Igor
is just one of 30,000 Russians who will die from heroin this year
News (Updated
April 4, 2010)
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April 2, 2010
They are barriers that
ignorance built. Dismantling the
Michel Sidibe, the
executive director of the United Nations AIDS body, believes the laws ''are a
tragedy for each and every person they affect''.
Nearly 30 years after the
initial global outbreak of the AIDS epidemic, many of the travel laws enacted in
those first few fearful months are still an impediment to the free movement of
HIV-positive people around the world.
Fifty-two countries,
including
The US repealed its
decades-long entry ban this year, but five jurisdictions - Egypt, Iraq, Qatar,
Singapore and the Turks and Caicos Islands - still refuse HIV-positive people
entry in any circumstance.
Twenty-three countries
deport people if their HIV-positive status is discovered.
Speaking to the
Inter-Parliamentary Union in
''There is no reason to
have these travel restrictions now,'' he says. ''There is no public health
rationale behind them. They are simply depriving people of their basic human
rights.''
Some governments do not
even know their laws exist, or that their immigration officials are enforcing
legislation unchanged for three decades. ''It is not until UNAIDS makes contact
with these governments and explains what these laws are doing and why they are
not needed, that they realise they even have these laws.''
Sidibe cites the example
of a Canadian national, teacher John Newman, who was voted Teacher of the Year
in
''There was the Filipino
man, working in one of the Gulf countries,'' says Sidibe. ''His annual HIV test
came back positive so he was then arrested and held in detention for three weeks
before he was deported. All for no reason at all.''
Robert Dessaix was to
participate in Australian Writers' Week in
''It's mediaeval. I feel
snubbed and insulted, of course, and also humiliated,'' Dessaix says. ''But, if
out of all this, the Chinese are encouraged to look again at their blanket ban
on people with HIV entering the country … then it's been worthwhile.''
Anecdotally, stories
abound of people being publicly interrogated in airport immigration halls, of
having medications searched by officials, and of having to lie on immigration
forms.
Travel restrictions were
most rigidly enforced in the
For
A parliamentary inquiry
into migration for people with disabilities is examining the rights of people
with HIV. The executive director of the Australian Federation of AIDS
Organisations, Don Baxter, says the government should reconsider the way it
judged the financial impact of HIV immigrants, taking into account that with
improved treatment, most would lead full working lives.
''And the refugee
regulation should be changed. The purpose of considering people for refugee
status is to remove them from an intolerable situation. And yet, for refugees
who turn out to be HIV positive, nearly always in an internment camp, we are
just condemning them to stay there and get sick there.''
The Immigration Department
has warned the inquiry that any change ''would need to be considered in the
context of potential impacts on health and welfare expenditure … particularly
in terms of prejudice to the access of … citizens and permanent residents''.
Sidibe says he is
optimistic that
April 1, 2010 - 11:16
HIV charity Terrence
Higgins Trust is to open an online chatroom for gay men to discuss their
experiences of HIV, sex and condoms.
The charity hopes that
discussions on the forum can be used as a focus group to inform its future safe
sex campaigns and estimates that 1,500 men will sign up.
It will be open between
mid-April and mid-May and THT says the information gathered will be kept
confidential.
The £35,000 campaign has
been funded by the Department of Health and will be launched with adverts
online, in print and on the London Underground.
Alan Wardle, head of
health promotion at the charity, said: “While we’ve always ensured gay men
are involved in our campaigns, this is the first time we’ve sparked a
conversation with such large numbers. It’s also the first time we’ve used
social media to listen.
“For almost 30 years
we’ve talked to men from all walks of life, but we are now asking gay men to
join in on the conversation, to talk to each other about what matters to them,
so we can develop campaigns that will really have an impact on HIV.
"It’s vital to our
work that we talk to gay men on their terms, and we are encouraging them to log
on and tell us exactly what they think.”
National statistics
suggest that one in ten gay men in
BBC News,
Since the fall of the
Taliban regime in 2001, opium production in
|
Igor
is just one of 30,000 Russians who will die from heroin this year |
A couple of weeks ago, and
three time zones east of
The reason I was there,
the reason she'd let me be there, is that her son, Igor, had been killed by
heroin.
It is a sad fact in
In the frozen heart of
Alcohol is by far the
biggest killer. More than half a million Russians drink themselves to death
every year.
But since the early 2000s,
another killer has been spreading at frightening speed across
Actually there are two of
them, one closely stalking the other. The first is heroin. The second is HIV.
Straddling
In the
In
Why? What makes
But by far the biggest
reason is geography. Take a look at a map of the world and draw a line north
from
|
|
|
The vast bulk of
We hear a lot about the
effects of Afghan heroin on the streets of
Continue along that line
north and you will eventually arrive at the Siberian city of
New life
It was there that I met a
remarkable group of young men. Vlad has the shoulders and bull neck of a
nightclub bouncer. But today he is training to become a Protestant priest.
He is also a virtual
father to 25 young men. Vlad is a former heroin addict, as are all his staff and
all the young men in his care.
Among them is an intense
young man called Sergei - his face cast in a seemingly permanent frown.
|
Sergei
was one of |
Sergei gave up heroin
about nine months ago. That he was able to - as well as choose a new life -
speaks volumes of the work that Vlad and his staff are doing.
Sergei's father was an
alcoholic who beat his mother, stole and ended up in prison. He died there from
liver failure.
His mother killed herself
when Sergei was a teenager. He found her body hanging from a light fitting in
the hallway of their flat. By the age of 15, Sergei and his brother were alone,
and dealing drugs.
By the age of 20 he was a
major heroin dealer. Then in 2007 his brother was killed, beaten to death in a
fight with other drug dealers. What was left of Sergei's world collapsed.
"I had buried every
single one of my family," he tells me. "I had no more reason to live,
I just lay down on a bed and injected and injected."
That is were Vlad found
him a year ago, unwashed, surrounded by filth and close to death.
Building coffins
In the last year, his
transformation has been extraordinary. Today Sergei is healthy, strong, and even
talks of perhaps contacting his long-lost girlfriend.
But he is one of the few.
In the basement of the
rehabilitation centre Vlad shows me the drying-out cell. A terribly ill looking
young man is slumped on a bed.
|
|
|
"He came in last
night - new arrivals stay here for the first two weeks."
I immediately knew what he
was talking about - cold turkey. Heroin withdrawal is an extremely traumatic
experience. But it is staying off for the long term that is really difficult.
"Half the young men
won't make it," Vlad says. "They'll go back to the streets."
It is perhaps not
surprising that Vlad and his band of ex-addicts have a rather bleak sense of
humour.
They have turned one room
in to a workshop, where I found three young men building what I could swear were
coffins.
"Why are you building
coffins?" I ask, rather surprised.
"We run an
undertakers business," Vlad replies, very matter-of-fact.
"An undertakers?
Isn't that a bit morbid given what you've all been through?"
"We have to make money somehow, and round here there's never any shortage of business for an undertaker."
Saturday, March 27 2010
Sir
Elton John spent his 63rd birthday on Thursday in
The veteran musician has
donated £10 million from his charity to help set up projects in the country, to
educate youngsters about the dangerous disease and help prevent its spread.
And the Rocket Man timed
this week's visit to coincide with his birthday celebrations - spending the big
day with his partner David Furnish and a group of football-loving teenagers at
the Football for Hope Centre (FFH), set up by the Grassroots Soccer charity,
just outside
The singer says,
"Soccer stars are the most powerful role models for young people today so
it's fantastic that organisations like Grassroots Soccer are harnessing that
power to educate young people about HIV. I can't think of a better way to
celebrate my birthday."
25 Mar 2010
A two-day gathering in The
Hague, Netherlands, of religious leaders to discuss the role people of faith can
play in the fight against HIV/AIDS concluded Tuesday with a pledge to prevent
discrimination against those living with the disease, the Associated Press
reports.
"Representatives of
some 40 religions and faith groups including Christianity, Judaism, Islam,
Hinduism and Buddhism… sign[ed] a 'personal commitment to action' in which
they vowed to 'be clear in my words and actions that stigma and discrimination
towards people living with or affected by HIV is unacceptable,'" the news
service writes.
United Nations Population
Fund's Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said the release of the statement
marked "a sea change," according to the AP. "There is no talk
about sinning or repentance," she said. "It is more about acceptance
of people living with HIV" (Corder, 3/23).
"Religious leaders
can play a vital role in the AIDS response," UNAIDS Executive Director
Michel Sidibe, said in a statement, Deutsche Presse Agentur/The Hindu reports.
"By promoting community solidarity they can prevent new HIV infections and
ensure that people living with HIV are treated with dignity and respect,"
he said (3/22).
"During the
"The leaders gathered
at this summit have the ability to inspire and empower change - within their own
communities, across countries, and throughout wider communities," said Rev.
Richard Fee of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance. "In the midst of what
appears to be 'AIDS fatigue' they have the potential to galvanize efforts
against a disease that continues to spread, driven by silence, fear, violence
and injustice" (3/23).
"The religious
response to HIV/AIDS has sometimes been hindered by issues such as HIV
prevention methods, including the use of condoms, and attitudes towards people
at increased risk of HIV infection, such as men who have sex with men," VOA
News writes in a piece that examines the meeting that encouraged "religious
leaders to talk openly about the disease." The article includes comments by
church leaders in
A second AP story reports
that religious leaders continue to "struggl[e] with how to balance between
communicating the religious messages that talk about morality and spirituality
(and) public health challenges on the ground," said Canon Gideon Byamugisha,
an Anglican priest from
© Henry J. Kaiser Family
Foundation. All rights reserved.
02 Apr 2010
Teens with a history of crack or cocaine use are significantly more likely to
engage in unprotected sex than youth who have never used these drugs, putting
themselves at increased risk for HIV, according to a study in the April issue of
the Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse.
Researchers from the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center report that teens
in psychiatric care who used crack and/or cocaine at least once were six times
more likely to use condoms inconsistently, which was defined as
"sometimes," "never" or "rarely." The findings
suggest that crack cocaine appears to have more of an influence on risky teen
behaviors than other factors, like alcohol and marijuana use, which are more
routinely incorporated into adolescent HIV prevention interventions.
The study is one of the first to look at the link between crack and cocaine use
and HIV risk behaviors in adolescents. Previous research has demonstrated this
association in adults.
"Unprotected sex is the most common way that HIV is transmitted among
teens, so if we can develop a clearer picture of why some kids engage in
high-risk sexual behaviors, we will be better prepared to educate them about
safe sex," says lead author Marina Tolou-Shams, PhD, of the Bradley Hasbro
Children's Research Center. "Our findings suggest that future HIV
prevention interventions should include content specific to crack and cocaine
use, just as they do with drugs that are more commonly used by teens, like
alcohol and marijuana."
Overall, nearly 280 teens between the ages of 13 and 18 from therapeutic
psychiatric day programs took part in the study. Participants exhibited a range
of psychiatric diagnoses, including mood disorders, post-traumatic stress
disorder and disruptive behavior disorders. More than half of all adolescents
were male, and more than three-quarters were Caucasian. Approximately 13 percent
of teens in the study reported trying crack or cocaine at least once.
After controlling for known adolescent HIV risk factors, such as gender, race,
age and psychiatric status, researchers found that only 47 percent of teens with
a history of crack and/or cocaine use said they used condoms "always or
almost always." In addition, 15 percent of these adolescents have a history
of sexually transmitted diseases (STD), nearly three-quarters reported using
alcohol at least once and more than half indicated prior marijuana use.
In comparison, 71 percent of teens who never used crack or cocaine reported
using condoms consistently.
Tolou-Shams says it was important to look at the association between crack and
cocaine use and HIV risk behavior in adolescents with psychiatric disorders,
since previous research has shown that teens in mental health treatment have
high rates of risky sexual behavior and are more likely to engage in substance
use.
"Our study clearly shows that youth in psychiatric treatment are using
other drugs - and not just alcohol or marijuana - at high rates and that a
history of drug use should alert clinicians to a wide variety of possible
behavioral risks in their young patients," she adds.
The authors recommend that all clinicians who treat adolescents - including
pediatricians, social workers and psychologists - routinely discuss their
patients' mental health history, lifetime use of all substances and sexual
activity, as well as provide appropriate interventions when necessary in order
to reduce their HIV risk.
The research is supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health
and the Lifespan/Tufts/Brown Center for AIDS Research (CFAR).
Tolou-Shams is also an assistant professor of psychiatry at The Warren Alpert
Medical School of Brown University. Study co-authors include Larry K. Brown, MD,
and Nicholas Tarantino, BS, both from the Bradley Hasbro Children's
Source:
Jessica Collins Grimes
Lifespan
I had buried
every single one of my family. I had no more reason to live, I just lay
down on a bed and injected and injected 
