Colin Nicholas, a teacher in Naples, Florida has been sacked after demonstrating condom use to ninth graders using a banana. The School Board refused to give a reason for the move which followed complaints from some parents, but there have been campaigns across the USA in recent months by both federal and state authorities opposing safer sex education in schools in favour of abstinence programmes instead.
A survey of 7,000 people, aged 15 to 49, in China has found that 17 per cent had never heard of HIV. Of those who had, 73 per cent did not know it was a virus and 89 per cent did not know how it can be detected, according to the journal Aids Science. Meanwhile Chinese media report that Chinese men buy only three condoms a year. Official figures estimate one million Chinese have HIV but the UN estimate that the figure could reach 10 million by the end of the decade.
The BBC is using the drama surrounding a GP's for HIV diagnosis in a radio medical serial to spread safer sex messages and Aids awareness around the world. The World Service radio soap 'Westway', set in a busy health centre in west London, has a massive audience in the tens of millions across the globe. The programme has highlighted the shock of diagnosis for the character Joy together with more in-depth portrayal of mental health, suicide and treatment issues.
Health officials in Mozambique are trying to change attitudes to polygamy in an effort to slow the rapid spread of HIV. Official figures state that one in eight people in the country are known to have HIV but this is believed to be an underestimate as only those who go to hospital for treatments are actually counted. HIV charities are trying to end the tradition of men having multiple wives and of widows marrying their brothers-in-law when their husband dies.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has highlighted the plight of young girls in Zambia who face sexual abuse. The report, called 'Suffering in Silence', says that girls in Zambia are five times more likely to be infected with HIV than boys, due to widespread sexual abuse. "Young girls are preyed upon by older men, including those who dare call themselves guardians or caretakers, and the government fails to protect them," said Janet Fleischman.
The pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is using HIV positive basketball star Magic Johnson in a series of poster and magazine ads in the USA. The campaign is aimed at spreading awareness among urban African Americans of HIV testing and treatment options. Johnson has been positive for 11 years and puts his good health down to, "A positive attitude, partnering with my doctor and taking my meds every day."
The French National Association for the Fight against Aids (AIDES) is using a graphic new safer sex campaign this spring featuring a character wearing a penis-shaped hood. The character, called Dick, is shown in various ads filling his car with petrol, fishing, hitchhiking and drinking in a nightclub with the strapline 'Beware: Condoms are like good manners - you forget them when you drink'.
At a time when new immigrants and asylum seekers are being blamed for the spread of HIV in this country, new research in California has found that the prevalence of HIV is similar - less than two per cent - among US and foreign born patients at Los Angeles public health clinics. The study found that most immigrants to the USA who already had HIV did not come from Latin America, as expected, but rather from the Middle East and North Africa.
