For many years it has been known that unprotected oral sex carries a risk, albeit relatively small, of HIV transmission. Recent work in the USA and in the UK has suggested that this risk may contribute to 3-8% of HIV infections among men who have sex with men.
Equity in Health
Oral sex and sexually transmitted infections:
know about the risks!
Reproducing national trends? Maasai fertility in Kenya and Tanzania
Do the fertility rates of the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania reflect the national levels in those countries? Or is there an independent "Maasai fertility regime"? Research at the London School of Economics has examined fertility among the Maasai and compared it with national trends.
SA: Unions demand Aids drugs for civil servants
Civil service unions are demanding action from the government in what they term as a "life threatening crisis" by making anti-retroviral drugs available to civil servants who have contracted HIV/Aids as a result of their work.
TANZANIA: President confident of halting spread of HIV/AIDS
President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, where two million people are infected with the HIV virus, has said he is confident the country should be able to reverse the spread of the disease in the next five years, given the current level of nationwide mobilisation against the epidemic. "We are now at a stage of all-round mobilisation that will result in the total reversal of the trend in the next five years," the UNDP quoted Mkapa as saying at a press conference in New York to coincide with the UN General Assembly's special session on HIV/AIDS.
Further details: /newsletter/id/28700
Timing of First Intercourse
Implications for Contraceptive Use
By Mouhamadou Gueye, Sarah Castle and Mamadou Kani Konaté
The social and economic context in which Malian adolescents begin sexual activity is different from that experienced by previous generations. Little is known about the forces that currently shape adolescents' sexuality and affect their reproductive health.
WHO AND TOP PUBLISHERS ANNOUNCE BREAKTHROUGH ON DEVELOPING COUNTRIES' ACCESS TO LEADING BIOMEDICAL JOURNALS
The World Health Organization and the world's six biggest medical journal publishers today announce a new initiative which will enable close to 100 developing countries to gain access to vital scientific information that they otherwise could not afford. The arrangement agreed to by the six publishers would allow almost 1000 of the world's leading medical and scientific journals to become available through the Internet to medical schools and research institutions in developing countries for free or at deeply-reduced rates.
58 COUNTRIES TO BOOST HIV/AIDS CARE & TREATMENT
Efforts to improve and speed up access to care for people living with HIV/AIDS are gaining new momentum, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said today. A total of 58 countries have now expressed interest in gaining access to lower-price drugs – including treatments for opportunistic infections and antiretroviral therapy – in the context of the public-private partnership started in May 2000 by five United Nations agencies and five private sector companies.
Aids could rob SA of half its workers
South Africa could lose between 40 and 50percent of its current workforce to Aids, according to new research released by the HIV-Aids organisation LoveLife. Funded jointly by the Henry J Kaiser and Bill and Melinda Gates foundations, the study also confirms previous findings that HIV infections could cost individual companies between two and sixpercent of the wage bill per year.
AIDS to Slash Life Expectancy By 17 Years
THE United Nations Population Division has painted a grim picture of the HIV-AIDS epidemic spreading through Namibia and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In a new chart released by the UN Population Division, Namibia is said to be among eight countries where the life expectancy will have dropped by at least 17 years by 2005.
ANGOLA: HIV/AIDS - Fighting the unknown
A special report from IRIN plusnews
Angola's civil war, which has isolated thousands of communities from the outside world for long periods over the past three decades, might also have prevented the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS across the country.
Further details: /newsletter/id/28653