UK: Sexual bullying: thousands of pupils suspended

A "shocking new trend" in bullying was revealed today as figures showed more than 3,000 children were suspended from school for sexual misconduct.

Around 3,500 pupils in England were given fixed-term exclusions from school for sexual misconduct in the academic year 2006/07 - including 260 in primary schools, statistics from the Department for Children, Schools and Families have shown.

The figures are featured in a BBC1 Panorama programame which also quotes the findings of a survey of 11 to 19-year-olds by the charity Young Voice, showing one in 10 had been forced against their will to take part in sex acts.

Sexual misconduct can cover a range of behaviours from a one-off incident of daubing sexually-explicit graffiti on a wall to name-calling, inappropriate touching and serious sexual attacks.

Groping and the use of sexually-abusive nicknames have become almost part of daily life for some pupils, according to the Panorama programme.

Writing in the Daily Mail, presenter Jeremy Vine said he gathered a group of a dozen mothers and fathers in a bar to talk about sexual bullying.

"They spoke about mobiles, music and the internet, freely admitting that policing TV viewing was nigh-on impossible because of the ease with which children can access programmes out of hours," he said.

Richard Piggin, from the charity Beatbullying, said sexual bullying was "relatively common" and a serious problem.

"We are looking at sexual misconduct, name-calling and also inappropriate touching, and young people being forced into sexual activity that they are not really comfortable with," he told BBC Breakfast.

"There is a significant number of young people that we have worked with who have told us that they have either experienced it, or have witnessed it in their schools or in their community."

The Panorama programme comes after Children's Secretary Ed Balls asked the Anti Bullying Alliance to draw up guidance for teachers on tackling sexual bullying.

The guidance will tackle inappropriate language, advise teachers on how to manage cases of harassment, and encourage healthy friendships between teenage boys and girls amid concerns of misogynistic attitudes linked to gang culture.

The Panorama programme follows widespread publicity last month over the sentencing of nine teenagers in east London for the gang rape of a teenage girl.

Source: BBC News, 5 January 2009

Soap operas deliver safe-sex message

"Look, we're going to be using condoms from now on," Toni says.

Nurse educator Rachel Jones has dedicated her career to reducing HIV/AIDS among young, urban women and recently received a $2 million National Institutes of Health grant to test the effectiveness of using short videos to distribute a message on safe sex.

msnbc.com

fantastic

Google searches track flu spread

The site maps the state-by-state prevalence of flu

Google's philanthropic arm Google.org has released a new site that tracks the incidence of flu in the US based on terms used in Google searches.

The system uses aggregated, anonymous results from searches for flu-related terms and plots their locations.

The approach, validated against Centers for Disease Control (CDC) flu records, provides timely data that could be two weeks ahead of government figures.

The site, which is free to use, will pass the early-warning data to the CDC.

Hundreds of billions of Google searches from 2003 onwards were used to develop the model, which was then compared with CDC data on outbreaks.

"Our team found that certain aggregated search queries tend to be very common during flu season each year," Google said in their official blog on the topic.

"We compared these aggregated queries against data provided by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and we found that there's a very close relationship between the frequency of these search queries and the number of people who are experiencing flu-like symptoms each week."

Traditional survey techniques employed by the CDC take about two weeks to precisely identify outbreaks, and Google hopes that its data, based on a stream of current searches, will serve as an early warning system that the CDC can then act upon.

Housing is HIV Prevention and Care

The US National AIDS Housing Coalition (NAHC), working in collaboration with the Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN) and the Department of Health, Behavior and Society of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, announces the fourth Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit, a meeting of leading health, housing and social service researchers and policy makers. The Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit series is an interdisciplinary, interactive forum for the presentation of research findings on the relationship of housing status and HIV prevention and care, coupled with dialogue on public policy implications and strategies among researchers, policy makers, and providers and consumers of HIV housing and services. The theme of Summit IV is Examining the Evidence: The Impact of Housing on HIV Prevention and Care, and the conveners invite abstracts presenting the results of scientific research, program evaluation, community-based interventions, and public policy strategies that reflect this theme. Both research and policy abstracts are encouraged, and abstracts may be submitted for oral or poster presentations.

North America Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit Mobilizing Knowledge: Housing is HIV Prevention and Care

For more information contact NAHC, E-mail: nahc@nationalaidshousing.org; Phone: (202) 347-0333; Fax: (202) 347-3411; or access the Web site: http://nationalaidshousing.org/2008/08/save-the-date/

Evaluating HIV Estimates from National Population-Based Surveys

Evaluating HIV Estimates from National Population-Based Surveys for Bias Resulting from Non-Response (English)

Reliable data on HIV prevalence are essential for assessing the scope of and effectively managing the response to the epidemic. Antenatal clinic-based surveillance is commonly used to monitor trends in HIV in developing countries that have generalized epidemics. Recently, HIV seroprevalence data have been also collected in national population-based surveys, such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and AIDS Indicators Surveys (AIS). Such surveys enable direct estimation of population HIV prevalence. A major challenge for population-based surveys is bias resulting from non-response, both from refusal and absence. In this study, we evaluate national HIV prevalence estimates from DHS and AIS surveys for bias resulting from non-response in the surveys. Data are from 17 recent national DHS and AIS surveys with HIV testing – Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe – conducted during 2001 and 2006. Blood samples were collected and tested for HIV using standard laboratory and quality-control procedures. In the first three surveys, in Mali, Zambia, and the Dominican Republic, HIV status could not be linked to the characteristics and behaviors of the survey respondents. For each of the other 14 countries with HIV serostatus data linked to individual characteristics and behaviors, we predict HIV prevalence among non-responding adults on the basis of multivariate statistical models of HIV for those who were interviewed and tested, using a common set of predictor variables. Predictions are made separately for two groups of non-respondents: not interviewed/not tested and interviewed/not tested. Adjusted HIV prevalence is calculated as a weighted average of observed prevalence in the interviewed/tested group and predicted prevalence in the two non-tested groups. Predictions are made separately for adult males and females. In the 14 countries with linked data, the HIV testing rate varied from a low of 63 percent among men in Malawi and Zimbabwe to a high of 97 percent among women in Rwanda. Non-response rate was higher among urban, more educated, and wealthier men and women but had no clear association with various risk and protective behavioral factors. Non-tested men had significantly higher predicted HIV prevalence than those tested in 8 of the 14 countries, and non-tested women had significantly higher predicted prevalence than those tested in 7 of the 14 countries. Although non-tested men and women tend to have higher predicted HIV prevalence than those tested, the overall effect of non-response bias on observed prevalence estimates was small and not significant in all countries. In the 14 countries, HIV prevalence estimates adjusted for non-response bias were on average only 3 percent and 2 percent higher than the observed, non-adjusted estimates for men and women, respectively. The study finds that non-response for HIV testing tends to have small, non-significant effects on national HIV seroprevalence estimates obtained from national household surveys. National population-based surveys are an important source of reliable data on HIV prevalence that can enhance surveillance-based estimates in generalized epidemics.

full text in pdf about 3 mb

globexbank

ВЭБ купит "Глобэкс" за 5000 рублей

В сентябре "Внешэкономбанк" купил испытывающий проблемы "Связь-банк"

Глава ВЭБа Владимир Дмитриев подтвердил, что государственная корпорация приобретает 100% акций коммерческого банка "Глобэкс", который в среду приостановил досрочную выдачу депозитов вкладчикам.

"Правительство и Центробанк согласовали вопрос о приобретении нами за символическую сумму банка "Глобэкс". Мы, так же как в случае со "Связь-банком", возьмем весь банк и начнем оказывать ему содействие, в том числе за счет депозита, размещаемого у нас Центральным банком", - сказал Дмитриев.

Глава государственного банка сообщил, что сумма следки составит меньше 5 тыс. рублей (меньше 200 долларов).

"Все это направлено на то, чтобы "Глобэкс" безусловно выполнял свои обязательства перед клиентурой: как физическими лицами, так и корпоративными клиентами. Чтобы никаких негативных последствий не ощущалось в банковской системе", - подчеркнул глава ВЭБа.

"Власти опасаются, что банкротство Глобэкса вызовет панику среди вкладчиков других банков, что будет иметь фатальные последствия для всего рынка", - цитирует газета "Коммерсант" своего источника в аппарате правительства.

Тонущие банки

В среду российский банк "Глобэкс", один из 40 крупнейших в стране по объему капитала, временно прекратил досрочную выдачу вкладов населению.

"Эта мера была вынужденно введена со вторника из-за ажиотажного спроса со стороны вкладчиков, многие из которых объясняют свои действия срочным желанием перевести деньги в ВТБ и Сбербанк", - заявил вице-президент банка Эмиль Алиев.

За сентябрь объемы вкладов "Глобэкса" снизились на 3,6 млрд. рублей, или на 13%.

"Глобэкс" стал первым крупным банком, который в условиях финансового кризиса пошел на такую меру. До последнего момента банки старались выполнять все обязательства по вкладам. Пока ограничения касались лишь сроков рассмотрения заявок на снятие депозитов и лимитов на разовое снятие.

Ограничения на снятие денег в "Глобэксе" не распространялись на выплаты по срочным депозитам, срок действия которых истек.

Банк "Глобэкс" может стать четвертым за последний месяц банком, который не устоял перед кризисом и был вынужден сменить владельца.

23 сентября было объявлено о приобретении ВЭБом 98% акций "Связь-банка", на счета которого проходят пенсии и социальные пособия.

8 октября "КИТ Финанс" сообщил, что 90% его акций переходят в собственность РЖД и АЛРОСА.

15 октября близкий к "Газпрому" "Газэнергопромбанк" объявил о приобретении "Собинбанка".

Как сообщают российские СМИ "Связь-банк" и "КИТ Финанс" достались новым владельцам по символической цене.

75m French People

by Matthew Turner

At 75 million, France is projected to have the largest population in the EU (of current members) by 2050, according to French government figures. France’s baby-friendly policies, plus reasonably large immigration seems behind the projected increase (the country’s population is now just over 60 million). By contrast Germany’s population is set to fall to 72m, around 8m less than at present.

Edward has already looked at the prospects of an ageing society and indeed suggested that France’s better demographics might be behind its more (at least compared with Germany) energetic consumers. It should in time also help with the pensions problem as noted by the OECD.

Of course all demographic predictions over a long time period need to be taken with a pinch of salt (though not a large one, around half of the people alive in 2050 are alive today). My copy of John Gunther’s classic 1930s European-politics survey, “Inside Europe” states that a defining feature of the British socio-poiltical scene is “The decline in the birth rate, which, according to competent estimates, will reduce the population to thirty-three million by 1985″. In fact it was about 57m.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 21st, 2005 at 11:38 am and is filed under A Fistful Of Euros, Political issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

malaria cost

Malaria battle given $3bn boost

Advertisement

U2's Bono attended the summit

World leaders and philanthropistshave pledged nearly $3bn (£1.6bn) to fight malaria at a summit in New York.

The meeting, at the UN, is looking at ways of meeting the Millennium Development Goals - targets on reducing global poverty by the year 2015.

Donors hope the money will be enough to eradicate malaria by that time.

The money includes $1.1bn (£598m) from the World Bank and $1.6bn (£870m) from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The British government and private organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have promised the rest.

Malaria still kills more than a million people each year

Malaria still kills more than a million people each year, according to the World Health Organization.

The funding, will be used to support rapid implementation of the first ever Global Malaria Action Plan (Gmap).

Long-term effort

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in a statement that the extra money would help "sharply reduce the numbers of malaria-related deaths and illness" in the next three years.

According to Gmap's projections, more than 4.2 million lives can be saved between 2008 and 2015, if its plan is put into action, and the foundation can be laid for a longer-term effort to eradicate the disease.

The BBC's Heather Alexander says leaders are focusing on eradicating malaria to counter criticisms that the millennium targets will not be met.

If we build on this momentum, we can save million of lives and chart a long-term course for eradication of this disease Bill Gates

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined the presidents of Rwanda and Tanzania as well as the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to reassure the world that their goal is achievable.

Alongside the offers of money came reassurance from African leaders that efforts are working.

President Paul Kagame, of Rwanda, said malaria deaths have fallen by more than 60% in his country.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is to provide $168.7m (£91m) to fund a Malaria Vaccine Initiative for research on a new generation of anti-malaria vaccines.

Microsoft founder Mr Gates said: "We need innovation, new drugs, and the most dramatic thing we need is vaccine.

"If we build on this momentum, we can save million of lives and chart a long-term course for eradication of this disease."

Britain's Department for International Development pledged £40m ($73.5m) to support the Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria.

It also pledged to increase its malaria research funding to at least £5m ($9.1m) a year by 2010 and supply 20 million of the 125 million bed nets still needed in affected areas.

kaluga

Калужский центр по борьбе с ВИЧ-инфекцией поставил мигрантов на учет. Проект рассчитан на полгода и проводится в рамках нацпроекта «Здоровье» по заказу Федеральной Службы Роспотребнадзора. В рамках проекта в Калуге работает команда, в которую вошли врачи-эпидемиологи, медицинские сестры и психологи.

Специалисты размещают информацию по профилактике и диагностике ВИЧ/СПИДа на официальном сайте управления федеральной миграционной службы. Проводят анкетирование среди мигрантов, консультируют их, раздают дезинфицирующие средства и витамины.

В 2007 году среди иностранных граждан, проходивших обследование для получения разрешения на работу, было выявлено 35 ВИЧ-инфицированных. Еще 34 - за 8 месяцев нынешнего года. Сейчас ведется работа по переводу всей профилактической информации на другие языки, для мигрантов, не владеющих русским языком.

источник

Lithuanian KAP

Lithuanian general practitioners' knowledge of confidentiality laws in adolescent sexual and reproductive healthcare: A cross-sectional study

Jeffrey V. Lazarus

Division of Social Medicine and Global Health, Lund University, Sweden, Jeffrey.lazarus@med.lu.se

Lina Jaruseviciene

Department of Family Medicine, Kaunas Medical University, Lithuania

Jerker Liljestrand

Division of Social Medicine and Global Health, Lund University, Sweden

Background: In Lithuania, the legislation addressing confidentiality in adolescent healthcare is contradictory and vague. Previous studies have also revealed that medico-legal knowledge among physicians is poor, and attitudes play a correspondingly greater role than legal knowledge in ensuring the confidentiality of patients. Objective: To survey the knowledge of Lithuanian general practitioner (GPs) of legal issues surrounding confidentiality for minors in sexual and reproductive healthcare. Methods: A 41-item questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 607 GPs. Their legal knowledge was evaluated with respect to the provisions of the Lithuanian Law on the Rights of Patients and Compensation for Health Damage. The analysis included descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression to estimate odds ratios for the eight independent variables (age, gender, type, location, ownership, size, frequency of consultations, and existence of a written office policy). Results: The response rate was 73.5%. Of these respondents, 49.3% proved to be knowledgeable about legal standards protecting the confidentiality of adolescents in healthcare. Knowledgeability was found to be higher among GPs who had a written office policy that was based on the law. Respondents stated that the most important measure to improve confidentiality in adolescent healthcare would be the development of an explicit legal framework to address it. Conclusions: GPs' unfamiliarity with existing confidentiality regulations implies that there are ways to improve confidentiality in sexual and reproductive care beyond merely changing the law. This study suggests the need for a comprehensive strategy, including the development of professional guidelines and written office policies coupled with legal educational programmes directed at GPs.

Kurdish fertility

Opinions on early-age marriage and marriage customs among Kurdish-speaking women in southeast Turkey
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ffp/jfp/2008/00000034/00000003/art00004
Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care. 2008 Jul;34(3):147-152.
Ertem M | Kocturk T
For women, marriage before the age of 18 years has adverse consequences for physical, mental and emotional well-being and constitutes a barrier for continued education. According to a national survey, about 50% of all women in Eastern Turkey were aged under 18 years at first marriage. This study explored women's opinions and experiences of early marriage and culture-specific marriage customs in the province of Diyarbakir, a region of Turkey populated mostly by people of Kurdish ethnicity. A random sample of 966 women aged 15 years or older living in urban and rural areas of the province completed a questionnaire on age at marriage and social status. Qualitative data on women's opinions and experiences were also collected through focus group interviews with 90 women. The frequency of early marriage ranged from 19% in the youngest age group to 63% in women aged 60 years or older. Analysis of focus group interviews through a qualitative modified content method showed that girls were considered marriageable some years after the menarche and considerations regarding the protection of family honour were key factors leading parents to arrange the early marriage of their daughters, sometimes without their consent. Some culture-specific marriage customs included cradle betrothal, cousin marriage and berdel (exchange of brides between two families). There is a need for public health and family planning workers to create greater awareness of the adverse consequences of early marriage through parental arrangements.

exploratory study

HIV infection returning to Mexico with migrant workers: An exploratory study

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jana.2008.01.004
Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. 2008 Jul-Aug;19(4):267-282.
Sowell RL | Holtz CS | Velasquez G
Men migrating to the United States are at high risk of acquiring HIV and spreading it to their wives and children in Mexico. Yet there is limited understanding of this phenomenon from the perspective of these men and their wives. This exploratory study used face-to-face interviews to gain insight into factors influencing the increased risk of Mexican men migrating to the United States for contracting HIV as well as the consequences of their infections on returning to Mexico. Transcripts from audiotaped interviews provided the data for analysis. Thematic analysis revealed two overall categories and six interrelated themes. Categories were HIV Risk and Living with HIV. Study themes included social isolation, lack of knowledge/ denial, machismo, powerlessness, and making the best of it. Results provide new insight into the spread of HIV in rural Mexico.

commercial sex workers in Tallinn

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/sti.2007.027664
Sexually Transmitted Infections. 2008 Jun;84(3):189-191.
Uuskula A | Fischer K | Raudne R | Kilgi H | Krylov R

Estonia is confronted by a dramatic expansion of the initially injection drug use-driven HIV epidemic. Little is known about HIV occurrence in population groups at high risk other than injection drug users. The objective was to obtain data on the prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) among female sex workers (FSW) in Tallinn. The design was an unlinked, anonymous, cross-sectional survey of FSW recruited in Tallinn from October 2005 to May 2006. 227 FSW were recruited for the survey and biological sample collection (HIV, HCV antibodies detection) using a combination of time-location, community and respondent-driven sampling. Among 227 women the HIV and HCV prevalences were 7.6% (95% CI 4.6% to 12.5%) and 7.9% (95% CI 4.5% to 12.6%), respectively. HIV prevalence was higher among FSW working in the street (odds ratio (OR) 6.4; 95% CI 1.1 to 35.6) and at the brothels and apartments
supervised by the organised sex industry (OR 5.0; 95% CI 1.3 to 18.4). The duration of sex work was negatively associated with HIV prevalence (OR 0.78; 95% CI 0.63 to 0.97). Prevention needs of FSW in this area include increasing rates of HIV testing and putting in place effective programmes that can help extend HIV prevention behaviours across a range of sexual and drug use risk behaviours.

HIV in Estonia

A continuing HIV epidemic among new injectors is of critical public health concern. Interventions to prevent initiation into injecting drug use and scaling up HIV prevention programs for IDUs in Estonia are of utmost importance.

CC in Serbia

a significant number of Serbian gynaecologists neither use modern methods of contraception themselves nor have adequate knowledge to advise their patients. Thus, education and training of gynaecologists in all methods of available contraception is a priority in Serbia.

Estonia KAP

Factors associated with Estonian adolescents' sexuality-related knowledge: Findings from the 1994 and 1999 KISS studies
Authors: Kai Part a; Kaja Rahu bc; Mati Rahu bc; Helle Karro d
Affiliations: a Tartu Youth Clinic,
b Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, National Institute for Health Development,
c Estonian Centre for Excellence in Behavioural and Health Sciences, Tallinn/Tartu, Estonia
d *Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Tartu,
DOI: 10.1080/13625180701800631
Publication Frequency: 4 issues per year
Published in: journal The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care, Volume 13, Issue 2 2008 , pages 173 - 181
First Published: 2008
Subject: Fertility & Contraception;
Formats available: HTML (English) : PDF (English)
Article Requests: Order Reprints : Request Permissions

Purchase Article: US$35.00 - buy now buy now add to cart buy now [ show other buying options ]

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Abstract
Objective To identify changes in factors associated with Estonian adolescents' sexuality-related knowledge. The relationship between self-reported school sexuality education and good sexuality-related knowledge is addressed.

Methods The study is based on the results of two consecutive studies conducted in 1994 and 1999, based on anonymous self-completed questionnaires in schools, which involved 2256 respondents from random samples of primary school 9th grade pupils. Information on 16 sexual knowledge items, experience of sexual intercourse, discussions about sexuality with parents and school sexuality education was collected. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to account for the simultaneous effects of independent determinants on good sexuality-related knowledge.

Results The results showed improvement in the respondents' level of sexuality-related knowledge between the two study years. Whereas in 1994, good sexual knowledge was positively associated solely with experience of sexual intercourse, in 1999, good sexual knowledge was also positively associated with school sexuality education.

Conclusion The improvement of sexuality-related knowledge and its positive association with school sexuality education in 1999 may be a result of the mandatory sexuality education introduced into the school curriculum in 1996. These findings have important implications for the further provision of school sexuality education in Estonia.

источник

Piot lecture

UNAIDS Executive Director delivers lecture on AIDS response

As part of the London School of Economics and Political Science’s (LSE) speakers series on AIDS (LSEAIDS), UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot delivered a public lecture titled “The future of AIDS: Exceptionalism Revisited” on May 15. In his lecture, he reviewed the global response to AIDS to date and considered what is needed in the longer term. He also examined the epidemic within the context of pressing wider health and development issues. LSEAIDS brings together leading social scientists and experts at the LSE to explore some of the long-term effects of AIDS that risk being overlooked. The group defines the AIDS epidemic as a 'long-wave' event whose full social and economic effects will be with us for decades. This was Dr Piot’s second LSEAIDS lecture; he first addressed this forum in February 2005.

The event was chaired by Professor Tony Barnett, LSEAIDS and hosted by the LSE, LSE Health and the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DfID).

You may also Listen to UNAIDS Executive Director's lecture(15 May 2008) on line.

red hero

Изъята крупнейшая за всю историю Красноярского края партия героина

В Красноярске изъята крупнейшая за всю историю края партия героина. Как сообщили ИА REGNUM-KNews в пресс-службе УФСБ России по Красноярскому краю, с поличным при проведении сделки задержаны и арестованы 5 активных членов группы, в том числе организаторы наркотрафика, граждане Таджикистана и России из Душанбе и Москвы, прибывшие накануне в Красноярск.
В ходе операции УФСБ из незаконного оборота изъята крупнейшая в истории края партия героина афганского происхождения общим весом около 107 кг, что по некоторым оценкам сопоставимо с годовым объёмом потребления этого типа наркотиков в Красноярском крае. Стоимость изъятой в ходе операции партии героина оценивается в 250 млн. рублей.
Как выяснилось, группа длительное время осуществляла преступную деятельность на территории России, имела разветвленные межрегиональные связи. Группа была высоко организована, мобильна, применялись строгие меры конспирации.
Следственным отделом УФСБ России по Красноярскому краю 11 сентября возбуждено уголовное дело по статье 228 ч.1 УК РФ. Все задержанные помещены под стражу, проводятся дальнейшие следственные действия.

Любопытно, что дельцов словила ФСБ, а не наркокомитет
Численность населения Кюкрая на 1 янв 2007 -- 2 894 тыс чел, без Таймыра (38 тыс) и Эвенкии (17)
Считаем:

• 250 млн / 107 кг = 2.336 млн за кило, соответственно 2.336 руб за 1 грамм
• 107 кг / 2 894 тыс = .4 г на нос
• 250 млн / 2 894 тыс = 86.39 руб на 1 чел в год

после этого разумно предполагать что-то о преваленсе и концетнрации потребления

master program

Место для комментариев, пожаланий и тому подобного

Is AIDS still an emergency?

The rate of new HIV infections, which has fuelled the global HIV/AIDS epidemic since the 1980s, has peaked throughout the world and is now declining.

But population growth and the life-prolonging effects of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment mean that the total global number of HIV-infected people is likely to remain about the same for another two decades and will continue to increase in sub-Saharan Africa.

Based on these findings from the study, Has the HIV epidemic peaked?, published in the June issue of Population and Development Review, its lead author, John Bongaarts, believes it is time for the international community and governments to rethink their prioritisation of AIDS over other infectious diseases.

"AIDS has gotten special treatment because of its emergency status; that view is no longer valid because the epidemic has peaked," he told IRIN/PlusNews on the phone from the New York headquarters of the Population Council, an international non-governmental research organisation of which he is vice-president.

The study, which Bongaarts carried out with three demographers from the United Nations Population Division, examined the course HIV epidemics have taken in different regions and used mathematical models that combined population projections with data collected by UNAIDS to project the future demographic impact of HIV/AIDS.

The authors explain that peaks in HIV prevalence, which reflect the total number of people living with the virus, lag about a decade behind peaks in HIV incidence - the rate of new infections. This is because someone infected with HIV can live with the virus for about a decade after infection, and for much longer if they start ARV treatment.

Research showed that the global peak in HIV incidence occurred as long ago as 1995, with the first peak occurring in North America in the early 1980s, and the last in Eastern Europe in 2001. According to Bongaarts, this finding is not new, but it has been against the interests of agencies like UNAIDS to highlight it.

"I think UNAIDS was afraid that donors would decide not to spend so much money on AIDS and, secondly, that governments would say, 'this is no longer something to worry about'," he said. "My own feeling is that the amount that's devoted to AIDS treatment is out of proportion to other health problems."

His comments come on the heels of recent admissions by former senior UNAIDS and World Health Organisation officials that they exaggerated the size of the HIV epidemic and its potential for further growth to create public alarm and maintain the flow of donor money to the global industry that AIDS had spawned.

The backlash against global HIV expenditure started in February with an article in the British Medical Journal by Roger England of Health Systems Workshop, a health-policy charity, who pointed out that AIDS receives about a quarter of global health aid but constitutes only five percent of the disease burden in low- and middle-income countries.

Speaking to IRIN/PlusNews, Bongaarts agreed with England's argument that more lives could be saved by investing in strengthening health systems and combating other diseases with inexpensive interventions like immunisations, mosquito nets and family planning.

"AIDS should now be treated like any other disease, and the world community should look at its investments in health and prepare the most cost-effective interventions," he said. "I'm not advocating less money for AIDS treatment, but I want more spent on AIDS prevention and other diseases. We can save lives for a few dollars."

What is new about the Population Council study are the predictions it makes about the future demographic implications of the HIV epidemic. According to the authors, the presence of AIDS will not prevent populations from increasing. Even in sub-Saharan Africa, where the death toll from AIDS will continue to be high, the population is expected to grow by one billion between 2005 and 2050.

However, AIDS will slow population growth in the worst-hit countries: in South Africa, for example, the population size by 2050 is projected to be 29 percent lower than it would have been without the presence of AIDS. - PLUSNEWS

aids hiv mortality

Kathleen Beegle, Sofya Krutikova
Adult mortality and children's transition into marriage (по ссылке PDFник)
Adult mortality due to HIV/AIDS and other diseases is posited to affect children through a number of pathways. On top of health and education outcomes, adult mortality can have significant effects on children by influencing demographic outcomes including the timing of marriage. This paper examines marriage outcomes for a sample of children interviewed in Tanzania in the early 1990s and re-interviewed in 2004. We find that while girls who became paternal orphans married at significantly younger ages, orphanhood had little effect on boys. On the other hand, non-parental deaths in the household affect the timing of marriage for boys.

fSU

Former Soviet states at AIDS tipping point

Mexico City - experts are concerned that some of the states that emerged from the former Soviet Union are on the brink of widespread HIV/AIDS epidemics, the global AIDS conference heard on Wednesday.

Concentrated cases of infection among intravenous drug users, sex workers and gays are now placing some countries "on the verge of a generalized epidemic," Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, told a special session here.

"I'm very concerned about the epidemic in the region, very concerned," Kazatchkine said, saying experts fear entrenched HIV epidemics among high-risk groups could leap into the general population.

Last year 110,000 people became infected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Eastern and Central Europe, bringing the tally to around 1.5 million, according to figures issued last week by the UN agency UNAIDS. Around 58,000 people died of AIDS.

Almost 90 percent of those infected live in either Russia (69 percent, or 1+ mln) or Ukraine (29 percent), and the majority are intravenous drug users, sex workers and their various partners.

At the session devoted to the AIDS pandemic in 12 countries, speakers said there had been some progress towards rolling out antiretroviral drugs to those in need but money and political support were lacking.

Efforts to prevent the spread of HIV were stuttering at best.

Stigma and homophobia, which provide fertile conditions for letting the virus propagate in silence, were deep-rooted, the experts said.

Needle-exchange programs, a proven [???] method of discouraging the spread of the virus through tainted hypodermics by drug users, were only now getting off the ground.

More than half of the countries had policies, legislation or regulations that were an obstacle to care, treatment and prevention.

According to UNAIDS, only one person in every four badly infected individuals has access to the lifeline treatment in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

"The fight against HIV is a new problem. It's very challenging and it involves a lot of issues," said Farida Tishkova, of the Tajik Scientific and Research Institute for Prevention Medicine.

"Some of the work we do can be incompatible with the laws and practices of our countries."

A Ukrainian field worker, Anna Koshikova, said that heterosexual incidence of HIV in the general population in her country had increased in the last year or so, emerging out of vulnerable niche groups.

Koshikova, with the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, said people with HIV found more tolerance in the big Ukrainian cities, but in the countryside could be driven out by stigma.

"When a village finds out that a person has HIV, life becomes very difficult, almost impossible. Their children can't go to school, there could be physical violence, they may not receive medical help because they are afraid of revealing their [HIV] status.

"Many decide to move."

At present, 8,000 people in Ukraine receive treatment, but there has been a problem with imported antiretrovirals that are below standard and lack sufficient active ingredients to repress the virus, she said.

"There's a very high level of corruption in government and non-transparency in [drug] procurement. It's a huge problem," she said. [Any free funding corrupts]

According to UNAIDS statistics, the average prevalence of the AIDS virus across the region, a category that also includes Bulgaria, Romania and the former Yugoslav states of Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina, was 0.8 percent among people aged 15-49 in 2007, a doubling since 2001.

Prevalence varied from 0.1-0.2 percent in most of the Caucasus and Central Asia, to between 1.0-1.5 percent in Russia and 1.5 to 2.0 percent in Ukraine.

Infection numbers are rising in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and especially Uzbekistan, which "now has the largest epidemic in central Asia," according to the updated UNAIDS assessment of the pandemic.

Source: AFP, 7 August 2008

My additions in red

vologda

Более 1,2 тысячи наркоманов Вологодской области стоят на учете, это почти в два раза меньше количества вообще принимающих наркотики вологжан. Как рассказал на заседании областной антинаркотической комиссии заместитель начальника областного департамента здравоохранения Александр Попугаев, всего наркотические вещества принимают около 2,3 жителей области, сообщает корреспондент ИА REGNUM. (Жаль, не рассказал каким образом 1.2 переходит в 2.3?)

При этом, по словам Александра Попугаева, только в 2007 году, в связи с длительной ремиссией, с учета снято 1,9% хронических алкоголиков и 0,5% - наркоманов. В рамках реабилитационной и профилактической кампании в области проводятся тематические совещания, конференции, городки здоровья и семинары-тренинги медицинских работников. На радио и телевидении появляются тематические программы, подготовлено 67 волонтеров. Однако, по словам Александра Попугаева, этих мер явно недостаточно. Системно эта проблема решается в Череповце, где разработана профилактическая программа "Дорога к дому".

Постоянный адрес новости: www.regnum.ru/news/1047667.html
15:26 28.08.2008

nakedmustach

Некоммерческие организации, полагающие, что в России проживает более миллиона ВИЧ-инфицированных, завышают цифру более чем вдвое. Об этом заявил начальник отдела по организации надзора за ВИЧ/СПИД Роспотребнадзора Александр Голиусов, принимающий участие в 17-й международной конференции, посвященной проблемам ВИЧ-инфекции, передает ИТАР-ТАСС.

По словам представителя Роспотребнадзора, в России ВИЧ-инфекция выявлена у 400 тысяч человек. Таким образом, «апокалиптические прогнозы по ВИЧ/СПИД в отношении России оказались несостоятельны», - заявил он.

Голиусов подчеркнул, что в нашей стране лекарства от ВИЧ получают все, кто в них нуждается и хочет лечиться – 93% зараженных. В среднем на диагностику и лечение каждого больного ВИЧ/СПИД в России уходит 100 тысяч рублей в год. В будущем году планируется удвоить финансирование профилактических программ по ВИЧ/СПИДу, выделив 400 миллионов рублей.

По словам чиновника, на всемирном форуме в Мехико впервые и открытие, и все пленарные совещания шли с переводом на русский язык. Этот факт можно расценивать свидетельством того, что международное сообщество признало успехи России в борьбе с ВИЧ-инфекцией, отметил Голиусов.

Напомним, в ноябре прошлого года представители Объединенной программы ООН по ВИЧ/СПИДу (UNAIDS) заявили, что по их данным, реальное число носителей ВИЧ в России может достигать миллиона человек. В свою очередь, главный государственный санитарный врач РФ Геннадий Онищенко выразил сомнение в обоснованности выводов международной организации, назвав их данные тенденциозными и некорректными.

usdata

US underestimated country's HIV epidemic

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US health authorities acknowledged that they had substantially underestimated the number of new HIV infections in the country, in a study showing that the epidemic is worse than previously thought.

About 56,300 people were infected with the virus that causes AIDS in 2006, a figure 40 percent higher than the previous estimate of 40,000 new infections a year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Saturday.

"This new picture reveals that the HIV epidemic is -- and has been -- worse than previously known and underscores the challenges in confronting this disease," Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention.

The revised assessment came on the eve of a six-day international AIDS conference in Mexico City, which is expected to be attended by some 22,000 scientists, policymakers and grassroots workers.

The CDC said new technology allowed it to establish a more precise estimate of the epidemic.(I would like to have a look)

"These data, which are based on new laboratory technology developed by CDC, provide the clearest picture to date of the US HIV epidemic, and unfortunately we are far from winning the battle against this preventable disease," said CDC Director Julie Gerberding.

"We as a nation have to come together to focus our efforts on expanding the prevention programs we know are effective," she said.

The study found that the annual number of new infections was never as low as 40,000. While new infections increased in the last 1990s, they have been roughly stable since then.

"While the level of HIV incidence is alarming, stability in recent years suggests that prevention efforts are having an impact," said Richard Wolitski, acting director of the CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention.

The study also found that gay and bisexual men as well as and African American men and women are the groups most affected by HIV.

The new estimate found that 53 percent of new infections occurred in gay and bisexual men, while heterosexuals accounted for 31 percent of them and injection drug users for 12 percent.

African Americans, who make up 13 percent of the US population, accounted for 45 percent of the new infections in 2006. The infection rate among blacks was seven times higher than among whites -- 83.7 out of 100,000 people compared to 11.5 out of 100,000.

The study found some encouraging signs of progress as new infections have dropped among both injecting drug users and heterosexuals.

The CDC said the new estimate will be published in a special HIV/AIDS issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that was to be released in Mexico City on Sunday. The agency released them Saturday because news organizations broke the embargo.

Anti-AIDS groups said the revised estimate showed that the HIV infection rate was not dropping and may be increasing significantly, and that it highlighted the need for a comprehensive national strategy to combat AIDS.

"HIV/AIDS continues to be a public health emergency that has not received adequate nor appropriate attention as a nationwide priority," said Julie Davids, Executive Director of the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP).

"To make measurable progress against HIV, we need to know whether infection rates are going up, which groups are becoming infected, and which prevention activities reduce new infections," said Mark Cloutier, chief executive officer of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

"We need a comprehensive National AIDS Strategy with measurable outcome targets, a timeline for action, increased funding and a particular focus on those most at risk, including racial and ethnic minorities."

Joseph Interrante, chairman of the AIDS Action Council's board of directors said the revised figures represented "an unacceptable level of new HIV infections for a preventable disease."

"The revised estimate underlines the need for a national AIDS strategy with measurable outcomes, reliance on evidence-based programs, and sufficient funding," Interrante said in a statement.

Source: AFP, 3 August 2008.

usdata

США: данные о числе людей с ВИЧ занижены

Число ВИЧ-инфицированных в США значительно выше, чем предполагалось, заявили американские медики.

По данным Центра по контролю и предотвращению заболеваний, только в 2006 году вирусом иммунодефицита человека в США заразились более 56 тысяч человек.

Это на 40% больше, чем показывали предыдущие исследования.

Такой существенный рост показателя, отмечают медики, - скорее результат использования усовершенствованных методов диагностики, а не роста числа случаев заражения.

Благодаря новым методикам анализа крови ученые впервые могут определить, когда - с точностью до года - ВИЧ попал в организм человека. (у нас есть ?)

Предполагается, что новые данные появились и благодаря пересмотру статистических методов. (интересно: что оне пересмотрели?)

Ученые отмечают, что ежегодный рост числа зараженных в США с 1990-х годов остается относительно стабильным и всегда превышает 40 тысяч человек.

Медики назвали результаты исследования "тревожным сигналом, который показывает, что эпидемия ВИЧ/СПИДа в США далека от завершения".

Специалисты центра подтвердили результаты предыдущих исследований о группах риска, согласно которым ВИЧ быстрее всего распространяется среди мужчин гомо- и бисексуальной ориентации и афро-американцев обоих полов.

Конференция в Мехико

Вместе с тем, в одном из последних исследований, посвященных СПИДу, ученые заявили, что ожидаемая продолжительность жизни для людей с ВИЧ увеличилась в среднем на 13 лет с конца 1990-х годов. (похоже на х.свист)

Как отмечают эксперты в статье, опубликованной в медицинском журнале Lancet (надо см.), благодаря современным методам лечения вирус иммунодефицита человека сегодня можно считать скорее хроническим недугом, нежели смертельной болезнью.

В субботу несколько тысяч активистов прошли маршем по улицам столицы Мексики в знак протеста против дискриминации людей, инфицированных ВИЧ.

Акция прошла накануне открытия в Мехико шестидневной международной конференции по проблемам СПИДа, в которой примут участие тысячи ученых, политиков и активистов.

Новые данные американских ученых и методика диагностики ВИЧ-инфицированных будут представлены в день открытия конференции в воскресенье.

Адрес статьи на bbcrussian.com
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/hi/russian/international/newsid_7539000/7539350.stm

lecamp

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iswho

Пульс блогосферы по запросам Денисов и демография

globalwar

The global war on sex education

If Barack Obama's tour of Europe and the Middle East does anything, it will give the senator from Illinois a taste of just how desperate the world beyond US borders is for the very brand of change he's advocated these many months. Sure there are the obvious points: the promise to pull out of Iraq, the reinvigoration of a kind of outwardly focused global neo-liberalism and engagement with allies and foes alike on everything from climate change to countering terror. But this month's World Population Day pointed to another reason the Bushies can't leave office fast enough.

According to a new World Bank report, despite a worldwide increase in access to contraception and contraceptive technologies, some 51 million unintended pregnancies take place every year in the developing world, and an additional 25 million pregnancies are gestated by women who use faulty contraception or don't understand the methods they're using.

Of that number, according to the World Bank, some 68,000 women die from botched or unsafe abortions each year, and some 5.1 million are left permanently disabled by them. "Giving women access to modern contraception and family planning also helps to boost economic growth while reducing high birth rates so strongly linked with endemic poverty, poor education and high numbers of maternal and infant deaths," Joy Phumaphi, the World Bank's vice-president for human development, and a former health minister in Botswana, said in a statement.

How does that connect to the Bush administration? Simple. Since the moment he stepped into office, Bush's commitment to the foolish "abstinence only" training both domestically and internationally has been coupled with a slavish devotion to the restrictive, ghoulish, "global gag rule", introduced by Ronald Reagan in 1984, that cut off funding for any organisation that used USAID funds to even touch the word "abortion". That meant an organisation couldn't counsel a woman on abortion as an option, even if it received money from an entirely separate funding source to do so.

Given that the 1973 Helms Amendment already banned US funds from paying for overseas abortions, Reagan's policy gagged healthcare providers and gave them a stark choice: lose crucial American funding (from the creation of USAID in 1965 to 1984, some 40% of all foreign funding to population control-oriented organisations globally came from the US), or severely limit the way they talked about reproductive choices.

Bill Clinton repealed the policy, but Bush reinstated it the moment he arrived in Washington, in January 2001. Then, in August 2003, he tried to deepen its impact, extending the ban from USAID to the entire state department, pushing to ban all employees at state from even discussing the consequences of abortion. Several reports issued at the time illustrated just how devastating Bush's policy had become. By 2002 USAID had ended shipments of contraceptives to 16 developing nations in Africa and Asia as a direct consequence of the gag rule.

Instead of ending abortions, the global gag rule pushed women into back alleys and undermined, even closed, organisations that would have counselled women on how not to get pregnant in the first place. By diminishing access to contraception, it was actually laying the groundwork for unsafe abortions. The global gag rule didn't just gag healthcare providers about abortion. It gagged them on contraception and education.

Since 2002, the Bush administration has also withheld funding - to the tune of $39.7m - from the United Nations Population Fund, claiming - despite evidence to the contrary - that UNFPA is connected to forced abortions in China. The shortfall from the US has also helped undermine the spread of contraception and education around the world, particularly in Africa.

"Hundreds of women are dying every day in poor countries from botched abortions," says Barbara Crane, executive vice-president of the North Carolina-based reproductive rights organisation IPAS, who wrote me by email last week. "By repeatedly cutting the budget for international family planning and putting in place the global gag rule, the supposedly 'pro-life' Bush administration ignores this tragic reality - and without doubt causes more unsafe abortions, posing high costs to women, their families and society at large. It is ironic that the same groups that oppose abortion rarely step up and support better access to contraception."

The Bush administration has time and again put American women's lives second to a religiously inspired relationship to women and reproductive health. Take their latest attempt to restrict American women's access to contraception and the kind of pre-emptive contraceptive measures that pro-life forces should love. In this latest salvo, the US department of health and human services would allow any healthcare provider the right to refuse to treat a woman, and defines "abortion" in such a broad manner as to restrict access to IUDs, the morning after pill, and some birth control pills.

This affects any entity – from public and private hospitals to pharmacies - that receives public funding from HHS, explains Jill Morrison, senior counsel at the National Women's Law Centre. "Under the guise of simply interpreting current law," Morrison explained, if this HHS proposal goes through it would "completely expand the federal abortion refusal laws to include some of the most commonly used forms of contraception." Morrison said it was fair to call this a "domestic gag rule".

The Bush administration's relationship to sex and reproduction has been consistently abysmal, from their utterly failed effort to promote abstinence only among teenagers to its unique ability to hire militantly anti-contraception "experts" like Susan Orr, a veteran of the religious Family Research Council, who was named acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs in October of last year (and stepped down, quietly, in May). Orr was previously known for championing a measure that would strip funding for birth control for federal workers, saying she was "quite pleased because fertility is not a disease. It's not a medical necessity that you have it" and earlier calling contraception part of a "culture of death".

The Bush administration's notion of contraception and sex education has been consistently – maddeningly - oxymoronic. Abortion rates are lowest in countries where women have access to education, especially education on contraception. So while we in the US hold our collective breath, waiting out these last few months of Bush's efforts to restrict our freedoms, globally women are literally dying for him to leave.

Source: The Guardian (UK), 21 July 2008

rex

Recommendations for Postexposure Interventions to Prevent Infection with Hepatitis B Virus, Hepatitis C Virus, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, and Tetanus in Persons Wounded During Bombings and Other Mass-Casualty Events
Recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) United States, 2008
This report outlines recommendations for postexposure interventions to prevent infection with hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, human immunodeficiency virus, or tetanus in persons wounded during bombings or other events resulting in mass casualties. Persons wounded during such events or in conjunction with the resulting emergency response might be exposed to blood, body fluids, or tissue from other injured persons and thus be at risk for bloodborne infections. This report adapts existing general recommendations on the use of immunization and postexposure prophylaxis for tetanus and for occupational and nonoccupational exposures to bloodborne pathogens to the specific situation of a mass-casualty event. The recommendations contained in this report represent the consensus of U.S. federal public health officials and reflect the experience and input of public health officials at all levels of government and the acute injury response community.