The English Guardian may face something of a dilemma when covering the WHO's failure to give clear advice to African women who have been persuaded to use Depo Provera and similar injectable Hormonal Contraceptives, which appear to be associated with a doubling of HIV transmission from females to males and from males to females; Birth Control is close to the heart of he who would control Population, Bill Gates, whose Foundation sponsors the paper's Global Development section. Not that the article appears in the Gates sponsored section; perhaps there is no such dilemma.
But Sarah Boseley sticks pretty close to the WHO's press release and says that women who use injectables such as Depo Provera should also use Condoms. As with the 'advice' from WHO, Boseley notes the use of 'dual protection' against pregnancy, on the one hand, and infection with sexually transmitted infections on the other. For Boseley and WHO, this means using condoms along with Depo Provera. But what neither seem willing to point out is that condoms on their own provide such dual protection.
So why would anyone want to use these expensive and possibly dangerous hormonal injections if condoms on their own give dual protection? Well, according to WHO and other 'experts' in reproductive health (often just a useful term for 'birth control'), condoms are not 'female controlled'; many people don't use condoms if they can help it. So rather than recommending that people who wish to avoid both pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections should use condoms, they recommend that people use Depo Provera, despite knowing that many people who opt for injectable hormonal contraceptives (and various other methods) cease to use condoms?
The oral versions of Depo Provera and similar contraceptives are said to be unsuitable because women need to take them daily and they may forget, or their husbands may object, etc. Injectable versions are said to be women controlled and only need to be taken every three months. In reality, they are to a large extent controlled by those who supply them, often NGOs and other institutions who believe strongly in the population control paradigm of development. Whatever synonyms are used, the concept of control is always detectable.
Boseley claims that women 'choose' Depo Provera and similar products but these pharmaceuticals are aggressively marketed by some of the biggest NGOs working in population control. Use of injectables has increased considerably over recent years but it's difficult to work out whether that's a matter of availability or genuine choice. Given the political and financial clout that NGOs and institutions such as the Gates Foundation have over the lives of people in developing countries, it seems unlikely that birth control is as high on the agenda of people in African countries as it is for the various non-African parties on the bandwaggon. One might even wonder if anyone gives a damn what Africans think about such matters.
It's astonishing just how uncritical Boseley is, in fact. She parrots bits about the WHO's 'expert group', but it was not concluded that hormonal contraception is safe ("Current evidence is not strong enough to prove or disprove an increased risk of HIV from hormonal contraception"). Rather, it has clearly been decided that it is safe enough for Africans and other poor people; it is not much used by white, middle-class Westerners. These products have not been shown to be safe, far from it. But the most important consideration for the WHO is that their goal of population control is not compromised by worries about safety issues, which they have been aware of for decades.
The logical conclusion to be drawn from the WHO's findings is that, if people want to avoid unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, they should use condoms. The WHO statement is not based on a logical conclusion; it is a political declaration designed to protect the interests of Big Pharma read more..
Monday, 23 April 2012
Sexually Transmitted Infections-Hormonal Contraceptives-Hormonal Contraception-Population Control
Monday, 27 February 2012
Los Angeles City Council
This week the Los Angeles City Council voted to adopt the condoms-in-porn initiative requiring adult film producers to show proof that condoms will be used on set before being issued a film permit. read more..
Aids Healthcare Foundation
 |
A truly historic day! For more information about AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s campaign to require condoms in adult films, please visit: www.aidshealth.org. read more..
Sunday, 26 February 2012
Derrick Burts
Check out this interview with Derrick Burts, a former adult film performer who contracted HIV on set. We at AHF salute him for his bravery in sharing his story, as well as for his efforts to help other performers by speaking about his experience and advocating for condom use. http://aumag.org/wordpress/?p=3122 read more..
Saturday, 25 February 2012
Billboard Advertising-Durban, South Africa-Genome Analysis-Photosynthesis
Photo of the Day: This AHF billboard advertising free HIV testing, treatment and condoms has gone up in several locations around Durban, South Africa recently - just in time for International Condom Day, February 13th. Please re-blog if you love this real-life couple’s attitude as much as we do! read more..
Origin of photosynthesis revealed: Genome analysis of 'living fossil' sheds light on the evolution of plants
Evolutionary biologists have shed light on the early events leading to photosynthesis, the result of the sequencing of 70 million base pair nuclear genome of the one-celled alga Cyanophora. They consider this study the final piece of the puzzle to understand the origin of photosynthesis in eukaryotes. read more..
Aids Healthcare Foundation-Condoms-Ahf
 |
Condom delivery! Today in Los Angeles, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) moved about 250,000 “Love”-branded condoms to prepare for a big announcement this Monday, February 13th - which is International Condom Day. How are planning you commemorate International Condom Day? (Learn more about AHF’s “Love”-branded condoms at www.lovecondoms.org). Stay tuned for our condom announcement! read more..
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Hiv Positive-Hiv Negative-Condoms-Arvs-HIV
It is very reassuring that a commentator in Kenya has mentioned, albeit briefly, that providing ARVs to HIV negative people will strain resources in a country where it is not even possible to supply all HIV positve people with them.Many people don't have food, water, cheap drugs for everyday, but deadly, diseases, contraception and family planning, proper education, infrastructure, and a great many other things. Why the obsession with grossly overpriced drugs that will not make any material differenc to most people's health?But there are some odd remarks in the article. One person mentioned in the article that she had not had sex with her husband for the first three years after finding out that he was HIV positive. Then she started to use Condoms.So far so good. Condoms give a good level of protection if they are used properly and used all the time. There are all sorts of stories about condoms breaking but this should be rare if people really know how to use them properly. And at least condoms are cheap and have other benefits, protecting against sexually transmitted infections and preventing unplanned pregnancies.But the article is about using drugs to reduce HIV transmission. This would be in the form of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), where a HIV negative person takes an antiretroviral drug regularly to reduce the probability of being infected, or 'treatment as prevention', where the HIV positive person takes ARVs which reduce the viral load to a level where HIV is a lot less likely to be transmitted.If condoms are used, is the risk that the HIV negative partner faces going to be reduced further when they also take PrEP? Perhaps so, perhaps a belt and braces policy gives more protection.But if the HIV positive partner is on ARVs, taking them correctly, responding to them (to the extent that their viral load is low, etc), does the HIV negative partner need to be taking PrEP? Couldn't the HIV negative partner just make sure that condoms are used?The more important questions are about whether there will be enough money for all HIV positive people to receive the drugs and other care they need, as well as for HIV negative people to receive the most effective prevention assistance available.Currently, only 20-40% of people in need of ARVs are receiving them. Will the need for PrEP be given priority over the need for ARVs, given that PrEP is for people who are healthy and normal ARV treatment is for people who are sick and will die without the drugs?But even 'treatment as prevention' is not that straightforward. The majority of people in most African countries do not know their HIV status. Even the majority of HIV positive people do not know their status. How easy will it be to identify all HIV positive people and keep on identifying new infections for as long as they occur.Apparently Swaziland is going to test its entire population and put everyone found to be HIV positive on ARVs, effectively, 'treatment as prevention' or 'test and treat'. There are only 1.2 million Swazis but an estimated 200,000 of them are HIV positive.Yet only about 60,000 HIV positive Swazis are on ARVs and the country doesn't even have enough supplies for them. Similar shortages have occurred in other African countries. Health services can barely cope with keeping a fraction of people on treatment, let alone all those who need them.The Kenyan article continues with the sort of honesty that you wouldn't normally find in an article about HIV: prevention so far has had little impact and the rate of new infections is still very high; sexual behavior change, the main aim of most prevention programs, has not occurred to any great extent.But UNAIDS and the HIV orthodoxy have, according to the article, been targeting the wrong people all along. They have been talking about reducing numbers of partners, using condoms and even giving up sex altogether. But many new infections occur in mutually monogamous couples, often among people who tak read more..
Friday, 17 February 2012
Los Angeles City Council-Final Approval-Adult Movies-Condoms
Actors in adult movies filmed in America's pornography capital would be required to use Condoms under an ordinance granted final approval Tuesday by the Los Angeles City Council. read more..
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Howard Brown Health Center-Test Results-Blood Tests-Condoms-HIV
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Porn stars in Los Angeles will be legally required to wear condoms during film shoots after the city council voted on Tuesday to mandate their use, despite a threat by skin flick producers to leave town over the requirement. The move comes amid persistent questions about how to enforce the health measure, which backers say will protect performers in the multibillion-dollar porn industry from contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Producers complain the sight of a condom in a sex scene turns off consumers of their videos. ... read more..
Testing for HIV together, hearing results together
 |
| In this Jan. 5, 2012 photo, Dominic Poteste, left, and Eric Zemanovic pose before taking HIV tests together at the Howard Brown Health Center in Chicago. Testing Together, now under way in Chicago and Atlanta, takes an unusual approach: It encourages gay male couples to get tested together and hear their results together. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green) |
Newly dating and slightly anxious, two men bared their arms for blood tests and pondered the possibility that one of them, or both, could be infected with HIV. An innovative program — called Testing Together — would allow them to hear their test results minutes later, while sitting side by side. read more..
Friday, 13 January 2012
Presidential Primary Election-Sexually Transmitted Diseases-Aids Healthcare Foundation
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A ballot initiative requiring Los Angeles porn actors to wear condoms has qualified to go before city voters in a presidential primary election in June, organizers said on Tuesday. America's second-largest city is home to the multibillion dollar U.S. porn industry, which health advocates say is riddled with sexually transmitted diseases. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation said the city clerk certified the over 71,000 signatures it helped collect, far more than the 41,000 needed for the ballot initiative. ... read more..
Your scale shouldn't go up when the temperature dips! Stay lean and fast by inco...
Your scale shouldn't go up when the temperature dips! Stay lean and fast by incorporating these healthy habits.Stay Lean and Fast | Fitbiefitbie.msn.comDon't let off-season pounds slow you down when you get back on the bike this spring. Here's your plan read more..