VOA Indonesia, 31 Juli 2014

Survei di Malawi menunjukkan bahwa 20 persen dari gadis-gadis belia di sana menjadi aktif secara seksual sebelum usia 13 tahun.

BLANTYRE, MALAWI — Di Malawi, hampir sepertiga penderita baru HIV terjadi pada perempuan di bawah usia 30. Pendukung kampanye penanggulangan AIDS mengatakan ini sebagian adalah akibat dari pengenalan dini pada gadis-gadis belia ke aktivitas seksual dalam upacara tradisional memasuki masa ramaja.

Survei demografi dan kesehatan Malawi menunjukkan bahwa 20 persen dari gadis-gadis belia di negara Afrika Selatan menjadi aktif secara seksual sebelum usia 13 tahun dan banyak dari mereka melakukannya dengan pengetahuan yang terbatas akan seks yang aman.

Read more ...

Vatican Radio, 31 July 2014

(Vatican Radio) Finding funds to continue vital HIV prevention and treatment programmes is one of the key concerns of experts working in the Catholic Church's AIDS ministry. Following the 20th International Aids Conference that took place last week in Melbourne, Australia, Mgr Robert Vitillo, special advisor on HIV-Aids for Caritas Internationalis, said Catholic centres are now struggling to survive in some countries following funding cutbacks by big donors such as the Global Fund and the U.S. PEPFAR programme.

The five day conference concluded on July 25th with a chorus of international figures calling on governments and organisations to step up the pace in ending discrimination and delivering universal access to treatment, care and prevention.

Mgr Vitillo said while many top scientists recognise the crucial work being done by the Church, it's also important for Catholic organisations to monitor their achievements which are often more successful than government-run programmes.

Listen to Philippa Hitchen's interview with Mgr Robert Vitillo on the outcome of the AIDS 2014 conference:

Mgr Vitillo says there's not much progress in the scientific world towards the development of a vaccine but there is important research into ways of influencing the human genome to reject the HIV virus and ongoing work on treatment with anti-retroviral drugs that can reduce the virus to undetectable levels in a patient's body.....

There are many Catholic Church programmes involved in encouraging early testing and counselling to help people find out if they are carrying the virus, since "less than half the people who're infected know they're infected", meaning they don't get treatment and continue to infect others....

The challenge for the Church now, he says, is finding funds to keep these programmes running since both the Global Fund and the US PEPFAR programme are cutting back on funding. He cites the case of the Indian Catholic Health Association which opened 40 community care centres in the most isolated areas where the government was unable to reach people. Following cutbacks by the Global Fund, the Indian government has stepped in but, he says, AIDS related deaths are on the rise again since the government-run programmes do not reach the places and people in the most isolated regions.....

Mgr Vitillo says while there is still much prejudice against the Church's approach to AIDS ministry, those who work closely with Catholic programmes know and appreciate the valuable role they are making in combatting the killer disease. He notes that four top scientists attending the Melbourne meeting came to speak at a Catholic pre-conference and all recognised the vital role the Church continues to play in fighting discrimination and caring for the most marginalised people such as drug users and members of the gay community. He says UNAIDS also "recognises very clearly the key role the Catholic Church plays in this field and has promised to help us try and attain more funding." But he also says the Church must be more involved in collecting data about the quality of programmes and the success rates achieved...

Finally Mgr Vitillo notes that the next international AIDS conference will return to Durban in South Africa. It's a very significant move, he says, recalling the Durban 2000 conference which first put pressure on the international community to cut the price of medicines and step up treatment for those affected by AIDS in all the low income countries.

Source: Vatican Radio

Latin Post, 30 July 2014

Blood, breast milk and semen can carry the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. It's a disease that has affected almost 75 million since the start of the epidemic in the 1980s, and it has claimed the lives of about 36 million people globally. But there may be a light at the end of the tunnel as the number of HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths are decreasing, according to the United Nations, which also claimed that HIV/AIDS could be controlled by 2030 and ended "in every region, in every country."

The number of individuals infected with HIV has stabilized around 35 million. New cases of HIV infections have dropped by 38 percent since 2001, and AIDS deaths have dropped 35 percent since a peak in 2005. Among children, new HIV infections have plummeted by 58 percent since 2001 and dropped below 200,000 for the first time among the 21 most HIV-affected nations in Africa.

Read more ...

Berita Satu, 31 Juli 2014

Kediri - Temuan kasus "Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome" (HIV/AIDS) di Kabupaten Kediri, Jawa Timur, pada 2014 mencapai 615 kasus dengan berbagai macam profesi.

Kepala Dinas Kesehatan Kabupaten Kediri Adi Laksono, Rabu mengatakan temuan kasus itu merupakan akumulasi sejak pemantauan pada 1996 sampai sekarang. Dari temuan kasus itu, diketahui 392 di antaranya adalah perempuan, sementara sisanya laki-laki.

"Dari 615 kasus, jumlah temuan yang meninggal ada 183 orang dengan berbagai macam latar belakang dan profesi," katanya.

Ia mengatakan, dari pemetaan profesi, diketahui ada yang bekerja sebagai karyawan, petani, buruh kasar, supir, siswa ataupun mahasiswa, pelaut, bahkan sampai ibu rumah tangga.

Read more ...

Philippine Daily Inquirer, 30 July 2014

MANILA, Philippines—Sixteen new cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which could lead to the fatal Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), are reported everyday, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Dr. Eric Tayag, chief of the DOH National Epidemiology Center, said the number of cases reported daily increased from only 12 cases a day in 2013.

Data from the Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry showed that for the month of June, 494 new HIV cases were reported, a 15-percent increase from figures seen in the same period last year.

Out of the 494 new cases, 42 were already full-blown AIDS, the DOH said.

The number of new cases brought to 2,814 the total reported HIV cases from January to June 2014, and to 19,330 from 1984 to 2014.

Read more ...