compiled by Bruce Wainwright and Martin Flynn
New San Francisco safer sex campaign
Gay men in San Francisco now have a new way to tell each other that they may
have been infected with a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
The inSPOT service allows users to tell sex partners via stylish email cards
in an anonymous way.
French are sexiest but UK teens have sex earlier
France is now the sexiest country with the French having sex 137 times a
year, well above the global average of 103, according to the world’s
largest survey of sexual attitudes and behavior.
Greeks and Hungarians follow close behind with Asian countries lagging in
the love stakes, the Durex 2004 Global Sex Survey found.
Contrary to popular belief, Brits don’t just ‘think of England
‘but win hands down when it comes to foreplay, spending an average 22.5
minutes. But they are among the least satisfied, with a third saying they
had faked an orgasm.
In many countries, foreplay is also increasingly likely to be enhanced by
pornography, vibrators, pleasure-enhancing condoms and lubricants.
A staggering 350,000 people from 41 countries took part in this 2004 web-based
report which found the average global age for first sex to be now 17.7. More
than a third believed the state should invest in sex education to help prevent
sexually transmitted infections, while a similar percentage acknowledged they
had had unprotected sex without knowing their partner’s sexual history.
Danes and Swedes, were most likely to throw caution to the wind followed by
the Japanese, Norwegians and South Africans.
Meanwhile, a World Health Organisation survey on the knowledge and behaviour
of 15-year-olds across Europe, found that British teenagers had sex earlier
than their fellow Europeans.
Teens in Britain are twice as likely as Spanish youngsters to have sex by
the age of 15, and 38 per cent of UK teens had sex by their 15th birthday.
More girls than boys in this country had sex by 15 and UK teens were less
likely to use condoms than those in Europe.
In the UK, 70 per cent of 15-year-olds used a condom when they first had sex,
compared with a European average of 75 per cent and 89 per cent in Spain.
Soul Buddyz bridge HIV info gap
The Namibian Red Cross has teamed up with the state broadcasting corporation
to produce a 26 episode children’s TV series.
‘Soul Buddyz’ will cover a range of issues affecting young people,
such as HIV/Aids, violence, sexual abuse and safety.
Christians attack Bush on HIV drugs
A global alliance of Christian hospitals and drug supply and development agencies
is warning that US Aids relief will create unsustainable and wasteful two-tier
treatment systems.
The Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network say, the US plan is flawed because it
insists on using branded antiretrovirals approved by the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA).
The Network draws members from 22 countries - many of which received cash
from the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR).
The US government has repeatedly stressed it will not use drugs in its PEPFAR
programme that US regulators would not pass for use by US citizens. It has
invited generic manufacturers to submit their products to the FDA for approval,
after which they will be eligible for purchase with PEPFAR funds.
Jennifer Patterson, of Catholic Relief Services, a PEPFAR-funded service,
said: “Community workers will face the extra burden of explaining different
regimens to patients within the same family and the use of loose tablets rather
than fixed dose combinations will create the danger of pill-sharing between
family members.”
Eric Goemaere, of Médecins Sans Frontières, said: “If
we have different supplies and different combinations coming in, it will create
confusion both for the clinic and for patients who have already started with
a particular fixed dose combination.”
The Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network has raised concerns about what will
happen when current funding for PEPFAR runs out in 2008. If the same level
of funding is not forthcoming after 2008, levels of treatment achieved may
not be sustainable, especially if branded products remain more expensive than
generics - and if the programme has prevented the development of local drug
production.
Meanwhile, a US Congressional enquiry has rapped the US government for paying
too much for many drugs in its global Aids programme because the Bush administration
refuses to buy cheaper generic drugs from India.
The US Accountability Office report cites that the lowest price available
for a triple combination of D4T, 3TC and nevirapine is $562 per patient per
year, compared with just over $200 annually from the Indian generic manufacturers.
The stark price difference means that even if President Bush’s promise
of $15 billion in aid for Aids over five years is forthcoming, which most
observers see as very unlikely, the money won’t go as far as it might
have.
Global Fund: ‘under threat’
The next round of donations from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB
and Malaria is under threat because rich western countries are not giving
enough.
Global Fund chief executive Professor Richard Feacham delivered his stark
message at the Houses of Commons last month.
Professor Feacham explained the Global Fund had only been operating for two-and-a-half
years, has raised $5.6 billion in pledges and has invested $3.2 billion on
300 programmes in 130 countries.
Half of the money was spent on commodities, like drugs and diagnostics, and
the other half on improving healthcare infrastructure, like nurse training
and specialised clinics.
But the Fund was now facing an imminent crisis because of a shortage of donations,
Feacham said.
The US had committed itself to give $550 million for projects in 2004 but
by law insists that this must be no more than one third of the total pledged.
The US could now ask for its money back because other rich countries, apart
from the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands, have not put up their fair share
of the other two thirds of the monies needed.
“We are spectacularly losing the war against HIV and Aids,” Professor
Feacham said,
“It would be a disaster if the fifth round of donations to programmes
in 2005 did not go ahead,” he added.
New HIV positive comic superhero
The latest Green Arrow comic book features the first storyline about HIV.
Mia is a teenager runaway who becomes crime-fighter Speedy after finding out
she is HIV positive.
“Mia is coming to term with it in the way most young people are,”
said writer Judd Winick: “Young people, for good or for bad, are still
pretty fearless.”
Mia turns her life around, becomes a positive force and joins other young
heroes in Teen Titans
