Positive Nation Issue 143Dear readers, |
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Ban lifted on HIV-positive people travelling to the USUS President Barack Obama has announced that the ban on allowing people with HIV into the United States will be lifted as early as the beginning of 2010. The ban has been in place since 1987. The President signed the bill last Friday that also reauthorised federal funding for HIV related healthcare policy. The President said; “If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV, we need to act like it†That Seven Digit Number!!!From January to May of this year I had been volunteering within the HIV Unit of The Holy Family hospital, situated in Nkawkaw, Ghana. Before I left this country I asserted that I would do everything in my power to raise at least £50,000 for the hospital and by World AIDS Day. Maybe this promise is overly ambitious but observing the pain, misery and suffering of so many HIV and AIDS patients notwithstanding the under-paid and over-worked hospital staff, I felt that I had to leave these individuals, with hope. HIVSport: Kicking into actionHIV Sport was incorporated as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee on 20 September 2007. We are a successor to elements of the Ensuring Positive Futures programme of work which finished in July 2007. In particular we took up the work started by the EPF programme in working with the sports trade unions. Behind Closed Doors: Women, Prison and HIVA young woman is sitting in front of me in the health adviser’s office in a UK prison. The office would look like any consultation room at your GP’s, if it wasn’t for the bars on the windows, and the recurrent sound of keys, and doors being locked in the background. I will call this woman ‘Y’. I have to be very careful about what I disclose about her, even in the pages of this magazine. If accidently other inmates or prison officers knew her identity and HIV status, she could risk bullying, insults, ignorant remarks, refusal of sharing everyday objects such as cutlery and cups, and isolation. Inside prison, HIV is a secret that needs to be kept at any cost. Boxing – My Positive PlaceMUNY MUDARIKIRI looks at the sport of Boxing and the role it plays in his life and those of others with HIV. UK Women with HIV need more conception and contraception adviceWomen living with HIV in the UK would welcome greater provision of integrated sexual and reproductive healthcare services by their HIV clinics, according to three separate studies presented at the British HIV Association conference in Liverpool in April. There is a particular need for advice on conception and contraception that reflects the specific issues for women living with HIV. Better understanding cancer risks in HIV-positive peopleWe’ve known for some time that HIV-positive individuals have a higher risk of dying from certain cancers than HIV-negative people. The most commonly seen cancers in people with HIV are often linked to an infectious cause. These include Kaposi’s sarcoma (caused by a herpes virus, HHV-8), non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (caused by Epstein-Barr virus) and anal or cervical cancer (caused by certain strains of human papilloma virus, HPV). Lung cancer is also seen more often in people with HIV than in the general population, although this may be due to the fact that HIV-positive people are much more likely to smoke than their HIV-negative counterparts. Clayton Brown goes to GhanaClayton Brown experiences firsthand how generations of Ghanaian children are forced to grow up too soon – but without ever receiving a proper sex education. What is this thing called CAB?Why we need independent treatment activists in the UK and how you can get involved. Simon Collins, HIV i-Base and UK-CAB explains all. |
