Circumcision reduces risk of HIV Infection

Circumcision (Indonesian, khitan / sunat) Reduces incidence of H.I.V and Rates of Two S.T.D.s (herpes simplex virus Type 2 and human papilloma virus)

Male circumcision, already shown to reduce the incidence of H.I.V. infection in men, also reduces transmission of both herpes simplex virus Type 2 and human papilloma virus, a new study has found.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 45 million people in the United States ages 12 and older have had herpes, or H.S.V.-2, the incurable infection that can cause recurrent painful genital warts. About 20 million are currently infected with human papilloma virus, or H.P.V., which causes various genital cancers, including most cervical cancers. There is no treatment or cure for H.P.V., but there is a vaccine now licensed only for girls and women.

AIDS Vaccine Possible Within 5 Years

Nobel medicine laureate sees progress on AIDS vaccine:

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Luc Montagnier, co-winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine, Saturday stood by his view that a “therapeutic vaccine” for the AIDS pandemic could be created within four to five years.

“It is difficult to say, but it is perhaps a case of four to five years,” he told AFP, following a press conference in Stockholm ahead of receiving the prestigious prize next week.

In October Montagnier, 76, said an AIDS treatment could be possible in the future with a “therapeutic” rather than preventive vaccine for which results might be published in three or four years if financial backing is forthcoming.

World AIDS Day

In 1988, the General Assembly expressed deep concern at the pandemic proportions of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Noting that the World Health Organization had declared 1 December 1988 World AIDS Day, the Assembly stressed the importance of observing that occasion (resolution 43/15). Today, over 41 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. To combat HIV/AIDS , malaria and other diseases is one of the Millennium Development Goals which all 191 United Nations Member States have pledged to meet by the year 2015.

The World AIDS Campaign (WAC) has chosen as its theme from 2005 to 2010: “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.”

Courtesy: un.org

Indonesia’s vast Papua in the grip of Asia’s worst AIDS crisis

Papua, a vast territory of tropical jungles and jagged mountain peaks on the western edge of New Guinea island, has seen an explosion in HIV/AIDS cases among a population that is the poorest in Indonesia.

Its infection rate, estimated at 2.4 out of every 100 people, is one of the highest outside Africa. And it is set to rise.

Economic Crisis Could Re-Ignite AIDS Epidemic

The anti-poverty agency ActionAid is warning that the current economic crisis could re-ignite the global AIDS epidemic. The group is calling on G8 leaders to keep the promises they made to provide near universal access to treatment. Obviously, when you’re struggling to have something to eat, you can’t care less to buy drug, indeed anything beyond bread and rice.