Army hospitals to handle AIDS more humanely

The doctors and nursing staff of army hospitals need to handle patients suffering from Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) more sensitively and with a human face, Lt. Gen J. Jayaram, director general of the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) said Thursday.

Inaugurating a 10-day workshop on management of patients with AIDS and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) at the Army Hospital (Research and Referral) here, Jayaram said: 'Though HIV prevalence among our force is much less than the civilians yet the young population needs to be careful.'

'The high risk population, migratory job, staying away from families are factors that we need to take care of. Our doctors and nursing staff are doing their job but need to do it with more sensitivity,' he said.

He said the armed forces hospitals are taking help from National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), several NGOs and the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA) in handling the health menace.

'We will tell commanders to play their role in this field,' he said.

Maj. Gen. Shashi Bala, additional director general of the Military Nursing Service (MNS), said that all hospitals need 'a human approach for the management of patients with HIV/AIDS'.

She also appealed to the nursing community of the armed forces 'to become fluent in the language of AIDS and handle patients with extreme sensitivity'.

'The whole aim is reduce stigma, discrimination and isolation for patients,' Bala said.

The 10-day-workshop from Thursday will equip concerned health officials of several hospitals under the Western Command about HIV/AIDS, and how to provide best possible care to people suffering from the disease.

Jayaram further advised the participants about the need to develop good communication skills to unravel the cultural, social and personal values and beliefs of each patient. He said this would help in formulating further effective prevention and control measures against HIV/AIDS.

'We should try our best so that patients will not hesitate to come forward and reveal their problem,' he said.

(source : news.yahoo.com)

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Zambia to get anti-AIDS drug boost from global fund

Former US president Bill Clinton will visit Zambia this weekend to boost an UN-backed HIV/AIDS drugs programme which is helping treat some 13,250 children, UNITAID said Thursday.

The partnership between the Bill Clinton Foundation and UNITAID, a international drugs funding initiative, has increased the number of children under life-saving treatment in Zambia by about 7,200, an agency spokeswoman said.

With current levels of the disease, youngsters in Zambia face a 50 percent life-time risk of dying of AIDS in the absence of treatment, according to United Nations.

The Zambian government is also due to sign up to a five million dollar UNITAID programme to finance costly second line antiretroviral drugs in Zambia, one of the countries worst affected by HIV/AIDS.

UNITAID was launched last year by Brazil, Britain, France, Chile, Norway as an international drug purchasing facility for poor countries, partly funded by airline ticket levies.

At least 34 countries have signed up as donors to the 300 million dollar fund, which is aiming to help treat an additional 100,000 child HIV/AIDS victims in the world this year, and provide drugs against other major diseases.

UNITAID board chief Philippe Douste-Blazy is also due to discuss the supply of new artemisin-based anti-malarial and tuberculosis drugs with Zambian officials.

Although not part of the United Nations, the organization is backed by the World Health Organization.

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Three gene variants could hold key for HIV vaccine

Three gene variants in the DNA of 486 AIDS patients appear to play a role in containing and slowing the HIV virus, according to research published Thursday.

The researchers hope their finding will lead to a vaccine that would boost the protective effects of one or more of these genes, and help the body's own immune system overcome an infection.

One gene variant looks specially promising, the scientists said in a study to appear in the Friday edition of the journal Science.

"These results not only approximately double our understanding of the factors that influence variation amongst individuals in how they control HIV-1, but also point toward new mechanisms of control," said David Goldstein, of Duke's Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy at North Carolina's Duke University and chief author of the study.

The international team of geneticists worked for 18 months in carefully selecting patients and using the latest in genome-wide screening technology to discover the three genes.

The research found that some patients with specific gene variants in key immune system cells appear to be much better controlling the proliferation of the AIDS virus after infection.

"As we expand the number of patients in future studies conducted by CHAVI (Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology) researchers, we aim to discover even more polymorphisms that could provide additional clues how some patients are better able to control the virus than others," Goldstein said.

"This should ultimately lead to novel targets for vaccines, the primary goal of CHAVI," a seven-year project launched in 2005 by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH).

Two of the newly discovered gene variants were found in genes controlling the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system, which plays a "major role" in the immune system by identifying foreign invaders and "tagging" them for destruction.

Two of the HLA genes, known as HLA-A and B, are turned off by the HIV virus when it enters the body, which keeps the immune system from recognizing the virus as foreign.

However, the HLA-C gene is apparently not turned off by the AIDS virus, suggesting that for some individuals at least HLA-C is involved in controlling the HIV virus, the researchers said.

The HLA-C gene may represent an Achilles heel of HIV, according to Goldstein.

A vaccine could be designed to elicit an HLA-C mediated response that the HIV virus might be unable to defuse, the expert added.

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HIV patients build normal immune strength in study

AIDS drug cocktails may be able to restore the ravaged immune systems of some people infected with HIV, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Immune cells known as CD4 T-cells returned to normal levels in an ideal group of patients, picked because they responded optimally to a combination of at least three AIDS drugs, the researchers reported in the Lancet medical journal.

The human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS, plunders the immune system, leaving people vulnerable to a range of infections that may prove fatal.

AIDS is incurable, but doctors try to prop up the immune system with life-extending drug therapy aimed at reducing the amount of virus in the body.

The study involved 1,835 HIV-infected people drawn from a larger study involving more than 14,000 patients from across Europe, Israel and Argentina.

"I think it's very encouraging that if people can respond to treatment well enough and can suppress the virus for long enough, we have sufficient evidence to say their CD4 counts can return to normal," Dr. Amanda Mocroft of Royal Free and University College Medical School in London, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview.

"Our previous understanding was that there was a plateau in CD4 counts so that CD4 counts would stop increasing after a sufficiently long time taking combination therapy," she added.

Mocroft said not all HIV patients respond as well to these drugs, and many, particularly in the hardest hit regions like sub-Saharan Africa, do not have access to them.

"This is sort of the best-case scenario, if you like, that we can identify a group of patients who we would expect to have a normal CD4 count with sufficient treatment," Mocroft said.

These patients were chosen because they responded well to the treatment, with the drugs suppressing the virus to very low levels. They were tracked for about five years.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said doctors who care for HIV-infected patients have noticed this restoration of normal levels of CD4 cells in some of them. Fauci credited Mocroft's team for documenting this phenomenon in a systematic way.

CD4 cells, a type of white blood cell, help protect the body

from infection. But HIV targets CD4 cells, using them to create

more copies of the virus, thus undermining the immune system.

After initial infection, a person can produce more CD4 cells to take the place of those attacked by HIV. But in time, the body cannot make enough, increasingly weakening the immune system.

Although it is impossible to eradicate the virus with existing drugs, it is possible to keep it at extremely low levels in some people with the right combination of drugs.

The AIDS virus infects close to 40 million people globally, most of them in Africa. It has killed more than 25 million.

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Bulgaria seeks transfer of AIDS case medics from Libya

Bulgaria said Wednesday it had begun steps to secure the transfer from Libya of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor reprieved from death sentences for infecting children with HIV/AIDS.

"The procedure around the transfer ... is already underway. I will request that the medical workers be allowed to serve out their sentences at home," chief prosecutor Boris Velchev said.

"The documents with which Bulgaria will request the extradition will be sent today to Libya," Velchev said, adding that the Palestinian doctor, who was recently granted Bulgarian nationality, would be included.

Libya's highest judicial body on Tuesday commuted to life in prison the death sentences against the six medics after a multi-million dollar compensation deal was hammered out with victims' families.

The six, who have been on death row since 2004 and deny any wrongdoing, are expected to serve out their sentences in Bulgaria as the two countries have an extradition treaty.

"We see no reasons for Libya to refuse the extradition," Velchev said, while stressing that the treaty provided no mandatory time framework for concluding a prisoner transfer.

"If the Libyan side is slow to answer the request, we will keep reminding them repeatedly of the need for an answer," he said.

Possible obstacles to a speedy transfer include defamation charges brought against the medics by senior Libyan police officers over claims of torture.

The family of twin girls infected with AIDS have also brought a civil suit against the six.

"Libya decides if the civil suits can hinder the transfer but if there is indeed an obstacle, it is technical and could be overcome," Velchev said.

The five nurses and the doctor, who was granted Bulgarian citizenship earlier this year, have been in a Libyan jail since 1999.

They were twice convicted of deliberately injecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood in a hospital in Libya's second city of Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast.

The death penalty had been confirmed for a third time by Tripoli's Supreme Court last week.

But Libya's top legal body, the Supreme Judicial Council, commuted the death sentences to life in prison Tuesday after the families of the infected children received money under a compensation deal with the Kadhafi foundation charity.

Bulgarian observers were impatient for the nurses' return in the wake of the compensation payout.

"They took the money but held the nurses," left-wing daily Standard said in its front-page headline Wednesday, condemning the "vicious mockery of our nurses in Libya".

President Georgy Parvanov dismissed speculation he would pardon the medics immediately after their transfer to Bulgaria.

"Talk of pardoning is not advisable at this stage. Let us not set sails before the wind comes," Parvanov said.

Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev said: "For us the case will be over when they return at home".

"Bulgaria will press for this to happen as quickly as possible," he added, urging "calm and a bit more patience."

Nurses Snezhana Dimitrova, Nasya Nenova, Valya Cherveniashka, Valentina Siropulo and Kristiana Valcheva and doctor Ashraf Juma Hajuj have always pleaded their innocence.

They say confessions were extracted under torture while foreign experts testified that the six were used as scapegoats for poor hygiene at the hospital that sparked the AIDS outbreak.

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UN praises China's progress in AIDS fight

China has taken significant steps to fight HIV and AIDS, but long-term challenges include reaching out to more patients in the vast country and overcoming a lack of cooperation from some government officials, a U.N. AIDS official said Tuesday.

There are an estimated 650,000 people living with HIV in China, according to the most recent government statistics from the end of 2005. HIV gained a foothold in China largely due to unsanitary blood plasma-buying schemes and tainted transfusions in hospitals.

''I believe that over the last few years there have been serious progress and good results in the fight against AIDS in China and now the challenge is to sustain these efforts,'' said Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS.

Piot said successes in China include commitment and transparency at the top levels of government as well as proper funding, availability of antiretroviral drugs, and outreach programs. ''I've been coming to China for 14, 15 years, and I can say in the first five or six years there was basically no receptivity in terms of the issue,'' he said. ''And now, today, a lot is going on. You look at budgets, systems are being put in place, I think it's really very different.''

Piot recently returned from Shangcai County in Henan province, where unclean blood-buying businesses passed the virus to thousands of people in the 1990s. He toured a clinic and orphanage for AIDS orphans and also visited with patients.

There was a 50% reduction in the number of AIDS deaths in Henan province between 2002 and last year, said Wang Longde, China's vice minister of health, who also spoke at the U.N. news conference.

Cases of transfusions using infected blood have fallen sharply since the 1990s. The government has banned the practice of buying blood and has forbidden donations by prostitutes, intravenous drug users, and others in high HIV risk groups. (AP)
If you'd like to know more, you can find stories related to UN praises China's progress in AIDS fight.

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World struggling to treat HIV-AIDS

Global AIDS treatment will fall far short of a universal target to have five million people being treated by 2010, due to a continued lack of access to drugs by many of the world's impoverished people, said a new report.

The report analyzing AIDS treatment in 17 countries and titled "Missing the Target" said free HIV treatment was actually not free in many poor countries.

"Free treatment is not truly free in most countries surveyed," said Gregg Gonsalves from the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, which released the report on Wednesday.

"Charges for diagnostic tests, medical care and other services are putting lifesaving care out of the reach of many thousands of people," Gregg said in a statement.

Although 700,000 more people with HIV received treatment in 2007, the pace needed to accelerate, said the coalition, which represents activists in more than 125 countries.

"Tripling the annual growth rate of treatment access from today's 700,000 to 2 million new people on treatment each year is both possible and necessary to meet the G8 commitment of coming close to universal access by 2010," said the coalition's report.

The United Nations says close to 40 million people are infected with the AIDS virus and that treatment had dramatically expanded from 240,000 people in 2001 to 1.3 million by 2005.

In June, world powers at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Germany set a target of providing AIDS drugs over the next few years to approximately 5 million people.

STIGMA, MARGINALISED

While increasing numbers of people were being treated for HIV, the latest report said there remained serious challenges with marginalized people, inequitable access to care for rural populations and children, a lack of transportation, the stigma of being diagnosed and the high cost of drugs.

Cambodia, which has some 134,000 people with HIV, was a "success story" in increasing treatment, it said. AIDS drugs only became available in Cambodia in 2004 and there were now 40 centers treating some 21,900 people.

But the report said there was still a "large but silent minority" of marginalized people, such as sex workers, Vietnamese citizens living in Cambodia and people in remote areas and slums, who still did not receive treatment.

"Many of these individuals...are reluctant to seek out health services in general because of fear of stigma and discrimination, if not harassment," it said.

China's free treatment program, started four years ago, had expanded rapidly from August 2006 when 26,000 people were treated to 30,000 by June 2007, said the report. But this was a small percent of the official 650,000 people with HIV in China.

Major obstacles in China to treatment were stigma and a "prohibitively expensive" test to confirm diagnosis, along with a lack of drugs and trained medical staff, it said.

India has one of the world's largest populations living with HIV-AIDS, about 2.5 million people, but as of 2007 only 70,780 people were being treated through 107 centers, said the report.

"Clearly, therefore, only a fraction of those needing treatment are receiving it now or can hope to receive it in the next half a decade," said the report.

South Africa, the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic with 5.5 million people with HIV, was also struggling to treat people.

As of 2007 some 257,100 patients were receiving drugs at specialist centers, with 30,000 on waiting lists, and up to 110,000 people being treated privately, said the report.

The report said South Africa had a long way to go meet its goal of treating 80 percent of new AIDS cases by 2011.

"Treatment delivery is working and there can be no more excuses for losing this momentum or letting millions die of AIDS," said Zackie Achmat of South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign.

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Expanded HIV Testing Pays Off: Studies

Making HIV screening routine in emergency rooms and at gay pride events expands the number of people getting tested and helps those who are HIV-positive get access to needed health care, new research found.

About one-quarter of the estimated one million people in the United States infected with the virus that causes AIDS don't know they have it. Consequently, they are at heightened risk for transmitting the virus to others, according to two reports published in the June 22 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The reports come out just in time for National HIV Testing Day, June 27, and planned gay pride celebrations in many U.S. cities this weekend.

Study co-author Patrick Sullivan is chief of the behavioral and clinical surveillance branch, part of the CDC's division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. He said, "Routinely offering testing at emergency departments for people seeking care for other conditions is feasible and acceptable. The goal is to make testing available to as many people as possible."

"This is an important strategy to help people know their status," he said.

For the first report, researchers analyzed routine HIV testing that had been implemented in one hospital emergency department in Los Angeles, one in New York City and one in Oakland, Calif., in 2004 and 2005 as part of a CDC initiative.

Between January 2005 and March 2006, 186,415 people visited the emergency departments, 18.6 percent of whom (34,627) were offered rapid HIV tests. Nearly 60 percent (almost 21,000) of those offered agreed to be tested, and 9,365 received a rapid test.

Of those tested, 1 percent (97 patients) received a preliminary positive result for HIV infection, and 88 percent of those identified as HIV-positive were linked to appropriate care.

If only those persons reporting risky behaviors (male-to-male sexual contact, intravenous drug use, commercial sex work, or diagnosis of a sexually transmitted disease) had been offered testing, 48 percent of the people with newly diagnosed HIV infection would not have been tested, the study said.

These findings essentially paved the way for the CDC's revised recommendations in 2006 that call for HIV testing to become a routine part of medical services, using a voluntary "opt-out" approach.

For the second study, CDC researchers analyzed data from a survey of minorities who had attended gay pride events in nine U.S. cities from 2004 to 2006.

CDC representatives offered rapid HIV testing to survey participants who reported that they had not previously been diagnosed with HIV. Of 543 men surveyed, 133 agreed to be tested. Six percent (eight men) of those tested were HIV-positive. Four had had a negative test within the past year.

More than one-quarter of 229 participants had not seen a health-care provider within the past year and, of those who had, only 40 percent had been offered an HIV test.

The CDC sees HIV testing at gay pride events as part of a larger strategy to encourage testing among gay men. Testing in such settings is especially important to reach people who may not have regular access to health care, the CDC said.

Dr. Lisa Kudlacek Cornelius is an assistant professor of internal medicine with the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and chairwoman of infection control/hospital epidemiologist with Scott & White Hospital in Temple. She said, "The important thing is to bring people into care sooner, before they have an AIDS-related illness."

With rapid testing, she added, "They have their answer within 20 minutes, but with testing, you also need counseling."

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Temple to double up as HIV testing lab

The AIDS awareness campaign just got a novel crusader - a temple.

Concerned over the rise in the number of AIDS cases, Shri Guga Mari Temple at Sector 20 has set up a laboratory at the temple itself to conduct HIV tests. Not only this, the temple would also spread awareness about the disease among the devotees, and encourage people to get HIV test done before getting married.

Pandit Kishori Lal, the priest at the temple, said, "The laboratory will start functioning from Saturday. We have all the requisite equipment with us. A large number of tests, including that of HIV/AIDS, would be conducted at the laboratory."

Hematology and biochemistry tests, too, would be conducted at the laboratory that has been named Charitable Community Laboratory.

"We have been spreading awareness among the people regarding this disease for quite sometime. Now, we would begin with tests at our laboratory. Awareness is the cure for this disease."

Representatives of State AIDS Control Society had held AIDS awareness programmes for the heads of gurdwaras, temples, churches and mosques a few months ago.

Dr Avnish Jolly, one among the volunteers to have set up the lab at the temple, said, "The religious leaders can reach out to a large number of people. These leaders were sensitised, and they themselves came forward to contribute to the cause."

"There would be qualified technicians in the laboratory to conduct tests," Jolly added.

The tests would be reportedly conducted at the lowest price possible.

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Esperanza Will Release Tonight the Results of a Study to Advocate for HIV/AIDS Awareness

Esperanza, the country's leading faith-based Hispanic organization, will release tonight the results of a study about Latino churches and the HIV/AIDS epidemic called "Answering the Call: How Latino Churches can Respond to the HIV/AIDS Epidemic". The research is a joint venture of Esperanza and The University of Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies. The results of the study will be presented tonight as part of the National Health Initiatives Dinner, one of the events of the 2007 National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast and Conference, taking place June 13-15th in the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The research is said to give better understanding on how Latino churches and clergy might be involved in helping people living with HIV/AIDS and how the congregations and their leaders are responding to the disease and those it affects in their communities.

The National Health Initiatives Dinner will gather hundreds of Hispanic clergy and community leaders, as well as political officials. The event will be hosted by Mujeres de Esperanza (Women of Hope), Esperanza's national ministry that unites women of all ages across the nation in prayer, affirmation and service.

To request a copy of the entire study, contact Marisol Martinez at press@esperanza.us or 215-324-0746, extension 205.

Esperanza is a faith-based non-profit organization committed to raising awareness and identifying resources that strengthen the Hispanic community. Esperanza's initiatives help develop communities, provide technical assistance to Latino faith and community-based organizations, advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness, and provide workforce development opportunities. For more information on the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast and Conference, Esperanza, and its national programs and resources, go to http://www.esperanza.us.

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Here, 10 HIV-positive people serve 'food' for thought

OSTRACISED by society, they cater to people's taste buds, if not to their myopic thinking.

Stigmas, misbehaviour notwithstanding, this enterprising group of HIV positive people have begun satiating people's hunger.

A catering service started by Ahmedabad Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (ANPLH), Abad NP+ is run entirely by HIV positive people - some of whom were shown the door by their employers, while some had to move out of their profession once their HIV positive status was revealed.

A brainchild of Dr DM Saxena, assistant project director of Gujarat State AIDS Control Society (GSACS), the project is first-of-its-kind in the country where HIVpositive people operate a food business.

"Food is one of the most vulnerable areas in human social behaviour," Saxena said, adding that once people become fond of the platter, the myths, misconceptions and stigmas attached with the HIV/ AIDS will dispel fast.

"Apart from an income generation activity, we at GSACS are looking at it as a way to eradicate discrimination," Saxena adds.

The catering unit, which became operational only last month, has five men and five women who are HIVpositive, barring the cook.

"Right now, we are training 10 people to run the show," said Vishwesh Trivedi (name changed), the project officer. Trivedi being a HIV positive himself was forced to resign from a reputed IT company after his status was revealed last year.

Once the training gets over, these people will set up their own business with support from GSACS and ANPLH and train the second batch of 10 caterers.

"By the end of this year we intend to have 10 such units all over the State," Trivedi adds.

"We'll gradually try to set up stalls at bus stands and railway stations to be run by HIV positive people," Trivedi said, adding that in all cases, customers are informed beforehand about their HIV status.

"It becomes very important, for HIV positive people to have their own source of sustenance, as the societal acceptance is yet not complete," he said.

"So far, we have got good response from the health sector," Trivedi said, adding that the network is already supplying tiffins to ART centre in Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, GSACS and AIDS Project support unit.

"In fact, in the last one month, we generated business of about Rs 16,000," he said.

"However, some of the corporate houses have flatly refused to buy our food," he says, adding that in some areas the network needs to do some advocacy to raise the level of awareness.

"People need to know that HIV/AIDS doesn't spread through food," he said.

"Right now, we are supplying about 8 to 10 tiffins a day," said Lakshman J Meena, president ANPLH.

"Our target is to reach 25 tiffins and four outdoor parties in a day," he said, adding that the network was planning to approach NGOs for orders, which will make things a little easier for them.

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At statewide camp, over 300 children test HIV-positive

IN an effort to reach out to AIDS/HIV affected and infected children across the State, the Gujarat State AIDS Control Society (GSACS) recently organised a two-day paediatric camp simultaneously in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Surendranagar, Bhuj, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar districts. Its findings: Of 466 HIV-affected children who attended the camp, 301 were found to be HIV-positive. Blood samples of 288 out of the 301 children were sent in for CD4 testing with 123 kids qualifying for anti-retroviral therapy (ART), said GSACS assistant project director Dr DM Saxena on Monday.

Presently, there are around 65 children undergoing anti-retroviral therapy at ART centres across State, said Saxena. "With more children identified for ART treatment during the camps, this number will jump to 188. ART treatment being expensive, talks are on with the Clinton Foundation and the UNICEF for sponsorship of childrens' journey to and from the nearest ART centre and their food. We have also requested that they sponsor one guardian to accompany each child," he said adding that GSACS will bear the cost of first line of treatment for the children.

The camps assume significance in face of the fact that so far the State has three ART centres - in Ahmedabad, Surat and Rajkot-- and only a segment of HIV positive patients can access them. According to Dr Saxena, this was the first time that such camps were organised in State.

HIV affected children are kids with either one or both parents having AIDS.

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Drug-users raise risk of HIV in India's heartland

India's injecting drug problem may be worse than thought, a new survey of the country's breadbasket region shows, worrying health experts and activists who say it could fuel the spread of HIV and AIDS.

The UNAIDS-backed survey by the Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses (SPYM) -- a group fighting drug abuse -- showed that nearly 60 percent of 3,300 drug users in 10 cities and towns in the northern states of Punjab and Haryana shared needles and syringes.

The prosperous region -- home to around 50 million people -- was not known for injecting drug users (IDUs), and the survey is the first large-scale mapping in the area.

"This shows the problem of IDUs has been underestimated in mainland India, as most of the problem was thought to be in the northeast," Denis Broun, the India head of UNAIDS, the United Nations AIDS agency, told Reuters.

Official estimates say there are about 200,000 IDUs in India, a figure activists say is a huge underestimate. The problem is seen as most acute in the remote northeast, which borders Myanmar and the opium-producing Golden Triangle.

India has the world's largest number of people living with HIV with 5.7 million people thought to be infected, although findings of a new population-based national survey have indicated that the actual figure could be lower.

In other parts of Asia, injecting drug use has fuelled the HIV epidemic. But India's state-run National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) says drug users are responsible for just 2.2 percent of HIV transmissions.

UNAIDS says this number may now need to be looked at again.

"This survey points out that the IDU transmission figure is likely to be higher than 2.2 percent," Broun said. "The percentage for IDU transmissions may be relatively small but if there are more IDUs than thought, it could be a major transmission route in the future."

Many drug users in India are married or visit sex workers, presenting an HIV risk to their partners, Broun added.

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Symposium to strengthen police response to HIV

A SYMPOSIUM focused on strengthening police response to HIV was held where senior police officers joined hands with Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society, civil society organisations and groups working on HIV prevention among marginalised populations to prevent the spread of HIV.

Pune district has an estimated HIV prevalence of 1.8 per cent. Not only are men in uniformed services such as the police more vulnerable to HIV, as law enforcers they have a major role to play among groups vulnerable to HIV such as sex workers, drug users, men who have sex with men.

Sankar Sen, IPS, and former director, National Police Academy, said it was their duty to uphold the rights of citizens, particularly marginalised sections such as sex workers.

"Many are playing an important role in HIV prevention by spreading safe sex messages in their community," he said.

Prakash Sabde, project director, Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society (MSACS), said the police had a large role in HIV prevention as they not only help maintain law and order but also act as a link between vulnerable populations and society. In addition, they must safeguard themselves from it. "HIV is a great leveller. As police officers we ask that you first respond to it as a person," he said.

The symposium was organised by the Avahan India AIDS Initiative with support from Constella Futures and Pathfinder International. The objective was to create a cohesive strategy to prevent and combat HIV. It explored ways of strengthening collaboration between different stakeholders such as the police and marginalised communities such as sex workers, injecting drug users and men who have sex with men.

Prabhat Ranjan, Joint Commissioner of Police, said HIV awareness levels in the police were not adequate to protect them from HIV. "We must educate our ranks and file on safe sex practices," he said. It was decided to train trainers and peer educators from the police staff to disseminate HIV prevention messages among the police force at all levels. Pathfinder International will conduct training programmes for the police stations at Pune, Shivajinagar, Swargate and other places in the city. Around six lakh people are infected with HIV in the state.

Maharashtra needs a multi stakeholder partnership to upscale prevention efforts. "As we enter the third phase of the NAtional AIDS Control Programme, we need to create meaningful partnerships and collaborations to catalyse a nation-wide movement against the spread of HIV," he said.

Chandrashekhar Daithankar, DCP, Zone III, suggested that every police station have posters and other information literature on HIV prevention. NGO Pathfinder International has agreed make available information materials on HIV/AIDS at each police station in the city.

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