Persons living with HIV (PLHIV) in the Capital will soon be allowed free travel on Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses. In a meeting with the Delhi State AIDS Council (DSACS), the state Health minister announced measures that would be ‘practical and helpful’ for PLHIV.
The state will also approach the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to extend the free-ride facility to PLHIV. “HIV/AIDS patients and their attendants will be allowed free travel in DTC buses to antiretroviral treatment (ART) centres and hospitals for check-up and treatment. The patient will be provided with BPL cards for this purpose. We are also in the process of ensuring that the patients get to avail free tests without having to spend money on diagnostics for opportunistic infections. We will also speak to DMRC officials about allowing free Metro travel for PLHIV,” Kiran Walia, state Health minister, said.
by Express News Service (www.indianexpress.com)

Persons living with HIV (PLHIV) in the Capital will soon be allowed free travel on Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses. In a meeting with the Delhi State AIDS Council (DSACS), the state Health minister announced measures that would be ‘practical and helpful’ for PLHIV.
The state will also approach the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to [...]

On Dec 1, 2009 at the Nokio theatre in NYC, Alicia Keys hosted a ‘One Night Only’ concert to benefit her non-profit organization ‘Keep a Child Alive’. Watch the rebroadcast of Alicia Key’s performance from NYC’s Nokia Theatre on World AIDS Day 12.01.09.

Keep a Child Alive is a non profit organization founded by Leigh Blake and Alicia Keys herself, that is dedicated to providing providing life-saving anti-retrovirus treatment, care and support services to children and families whose live has been affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India, by directly engaging the global public in the fight against AIDS.

Written by Prudence Chauke (www.jamati.com)

On Dec 1, 2009 at the Nokio theatre in NYC, Alicia Keys hosted a ‘One Night Only’ concert to benefit her non-profit organization ‘Keep a Child Alive’. Watch the rebroadcast of Alicia Key’s performance from NYC’s Nokia Theatre on World AIDS Day 12.01.09.

Keep a Child Alive is a non profit organization founded by Leigh Blake [...]

The short answer: No.

Over the weekend, Rod 2.0 updated the growing international backlash against Uganda’s latest and most extreme, anti-gay proposal: The proposed offense of “aggravated homosexuality” where an HIV-positive gay men has sex with another man. The penalty would be death. The prime ministers of Britain and Canada have formally protested the proposal.

Last year, the small East African nation received some $287 million in funding from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Several members of Congress, including Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), want the Obama Administration to withhold funding for AIDS programs in Uganda unless legislators abandon the extreme legislation. Sorry but we don’t tell countries how to legislate, PEPFAR Chief Coordinator Eric Goosby tells Newsweek.

From rodonline.typepad.com/rodonline

Article from http://rodonline.typepad.com/rodonline

The short answer: No.
Over the weekend, Rod 2.0 updated the growing international backlash against Uganda’s latest and most extreme, anti-gay proposal: The proposed offense of “aggravated homosexuality” where an HIV-positive gay men has sex with another man. The penalty would be death. The prime ministers of Britain and Canada have formally protested the proposal.

Last year, [...]

Why are the English archbishops silent over Uganda’s grotesque anti-homosexuality bill?
A bill currently before the Ugandan parliament (pdf) proposes seven year prison sentences for discussing homosexuality; life imprisonment for homosexual acts; and death for a second offence. Sober observers believe it will be passed. The Anglican church in Uganda appears to support it, and the Church of England in this country is absolutely silent. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Winchester solemnly denounce violence in the Congo, where they have no influence at all, but on Uganda they maintain a resolute post-colonial silence.

The position of the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, is more complicated, and his silence more eloquent. He is himself Ugandan by birth. One of his younger half-brothers, pastor Robert Kayanja, is a highly successful pentecostal preacher in Kampala, running a church called the Rubaga Miracle Centre. Such people are highly rewarded, and the business is extremely competitive. A rival preacher, the gloriously named Solomon Male of the The Arising Church was accused this spring of kidnapping Kayanga’s assistant and torturing him for five days to get him to confess that his boss was gay and partial to young men.

The admission would have been social death. Come to think of it, under the new law, it would be physical death as well.

Sentamu’s office say that he has not spoken to his brother for some months and was unaware of the story. So the suggestion on some websites that this was the cause of his silence can’t be right. On the other hand, his office is quite clear that he has “no plans” to speak out on the proposed bill.

To read more, please click here.

www.guardian.co.uk

Why are the English archbishops silent over Uganda’s grotesque anti-homosexuality bill?
A bill currently before the Ugandan parliament (pdf) proposes seven year prison sentences for discussing homosexuality; life imprisonment for homosexual acts; and death for a second offence. Sober observers believe it will be passed. The Anglican church in Uganda appears to support it, and the [...]

Uganda is in the spotlight over two proposed laws which activists say will hold back the fight against HIV/Aids and violate human rights. In a letter dated October 30, to President Museveni, the chairperson of the Champions for an HIV-free Generation (an African elder statesmen’s forum) and former president of Botswana, Festus Mogae, wrote that the draft HIV/Aids Prevention and Control Bill 2008 and the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill could have a chilling effect on HIV/Aids prevention efforts.

Mogae’s message

“Your Excellency, we respectfully express our concern at the provisions referenced in these two Bills and fear that passage of such legislation, which deviates from international best practice and recommendations, could lead to increased stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/Aids and the groups most vulnerable to the epidemic,” Mr Mogae wrote.

In the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill, Mr Mogae’s organisation is particularly concerned about a proposal that would see a person convicted of the offence of homosexuality imprisoned for life and a death penalty imposed for those having gay sex with anyone under the age of 18, or when the accused is HIV-positive.
Ndorwa West MP David Bahati who introduced the Bill, has defended it saying the proposed law is intended to protect future generations. “Homosexuality is not a human right. It is a foreign behaviour imported and promoted by people using the poverty in our country to expound bad behaviour. We are determined to protect what is right for Uganda and not what is convenient for some people,” Mr Bahati said.

To read more, please click here.

By Evelyn Lirri from www.monitor.co.ug

Uganda is in the spotlight over two proposed laws which activists say will hold back the fight against HIV/Aids and violate human rights. In a letter dated October 30, to President Museveni, the chairperson of the Champions for an HIV-free Generation (an African elder statesmen’s forum) and former president of Botswana, Festus Mogae, wrote that [...]

By MONICA GUZMAN
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

For the first time ever, an AIDS vaccine has protected subjects of a clinical trial from infection. Now directors of a new Seattle-based study are hoping for a repeat performance — or maybe even a cure.

“I’m more than ever convinced it’s possible,” said Dr. James Kublin, director of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, an international research group headquartered in Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Like his colleagues worldwide, Kublin saw the results of the clinical trial reported worldwide Thursday as a welcome sign of progress in an all too often disappointing field.

In the study, which was conducted in Thailand with the backing of the United States Army, among other large partners, more than 16,000 volunteers were given doses of two vaccines and half were given placebos. Of those who later became infected with HIV, 74 had gotten placebos, while 51 had gotten vaccines — a statistically significant difference.

Now, the pressure’s on for a similar Seattle-based trial that will test a different vaccine pair on 1,350 volunteers in 14 sites across the country, including Seattle, and — like the Thai study — track both the rate of infection and the “viral load” in the body.

To read more, please click here.

By MONICA GUZMAN
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
For the first time ever, an AIDS vaccine has protected subjects of a clinical trial from infection. Now directors of a new Seattle-based study are hoping for a repeat performance — or maybe even a cure.
“I’m more than ever convinced it’s possible,” said Dr. James Kublin, director of the HIV Vaccine Trials [...]

Blend of two failures cuts AIDS risk by 31%

by thestar.com

BANGKOK–Scientists said they were thrilled – but nonetheless baffled – that a developmental AIDS vaccine has shown significant success.

Test results released here yesterday showed the vaccine – a combination of two vaccines that have not worked in humans before – cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 per cent.

It was the world’s largest AIDS vaccine trial of more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand.

“I don’t want to use a word like `breakthrough,’ but I don’t think there’s any doubt that this is a very important result,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is one of the trial’s backers.

To read more, please click here.

Blend of two failures cuts AIDS risk by 31%

by thestar.com
BANGKOK–Scientists said they were thrilled – but nonetheless baffled – that a developmental AIDS vaccine has shown significant success.
Test results released here yesterday showed the vaccine – a combination of two vaccines that have not worked in humans before – cut the risk of becoming infected [...]