Infochange HIV Online Gateway

In the News

•	Bill Gates announces $ 23 million HIV/AIDS grant to India
•	Free second-line ART extended to more cities in India
•	Criminalising paid sex will not protect sex workers, say activists
•	AIDS epidemic continues to outpace response: UNAIDS meet
•	Governments meet to take stock of HIV/AIDS commitments
•	Rapid testing of pregnant women for HIV in rural India effective: study
•	CSOs demand lifting of travel ban on people with HIV
•	Pressure mounts on govt to table HIV/AIDS Bill

Debates

The miseducation of the Indian client
An international study that sought to profile men who buy sex found that of all the countries, Indian clients’ responses stood out for their low level of knowledge of sexual health issues and resistance to condom use Read more

Does AIDS divert attention from other public health priorities?
An article published in the British Medical Journal questioned whether HIV/AIDS was an exceptional disease requiring billions of dollars in international aid annually, and argued for strengthening public healthcare systems of affected countries instead. It has caused a storm of protest from those working in the field of HIV/AIDS Read more

20 million or 2 million?
There are multiple, conflicting estimates about the numbers of HIV/AIDS infected people in India. Where do these numbers come from? Read more

Male circumcision: a cut above?
Recent studies have shown that male circumcision could reduce the risk of HIV. How strong is the evidence and what are the public health and cultural concerns about implementing circumcision in India? Read more

HIV & Human Rights

Introduction
Protecting the rights of those affected and most vulnerable to HIV will create an environment in which stigma, violence and inequity will be lessened, thereby bringing the disease into the open and making it easier to treat and control. In India there is no law or statute that specifically addresses the issues that are raised in the HIV context. Read more

Gender inequities
Women, who have little ability to negotiate a safe and healthy life for themselves, are more disadvantaged than men when it comes to HIV infection, and the law does little to protect them Read more

Treatment

Half-baked treatment for HIV-positive children
Government treatment for HIV-positive children lacks essential support services and gives counselling a complete miss even though NACO guidelines on paediatric treatment give detailed information on counselling by healthcare providers roll-out. Read more

Drug resistance the new challenge in India
India’s announcement that it will roll out 'second line' drugs meant to treat those who have started showing resistance to 'first line' treatment is welcome, but, argue experts, policymakers should also urgently look at problems plaguing the first line roll-out. Read more

Interventions

Small town women find new freedom with female condoms
In rural Uttar Pradesh, a programme to get women to use the female condom is proving a success with both women and men Read more

Communicating effectively in Tamil Nadu
Between 1993 and 1998, it was believed that about 1.6% of the general population in Tamil Nadu was HIV-positive. By 2004 that had dropped to 0.5%. TANSACS, an innovative information, education and communication (IEC) campaign, was responsible for this dramatic drop Read more

Media

AIDS in the Kannada press: a new subject, a new vocabulary
HIV/AIDS has a definite presence in the Kannada press today, as training, information and sensitisation for journalists has improved Read more

Stories from a crisis
There is a whole body of literature and cinema about HIV/AIDS in the West since the 1980s. Why has so little attention been focused on the epidemic by Indian writers and filmmakers? Read more

Response

Call for action on HIV TB
As preparation for the first meeting of the HIV TB Global Leaders' Forum at the United Nations on June 9, 2008, the Forum has put out a ‘call for action’ that reminds governments of the seriousness of the HIV-TB link and what actions they must take Read more

The National AIDS Control Programme (1, 2, 3)
Each of the three phases of the National Aids Control Programme in India have focused on, or emphasised, different aspects of the HIV epidemic in efforts to contain the spread of the disease Read more

Living with HIV

Discriminated to death
A young Indian couple in Saudi Arabia, a 15-year-old boy in Ahmedabad, a farm labourer in Surat and many others have committed suicide to escape the stigma and discrimination that HIV-positive people. Why does discrimination continue despite crores of rupees spent on awareness campaigns in the past two decades?Read more

“I am afraid; how do I break the news?”
Twenty-year-old Ibungo cannot tell his parents or his partners that he has HIV because in Manipur, as in the rest of India, men who have sex with men are liable to be clapped up in jail.Read more

Vulnerable Groups

Violence against women and HIV/AIDS
HIV-positive women face violence of various kinds but this gets less attention than other forms of violence against them. A workshop in Kolkata, ‘Understanding Violence against Women and its Implications for our Struggle against HIV/AIDS’, discussed this problem based on the findings of a six-month study by researchers Read more

New approaches to contain HIV risk among IDUs
Injecting drug use is an important risk factor for HIV in India. The entire South Asian and South East Asian region has shown an alarming increase in injecting behaviour.While voluntary abstinence is the best cure, it has a poor success rate. We need to look at more innovative and effective approaches being successfully tried out elsewhere Read more

Research

Biomedical research on HIV/AIDS in India
In India, research on HIV started in 1986. Currently, research on HIV/ AIDS is conducted in various institutions of the Indian Council of Medical Research, other research institutes, medical colleges, hospitals, voluntary organisations and also in public sector agencies. Sheela Godbole and Sanjay Mehendale present an overview of biomedical research on HIV/AIDS in India Read more

Books & Reports

Study assesses Indian response to male circumcision
This small study carried out in Mysore found that 81% of mothers polled were agreeable to having their male children circumcised Read more

Monitoring HIV/AIDS treatment for children
By 2010, at least 80% of pregnant women globally who need it should get PMTCT treatment, and 80% of children who need it should be on ART. This report assesses what progress has been made in this direction Read more