Knoxville News-Sentinel (11.09.09) - Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tennessee's AIDS Drug Assistance Program has begun placing prospective new enrollees on a waiting list for the
first time since its inception in the early 1990s, state health officials say. The state's ADAP has reached its capacity - both because
unemployment has pressured more patients to seek its assistance, and state HIV numbers have continued to grow, said Dr. Carolyn Wester,
Tennessee's medical director for HIV/AIDS and STDs.
Tennessee's ADAP was assisting 3,367 HIV/AIDS patients in June, compared to 2,706 last year. Though the state and
federal governments fund ADAP, the federal portion has grown only slightly since 2005, totaling $25.3 million this year, Wester said. "We
recognize the urgency of the issue, but we fortunately have had a chance to plan," she told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
"Our number-one goal is to continue to provide access to high-quality HIV-related services and medications to as
many individuals in Tennessee as possible," Wester said. Most deferred patients will be able to get their medications through pharmaceutical
companies' assistance programs, said Wester, who hopes additional federal support will be forthcoming.
In addition to Tennessee, eight other states have ADAP waiting lists: Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri,
Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.
UNITED STATES: US Officials Begin Push Against Human Trafficking
Russell Contreras
Associated Press (11.09.09) - Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Protecting the estimated 17,500 victims of human trafficking who travel through the nation each year is the goal
of a new public awareness campaign by US immigration officials.
Most victims are lured to the United States with promises of lucrative jobs but instead find themselves in the
commercial sex trade or other forced labor. Advertisements in the "Hidden in Plain Sight" effort feature a toll-free number for reporting
instances in which human trafficking is suspected.
Cities in the campaign are Atlanta; Boston; Dallas; Detroit; Los Angeles; Miami; Philadelphia; Newark, N.J.; New
Orleans; New York; St. Paul, Minn.; San Antonio; San Francisco, and Tampa, Fla.
The campaign is the work of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the Department of Homeland
Security.
"Because this heinous crime is extremely well-hidden, we need to help educate members of the public about human
trafficking, and encourage them to keep alert for possible human trafficking victims," Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security John Morton
said in a release.
The federal government offers victims who cooperate with law enforcement officials temporary status and the
opportunity to apply for permanent US residency.
One advocate for US refugees noted that victims of trafficking are difficult to identify.
"Often the victims get mistaken for undocumented immigrants," said Jozefina Lantz, director of New Americans
services at Lutheran Social Services in Worcester, Mass. "It's not the same because these people were abducted from their homes and forced into
trafficking."
More information is about the campaign is available at the US ICE Web site:
http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0911/091102washingtondc.htm.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
SOUTH AFRICA: Victory for Soldiers Living with HIV
Wilson Johwa
Business Day (South Africa) (11.09.09) - Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Last week, South Africa's Cabinet approved a new policy that will allow the national defense force (SANDF) to
selectively recruit and deploy soldiers who are HIV-positive. The move follows a high court decision last year that declared SANDF's old policy
unconstitutional. A court order gave the government and AIDS advocates six months to revise the guidelines.
"If the last draft that we looked at is the one approved by Cabinet, then it's a very positive step," said Mark
Heywood, executive director of the AIDS Law Project, which also argued the case on behalf of the South African Security Forces Union.
The old policy excluded HIV-positive people from being recruited and soldiers with HIV from being deployed or
receiving advanced training, the union had argued. Soldiers on foreign deployment receive higher pay.
One of the three original plaintiffs, an HIV-positive firearms expert who trains soldiers for foreign missions,
missed chances for deployment in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi even after the high court order. He was finally deployed to Sudan
last month. A second applicant was a trumpeter in the military band whom the military refused to employ. The third soldier could not be
promoted due to his HIV-status.
Critics said the Cabinet decision would make the military less reliable.
"There seems to be no understanding among our political leaders, and others, that the armed forces are not like a
municipality or a supermarket company," said defense analyst Helmoed Heitman, a South African correspondent for Jane's Defense Weekly. Soldiers
must be ready to function under "extreme conditions that the rest of us simply do not encounter," he said. They are at risk of being wounded
and are expected to provide immediate assistance to wounded colleagues, he said. "It is primarily these factors that make HIV an issue that
goes somewhat beyond any individual health assessment."
UNITED KINGDOM: Rise in Reported Cases of Women Committing Child Sex Abuse
Agence France Presse (11.09.09) - Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Calls to a UK-based child abuse hotline have more than doubled over the last five years, and the number of
children reporting abuse by a woman has grown dramatically, the charity said on Monday.
In the past year, 6,000 children reported sexual abuse by a male to Childline, a telephone- and Web-based service
of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). Of these, 2,142 children said their perpetrator was female.
While men were implicated much more often than women, calls citing a female offender have grown by 132 percent
over the last five years, compared with a 27 percent increase for males. Reports about abuse by women now account for 25 percent of the total,
Childline said. Earlier NSPCC research suggested women were the abusers in about one of 20 sexual attacks against children.
"It does not only happen to girls, as many people believe," said Esther Rantzen, Childline's president. "It
happens to boys too."
Boys were slightly more likely to report their abuser was female (1,722) than male (1,651). In contrast, girls
were 10 times more likely to report the perpetrator was male (4,972) than female (420). Most children disclosing abuse were ages 12-15 and knew
their attacker.
"Mothers can sometimes sexually abuse their sons," Rantzen said. "And the report found that when girls are
sexually abused, by far the most common perpetrator is not a stepfather, as many believe, but the biological father."
MEDICAL NEWS
UNITED STATES: Availability of HIV-Related Health Services in Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment
Programs
H.K. Knudsen; C.B. Oser
AIDS Care Vol. 21; No. 10: P. 1238-1246 (10.09.09) - Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Because alcohol and drug abuse heightens adolescents' risk of becoming infected with HIV, "substance abuse
treatment programs for youths may represent an important site of HIV prevention," the authors wrote. In the current study, they explored the
adoption of three HIV-related health services: risk assessment during intake, HIV prevention programming and HIV testing.
Data were collected by telephone interviews with 149 managers of US substance abuse treatment programs treating
adolescents only. Risk assessment and HIV prevention had been adopted by about half of these programs. Only one in four programs, however, was
offering on-site HIV testing.
The availability of on-site primary medical care and an overnight level of care were positively associated with
these three types of services at the bivariate level. Once medical services were controlled, the association for the measure of an overnight
level of care was no longer significant. A separate analysis, however, found the programs offering an overnight level of care were much more
likely to offer on-site medical care than were outpatient-only facilities.
"There was also evidence that publicly funded treatment programs were more likely to offer HIV prevention and on-
site HIV testing, after controlling for other organizational characteristics," the authors concluded. "Much more research about the adoption of
HIV-related services in adolescent substance abuse treatment is needed, particularly to offer greater insight into why certain types of
organizations are more likely to adopt these health services."
Knoxville News-Sentinel (11.09.09) - Wednesday, November 11, 2009
At the recent quarterly meeting of the Knox County School Health Advisory Council, the county's director of
Community Assessment and Health Promotion presented results from the 2008 Knox County Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey. "I don't like
hearing some of the things I am going to tell you," said Dr. Kathy Brown, "but it's reality."
Almost 16 percent of seventh- and eighth-graders reported having had sexual intercourse, with 4.5 percent saying
their sexual initiation had occurred before age 11.
Males (19.5 percent) were more likely than females (11.9 percent) to have had sex. Black students (32.7 percent)
were more likely to have had sex than white students (13 percent).
Among those students who reported sex, 60 percent said they used condoms.
More than 9 percent of the middle school students said they had tried marijuana, and more than 5 percent said
they were current pot smokers. Some 2 percent reported having tried methamphetamine; 2.8 percent had tried cocaine; and 8.6 percent had abused
inhalants.
Tobacco use in the last month was reported by nearly 9 percent of students, with more than 5 percent saying they
smoked cigarettes. More than 4 percent said they smoked their first cigarette before age 11.
One in five students said they had felt so sad almost daily for two weeks or more that they stopped doing some
normal activities. More than 17 percent said they had contemplated suicide, and nearly 7 percent said they had attempted to end their lives.
"It becomes the community's challenging responsibility to decide, 'Are these numbers too high?'" Brown said. "Do
we accept that risk to our community?"
NEWS BRIEFS
SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's Death Rate Doubled in a Decade: Health Minister
Agence France Presse (11.10.09) - Wednesday, November 11, 2009
In a move that highlights the sharp break President Jacob Zuma has made with the HIV/AIDS policies of his
predecessor, South Africa's health minister on Tuesday reported mortality figures he characterized as "shocking." "In 11 years, from 1997 to
2008, the rate of death has doubled in South Africa," Aaron Motsoaledi said in Cape Town. "I don't think we'd have been here if we'd approached
the problem in a different way." Former President Thabo Mbeki publicly doubted that HIV caused AIDS, and his health minster promoted
alternative dietary treatments while hundreds of thousands died without access to antiretrovirals. "Yes, our attitude toward HIV/AIDS put us
here where we are," Motsoaledi said. The government now is working to halve the number of new HIV infections and provide treatment to 80
percent of those needing it by 2011.
MICHIGAN: White House to Hold Meeting on Development of HIV/AIDS Strategy in Ferndale
Todd A. Heywood
Michigan Messenger (11.09.09) - Wednesday, November 11, 2009
On Nov. 18, the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) will host a meeting in Ferndale to seek
community input into the development of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS). The specific goals of NHAS will be to reduce HIV incidence,
increase access to care and optimize health outcomes, and reduce HIV-related health disparities. "Too often policies which impact people living
with HIV are made without the direct input from those of us living with HIV," said Mark Peterson, a director of Michigan Positive Action.
"November 18th, those of us living with HIV can speak our truth directly to power. This is our chance to make sure that our policies reflect
our realities and aren't shaped solely by the winds of political expediency and popularity." The meeting, one of a series ONAP is holding in
cities across the nation, will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at Affirmations Community Center. For more information on ONAP and the development
of NHAS, visit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/onap.
WASHINGTON: HIV/AIDS Curriculum Preview Set in Richland
Tri-City Herald (Tri-Cities) (11.10.09) - Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Parents of fifth-grade students in Richland School District will have the opportunity to preview videos dealing
with HIV/AIDS prevention and human growth and development at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Chief Joseph Middle School, 504 Wilson St. State law requires
that HIV/AIDS instruction be presented to students in grades five through 12. Parents have the right to opt their children out of the lessons
but before doing so must preview the materials. The video for boys will be screened at 6:30 p.m., followed at 6:50 p.m. by the HIV/AIDS video
and the curriculum overview for both genders. The video for girls will be shown at 7:25 p.m.
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