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| KENYA Offers Free Drugs to Women Living with HIV/AIDS KENYA: HEALTH/ /17/08/02 Sabanews NAIROBI -- HIV-positive women in KENYA are being offered free drugs to save their babies from the HIV virus when they give birth. Every year, some 50,000 Kenyan babies contract the virus that can lead to AIDS from their mothers when they are born, a report by Inter Press Service (IPS) says. Half of them could be saved if their mothers are administered one dose of Nevirapine on the onset of labour. The baby’s dose is administered hours after birth. KENYA’s Health Minister SAM ONGERI announced in August this year that the drugs are, and will continue to be, absolutely free in government health facilities. IPS reports that the government recently started an advertising campaign to promote its voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) centres. The ads urge people to ”take control” and find out their HIV status. Only on testing will pregnant women in KENYA know they are HIV-positive, and take the drug Nevirapine that could save their babies from the HIV virus. /Sabanews/an .. ENDS SABANEWS .. VENEZUELA: HEALTH/ /17/08/02 Sabanews CARACAS – A survey among students at the Central University, VENEZUELA’s premier university, reveals young women and men are revelling in risky sex despite the real fear of contracting HIV/AIDS. Deciding not to use a condom, known here as ''pulling off the hood,'' is seen by some young people as a risky proof of love in the 21st century, a report by Inter Press Service (IPS) says. Ernesto, a 28-year-old student, told interviewers that removing the condom and the danger of contracting HIV have become sexually arousing for young people. Jose, another student, described the risk of infection as ''a lottery that you can draw at any moment”, according to the IPS report. Nearly 60 percent of the Venezuelan students interviewed had never had an AIDS test. Fifteen percent were still confused about how AIDS is transmitted. Of that 15 percent, nine out of 10 were women. /Sabanews/an .. ENDS SABANEWS ..
INDONESIA: /RIGHTS/ /17/08/02 Sabanews JAKARTA – Every weekend since 1996, one woman has been on the road talking to inter-city truck drivers about safe sex. Baby Jim Aditya lives in INDONESIA. An Inter Press Service (IPS) reports says she advises truck drivers about HIV/AIDS, and distributes condoms, which she urges them to use. Truck drivers and sex workers are in the high-risk category for HIV/AIDS. She goes to red light areas to talk to sex workers about safe sex practices. Aditya is a fashion designer by training. She tells truck drivers that condoms would prevent them, their wives and children from getting infected with sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. Aditya’s is a one-person campaign against HIV/AIDS, which in INDONESIA is threatening to become an epidemic, according to the IPS report. The HIV infection rate has increased sharply among male and female sex workers, according to the latest estimates of the Indonesian National AIDS Commission. Anonymous HIV testing of sex workers from 1988 showed virtually no HIV infections for a decade in INDONESIA. /Sabanews/an .. ENDS SABANEWS ..
SWAZILAND: /RIGHTS/ /17/08/02 Sabanews MBABANE – For the first time, a plea for legalised abortion has been submitted to SWAZILAND’s parliament. Traditionalists, who hold sway over public opinion in SWAZILAND, reject abortion as a woman's right over her body. Rev. Nash Shongwe who is an influential pastor insists abortion is murder. He warns god will punish SWAZILAND. But Senator Mbho Shongwe who has raised the abortion issue told Inter Press Service (IPS) that the health and rights of young women have to be considered in an age of HIV/AIDS. Organisations like the SWAZILAND Action Group Against Abuse, which counsels survivors of rape and incest, and the SWAZILAND AIDS Support Organisation applaud Shongwe for publicly raising the issue of abortion. The senator feels that Swazi women who are HIV-positive or who have been raped by HIV-positive men should in particular have the right to medically terminate the pregnancy. In Rev. Nash’s city, Manzini, 52 percent of women 20-30 years old and 44 percent of women 30-40 years old are HIV-positive. /Sabanews/an .. ENDS SABANEWS ..
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