WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - The number of people getting sick with tuberculosis has dropped for
the first time, while the death toll from the disease reached its lowest level
in a decade, helped by progress in countries like News (Updated October
16, 2011)
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Thursday 13 October 2011
The way in which
protection providers approach the issue of HIV is back in the spotlight, after
figures published this week showed a significant increase in life expectancy for
people living with the condition.
The study, published on
bmj.com, suggests that people with HIV are living an average of 15 years longer
than they were 13 years ago, thanks to improved treatments.
Researchers for the study,
which was led by Dr Margaret May of the University of Bristol's School of Social
and Community Medicine, looked at data on 17,661 patients, 1,248 (7%) of whom
died between 1996 and 2008. The analysis showed that the life expectancy of an
average 20-year old infected with HIV has increased from 30 years in 1996-9 to
almost 46 years in 2006-8. For women, life expectancy is 10 years higher than
for men, with male patients' life expectancy at 40 years and female patients'
life expectancy at 50 years.
The rise can be attributed
to better antiretroviral therapy, more effective drugs and an upward trend in
life expectancy in the
It is not yet known what
the response of protection providers will be to the positive news on survival
rates, but insurers have been taking a more progressive attitude to HIV since
the Association of British Insurers published its Statement of Best Practice for
HIV and insurance in July 2008. In 2009 PruProtect claimed to be the first
“mainstream”
Critical illness insurance
providers have also made efforts to make the products more appropriate to the
needs of the HIV community.
Deepak Jobanputra,
actuarial and product director of PruProtect, said the provider has been
providing cover for people with HIV for some time as it recognises that people
with HIV lead normal lives and have protection needs to provide peace of mind to
cover their dependants and to cover their mortgages. He added that PruProtect's
"severity-based" approach to protection is an ideal way of helping
people to find the cover they need.
"Prognosis for
illnesses change over time and hence the most appropriate solution in meeting
people’s needs is through severity-based products," he said.
Chris Morgan, marketing
manager of Unusual Risks, the HIV life assurance specialist advisers, said that
people living with HIV are on average living longer and this is due to
"vast improvements" in medications.
"This therefore has
also led to big improvements in the availability of life assurance products to
the HIV community," he said.
However, a survey carried
out by Compass in December 2010 found that just 33% of "mainstream"
life offices have entered the life cover market for people with HIV. Morgan said
that Compass has repeated the research this year and the results will be
published soon.
11 October, 2011
In
“Eastern Europe and
Central Asia is the only region where we see the infection increasing,” Sidibé,
who is in
Sidibé warned that a
zero-tolerance policy toward drug addicts is not working.
“There is a lot of
experience from other countries showing that punishment alone is not working,”
Sidibé told RT. “You’re criminalizing those people, you’re making them go
underground and help themselves. So even when the help is available, it won’t
reach them.”
In
“We are sure that
Russian government can take the leadership in Eastern Europe and
Oct 11 2011
By Alina Selyukh
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - The number of people getting sick with tuberculosis has dropped for
the first time, while the death toll from the disease reached its lowest level
in a decade, helped by progress in countries like
In 2010, 8.8 million
people fell ill with TB and 1.4 million died, both marking a notable decline
over prior years, the United Nations health agency said in releasing its 2011
Global Tuberculosis Control Report.
"The findings reflect
a significant milestone for global health," said Dr. Mario Raviglione,
director of the WHO's Stop TB Department, at a news briefing. "But history
teaches that we cannot be complacent about TB. The international community
therefore must not perceive these achievements as job done."
TB is a worldwide
pandemic, with about a third of the world's population infected with the
bacteria, although only a small portion ever develop the disease.
The WHO has revised its
estimates to show that the absolute number of cases has been on a decline since
2006, not on a slight rise as previously reported. The number of people ill with
TB peaked at 9 million in 2005.
The death toll from TB
peaked at 1.8 million in 2003.
The WHO officials
attributed the decline to better data collection around the world; increased
funding in China for addressing TB; better prevention and care in the former
countries of the Soviet Union and Latin America as their standard of living
improves; and a drop-off of infection in Africa, which had peaked with the HIV
epidemic.
The TB bacteria destroys
patients' lung tissue, causing them to cough up the bacteria, which then spreads
through the air and can be inhaled by others. If untreated, each person with
active TB can infect on average 10 to 15 people a year.
TB is especially common in
Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and
The countries the WHO
especially noted for progress in the fight against the disease were
Globally, the TB death
rate dropped 40 percent in 2010 compared to 1990, and all regions except
For full report from the
WHO, see www.who.int/tb.
CHALLENGE OF DRUG
RESISTANCE
Some countries routinely
vaccinate children with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin, made by several companies
including Merck & Co Inc. The vaccine doesn't always protect against TB.
The infection is also
treatable by antibiotics, such as isoniazid or Sanofi's Rifadin, but they must
be taken daily for months to be effective.
Because people do not
always take the drugs as directed, multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB) and extensively
drug-resistant (XDR-TB) strains have emerged. Leaving them untreated increases
the risk of drug-resistant strains of TB spreading.
In March of this year, the
WHO warned that more than 2 million people will contract MDR-TB by 2015.
Drug-resistant TB strains
remain one of the biggest challenges, as only about 16 percent of patients
diagnosed with MDR-TB are actually getting treatment, said Dr. Katherine Floyd,
coordinator of the TB monitoring and evaluation unit at the Stop TB department.
"There is little
interest by the industry in developing new drugs in general for antibiotics, but
when it comes to TB in particular ... they cannot count on making a lot of money
off the drugs and therefore don't invest," Raviglione said.
Although many advances
have been made in increasing access to diagnostic technology, clinics and
treatment around the world, countries pay for some 86 percent of all anti-TB
funding and continue to struggle with funding gaps.
With that in mind, global
health experts warned against complacency about the reported improvement.
"We know from the
past experience that as soon as you drop the guard, TB comes back," said
USAID's Dr. Ariel Pablos-Mendez.
(Additional reporting by
Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay in
By Boss Lady on October
13, 2011
In
“It’s always been
important to me, as it’s for my generation, a most relevant consideration when
you’re growing up. Sex doesn’t mean nothing; sex means so much,” Gaga, 25,
told USA Today. “I hope that young women know that sex is still a big deal,
and they don’t have to put out soon. If they want someone to court them for a
while before they give it up, that’s wonderful and beautiful, and a man will
only respect you more for honoring your body. I am that way.”
Some of her greatest work
in this area has been with MAC Cosmetics and their Viva Glam campaign, which
raises awareness of HIV/AIDS via sales of the Viva Glam line of lipsticks. Since
becoming the face of the campaign in 2009 (following in the footsteps of Elton
John, Cyndi Lauper and Mary J. Blige), Gaga has helped raise $55 million for the
MAC AIDS Fund and now hopes to meet the lifetime goal of $250 million for the
campaign.
“What I hope to do with
this campaign is to not only raise awareness for AIDS and HIV but raise the
awareness that it’s okay and wonderful and beautiful to love yourself and be
happy and to honor your body and to use a condom or say no,” she says. “The
conversation is the most important aspect of it.”
11 Oct 2011
By Nita Bhalla
NEW
DELHI (AlertNet) - India has slowed the spread of HIV by about 100,000 cases in
the past five years with the help of an intervention partly funded by
billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, the Times of India reported on
Tuesday, quoting a new study.
Avahan, an Indian
government project launched in 2003, targeted vulnerable groups such as female
sex workers and their clients and partners, men having sex with men (MSMs),
truck drivers and injecting drug users.
The newspaper said a new
joint study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation,
"High-risk population
like sex workers would infect their clients who would then spread it to other
female partners like their wives," Lalit Dandona, lead author of the study
was quoted as saying.
"Similarly, MSMs
infected each other and then spread it within the general population through
unprotected sex. Avahan showed us that by targeting high-risk groups, the virus
spread among the general population can be controlled."
Avahan received $258
million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and complemented the
government's wider efforts on HIV prevention.
The programme was
implemented in four large states - Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,
At the start of the
initiative in 2003, the six states - with a combined population equalling that
of the
With 2.3 million reported
cases of AIDS,
Progress is being made. A
UNAIDS report marking 30 years since the discovery of the disease said India's
rate of new HIV infections fell by more than 50 percent between 2001 and 2009,
while the global rate dropped by 25 percent.
MOSCOW Oct 10, 2011
(Reuters) - The United States is aggravating the HIV/AIDS problem in Russia and
the West by refusing to use its forces to destroy opium crops in Afghanistan,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.
Lavrov made
"It is hard for us to
understand why our American partners don't want the International Security
Assistance Force to do this," he said. "This issue is crucial to the
fight against the drug threat and, consequently, the spread of HIV/AIDS."
"The tragedy of the
situation lies in the fact that in
It says the
The Unites States said it
made the change because drug crop eradication was not damaging the Taliban
insurgency but was putting farmers out of work, sowing resentment against
foreign intervention.
(AFP) – 12 Oct., 2011
LUSAKA — The Archbishop
of Canterbury on Wednesday called on his followers not abandon people living
with HIV, as he wrapped up a three-nation African tour with a service in the
Zambian mining town of Kitwe.
"The church should
deal with HIV and AIDS. The church in
Williams was speaking at a
communion service held at Arthur Davies stadium in
"We will be friends
with them and this means the fight against death," he said.
Williams started his trip
in
He also stopped in
The service in
"We are sent to share
the suffering and joys with our neighbours, we are sent to be alongside them and
listening to their needs. We should give our lives to others as Jesus did,"
he said.
"The church in
Williams returns home on
Thursday.
Copyright © 2011 AFP.