Heena Sharma Blog

The proportion of Indian sex workers with HIV/AIDS declined over four years to 2017, more use condoms than ever before and funding to control the disease rose 21% over the period, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of national health data. But there appears to be little change in violence, stigma and discrimination against sex workers, how Indian states treat them varies, and funding and drugs are not always available when and where they should be. Over 91% of Indian sex workers used condoms in 2018, and no more than 1.6% of female sex workers had HIV (human immunodeficieny virus) and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) in 2017, down from 2.75% in 2013, mirroring a decline reflected among the general population, according to the latest available data. Over four years to 2017, the “HIV prevalence rate”, the percentage of people tested and found infected, among men who have sex with men also dropped from 4.4% to 2.7%, said a 2018 report from UNAIDS, a United Nations or...

Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Tuesday said that the coastal state's government was mulling making HIV tests mandatory before the registration of marriages. "We are considering making an HIV test compulsory for the prospective couples before registration of marriage in Goa. It is not mandatory right now," Rane told IANS. Rane, who is also a Minister for Law, added that the proposal to make HIV testing compulsory before marriage was being vetted by the Law Department. "If it is cleared by the Department soon, then we will table the law in the monsoon session of the state Legislative Assembly," Rane said. The monsoon session will begin on July 15. In 2006, a similar proposal was mooted by then Health Minister Dayanand Narvekar, with the Goa cabinet approving the legislation making HIV testing mandatory before marriage. But the initiative did not reach fruition. Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

This week a team of scientists and physicians from the U.K. published news of a second HIV positive man, in London, who is in long-term (18-month) HIV remission after undergoing treatment for Hodgkins lymphoma. The unexpected success has launched a new round of discussion about a potential cure for HIV. Since 2008, scientists have been trying to replicate the treatment that cured the “Berlin patient” of HIV. At the time, many in the field of HIV research were excited to learn that this man, who tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus in Berlin and had recently undergone treatment for acute myeloid leukemia, appeared to have been cured of his HIV. Until now, success in replicating that cure has been limited. What is HIV? HIV is the virus that causes AIDS . Since the virus was first discovered in the 1980s, more than 75 million people worldwide have been infected with HIV. Today, almost 37 million people live with HIV. Of these, about 1.1 million live in the U.S....