Thursday, September 21, 2006

Light a candle!

The innocent victims of Internet child abuse cannot speak for themselves.

But you can.

With your help, we can eradicate this evil trade.
We do not need your money.
We need you to light a candle of support.

We're aiming to light at least One Million Candles by December 31, 2006. This petition will be used to encourage governments, politicians, financial institutions, payment organisations, Internet service providers, technology companies and law enforcement agencies to eradicate the commercial viability of online child abuse. They have the power to work together. You have the
power to get them to take action.

Please light your candle at:
www.lightamillioncandles.com

Together, we can destroy the commercial viability of Internet child abuse sites that are destroying the lives of innocent children.

Kindly share this to your friends, relatives and work colleagues so that they can light a candle too.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

PILLOW TALK on 28Sep06

The Reproductive Health Advocacy Network - Youth (RHAN Youth), Philippine NGO Council on Population, Health & Welfare Inc. (PNGOC) together with the Women’s Health Care Foundation (WHCF) tied up with the Alpha Phi Omega Sorority (APO) UP Diliman Chapter with assistance from the United Nations Population Fund 6th Country Programme (UNFPA) to conduct a forum on Empowering Women for Reproductive Health entitled "PILLOW TALK".

This forum will take place on September 28, 2006 at Claro M. Recto UP Diliman Quezon City at 1PM to 5PM.

We hope that you can come and be a part of the said forum. Registration is FREE.

Thank you and we are looking forward in seeing you there.

Paolo Antonio Fernando
Philippine NGO Council on Population Health & Welfare Inc.
Email: pagf4@pngoc.com
Website: www.geocities.com/pagf4lyf

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Women make up most of Filipino workers deployed abroad: study

SWPR 2006 Launch Coverage
Friday, September 08, 2006 / Sunstar Manila

NEARLY 2,000 or 65 percent of the 3,000 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) deployed to other countries daily are females employed in domestic jobs or as entertainers, according to the 2006 State of the World Population report.

Suneeta Mukherjee, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) country representative, said in 2005 alone, 205,206 Filipino female workers were deployed abroad with 83,524 of them hired as domestic workers or caretakers while 37,891 were hired as overseas performing artists (OPAs).

Of the figure, only five percent were employed under the professional category such as medical-related work and in construction companies.

Citing the 2006 report, Mukherjee said the reason why many Filipino women opt to work overseas in order to meet the basic needs of their family and to provide better education for their children.

Compared to their female counterparts in other labor-sending countries, the 2006 state of population report noted that in Sri Lanka, the ratio of women leaving for work abroad as against males is 2:1.

"While it (domestic jobs) has provided millions of migrant women with an opportunity to improve both their lives and those of their children, the private nature of their work can put them in gross jeopardy," Mukherjee said during the launching of the 2006 State of World Population held at the University of the
Philippines (UP).

Read more here.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

WHO guidelines for the use of ART in children

Source: WHO

Antiretroviral therapy of HIV infection in infants and children in resource-limited settings: towards universal access: Recommendations for a public health approach

The most efficient and cost-effective way to tackle paediatric HIV globally is to reduce mother-to-child transmission (MTCT). However, every day there are nearly 1500 new infections in children under 15 years of age, more than 90% of them occurring in the developing world and most being associated with MTCT (1). HIV-infected infants frequently present with clinical symptoms in the first year of life, and by one year of age an estimated one-third of infected infants will have died, and about half by 2 years of age (2, 3). There is thus a critical need to provide antiretroviral therapy (ART) for infants and children who become infected despite the efforts being made to prevent such infections.

In countries where it has been successfully introduced, ART has substantially changed the face of HIV infection. HIV-infected infants and children now survive to adolescence and adulthood. The challenges of providing HIV care have therefore evolved to become those of chronic as well as acute care. In resource-limited settings, many of which are countries hardest hit by the epidemic, unprecedented efforts made since the introduction of the `3 by 5' targets and global commitments to rapidly scale up access to ART have led to remarkable progress. However, this urgency and intensity of effort have met with less success in extending the provision of ART to HIV-infected children. Significant obstacles to scaling up paediatric care remain, including limited screening for HIV, a lack of affordable simple diagnostic testing technologies, a lack of
human capacity, insufficient advocacy and understanding that ART is efficacious in children, limited experience with simplified standardized treatment guidelines, and a lack of affordable
practicable paediatric antiretroviral (ARV) formulations. Consequently, far too few children have been started on ART in resource-limited settings. Moreover, the need to treat an increasing number of HIV-infected children highlights the primary importance of preventing the transmission of the virus from mother to child in the first place.

WHO guidelines for the use of ART in children were considered within the guidelines for adults published in 2004 (4). Revised, stand-alone comprehensive guidelines based on a public health approach have been developed in order to support and facilitate the management and scale-up of ART in infants and children.

The present guidelines are part of WHO's commitment to achieve universal access to ART by 2010. Related publications include the revised treatment guidelines for adults (i.e. the 2006 revision), revised guidelines on ARV drugs for treating pregnant women and preventing HIV infection in infants, guidelines on the use of cotrimoxazole preventive therapy (CPT),(i) and revised WHO clinical staging for adults and children (5). (i) These three documents are currently in preparation and are expected to be published by WHO in 2006.

Download file in English [pdf 1.54Mb]
http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/guidelines/WHOpaediatric.pdf

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Advances in Birth Control

A repost from Los Angeles Times (US) on Monday, July 10, 2006
Author: Shari Roan

This is turning out to be a pivotal year in birth control.

In the last six months, the Food and Drug Administration has approved an oral contraceptive that eliminates a monthly menstrual period, and can prevent mood swings and other side effects. It also has approved two others that feature shorter periods. And soon it's expected to sign off on a yearlong oral contraceptive and a simpler version of a contraceptive implant.

Of course, there's no long-term data on the new methods -- and they aren't for everyone -- but doctors consider this new generation of birth control to be less risky and more sophisticated than the decades-old predecessors. And still in development are even safer, more advanced options -- with natural hormones and smoother delivery methods.

"Anytime there is a new method, there will be some women who say, 'Oh, thank goodness, there is something for me,' " says Dr. Carolyn L. Westhoff, medical director of the family planning clinics at N! ew York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in New York. "It's not that different than trying to find the best pair of jeans to fit your body."

That's not an easy thing to do. But what seems to fit many women is curtailing or eliminating menstruation altogether.

Two brands of birth control pills, both approved earlier this year and now available, feature shorter periods than the usual five to seven days. The products -- Loestrin 24 Fe and Yaz -- provide 24 days of active pills, forms of the hormones estrogen and progestin, followed by four days of placebo pills.

And in May, the FDA approved Seasonique, a slightly different version of Seasonale, which was approved in 2003 as the first continuous-use oral contraceptive. With Seasonale, which will become available in September, women take the active pills for 84 days followed by seven days of inactive pills to allow for a period. Seasonique, however, substitutes low-dose estrogen in place of the placeb! o pills so that a woman's hormone levels don't crash during the off we ek.

Finally, the FDA is considering an application to approve the first year-long oral contraceptive. Lybrel contains only active pills without any break for a period. "For the last 40 years of the pill, one thing we've done is we've lowered the dose for improved safety," Westhoff says. "But all along we were sticking to this original recipe of 21 days of hormones and seven days of placebo."

The shift to continuous-use oral contraceptives acknowledges a little known fact: Women don't need to have periods.

Although early pills were associated with high levels of hormones and a related risk of blood clots, the level of hormones in birth control pills has dropped dramatically in the last two decades. Now, even taking an active pill 365 days a year is not thought to be harmful, says Dr. David Portman, director of the Columbus Center for Women's Health Research in Columbus,Ohio.

Nor does the extended-use regimen appear to interfere with fertility. In a study of 1! 87 women presented in May at a meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, researchers reported that almost 99% of the women had a period or became pregnant within 90 days of stopping the medication.

"There is no lingering effect of the medication in the body because it is metabolized very quickly," says Dr. Anne R. Davis, an assistant professor at Columbia University and lead investigator of the study. When oral contraceptives were first introduced decades ago, the placebo week "was put in there to mimic the natural cycle," she says. "It was done with the idea that the pill would be more acceptable to women. It wasn't done because of safety or effectiveness."

That's not to say the pills are right for everyone. For those with a shaky memory, the downside of a year-round pill is remembering it every day. In addition, women who miss pills may have more trouble determining if they are pregnant without a break from the pill for menstruation.

! "You would have to go on other symptoms to know if you're pregnant," Davis says. Oral contraceptive use during early pregnancy is not thought to be linked to birth defects, she says.

However, the effects of taking Lybrel during several months of pregnancy have not been specifically studied. And some health experts caution that there is a lack of data on continuous-use birth control pill regimens.

Long-term protection
For women who find daily methods difficult, the first contraceptive implant to emerge since Norplant was removed from the market in 2002 is expected to be approved by the FDA later this year.

That earlier implant consisted of six matchstick-size rods that were placed under the skin of the forearm to release fertility-controlling hormones. But the product was plagued with problems, including the difficulty of inserting and removing the rods.

The new implant, Implanon, consists of a single rod that can prevent pregnancy for three years and is now under FDA review.

Other long-term contraceptives approved! in recent years include NuvaRing, which became available in 2001. A small, flexible vaginal ring that releases hormones, it's worn for three weeks then removed for one week. And Mirena, a hormone-releasing intrauterine device, was approved in 2001 and provides five years of protection.

Another long-term contraceptive, the injectable Depo-Provera, was reformulated in 2004 with lower doses of hormones. The newer formulation is injected four times a year under the skin instead of into the muscle, Westhoff says. A weekly method has also found a niche. Ortho Evra, the first transdermal contraceptive patch, was approved in 2001. Each hormone-releasing patch is worn for one week; after three weeks, no patch is worn to allow for a menstrual cycle.

Some of the newer products do carry some specific risks. In November, the FDA changed the labeling for the Ortho Evra patch to warn that the product exposes women to higher levels of estrogen than most birth control pills, which ! may increase the risk of blood clots. And Depo-Provera has been found to reduce bone density, although the newer formulation is thought to
cause less bone loss.

Enhancing methods
Simply having more options isn't enough for scientists, doctors -- or patients.

Researchers are working to refine existing contraceptives and create new ones. Although hormonal methods are now considered extremely safe, they do carry some risks. Women with a history of blood clots, heart attack, stroke, liver disease or cancer of the breast or sex organs are generally not advised to use hormonal contraceptives.

So as scientists continue to study how to reduce the risks of birth control, they're exploring the use of the natural hormone estradiol to replace ethinyl estradiol, the synthetic version of estradiol found in the majority of hormonal contraceptives that can increase the risk of blood clots and cardiovascular events in susceptible women.

The Population Council, a nonprofit organization that conducts health research, is studying a hormo! nal contraceptive that uses natural estradiol combined with nesterone, a synthetic progestin that closely resembles the natural hormone progesterone. Although nesterone can't be absorbed orally, the combination could be used in a spray or gel applied to the skin.

"The combination will be much more natural than all of these synthetic combinations that are available at the moment," says Regine Sitruk-Ware, executive director of research and development. "We could expect to avoid the metabolic and cardiovascular side effects."

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Prisons Called 'HIV FACTORIES' in Asia

by: Michael Casey, The Associated Press

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Unprotected sex and rampant drug use in Asia's overcrowded and run-down prisons is fueling the AIDS epidemic in the region, and governments have been slow to recognize the threat, activists say.

Prisons "are HIV factories," said Elizabeth Pisani of Family Health International, an AIDS prevention group in Jakarta. "We are introducing a population that we know to be infected with the virus into an environment where people shoot up drugs and have anal sex."

When HIV-positive prisoners are released, there is a high likelihood they will spread the infection, she said.

Rights activists have long called for better conditions in Asian jails, where they allege inmates are routinely beaten, and deadly diseases like tuberculosis and typhoid go unchecked. Medical care in many prisons is substandard or nonexistent and widespread corruption means just about anything -- from drugs to sex -- can be bought.

Few governments in Asia's developing economies keep officials figures on HIV infections among inmates. But private groups say they are rising at an alarming rate.

In Indonesia, prisons that had reported almost no HIV cases among inmates in 1999 had almost 25 percent of their populations infected in 2003, the National AIDS Commission said.

In Thailand, one quarter of inmates at Klong Prem Central Prison on the outskirts of Bangkok have tested positive for HIV, activists say. AIDS disease has also become a leading killer in Cambodian jails.

Rising HIV rates in Asian prisons reflect a global trend that has also hit Africa, South America and Russia, the United Nations says. South African prisons have seen death rates surge 500 percent in recent years largely because of AIDS.

"It probably is much worse than what we expect because prisons represent the lowest common denominator of society," said Anindya Chatterjee, a senior adviser with UNAIDS in Geneva. "These inmates are the underclass and most vulnerable to HIV. We've seen this in Russia. We've seen this in China and we'll definitely see it in
Indonesia."

Some prisons in Indonesia have started distributing information to new inmates on the dangers of unprotected sex and intravenous drug use and plan to introduce methadone -- a heroin substitute prescribed to addicts -- in Jakarta and Bali prisons starting this month.

But prison officials say they have no money to test inmates for HIV or pay for treatments.

"We know this is a big problem but we've got no money," said Wahid Hussein, an official at the Cipinang Narcotics Prison. "When we see an inmate sick with AIDS, we can't do anything for them."

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has refused to follow the lead of European countries and offer free condoms or clean needles for injecting drug users. Officials say doing so would promote gay sex and drug taking.

Thailand has begun to offer condoms in some prisons, but it is not providing inmates with clean needles.

"OK, so they can't hand out needles -- it's too extreme for them to accept,' said Somchai Krachangsaeng of advocacy group the AIDS Access Foundation. "But maybe they can tell the prisoners the dangers of using drugs."

http://www.outinamerica.com/home/news.asp?articleid=7512


This article was originally posted from AIDS ASIA eFORUM] AIDS Analysis Asia-Pacific eNewsletter.

An eFORUM for peer-to-peer cross-cultural discourse on HIV and AIDS related issues and concerns of people from Asia-Pacific region. Views are of the authors. Privacy policy, ref; the file section.

For further details, please contact the FORUM moderator.
Dr. Joe Thomas by e-mail: joe_thomas123(at)yahoo.com.au or by skype: joethomas123

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Where Women Has No Doctor

Hesperian's new 2006 edition of Where Women Have No Doctor online!
To access the complete edition, visit the website here.

Where Women Have No Doctor combines self-help medical information with an understanding of how poverty, discrimination and culture can limit women's health and access to care. Developed with community-based groups and medical experts from over 30 countries, Where Women Have No Doctor is essential for any woman who wants to improve her health, and for health workers who want more information about the problems that affect only women or that affect women differently from men.

This 2006 edition features new and updated information on HIV/AIDS,including the use of antiretrovirals and preventing mother-to-child transmission, treatment of sexually transmitted infections, family planning, TB, care for women who have had after abortions, and medicines. Major topics covered include: Pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding, health concerns of women with disabilities, girls, older women and refugees, sexual health, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections, the use of medicines in women's health, mental health, the politics of women's health, and rape and violence against women.

The book is also available in over 20 languages worldwide, extending its impact to an even wider global audience. Visit our website to see a full ist of translations:
http://www.hesperian.org/publications_translation.php>http://www.hesperian.org/publications_translation.php


Where Women Have No Doctor can also be purchased for $22 plus shipping by calling 1-888-729-1796 (within the USA) or via the website: www.hesperian.org

Note this book is also available as part of Reproductive Health Box Set. Please contact Hesperian directly for inquiries regarding bulk discounts.

‘Butterfly Brigade’ takes flight to promote HIV prevention in the Philippines

Aklan, Philippines -- In an unusual partnership with provincial authorities, a group of gay activists calling themselves the ‘Butterfly Brigade’ are leading an innovative community awareness campaign on sexual health and HIV prevention in the Philippines. Their work combines wide-reaching public education with social marketing of condoms and care for people living with HIV.

The Brigade was founded five years ago by a small group seeking to share knowledge within their own community. Since this time their efforts have blossomed into a network of 164 volunteers, mostly gay men, who run classes in 17 municipalities throughout Aklan province—in high schools and colleges, and within health programmes for women and men involved in sex work.

Read more here.

Source: UNAIDS

Friday, September 01, 2006

Welcome to the PinoyRH Blog

Pinoy RH is an electronic forum on sexual and reproductive health in the Philippines.

Pinoy RH aims to address issues relating to reproductive health, such as family planning, maternal mortality, unsafe abortion, STDs, HIV and AIDS. It would also allow members to share ideas and experiences with other members and discuss issues that are important to the members' programs. The exchange of information and experiences could help reduce duplication of efforts, and would benefit the larger community.

Pinoy RH is for the Filipino community, and so messages may be either in English or Filipino, or both.

Pinoy RH was initially envisioned by a core group of organizations involved in information technology initiatives. The core group members are the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC), Remedios AIDS Foundation, Health Action Information Network (HAIN), UNAIDS, and Ford Foundation.

Join the Pinoy RH egroup here.

Pinoy RH Member's Profile Form

Instruction for filling up:
1. Please copy the entire post then paste this to a blank email.
2. Answer the questions by typing "X" inside the box opposite the answers.
3. Some questions may require that you type your answers, please take time to do so.
4. Review your answers.
5. Send the email to noemi.leis@hain.org.

I. PERSONAL INFORMATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE
Name:
Nickname:
Name of Organization:
Address of Organization:
Telephone:
Fax:
Email:
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Type of Organization:
[ ] Government
[ ] NGO
[ ] academic/research institution
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[ ] others, please specify:

Please choose three categories that best describe the activities of your
organization
[ ] health care services
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Geographical scope:
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Client/Target groups of your organization
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What is your occupation?
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II. IT Background
A. How often do you write/check email?
[ ] Twice a day [ ] Once a day [ ] Others:
B. Do you access the Internet? [ ] Yes [ ] No
How often? [ ] Daily [ ] As need arises [ ] Others:
C. Do you use search engines in locating information, e.g., Google, Yahoo,
Alta Vista, etc.
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D. Have you experienced any of the following? (Please mark more than one)
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Please list them down:
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Why?
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I. Do you need any technical assistance in posting a message (e.g., cut and
paste technique, connecting, dialing, etc.)?