Egypt 'torturing HIV sufferers' :

Egypt 'torturing HIV sufferers' :

HIV-positive Egyptian men are tortured and chained to hospital beds while awaiting unfair homosexuality trials, a human rights group has claimed.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) decried the "ignorance and injustice" of a case in which a group of arrested men were given HIV tests without their consent.
They were also subjected to anal tests to "prove" their homosexual conduct.
Two of the men tested HIV-positive and are now handcuffed to hospital beds for 23 hours a day, HRW said.
"These men have been subjected to anal examination without their consent which amounts to torture," Gasser Abdel-Razek, HRW's acting director of regional relations in the Middle East, told the BBC on Wednesday.
"Egypt should release the men unconditionally and put a system in place that does not deal with HIV-positive individuals as criminals but as patients who require medical care and attention."
Egypt's Interior Ministry had no immediate comment on the case.

Source & Cont'd: BBC.co.uk

World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day across the globe. Despite the advances of anti-viral medications in this field, it still remains a fact that if you do contact HIV, which may lead to the development of AIDS, you will have to take at minimum 3 drugs a day and up to 16 a day. This is not exclusive, and the side effects from these drugs in order to try and stave off the advance of AIDS can be quiet diverse depending on the person.

This is a horrific disease and one which we need to be aware of its affects and how it affects those around us and across the Globe.

If you do nothing else today, Buy a red ribbon and support the good work which is being done by our NGOs & Health services.

http://www.worldaidsday.org/

HIV tests save lives of two babies

By KERRY WILLIAMSON - The Dominion Post | Friday, 9 November 2007

A pilot programme for HIV screening has been credited with saving two babies, and extending their mothers' life expectancy by decades.

Nine health boards have signed up to offer HIV testing of pregnant women after a pilot study in the Waikato. Its results are published in the New Zealand Medical Journal today.

Experts say high priority must be given to introducing antenatal screening.

"For those women who are diagnosed before they get sick, not only are we saving the lives of their children but we are also detecting it early enough to help the women themselves," said Graham Mills, an infectious diseases consultant with Waikato District Health Board.

Antenatal HIV screening is voluntary in New Zealand. A study of the Waikato programme found less than 10 per cent of healthcare providers offering tests.

The pilot made HIV screening one of six tests carried out on pregnant mothers, including for syphilis, hepatitis B and rubella.

A national programme would cost about $2 million. The test costs $9, and the direct medical cost of caring for an HIV infected child is put at $250,000.

Jane Morgan, a Waikato sexual health specialist, said about 9000 pregnant women were screened for HIV during the year-long pilot.

The virus was found in two, one in her teens, the other in her 20s. Both were infected through sex, one in New Zealand and one overseas.

contd: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4266509a11.html