HIV/AIDS policy

Monitoring adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis is a critical component of reaching ending the human immunodeficiency virus
infection (HIV) epidemic goals in the US. Currently, providers still depend on “self-report” pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) adherence, whereby providers ask their patients about their recent pill taking habits. There appears to be growing consensus across the
HIV prevention community that “self-report” is an inadequate method of identifying that is in-need of additional adherence support
services. In a recent survey, 97% of providers report utilizing self-reported adherence because it is convenient, but only 10% of these
providers believe it is accurate. While “self-report” is convenient, evidence and testimonials from diverse stakeholders across the HIV
prevention landscape indicate that there is a desire for more accurate, effective adherence monitoring methods. In this mini-review,
we will briefly synthesize the emerging evidence and propose a solution to ensure all patients receive the support needed to protect
them from HIV acquisition.

This paper focuses on the concept of self-management, and more importantly the ‘expert patient’ approach framed in the United Kingdom public health system. The paper aims to analyse the application of this initiative in a lower income setting to see whether it would be as resounding a success as deemed in the north.

ABSTRACT
The purpose of the study was To Examine the influence of knowledge, attitude and practice of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevention in Hola Hospital. The following objectives guided this research: to establish the level of knowledge of HIV/AIDS among various individuals served by Hola Hospital; to examine the attitudes of various individuals served by Hola Hospital towards HIV/AIDS; to identify sexual practices adopted by the various individuals served by Hola Hospital towards HIV/AIDS prevention; and to establish the extent to which HIV prevention practices are informed by knowledge and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS in Hola Hospital. This was a descriptive cross – sectional study. Data collection was conducted from September 218 to early November 2018. The target population of the study composed of 890 recorded patients (adults over 18 years) who sought various services from the Hola hospital during the study period and the ones who were affiliated to the VCT and HIV/AIDS management were given better priority. Based on the research findings and the literature reviewed, the researcher concluded that: Knowledge about HIV/AIDS influences its spread, control and management in the sub-county’s hospital; Attitudes towards HIV/AIDS in the county influence its spread, management and control in the study area significantly; and The various practices of HIV/AIDS control and management influence the spread, infections, management and control of the disease most. 

Key words: Knowledge, attitudes, practices, HIV/AIDS

Summary The hypothesis as to whether a benign species of bacteria could kill a virulent kind has to this point been untested. Recently it was shown that in the macrophage, bacteriophages, when properly introduced through a nonvirulent
microbe, had a killing rate for virulent AIDS Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium avium far in excess of modern day antibiotics. The study in effect brought a natural phenomena, lysogeny, whereby one bacterial colony kills another thru phage weaponry, to bear in the conquest of hard-to-kill, antibiotic resistant pathogens. This killing occurred intracellularly, within the white blood cell using Mycobacterium smegmatis, a benign bacterial species found generally in smegma secretions from human genitalia as well as soil, dust and water, and first identified
in 1884. The subsequent treatment of M. avium-infected, as well as M. tuberculosis-infected RAW 264.7 macrophages, with M. smegmatis transiently infected with TM4 resulted in a unexpectedly large time- and titer-dependent reduction in the number of viable intracellular bacilli. In addition, the M. smegmatis vacuole harboring TM4 fused with the M. avium vacuole in macrophages. These results suggested a potentially novel concept to kill intracellular pathogenic bacteria and warrant future
development.

Against Equality is an argument in support of those who dare to be different, a collection of essays that stand in stark contrast to an ever-growing LGBT mainstream working towards assimilation, and, arguably, cultural erasure. Never ones to shy away from a fight, the authors included in this timely collection address the trifecta of political rifts within the LGBT community: marriage, the military, and prisons.

“Equality” is a concept inextricably linked to positive social progress, but as the authors collected here suggest, it’s a concept that often functions as a smoke screen to hide a world riddled with systemic injustice. Take marriage, for instance: is the right to marry whomever we want really a worthy goal for the queer community? What if this perceived “right” is actually a wrong? Against Equality suggests that seeking inclusion in a system that’s based on institutional and economic exploitation is an unacceptable path forward.

“My niece, Francila Kollie, and my cousin, Jounpu Lowea, both nurses, became infected at work. While they were able to receive treatment, they died in late July. So many of my close friends, university classmates, and colleagues have also died in recent months. Because there is no cure, we provide supportive care to patients, in the form of food, hydration, and basic treatment of symptoms. If treated early enough, their chances of survival are much better. I cannot stand aside and watch my people die. But I, along with my colleagues here, cannot fight Ebola alone. We have seen so many patients die. And they die alone, terrified, and without their loved ones at their side. We are trying to treat as many people as we can, but there are not nearly enough treatment centers and patient beds. We have to turn people away. And they are dying at our front door. Right now, as I speak, people are sitting at the gates of our centers, literally begging for their lives.  They rightly feel alone, neglected, denied – left to die a horrible, undignified death…We do not have the capacity to respond to this crisis on our own. If the international community does not stand up, we will be wiped out. We need your help. We need it now.”
Naimah Jackson, team leader, Médecins Sans Frontière’s Ebola Treatment Center, Monrovia, Address to the UN Security Council, September, 14, 2014.


The goal of this essay is to explore the ethical issues in the spread of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa between 2013 and 2015 and to develop a bio-social theological approach to health and healing in Africa. Most of the data for this essay were drawn from the report of the Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola. This significant study was carried out by the Harvard Global Health Institute and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine working with people from the academia, think tanks and civil society in Africa, Europe and North America. Using the bio-social approach to understanding public health, I will argue that international humanitarian failure to contain the West African EVD outbreak reinforced the negative and racialized representation of African peoples and cultures in global conversation about health, wellbeing, and the good of order. It also shows the need to a more pro-active and holistic approach to healthcare and the wellbeing of people in Africa. This scenario challenges the churches of Africa to develop the needed staff, systems, structures and stuff for effective healthcare ministry which can meet the challenges of recurrent and new epidemics like Ebola, HIV/AIDS, yellow fever as well as the tropical diseases like malaria and typhoid fever which continue to be leading causes of deaths in Africa.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The HIV/AIDS attitudes and knowledge baseline survey was conducted in Kilifi County’s ministry of trade and tourism in the month of April 2016 to inform stakeholders on the performance of the ministry and predict the future trends of performance as stipulated in the county governments act of employees evaluation. This study focused on three categories of objectives that included knowledge, attitudes/perceptions and awareness.

The situation in Kilifi county ministry of trade and tourism reveals a number of strides have been made in addressing the HIV pandemic but still more needs to be done. Being very risk ministry where HIV spread could be pronounced, the ministry of trade has for times now intensified its policies and plans of HIV risks spread minimization among its employees. However, studies have shown that; over 90% of the employees are aware of the spread channels of HIV/AIDS, over 89% are aware of various ways through which the virus spread can be minimized like being faithful and use of a condom, 50 have sought HIV/AIDS related services, the rate of satisfaction of the services sought was average at a percentage of accrued 66.23%.

Therefore, the survey makes simple recommendations that are centrally centered on information availing. This includes:  The county employees should be made access the HIV/AIDS virus spread information easily. This can be done through posters, charts, messages on stickers, warnings of writings on walls and shared computers desktops. Also, regular seminars, roadshows and customized communication through electronic media and printed pay slips should be made available to the employees and closely related populations.

Approximately 36.7 million people worldwide are living with the Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Almost 20 percent of South Africa’s adult population
(aged fifteen to forty-nine) is HIV-positive, and about one in every five people living with
HIV worldwide is in South Africa. The pandemic, and the political controversies it
elicited, have come to define both local and global understandings of the post-apartheid
nation. The history of HIV in South Africa begins in the 1980s during an era of
heightened repression by the apartheid state, in which discriminatory laws and fearful
public responses tapped into broader prejudices relating to race and sexuality. During the
1990s, as South Africa transitioned to democracy and as rates of HIV reached pandemic
levels, partnerships were built between civil society and state actors to confront the many
challenges that the HIV epidemic presented. However, from the late 1990s, corruption
and the abuse of political power within the Department of Health, together with the
government’s refusal to provide life-saving antiretroviral treatment (ART), ignited a new
era in health advocacy. While the HIV-treatment activist movement won the struggle for
public access to treatment, Jacob Zuma’s succession to President Thabo Mbeki heralded a new era of political controversies in the state’s HIV response. A copious historiography on the HIV epidemic in South Africa maps the contemporary chronology and evolution of the disease, including a focus on changing public understandings and responses

Keywords: HIV/AIDS epidemic, South Africa, apartheid, democracy, antiretroviral treatment, AIDS denialism, HIV activism

Explanations of former South African President Thabo Mbeki’s public and private views on the aetiology of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country remain partial at best without the recognition that the latter presuppose and imply a postmodernist/postcolonialist philosophy of science that erases the line separating the political from the scientific. Evidence from Mbeki’s public speeches, interviews, and private and anonymous writings suggests that it was postmodernist/postcolonialist theory that inspired him to doubt the “Western” scientific consensus on HIV/AIDS and to implement a public health policy that dragged its feet on full roll-out of antiretroviral therapy, causing thousands of avoidable deaths. A weak reductio ad absurdum allows us to conclude from this premise that postmodernist/postcolonial critique of “Western” science ought to be shunned. A comparative argument from consequences further suggests that in a situation where a misguided health policy has lead to a humanitarian catastrophe, and where postmodernist/postcolonialist critique of science can and has been used to justify this policy, an alternative theory ought to be preferred on which such justification would not be possible. The paper closes with a call for a non-relativist alternative to postmodernist/postcolonialist philosophy of science, and evaluates the potential of recent developments in ‘Studies of Expertise” to yield such.

HIV has visited upon the world a huge tragedy; but ironically it has also inspired human triumph. Millions have succumbed to it and yet it has driven the world towards a better health care system for all. Ultimately,
HIV has helped reaffirm our humanity, in what we say, how we serve, in how we love and care for our affected fellow human beings. This phenomenon of being concerned and caring has been enflamed by
the dedicated service of health workers, researchers, activists,
policymakers and social movements without whom the HIV narrative would be incomplete. In this edition, Busani Ngcaweni brings together an
impressive list of people who have been at the forefront of this 35-year struggle. It is a timely, yet overdue, resource which will prove invaluable to students, health workers, academics and policymakers for many years
to come.
-Cyril Ramaphosa Deputy President of South Africa and Chair of the South African National AIDS Council


This important book reminds us of the tragedy of HIV in South Africa, the struggles and successes in saving countless lives, and the vision that our goal to reach epidemic control is closer than ever. The United States is proud to be a global leader in response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Standing shoulder to shoulder with the South African government,
civil society, and UNAIDS, the United States has contributed significantly to South Africa’s enormous achievements, including developing the largest HIV treatment program in the world. The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has invested over 5
billion dollars (70 billion rand) in South Africa since 2004. New innovations to provide treatment to all people living with HIV and to prevent new infections for adolescent girls and young women demonstrate South Africa’s continued exceptional leadership and
commitment. The United States will continue to stand together with the people of South Africa in our efforts to achieve an AIDS-free generation.

-Patrick Gaspard, United States Ambassador to South Africa (2013 – 2016)

In the third and final installation of its trilogy, Against Equality once again demonstrates that another queer and radical world is possible.  The essays in this volume take a critical stance against the prison industrial complex and the system of inequality and violence perpetuated by hate crimes legislation, formally passed in the United States in 2009 as the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Prisons Will Not Protect You, a compilation of archived work, is located at the difficult and traumatic point where the violence of the state against queer and LGBT people colludes with the violence we are always trying to escape. The pieces here question the gay community’s fealty to the prison industrial complex, arguing that hate crimes legislation, which enhances penalties and can even be used to bring in the death penalty, only serves to funnel massive numbers of people into prisons with increasing lengths of time served and the use of tortuous methods like solitary confinement. This has significant racial and economic implications in a country that houses five percent of the world’s population but nearly a quarter of the world’s prisoners and where prisons have become, for many impoverished area and people, the only source of livelihood.

Սույն կլինիկական ուղեցույցի մշակման ընթացքում օգտագործվել է ինչպես
թմրամիջոցներից կախվածության վերաբերյալ վերջին տարիների բժշկագիտական
գրականությունն, այնպես էլ ոլորտի հետ առնչվող միջազգային հեղինակավոր
կազմակերպությունների կողմից առաջարկվող մոտեցումներն ու սկզբունքները:
Յուրաքանչյուր առանցքային կլինիկական հարցին անդրադառնալիս՝ մանրամասնորեն ուսումնասիրվել է տվյալ թեմայի վերաբերյալ համաշխարհային
գիտաբժշկական լավագույն գրականությունը և միջազգային փորձը՝ հատուկ ուշադրություն
դարձնելով վերջին տասը տարիներին հրապարակված աշխատանքներին:

Research has shown that African-born immigrants to the U.S. have a high risk of HIV infection, and more than half of them reside in one of seven states with Massachusetts being home to more than 66,000 residents. As of 2009, the largest proportion of non-U.S. born persons in MA diagnosed with HIV infection was from Sub-Saharan Africa. Because only a few studies have focused on HIV-testing attitudes and stigma in this population, very little is known about how to provide culturally appropriate HIV prevention and screening activities, particularly among African-born men. Not only to they have a high rate of HIV seropositivity and present at a late stage of HIV disease, but they also experience significant HIV-related stigma. Moreover, barriers and misconceptions about the U.S. healthcare system and legal and linguistic challenges persist. Thus, the need to provide interventions to reduce barriers to HIV testing, decrease stigma, and increase access to healthcare services in this community emerged.

Currently, very little is known about HIV/AIDS and disability. HIV/AIDS educational, testing and clinical programs are largely inaccessible to individuals with disability. Disabled people can and should be included in all HIV/AIDS outreach and service efforts. Due to the existing lack of information and high relevance to the HIV/AIDS response in Sub-Saharan Africa, it was deemed necessary to conduct situation analysis on disability and HIV/AIDS in the Kingdom of Lesotho. Evidence suggests that in developing countries poverty and a lack of economic and educational opportunities, as often experienced by people with disabilities (PWDs), influence HIV/AIDS vulnerability.
Literature reveals, however that, in 2005, 23.2% of the Basotho adult population between the ages of 15 and 40 lived with HIV and AIDS and that 57% of them are women and girls. Added to this is the steadily growing number of orphans and vulnerable children as a consequence of the pandemic, with the latest estimate at more than 100, 000 children (GOL-UNAIDS, 2005). In 2005, UNAIDS estimated that the total population living with HIV/AIDS was 265,000. The estimated number of children (0-4) living with HIV/AIDS was 15,600. Undoubtedly HIV and AIDS have had a significant impact on population growth. The adverse impact of HIV and AIDS on child survival is evident.
Findings from the BOS indicated that according to the Lesotho Demographic Survey, 2001, about 4.2% of the population, which is about 79,794 people in Lesotho have some form of disability or another that requires a service, with the male disability ratio being about 26% higher than the female. Physical disabilities were more prevalent than others due amputations attributed to a long history of male migrant labour in the neighbouring Republic of South Africa.
This study therefore serves to highlight the extent to which gaps exist between HIV/AIDS and disability services, in the Kingdom of Lesotho. The purpose of the study was to: Identify existing research on HIV/AIDS and disability; Identify and map the key stakeholders in the HIV/AIDS and/or disability communities within the country; Identify key policies, strategies, programs and projects concerned with HIV/AIDS and/or disability; Identify existing resources on HIV available and accessible to persons with different disabilities. Determine the major risk factors for increased or decreased risk of HIV/AIDS in people with disabilities; Survey the knowledge and attitudes among people with disabilities and their relatives, government authorities and civil society within the country on the links between HIV/AIDS and disability.
When prompted to identify their perceived needs, as well as the avenues and approaches they prefer for receiving HIV/AIDS programmes, many participants from local DPOs, felt that there is a communication gap between HIV/AIDS and Disability programmers. The mainstream HIV/AIDS messages and services were unlikely to reach the majority of PWDs because of their inaccessible formats. Most study participants of all types (PWDs, parents and DPOs), including HIV and AIDS programmers, agreed that PWDs living in Lesotho are vulnerable to HIV and AIDS like any other citizen of Lesotho. The speech and hearing impaired were observed to be more vulnerable among the disability types. Disability service providers also mentioned the risk of unprotected sex among those living in Vocational/Rehabilitation institutions. Recommendations included engaging and educating community, its leaders and service providers on the HIV/AIDS vulnerability and the needs of PWDs.

"After the Wrath of God is a subtle, discerning analysis of religious responses to AIDS that goes far beyond the usual attention to the Christian Right. Petro brings ecumenical Protestants, Roman Catholics, biomedical officials, and ACT UP protestors into view alongside their evangelical compatriots and in doing so creates a richly polychromatic picture of American religion, sexuality, and moral debate in the wake of the AIDS epidemic."
--Leigh Eric Schmidt, Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor, Washington University in St. Louis

"The AIDS crisis was not an epoch that we survived. It is a battle that we are still fighting. In this remarkable work of historical intervention Anthony Petro explores the extraordinary religious ferment that accompanied the emergence of AIDS in the United States. Petro shows that when Americans talk about AIDS they are rarely just talking about a scientific problem or a pharmaceutical solution. They are instead offering a sociology of suffering and a plan for spiritual warfare. After the Wrath of God is required reading for anyone interested in the way this powerful religious past will shape our political future."
--Kathryn Lofton, Professor of Religious Studies, American Studies, History and Divinity; Chair, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Yale University

"Anthony Petro's novel account of the role of American Christianity in the AIDS crisis moves beyond expected narratives of the rise of the right to encompass a diversity of religious responses across the 'long 1980s.' Illuminating and important."
--Margot Canaday, Associate Professor of History, Princeton University

By integrating the sociocultural histories of cities and the institutional histories of urban police forces, this chapter reveals the critical role liberals and police officers played in the post-World War II redefinition of freedom. During the 1950s and 60s, urban liberals used the politics of police discretion to resurrect John Stuart Mill's harm principle. A new generation of cosmopolitan liberals argued that if citizens tolerated cultural, sexual, and racial pluralism, they could unite around their common interest in combating physical harm. Cosmopolitan liberalism appeared in redeveloping cities and extended new liberties to white gays, bohemians, and artists by reducing police discretion. Cosmopolitan liberalism, by contrast, often compelled citizens of color to achieve new freedoms through an expansion of police discretion.

Cosmopolitan liberals attempted to realize their vision of freedom through rank-and-file police officers. However, postwar police maintained their own institutional interests and were not reliable arms of the state. This chapter builds upon a governmentality scholarship that blurs the lines between the government and the governed, noting that urban officials had to continually convince the rank and file to implement their visions of liberty. Freedom, this chapter concludes, is best understood as an ongoing process rather than an endpoint.

The following hybrid essay contributes to, as well as complicates, the afterlife of Giuseppe Campuzano's work on travesti as methodology and offers questions raised from community organizing and collective care in order to claim a legacy of travesti as curandera (healer). This is made evident as the essay weaves through an affective history of AIDS-related struggles in life and death and the networks of care they invoke, including Campuzano's own, in order to move through questions of need, desire, collaboration, and urgency for gender and sexual dissidents in the Global South. These reflections result in a specific theorizing that challenges traditional forms knowledge production and creates possibilities through which to enact queer futures that enhance our commitment to one another's survival.

The purpose of this workshop is to introduce the use of public radio as an enlightenment tool for HIV-AIDS across the population. Participants would be trained on the process/procedures of utilizing the radio to run literacy programmes on HIV-AIDS. This radio project is an innovative community sensitization programme planned for public listeners but specifically targeting people living with HIV-AIDS and their families. This is a mobile learning activity that would provide training to participants on how to develop/utilize public radio to facilitate HIV-AIDS literacy and mass enlightenment on HIV-AIDS. By HIV-AIDS literacy, we mean empowering an individual or people living with the HIV-AIDS to have the ability to read, write and understand the issues surrounding HIV-AIDS – coping with HIV-AIDS, medication, work and stay alive!  Furthermore, people in the society are taught about HIV-AIDS – its causes, prevention, cure, and supporting people living with HIV-AIDS through the Radio HIV-AIDS Literacy project. The participants will learn the strategies to plan, package and execute the community radio talkshow to reach-out to their respective communities – using phone-in live discussions, guest interviews, music, debates, quizzes, dramas, role plays, etc, to educate and enlighten the listener on HIV-AIDS.

According to Brian Morris (2013), “Science supports infant circumcision” and “so should skeptics.” It would be more accurate to say that ‘Brian Morris supports infant circumcision,’ and that skeptics can think for themselves. In this paper, we critically assess the arguments and evidence presented by Morris in his recent article, and draw some general lessons for the ongoing debate about the science and ethics of infant male circumcision.

This is a remarkably unique paper of Amitabha Basu written at the fag end of his life. Amitabha Basu was one of the rare breed of Physical/Biological Anthropologists in India with a profound knowledge of Social-Cultural Anthropology and he was utterly conscious about the social responsibility of the anthropologists. This book chapter is a proof of Professor Basu's courage. Being a biological anthropologist he could write so boldly on the hypocrisy of the dominant left politics in Bengal as well as on the bankruptcy of the so called anthropologists in India who remained silent and conscious of building their own career.I feel privileged to see that my student Dr.Arup Majumder and I were the second highest quoted authors in this brilliant article of Amitabha Basu. How many of the google scholar & impact factor happy anthropologists will read this paper?

The act of taking risks in a sexual context is by no means new. One may think immediately of BDSM (Bondage, Domination and Sadomasochism): its associations with tangible pain and the rituals and lifestyles surrounding it render BDSM a clear example of the profoundness and commonplace nature of the fetishisation of sexual risk. Likewise, the variety of ways in which one may engage in BDSM (and the plethora of reasons one may desire it) also show it to be site open to subjective definition. Interestingly however, there are forms of ‘risk sexualisation’ that occur within urban gay communities such as bareback, bug-chasing and chemsex that have particular processes of psychic risk sexualisation unique to – and entangled with – the historical social positioning of the gay male, thus making them distinct from other forms of sexual risk, while sharing similar terrain.

Understanding how the changing social positioning of the gay male has enabled particular sexual practices or ‘sexualisations’ to occur  is a sensitive affair that requires both an understanding of the political, social and medical discourses that embellish the symbol of the gay male in the cultural imaginary, and an understanding of the psychic process that determine how one psychosexually responds to and internalises information – as a gay male - that may influence their sexual desires and practices.

This paper attempts to satisfy the titular question through looking inward at psychoanalysis as a discipline, specifically the work of Melanie Klein, Freud, Bersani and Dean as well as outward towards the object of study: gay sexual risk. By examining the changing relational dynamic between the discipline and object of study, alongside a critical analysis of how psychoanalysis has - at different points - failed and succeeded in explaining gay desires for sexual risk; this paper hopes to offer an answer that speaks to: the ways in which psychoanalysis has changed in its approach to sexual risk; how it deals with modern actualisations of gay sexual risk, and how well its tools can blend with other forms of analysis in order to temper its own inabilities to account for such actualisations.

Dans la foulée du séminaire "Sociologie des homosexualités" (1998-2004) dirigé par Françoise Gaspard et Didier Éribon, une nouvelle génération de chercheuses et chercheurs s'est engagée avec résolution sur le voie des études gays et lesbiennes. Par son choix de l'homosexualité, elle confronte les sciences humaines et sociales à leurs impensés catégoriels et plaide pour "une autre dimension de connaissance" (Monique Wittig). Aux côtés de quelques-uns des meilleurs spécialistes français et étrangers, ces jeunes universitaires donnent ainsi l'occasion de découvrir des terrains aussi divers que fascinants : de l'amitié chrétienne médiévale au lesbianisme dans le mouvement des Femmes en noir en Israël, du cinéma militant des années soixante-dix au vécu des familles homoparentales, des catégories sexuelles antiques à la géographie commerciale parisienne, des comportements sexuels masculins dans le contexte du VIH aux modalités d'enregistrement du PACS, etc.

This review focuses on three topics that have dominated the sociological literature on HIV/AIDS in the United States: (a) the demographics of the epidemic and the dynamics of structural-, neighborhood-, and individual-level risk; (b) the lived experiences of HIV-positive people; and (c) the collective response to the epidemic through community-based services, political activism and social movements, and public policy. Sociologists have pursued inquiry in all of these areas and have often advanced the implicit and explicit use of approaches that reveal the epidemic’s embedded power relations. Previous research and the dynamics of the epidemic suggest a fundamental argument: HIV/AIDS is an epidemic of intersectional inequality that is fueled by racial, gender, class, and sexual inequities at the macro-structural, meso-institutional, and micro-interpersonal levels. These inequalities significantly shape the likelihood of exposure to the virus; the realities of living with the infection; and medical, programmatic, political, and social-scientific responses.

"This research examined the role of local government in improving access to education for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) under the National Action Plan for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Zimbabwe (NAP for OVCs). The numbers of OVCs in Zimbabwe have been on the increase mainly as a consequence of the impact of HIV and AIDS which has increased vulnerability of children in the process affecting their access to education at all levels. At independence in 1980, Zimbabwe declared education a
basic human right. Currently the providers of education in Zimbabwe are: Government, Local Authorities, Church
Organizations and Trustees/Board of Governors. Majority of schools in the country are owned and run by local authorities through the Ministry of Local Government, National Housing and Public Works. Therefore local government plays a very significant role in provision of education at both primary and secondary level as majority of schools in the country are run by local authorities through rural district and urban council authorities with the remainder being run by the government, churches and Trustees/Boards of Governors."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced a set of provisional guidelines concerning male circumcision, in which they suggest that the benefits of the surgery outweigh the risks. In this brief comment, I highlight a few of the key scientific and ethical issues worth considering in interpreting the CDC recommendations.

Swaziland has over the years considered the issue of introducing age appropriate sexuality education in schools. However, due to common beliefs that sex education will encourage sexual activity among learners and that sexual education belongs to the private sphere and should not be a part of public education has led the government to approach the introduction of a comprehensive sexuality education in Swaziland’s schools with baby’s steps. These beliefs seems to have worked against a speedy introduction of a comprehensive sexuality education in schools as Swaziland is yet to introduce an age appropriate comprehensive sexuality education in schools. This is despite the fact the policy environment is ripe for an introduction of comprehensive sexuality education in Swaziland and that studies have shown that adolescences with accurate knowledge on sexuality and sexual reproductive health that are empowered to make independent decisions are
less likely to entertain myths and misconceptions about their sexuality and well-being.

The spectrum of practices termed “Female Genital Mutilation” (or FGM) by the World Health Organization is sometimes held up as a counterexample to moral relativism. Those who advance this line of thought suggest the practices are so harmful in terms of their physical and emotional consequences, as well as so problematic in terms of their sexist or oppressive implications, that they provide sufficient, rational grounds for the assertion of a universal moral claim—namely, that all forms of FGM are wrong, regardless of the cultural context. However, others point to cultural bias and moral double standards on the part of those who espouse this argument, and have begun to question the received interpretation of the relevant empirical data concerning FGM as well. In this article I assess the merits of these competing perspectives. I argue that each of them involves valid moral concerns that should be taken seriously in order to move the discussion forward. In doing so, I draw on the biomedical “enhancement” literature in order to develop a novel ethical framework for evaluating FGM (and related interventions—such as female genital “cosmetic” surgery and non-therapeutic male circumcision) that takes into account the genuine harms that are at stake in these procedures, but which does not suffer from being based on cultural or moral double standards.

What are the effects of circumcision  on sexual function and experience? And what does sex—in the sense related to gender—have to do with the ethics of circumcision? Jacobs and Arora (2015) give short shrift to the first of these questions; and they do not seem to have considered the second. In this commentary, I explore the relationship between sex (in both senses) and infant male circumcision, and draw some conclusions about the ongoing debate regarding this controversial practice.

Buku ini menunjukkan bahwa saat ini program penanggulangan HIV & AIDS masih bersifat vertikal dan tidak terintegrasi, dimana peran mitra pembangunan internasional sebagai bagian dari inisiatif kesehatan global yang bekerja melalui pemerintah maupun organisasi non-pemerintah masih sangat dominan dalam mengarahkan dan menentukan strategi penanggulangan HIV & AIDS di tingkat nasional dan daerah. Arsitektur penanggulangan HIV & AIDS yang demikian ini telah menyebabkan lemahnya kapasitas pemerintah daerah maupun organisasi non-pemerintah dalam menanggapi epidemi di daerah masing-masing. Dinamika faktor eksternal yang tampak dalam interaksi antar aktor dalam penanggulangan HIV dan AIDS di tingkat nasional maupun daerah, komitmen politik yang berubah-ubah, hukum dan regulasi yang seringkali berbenturan dengan kepentingan penanggulangan HIV & AIDS serta karakteristik dari permasalahan HIV & AIDS sendiri yang multi sektoral ternyata menjadi faktor-faktor yang belum dipertimbangkan dalam upaya untuk mewujudkan integrasi tersebut. Sebuah model integrasi dalam program pencegahan HIV melalui transmisi seksual (PMTS) yang mempertimbangkan karakteristik dari permasalahan, kewenangan dan kapasitas daerah dan tingkat integrasinya dengan sistem kesehatan yang berlaku telah dirokemendasikan oleh buku ini.

Lugares públicos como el metro, parques, reservas ecológicas, baños o establecimientos nocturnos, tanto públicos como privados para ejercer el cruising, no están considerados ni reglamentados por las autoridades competentes, acrecentando un riesgo de contraer Infecciones de Transmisión Sexual (ITS) y favorecer los atentados contra la integridad física y moral de los usuarios que gustan del flirteo y sexo hombre con hombre en estos espacios; aunado al estigma social que representan las prácticas homosexuales en una cultura hegemónica heterosexual y patriarcal, como la que predomina en México.

“This publication fills the gap between traditional theory driven research and practical HIV prevention and care achieved by highly qualified and committed community-based and led implementers. During my masters studies in Public Health these articles, some previously published in Digital Culture & Education (DCE), proved to be an important supplement to the assigned course literature.  This timely work provided my colleagues and me valuable insight and understanding into how ICTs are used across a wide variety of settings to reach key populations disproportionately at risk of HIV who not always covered in public health programs.  I believe that anyone within the field of Public Health and HIV, regardless of whether they are a student, an academic, frontline health worker or working with community- based organisations, can benefit from the valuable experiences and inspiring programs and interventions the authors describe in this book.”

Tobias Herder, MPH - HIV Prevention Officer, Sweden