AIDS CAMPAIGN IN INDIA SIDELINED COURTESY A PECK ON THE CHEEK OF SHILPA SHETTY BY RICHARD GERE

1. Richard Gere’s ‘lip service’, albeit on Shilpa Shetty’s cheek, awakened India’s moral police who first burnt the effigies of both the stars, shouted slogans from the bottom of their bellies, and slapped an arrest warrant against them. The 'east meets west' embrace in front of about 4,000 truckers at an Aids awareness campaign was a parody from Gere's film Shall We Dance. The act received cheers from truckers but failed to amuse a small group of Hindu hardliners. However this is not the first time the custodians of Indian morality have raised their voices against those who violated the so-called obscenity laws. A flashback: In 1980 Padmini Kolhapure gave a peck on Prince Charles cheek during his visit to a film shoot in Mumbai. This created sensation in the media and Padmini became a sensation – not for her acting prowess. In another instance in 1993, actress Shabana Azmi gave a peck on African leader Nelson Mandela's cheek, creating a huge uproar in the Muslim community. The actress was criticised for her over enthusiasm and for degrading Islamic values.
2. Even today, on Valentine’s Day one could see right-wing groups ransacking shops and beating young couples for celebrating a western tradition in a tolerant Indian society. These fundamentalists argue that western culture corrupts the minds of youngsters; though a Bollywood movie is incomplete without an ‘item song’ sung by a scantily-dressed female swaying to a catchy number while the camera keeps drooling on her pelvic movements. Even the present breed of Bollywood stars openly lip-lock on the screen that easily passes through the censors’ scissors.
3. So the question arises, who should abide by the law?
4. Though Indian law does not allow kissing in public places, one can see couples stealing a ‘quick kiss’ in cinema halls, college campuses and even in gardens.
5. India’s GENext finds this question redundant. They find unemployment, Aids awareness, power and water shortages as more important issues then going gaga over a kiss-on-a-cheek issue.
6. Even legal experts expressed that lodging complaints and issuing arrest warrants against the so-called moral offenders is a cheap publicity stunt. They argue that it is the easiest way to get publicity through print and electronic media. India has over 300 news channels and an unaccountable number of newspapers and periodicals. This gigantic media force is enough to give any small group or an individual instant publicity in a one billion populace.
7. Coming back to the present scenario, the Pretty Woman star Gere has apologised to the Indian public by saying: “What is most important to me is that my intentions as an HIV/Aids advocate be made clear, and that my friends in India understand that it has never been, nor could it ever be, my intention to offend you.”
8. But there could be no respite for Gere, a frequent traveller to India, because under the law he could face up to three months in prison, a fine, or both if convicted. Though Gere won support from lawyers and legal experts, who slammed the Jaipur court ruling for issuing the arrest warrant, much has to be seen on how the Indian media handles this ‘kiss-and-tell’ issue. I had enough of writing it. Hope you too will give up this issue after reading this.

PRECAUTIONS DURING DIALYSIS TO BE UNDER TAKEN BY PARAMEDICAL STAFF:ANALYSIS BY NEW-MEDICINE-AIDS-HIV-TREATMENT-CURE.BLOGSPOT.COM

1.Blood and body fluid precautions should be followed.

2.Dialyser and associated blood tubing should be disposable.

3.Disinfection for hemo dialysis machine fluid should be 500 to 750 ppm of sodium hypochlorite for 30 to 40 minutes or 1.5 to 2% formaldehyde overnight.

4.The dialyser should either be discarded after use, or cleaned, disinfected and then reused on the same patient.

5.The dialyser should never be used on more than one patient.

HANDLING DECEASED PERSON INFECTED WITH AIDS/HIV:ANALYSIS BY NEW-MEDICINE-AIDS-HIV-TREATMENT-CURE.BLOGSPOT.COM

1.Double gloves should be worn along with gowns, mask and glasses.

2.The body should be wrapped in polythene sheeting and placed in a tubular polythene bags and sealed at both ends.

3.The words – INFECTIOUS DESEASE, HANDLE WITH CARE should be written on the covering before sending the body for autopsy or to mortuary.

PRECAUTIONS DURING EMBALMING TO BE UNDER TAKEN BY PARAMEDICAL STAFF:ANALYSIS BY NEW-MEDICINE-AIDS-HIV-TREATMENT-CURE.BLOGSPOT.COM

1. All the universal precautions should be taken during embalming for a patient infected with AIDS/HIV.

2.Material to be disposed of e.g body fluids, faces, etc, should be decontaminated with .05% sodium hypochlorite.

MISLEADING ADVERTISEMENTS IN NEWSPAPERS,WEBSITES,TELEVISION REGARDING JESUS/GOD CURING AIDS

1.An advertisement for a religious campaign has been ruled out of order for lack of evidence that Jesus can heal Aids.

2.The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) made the ruling after receiving a complaint about a newspaper advertisement in March for a "Miracle Crusade with Reverend Angley".

3.The advertisement claimed among other things that Jesus "heals Aids".

4.The ASA said it had tried unsuccessfully to get a response to the complaint, but the advertiser had "failed to provide the ASA with verification of the claim in question".

5.Do not fall prey to such misleading advertisements as it can aggravate the disease by spreading the infection and these are only stunts to earn free money.

6.Miracles do happen but not in curing an incurable disease and thus the best is to follow medical advice,however following the teachings and discourses of God can help in getting solace from mental tension.

AIDS-AN EPIDEMIC CONTROLLABLE BY IMPARTING EDUCATION

1.AIDS is now second only to the Black Death as the largest epidemic in history. AIDS kills about 2.9 million people a year, or about one person every 11 seconds, as you can see here. This death toll surprisingly includes a lot of children, who are often infected with the HIV virus during pregnancy or through breast-feeding.

2.The toll is worst in Africa, where millions of parents have died, leaving children as orphans. Often teachers have died as well, leaving schools empty. Doctors and nurses have died, leaving hospitals and medical clinics with nothing. Farmers have died, leaving crops in the fields. Entire villages have been devastated.

3.Yet AIDS is a preventable and increasingly treatable disease. The huge majority of deaths can be stopped. Through education, the use of condoms, and proper medicine, AIDS has been brought under control in the developed countries. The same can be true in Africa,asia and other poor areas of the world.

Sources: Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), World Health Organization (WHO).

AN APPEAL TO NGO'S WORKING ON AIDS/HIV PROJECTS

1.I take an opportunity to call on all the NGO's to keep up the good work being done by them in the field of combating dreaded disease i.e AIDS.

2.I further take the opportunity to exhort all the NGO's to guard against the tendency of siphoning funds made available through various govt and international agencies as a single case of distrust/misappropriation of funds provided in form of aid has a catastrophic effect and thus we can avoid situation like GOA where funds have been stopped.

3.I am aware of the fact that all the NGO's are toiling hard but we have to weed out those evil characters in the organisation who have a disrepute in handling funds and thus can bring discredit to the organisation.

Keep up the good work.

AN APPEAL TO GOVT OF INDIA FOR NOT CUTTING AID TO NGO'S WORKING ON AIDS RELATED PROJECT IN GOA

1.It has been brought to my notice that the grant to NGO's working on AIDS related project has been stopped or reduced in GOA.

2.I must compliment the NGO's for an excellent work in the said field and would appeal to Govt of India that Goa is a prominent tourist destination and is a gateway to spreading of AIDS in India due to free culture prevailing due to foreign tourist influx.

3.As a one time measure the grants to the NGO's be restored so that the good work done by them is not brought to Zero.

AIDS VACCINE MAY SEE LIGHT OF THE DAY SOON-SO AIDS PATIENTS CHEER UP

1. Due to recent developments, French AIDS researchers are hoping that a vaccine could be developed using knowledge about the small number of HIV patients who manage to resist the virus without treatment over a long time.
2. According to Jean-Francois Delfraissy, head of France's national Aids research agency, "There is a minority of patients, less than one percent, who have found in their immune system the capacity for a robust anti-viral response, which is exactly what you'd expect from a vaccine,".
3. Delfraissy and other AIDS researchers have been studying how some HIV carriers manage to control the virus. In their findings, which have been published in US publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they reveal how some immune cells, called CD8 cells, are able to prevent the spreading of an HIV infection in a small number of patients.
4. According to the report, the patients remain HIV-positive because they continue to produce antibodies against HIV, but the infection is otherwise untraceable, and no treatment is required.
5. According to the researchers, the crucial role of CD8 cells could lead to the development of a vaccine for those patients, a large majority, whose immune system cannot spontaneously activate their powerful anti-HIV potential.
6. HIV has proven to be the most unconquerable foe vaccine designers have ever faced but there is hope that very soon there will be the development of a vaccine that will help conquer the foe once and for all.
7. A couple of months ago, some researchers in the U.S claimed they had taken a tiny snapshot of a key location on the tip of the HIV virus's docking spike that is stable and not mutating - in other words, a fixed target, which could be the weak point of the virus.
8. According to the researchers, the spike was recognized by a specific antibody, called b12, this is found in the blood of people who are able to hold the virus at bay for long periods.

25% RESPONDS FAVOURABLY TO AIDS VACCINE TRIAL

1.One out of four persons in India has responded favourably to the phase one trial of an HIV/AIDS vaccine, experts said here today. The preliminary results of the vaccine trial showed that among 25 per cent of volunteers, an immune response was triggered, said Dr Jean-Louis Excler, Senior Medical Director of International Aids Vaccine initiative, a global body that works for development of a vaccine against the disease.

2."Twenty-five per cent of the volunteers showed immune response when given high doses of the vaccine," he said at a workshop here.

3.The phase one trial of Tgaaco9 Vaccine (RAAV), which was conducted in National Aids Research Institute (NARI), Pune, in collaboration with Indian Council For Medical Research (ICMR), National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) and IAVI, got over last year.

4.As per him it was "confusing to see that the higher the dose, the higher the response to the vaccine." He said that they want to come out of with the right dosage which is safe, feasible and that could be manufactured in a large scale.

5.According to IAVI Medical Director Dr Sonali Kochhar, they are considering to start a trial of a "dual vaccine" that would be more effective. "We want to conduct the prime boost trial using three vaccine combination. We will be filling application for starting the trial before the regulatory authorities," said Kochhar, adding it could only be by the end of this year or the beginning of the next year. The three combination vaccine would be RAAV, the ongoing Chennai-based trial of modified vaccine Ankara (MVA) and DNA vaccine which is being conducted in Africa.

PFIZER HIV DRUG HELD BECAUSE OF SAFETY CONCERN

1. AIDS might soon have a treatment as an experimental Pfizer Inc AIDS pill, the first of its kind, against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was effective in suppressing it. Health officials however, are concerned about the safety of the drug, which now seeks the approval of the Government advisors.
2. The Food and Drug Administration staff would consult an advisory panel for advice “regarding the possible need for special labeling as well as whether additional clinical trials should be performed to address particular safety issues”, they said.
3. The new drug-Maraviroc belongs to a class of drugs called CCR5 antagonists and could be the first drug in the market to block the CCR5 co-receptor that provides the main entrance for the virus into cells.
4. FDA has been known to follow the recommendation of experts though it is not obligatory. A panel of experts will vote Tuesday to decide the fate of the drug. If the risks of cancer and infection are found to be serious, Maraviroc may not be approved.
5. If approved, Maraviroc sales may touch $US500 million, believe the industry analysts.
6. Safety concerns are high as earlier medicines, under development were associated with various risks. For instance, signs of liver damage appeared in some patients because of which British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline plc decided to quit its drug aplaviroc. With the use of a similar drug, lymphomas have been found to develop in several patients as reported by Schering-Plough Corp., which is stll performing the trials.
7. According to the FDA reviewers, Maraviroc did not cause lymphoma in Pfizer studies but a ‘modest’ increase in liver-related abnormalities was found. Animal studies reveal that Maraviroc may also lead to heart problems.
8. Dr Jacob Lalezari, the lead researcher for Pfizer's trials in the US, said AIDS patients, resisting older treatments and consequently running out of options had responded well to the drug.
9. "I don't have any fears or concerns certainly about the safety data generated to date," said Lalezari, director of Quest Clinical Research at the University of California at San Francisco. But he added that "you don't know about five- or ten-year safety issues until a drug's been out five or ten years."
10. The experts will soon put forward their opinions as the rest of us hope for the dreaded disease to find a cure.

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COMPASSION FOR PATIENTS OF AIDS

1.Now it is a fact that the patient is suffering from AIDS and thus do not demean him further by stating him that AIDS/HIV has been caused to him due to moral turpitude in terms of visiting prostitutes/multiple partners/gigolos.

2.Remember AIDS can be caused by other methods of transmission as listed in earlier posts.Even if it is confirmed that he/she has suffered because of visiting prostitutes/having multiple partner;It is my humble request to all including parents,colleagues,doctors and attendants to deal with AIDS/HIV patients with compassion as the individual is already paying a heavy price in terms of his life and now by your sarcastic comments do not make his life further miserable.

MASTURBATION IS TOTALLY SAFE

1. The prime reason for the young generation going astray is lack of sexual outlet and quality information about sexual aspects.

2.During puberty a number of hormonal changes take place which requires sexual outlet and out of the ignorance younger generation visits prostitutes and gigolos and thus acquiring AIDS/HIV due to following unsafe sexual practices.

3.This is a message for complete generation that the masturbation is totally safe and one need not feel guilty as it is a safe sexual outlet.