

 

No children have suffered as much from the disease as African children, according to a report released yesterday by the United Nations Children's Fund. Of the 40 million people in the world with AIDS, 27 million live in Africa. Eighty percent of the AIDS orphans in the world, an estimated 11 million children, live in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

"As staggering as the numbers already are, the orphan crisis in sub-Saharan Africa is just starting to unfold," warns the UNICEF report, titled "Africa's Orphaned Generations."

 

Seven years from now, the number of orphans in Africa will reach 20 million. That will leave an estimated 15 percent to 25 percent of all the children in a dozen countries without parents. With an estimated 3 million people becoming infected in sub-Saharan Africa each year, the chart projecting the number of Africa's orphans this decade resembles the path of a plane taking off.

 

Relatives will care for the vast majority of these children. Increasingly, the UNICEF report says, the relatives -- overwhelmed by poverty or disease -- leave the children to fend for themselves.

 

The six surviving Myeni children turned to an uncle who lives nearby. He gives them what he can after providing for his own three children. Some days they get three meals, some days they eat only rice.

 

"There are so many orphans around," said P.M. Nhkonipho, a brother of the six children's mother. "It is kids looking after other kids. It traumatizes us all."

 

Orphaned children are less likely to attend school, more likely to experience hunger and malnutrition and other illnesses. They are filling the continent's brothels, sweatshops and street corners.

 

"They are the most vulnerable," Carol Bellamy, UNICEF's executive director, said yesterday. "They are the most exploited."

 

The report predicts that conditions here are likely to get far worse, even if intervention is immediate.

 

Schoolteachers and students across the continent are dying. In Zambia, 40 percent of teachers are HIV-positive. In South Africa, hundreds of thousands of students have dropped out because they can't afford school fees.

 

"It is so pathetic," said Simon Ntsele, a deputy principal of a primary school in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal, where one in three pregnant women has been found to have the virus that causes AIDS. "This cripples the children's development -- and that of our country."

 

Many African countries have no national policy to address the needs of orphaned children. The UNICEF report calls on African governments, churches and charities to take immediate action to support orphans and the people who care for them. It suggests eliminating school fees, raising awareness of AIDS, and simplifying social services to give orphaned children access to the health and justice system.

 

The governments' seeming reluctance to address the crisis "reflects a lingering unease about HIV/AIDS itself; many policy-makers hesitate to take actions against a disease so closely associated with private sexual behavior," the UNICEF report declares.

 

Nowhere is this more apparent than in South Africa, home to 5.3 million HIV-positive people and awash in orphans. No other country in the world has more people infected with the disease. Nevertheless, until earlier this year, the government had announced no plans to provide life-saving anti-retroviral drugs to those infected.

 

The World Health Organization has pledged to provide medicine to 3 million HIV-positive people by 2005. Currently, it is estimated that only 50,000 HIV-positive Africans -- most of them with good jobs and health insurance -- have access to anti-retroviral drugs. The medicines have turned AIDS from a death sentence to a chronic condition in Europe and the United States and would allow millions of HIV-positive Africans to live long enough to raise their children.

 

Copyright 2003 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.

(Reference: Singer, Rena. (Thursday, November 27, 2003) AIDS creating a land of orphans. USA: The Star-Ledger.)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Reference

Wardell, Jane. (Thursday, October 09, 2003) AIDS Becoming Youth Epidemic. USA: CBS News.com.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/09/health/main577290.shtml

 

AIDS Becoming Youth Epidemic

 

LONDON, Oct. 9, 2003

 

 (Photo: CBS/AP)

 

"Giving young people this information is safe, it doesn't lead to promiscuous behavior, as some people say. On the contrary, it empowers young people...and may save their lives as well."

Thoraya Obaid, U.N. Population Fund

 

(AP) Young people are increasingly responsible for the spread of HIV/AIDS around the world because of poverty and a severe lack of information and prevention services, the United Nations said Wednesday.

 

Every 14 seconds a person aged between 15 and 24 is infected with the virus. They now account for half all new cases of the disease, the U.N. Population Fund said in its annual State of the World's Population report.

 

"We will have a global catastrophe if we ignore young people and ignore their needs," said Thoraya Obaid, the agency's executive director, told a news conference in London.

 

The "Making 1 Billion Count" report cautions that there is now the biggest generation of adolescents in history — 1.2 billion of the world's 6.3 billion population are between 10 and 19 — and many are facing deadly diseases, unwanted pregnancy and poverty.

 

HIV/AIDS has emerged as one of the greatest threats. As well as the high infection rate among young people, the epidemic has so orphaned 13 million children under the age of 15, the report said.

 

If those trends continue, the next generation of adults will face greater poverty and stunted economic progress, the report said.

 

The report estimates the economic benefit of a single averted HIV/AIDS infection is $34,600 for a poor country — and the social benefits are even greater.

 

It called for more investment in youth-friendly services, family planning and education programs to help young people with reproductive health issues.

 

"This is a huge opportunity. It is a one-time opportunity that will not occur again," said Alex Marshall, an author of the population report.

 

Poverty is a factor in the spread of HIV, the report said, because some poor girls exchange sex for money for school fees or to help their families, placing them at risk of infection.

 

Discussing sexual behavior is taboo in many countries, so many young people do not know how to protect themselves. In Somalia, the report says, just 26 percent of adolescent girls have heard of AIDS and only 1 percent know how to protect themselves.

 

Obaid said she didn't believe educating youngsters about safe sex would make them more sexually active.

 

"I would like to stress that giving young people this information is safe, it doesn't lead to promiscuous behavior, as some people say," she said. "On the contrary, it empowers young people to take positive action in their lives and may save their lives as well."

 

Obaid said the U.N. agency's core message was "ABC" — Abstaining from sexual activity, Being faithful to one partner and the correct use of Condoms.

 

In sub-Saharan Africa, which has the most cases of HIV/AIDS among youths, about 8.6 million have HIV/AIDS — two-thirds of them female. In South Asia, 1.1 millions youths are infected — 62 percent of them female.

 

The rate of new infections is growing rapidly in countries like India and Russia, Marshall said.

 

There is a continued risk of HIV concentrated among the poor and vulnerable in countries like Britain and the United States, Marshall said, but compared with India and Russia, the rate of infection is quite low.

 

The U.N. report also said poverty, early marriage, unwanted pregnancy and homelessness were major issues facing the world's adolescents. Half are poor and a quarter live in extreme poverty on less than a dollar a day.

 

Among the poorest and least-educated populations, early marriage of girls and expectations of early childbearing persist, contributing to high maternal mortality and reducing girls' chances for education.

 

The report backs up these conclusions with harsh statistics.

 

Teenage mothers are twice as likely to die in childbirth as women in their 20s; girls under 16 are five times more likely to die than women in their 20s, and 14 million young mothers aged 15-19 give birth each year. About 5 million girls between 15 and 19 undergo unsafe abortion every year, the report said.

 

"Studies show that money spent to delay births to adolescents and prevent HIV infections is repaid many times over in direct savings and indirect economic gains," the report said.

 

By Jane Wardell

©MMIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(Reference: Wardell, Jane. (Thursday, October 09, 2003) AIDS Becoming Youth Epidemic. USA: CBS News.com.)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Reference

AIDS: Millions Face 'Destruction'. (Monday, December 01, 2003) USA: CBS News.com.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/27/health/main585907.shtml

 

AIDS: Millions Face 'Destruction'

 

Dec. 1, 2003

 

AIDS Crisis May Sweep Asia

 

Quote

"This war has caused more casualties than any other war."

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson

 

(Photo: AP / CBS)

 

Former South African President Nelson Mandela is hugged by U2 lead singer Bono at the Nelson Mandela AIDS Benefit Concert in Cape Town South Africa.  (Photo: AP)

 

An unidentified baby is fed at a home for HIV/AIDS and abandoned children on World Aids Day in Soweto, South Africa, in 1998.  (Photo: AP)

 

(CBS/AP) Tens of thousands of AIDS activists and health workers rallied worldwide on Monday to mark World AIDS Day and officials announced new initiatives and millions of dollars in new funding to combat the disease that has infected 40 million people, and kills more than 8,000 sufferers everyday.

 

"People living with HIV are entitled to a future," said UNAIDS director Peter Piot in a statement.

 

The World Health Organization and UNAIDS promised cheaper drugs, simpler treatment regimens and more money as part of a major campaign launched Monday in Nairobi to provide 3 million HIV-infected people with the latest drugs available by the end of 2005, an effort that will cost $5.5 billion.

 

WHO also certified a new, innovative generic drug for use in treating HIV. The tablet combines three essential anti-retroviral drugs into one pill that is taken twice a day.

 

The pills are manufactured by two India-based generic drug makers and cost patients only $270 a year. But any export to countries that recognize patents held by major drug manufacturers is a violation of trade rules. In order to legally import the drugs, countries must suspend the rights of the patent holders.

 

More than 40 million people are infected with HIV and 3 million have died in 2003, according to UNAIDS. WHO estimates more than 5 million HIV patients need anti-retroviral drugs, but fewer than 400,000 currently have access to them.

 

Anti-retroviral drugs allow HIV patients to live a relatively normal life by preventing them from developing full-blown AIDS. While the drugs improve patients' health, they remain infected and can transmit the disease.

 

WHO and UNAIDS promised to promote international agreements to streamline treatment programs.

 

"In two short decades, HIV/AIDS has become the premier disease of mass destruction," Dr. Jack Chow, the assistant director-general of WHO, said. "The death odometer is spinning at 8,000 lives a day and accelerating."

 

Medecins sans Frontieres, an aid agency which has led efforts to simplify HIV treatment, welcomed the WHO announcement, but said funding will be critical to the initiative's success.

 

"The treatment has to be free, if the treatment is not free they will not meet their goals," Dr. Morten Rostrup, president of group's international council, said.

 

Around the world Monday:

 

Thousands of activists joined marches and a large rally in downtown Nairobi, Kenya to show support for people infected with HIV and to demand access to essential drugs. President Mwai Kibaki warned: "This disease could lead to the collapse of some economies in the next few generations."

 

In Zambia, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson appealed for a redoubling of efforts against HIV, saying Africa — the world's hardest-hit continent — cannot fight the pandemic alone. "This war has caused more casualties than any other war," Thompson said.

 

Former South African President Nelson Mandela urged the world to fight the stigma associated with HIV, saying it was stopping people from going for testing and treatment. "Many will die because of feeling less than human," he said.

 

The Indian government announced plans to spend $44 million to provide free anti-retroviral drugs to 100,000 AIDS patients..

 

In Beijing, health workers hit the streets teaching prevention. The China Daily newspaper said 840,000 people in China were HIV-positive and 80,000 had developed AIDS.

 

The British government said it will double its funding to UNAIDS next year to $10.2 million.

 

Botswana's President Festus Mogae said people must take responsibility for utilizing the free anti-retroviral therapy, HIV testing and the prevention of mother to child transmission services that are available.

 

In Liberia, a nation struggling to emerge from 14 years of war, U.S. Ambassador John Blaney called peace the main prerequisite for starting to combat AIDS.

 

In war-divided Ivory Coast, health workers in the rebel-held stronghold of Bouake pledged to go to rebel military camps to educate insurgents on the spread of AIDS.

 

Russia's top AIDS expert accused the government of not doing enough to prevent the spread of the disease. Over 257,000 HIV cases have been registered, but Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the Health Ministry's AIDS Prevention and Treatment Center, estimated that the actual infection rate was much higher — from 700,000 to 1.5 million.

 

In Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, which has the highest rate of HIV infection in Southeast Asia, some 1,000 people wearing white caps and T-shirts adorned with educational AIDS slogans participated in a rally held in the city center.

 

Thailand, whose unabashed promotion of condom use for safe sex helped turn the tide in the battle against AIDS, has drawn the line at putting condom vending machines in universities.

 

In the Philippines, health officials warned that Filipinos returning from working abroad should have themselves tested for HIV/AIDS to try to curb the spread of the disease in the country.

 

©MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(Reference: AIDS: Millions Face 'Destruction'. (Monday, December 01, 2003) USA: CBS News.com.)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Reference

AIDS In China Hits Million Mark. (Friday, November 07, 2003) USA: CBS News.com.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/07/health/main582482.shtml

 

AIDS In China Hits Million Mark

 

BEIJING, Nov. 7, 2003

 

 (Photo: CBS)

 

Chinese officials and the United Nations warn that 10 million people could be infected by 2020 without more effective prevention.

 

(AP) The number of AIDS patients in China is reaching “frightening” levels, a renowned expert on the disease said Friday, a day after Beijing said it would provide free treatment to thousands of sufferers in dire financial straits.

 

“There are about a million individuals in China who are already infected,” said Dr. David Ho, executive director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York. “There are some concerns about what the epidemic will look like 10 years from now and the numbers might be frightening to some.”

 

Ho was in Beijing to promote an AIDS summit Monday that will include a speech by former President Clinton and wide-ranging discussions — including topics that are traditionally taboo in China, such as care programs among gays and media coverage of AIDS.

 

It will also feature the personal account of a doctor from central China's Henan province, where an unsanitary blood-selling industry sped AIDS transmission.

 

The problem of HIV and AIDS “is obviously a health crisis,” Ho said. “When it's a problem of that magnitude it has to be a great concern to the leadership and, I think, to the general public.”

 

China has been slow to disclose the extent of the disease and detained two activists who distributed a government report linking AIDS to blood-selling in Henan.

 

But Beijing has more recently shown greater willingness to confront AIDS. Executive Vice Health Minister Gao Qiang said Thursday that 5,000 HIV and AIDS patients with “financial difficulties” will receive free treatment through next year.

 

According to the government's Xinhua News Agency, Gao said China's central and local governments have committed $820 million to set up anti-AIDS units, plus more than $24 million a year for prevention and treatment, Xinhua reported.

 

Gao added that China's fight against AIDS still falls short. “China is still faced with arduous tasks,” he was quoted as saying.

 

New HIV infections in China have been growing annually by about 30 percent. Chinese officials and the United Nations warn that 10 million people could be infected by 2020 without more effective prevention.

 

HIV in China is mostly confined to intravenous drug users and people infected by the unsanitary blood buying.

 

Ho was one of the researchers who pioneered using a “cocktail” of drugs to treat AIDS, which changed the disease from a quick death sentence to a sometimes manageable chronic illness. He was named Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1996 for his work.

 

©MMIII, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(Reference: AIDS In China Hits Million Mark. (Friday, November 07, 2003) USA: CBS News.com.)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Reference

Asian Nations Lag In War On AIDS. (Thursday, November 27, 2003) USA: CBS News.com.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/30/health/main586011.shtml

 

Asian Nations Lag In War On AIDS

 

CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Nov. 27, 2003

 

 (Photo: CBS/AP)

 

Nearly 1 in 60 people in Thailand's population of 62 million has contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In 1991, the peak of its AIDS crisis, it reported 142,819 new infections.

 

(AP) A doctor from Afghanistan stunned a conference on AIDS this month by revealing that he didn't know what the symptoms of the disease were.

 

Dr. Baz Mohammad Shirzad's statement underscored a lack of awareness in many parts of Asia — even among health professionals — that experts say is still undermining the global war on AIDS, 15 years after the first World AIDS Day galvanized the planet.

 

In a small step to reduce the ignorance ahead of World AIDS Day 2003 on Monday, U.N. and Thai officials brought 11 doctors and field workers here from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and East Timor — the kind of areas of recent conflict that experts say are particularly vulnerable to the virus.

 

They attended a 12-day seminar to learn how Thailand has successfully fought the disease using condoms plus the wisdom of Buddhist monks.

 

"Thailand is the only country that has had clear success," said Hakan Bjorkman, deputy resident representative of the United Nations Development Program. "This is why Thailand has so much to offer other countries."

 

Nearly 1 in 60 people in Thailand's population of 62 million has contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In 1991, the peak of its AIDS crisis, it reported 142,819 new infections.

 

By 2002, the number was down to 23,676.

 

Mandatory one-minute AIDS prevention ads were broadcast hourly on TV and radio and free boxes of condoms were distributed to prostitutes. In several communities, Buddhist monks taught villagers about condom use and how the disease is spread.

 

The monks also preach acceptance of AIDS sufferers and temples host support groups. One temple runs a hospice, and many specialize in preparing herbal medicine that alleviates symptoms.

 

Some of the players in Thailand's success story — field workers, nurses, monks and people living with AIDS participated in the seminar in the northern city of Chiang Mai that included lectures on AIDS orphans, homosexuality, prostitution and religious response.

 

They visited an AIDS orphanage and villages where people living with HIV are accepted in their communities.

 

Afghanistan, a country of 22 million people, officially has only 15 HIV cases. Its authorities allow for a maximum of 300, but with no monitoring system in place, this number is impossible to verify.

 

UNAIDS, the U.N. agency that coordinates the fight, says infection rates in Afghanistan are "likely to be low," but sees several risk factors, including neighboring countries with high-risk behavior, doctors unfamiliar with the symptoms, and the reluctance of the infected to come forward.

 

"We have never seen a person with HIV/AIDS because they're all hidden," said Dr. Shafiqullah Shahim of the HIV/AIDS Control Department, an Afghan government body set up in July.

 

"Unfortunately, HIV/AIDS is not a priority of the Ministry of Health."

 

Shahim estimated that about 10 percent of the population in the capital, Kabul, knows about HIV, and perhaps none in the countryside.

 

The department's first priority is to ensure the blood supply is safe, Shamim said. Blood banks in only 11 of the country's 32 provinces have HIV testing facilities.

 

The department is in contact with ministries of education and religion to seek their help in raising awareness.

 

Another hurdle is Afghanistan's conservative Islamic society, which does not allow open discussion about sex, unlike in Thailand where attitudes are more relaxed.

 

UNAIDS warns that high unemployment and poverty in Afghanistan could lead to prostitution, setting the stage for a possible epidemic.

 

But another doctor, Mohammad Zarif Nayebkhill, the provincial public health director in Logar province, insisted, "it will not be a problem in Afghanistan, because Afghanistan is a Muslim country ... There are no sex workers."

 

Still, he acknowledged that the virus could have been carried by many of the 2.5 million Afghan refugees who have returned to the country since the fall of the Taliban regime two years ago.

 

"Maybe people from other countries — France, America, Germany — when they come to Afghanistan, maybe there will be more HIV," Nayebkhill said.

 

© MMIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(Reference: Asian Nations Lag In War On AIDS. (Thursday, November 27, 2003) USA: CBS News.com.)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Reference

HIV/AIDS patients facing stigma, discrimination. (Monday, December 01, 2003) India: DeepikaGlobal.com.

http://www.deepikaglobal.com/archives/ENG3_sub.asp?newsdate=12/02/2003&ccode=ENG3&hcode=32321

 

HIV/AIDS patients facing stigma, discrimination

 

New Delhi, Dec 1 (UNI) Despite more than three lakh people being infected with HIV/AIDS during the past one year in India and international organisations taking up initiative to provide prevention and treatment programmes, the lot of people suffering from the dreaded disease was deplorable with most of them being left to die in miserable conditions.

 

The recent case of a woman in Kammam district of Andhra Pradesh who was left to die in deplorable and inhuman condition had brought the plight of such victims in the country to the fore. The incident had forced the National Commission for Women to take up the matter and issue directions so that such incidents were not repeated in future.

 

Similar was the situation of two kids in Kerala who were forced to leave their schools as parents of the other kids objected to their education in the same school. After much persuasion and appeals at the highest level, the two children were again readmitted to the same school.

 

A village in Haryana being banned by a community once a case of HIV/AIDS came to light a few years back and people canceling marriage with residents of that village are still fresh in the minds of people infected with the dreaded virus.

 

''Once the diagnosis of a HIV positive person is done, it appears that this is the end. Nothing can be done. Then starts a constant struggle as people discriminate due to lack of awareness about the disease, there was absolute lack of medical facilities for such patients,'' said Anandi Yuvraj of AIDS Alliance.

 

''Once a person is identified as HIV/AIDS patient not only his family and community abandon him but he is forced to quit his job.

 

Most of the time doctors are afraid to provide treatment to such patients. Many a time HIV/AIDS patients are forced to leave their residence as the landlord do not want them to have them as tenants,'' Mr Purshottam Mulloli of the JACK India, an NGO working in the field of HIV/AIDS, told UNI.

 

The incidents of denial of treatment to HIV/AIDS patients are rampant with doctors hesitating to take up these cases. The gravity of the situation could be gauged from the fact that the National Human Rights Commission's intervention was required to make an AIDS patient treatment available at a Delhi hospital.

(Reference: HIV/AIDS patients facing stigma, discrimination. (Monday, December 01, 2003) India: DeepikaGlobal.com.)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Reference

Sangli villagers in seclusion, thanks to AIDS stigma. (Monday, December 01, 2003) India: NewIndPress.com.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEO20031130125644&Page=O&Title=This+is+India&Topic=0&

 

Sangli villagers in seclusion, thanks to AIDS stigma

Monday December 1 2003 00:00 IST

 

SANGLI: Villagers in Maharashtra's Jat taluka were quite taken aback when a reporter of this website's newspaper entered the house of a woman they have boycotted.

 

A widow, the woman is not allowed to draw water from the village well and no villager dares visit her. Even her in-laws do not allow her to set foot in their house.

 

When her husband, a truck driver, died, his possessions were dumped in an unused well. The women of the village tell her healthy five-year-old daughter that she will die next.

 

For a quick reality check on World AIDS Day, one needs only to travel to Maharashtra's Sangli district where the dreaded virus has spread its tentacles far and wide.

 

Not a single village in the district, which shares a highway with Karnataka, is spared from the impact of the disease. The villagers don't really know what the disease is but think it safer to stay away from the afflicted and their family.

 

A decade after Sangli turned up as a dot on the global AIDS map, it has come a close second to Mumbai in AIDS deaths.

 

Today, widows have been left homeless even if they are healthy, parents landless, orphans with no playmates, and girls are pulled out of school.

 

Some men marry even if they have only weeks left to live. "It's considered inauspicious to die a bachelor. So dying men are married off to their nieces. The girls may become widows in five days or two years, but that doesn't matter to the community," says a social worker in rural Sangli who's trying to draw these girls into counselling.

 

"If my grand-daughters cough, our neighbours say they have AIDS and they should not play with other children," says Shobha. Her daughter, in her 20s, was sent home after her husband tested positive for AIDS. Their children have tested negative, but nobody would let them enter their house. "The village says my whole family is infected," Shobha adds.

 

A UNICEF study on Sangli published last year says: "Children of HIV/AIDS victims are often pelted with stones, beaten up and sometimes boycotted by other children...No one comes forward to marry girls from families of the afflicted."

 

In Chabukswarwadi, a girl was withdrawn from Std VI after her mother died of AIDS. The girl's grandmother says she can afford to send only one child to school. Her brother is HIV-positive but is in Std II. "I have no friends," says the girl.

 

(Names of patients and villages withheld to protect identity)

 

(Reference: Sangli villagers in seclusion, thanks to AIDS stigma. (Monday, December 01, 2003) India: NewIndPress.com.)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Reference

UN programs threatened by spread of HIV/AIDS, say UN officials. (Friday, November 28, 2003) China: Xinhua News Agency.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2003-11/28/content_1204699.htm

 

UN programs threatened by spread of HIV/AIDS, say UN officials

 

www.chinaview.cn 2003-11-28 04:29:14

 

 

    UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Senior officials of the United Nations system, preparing for World AIDS day on Monday, warned Friday that the continuing spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its high cost in social and financial resources are threatening the viability of UN programs to help poor countries.

 

    "The stark reality we face today is that all development goals,including those set for the Education for All program, are threatened by HIV/AIDS," said UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Koichiro Matsuura.

 

    "Prevention is the chief weapon in the spread of AIDS," he said."This is why UNESCO places such emphasis on accelerated and culturally-appropriate preventive education programs that target in-school and out-of-school young people."

 

    Global collaboration was necessary if substantial progress in combating the disease was to be made over the next 20 years, he said.

 

    "Our humanity is being challenged by the most devastating epidemic in recent history," Matsuura said. "History will judge uson our response to it."

 

    In an essay on HIV/AIDS among refugees, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers noted that recent studies show that in some AIDS-stricken countries, "refugees have lower HIV prevalence rates than the surrounding populations that host them."

 

    The studies recommend that those refugees who are infected should be included in the host countries' efforts to fight AIDS, he said, because excluding them, when they interact daily with their hosts, is "nonsensical in a public health sense."

 

    Part of the responsibility for including refugees in national programs rests with the donor community, he said.

 

    "Over the last two years, UNHCR and its partners have worked with refugees to improve programs for refugees. However, our fundsare limited," Lubbers said. Enditem  

(Reference: UN programs threatened by spread of HIV/AIDS, say UN officials. (Friday, November 28, 2003) China: Xinhua News Agency.)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

http://in.geocities.com/anindiantantric/aids.html

 

Published on internet: Sunday, December 07, 2003

Revised: Tuesday, January 11, 2005

 

Information on the web site is given in good faith about a certain spiritual way of life, irrespective of any specific religion, in the belief that the information is not misused, misjudged or misunderstood. Persons using this information for whatever purpose must rely on their own skill, intelligence and judgment in its application. The webmaster does not accept any liability for harm or damage resulting from advice given in good faith on this website.

                                                                                   

Back to An Indian Tantric Homepage Index

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“Thou belongest to That Which Is Undying, and not merely to time alone,” murmured the Sphinx, breaking its muteness at last. “Thou art eternal, and not merely of the vanishing flesh. The soul in man cannot be killed, cannot die. It waits, shroud-wrapped, in thy heart, as I waited, sand-wrapped, in thy world. Know thyself, O mortal! For there is One within thee, as in all men, that comes and stands at the bar and bears witness that there IS a God!

(Reference: Brunton, Paul. (1962) A Search in Secret Egypt. (17th Impression) London, UK: Rider & Company. Page: 35.)

Amen

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1