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|  5/1/2014 | | National News | International News  | Sex Workers Help Bangladesh Fight HIV BANGLADESH :: HIV/AIDS
Asia Times (04.30.2014) :: By Naimul Haq | | | The Asia Times reported that Bangladesh sex workers help keep the country’s HIV rate one of the lowest in the world. Bangladesh was one of the first developing countries to make HIV intervention a priority, starting back in the 1990s. The Bangladesh Manobadhikar Sangbadik Forum (BMSF), an HIV and STD advocacy group, began educating sex workers about HIV and sexual safety. Now, sex workers educate and train each other.
"Awareness lessons work like magic," said Mohammad Alamgir Kabir, coordinator of BMSF in Kushtia. "They virtually cost nothing. Initially, we acted as catalysts to train and educate sex workers. Now, sex workers educate their peers for their own safety."
Although Bangladesh has a high STD prevalence and low literacy rates, the country only has reported approximately 3,000 HIV cases. The government’s strong political commitment and partnership with nongovernmental organizations are credited for the low HIV incidence by targeting high-risk groups, such as men who have sex with men, sex workers, and transgender people. The government and its partners have placed locations throughout the small, densely populated Asian country to provide awareness and support, including 309 drop-in centers, 98 blood transfusion centers, and 61 voluntary counseling centers. |  Read Full Article | Share this Article     | | Back to Top  |  | | Medical News  | Diagnosis of Childhood TB Could Be Improved by Genetic Discovery GLOBAL :: TB
Science Codex (04.30.2014) | | | Science Codex reported on a study that found a genetic “signature” in the blood of children with TB that could result in faster diagnosis of the disease in children. Childhood TB is difficult to diagnose and usually is found in a late stage of the disease when the child is very ill. According to Professor Michael Levin, director of the Wellcome Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine at Imperial College London and lead researcher of the study, children’s TB symptoms are similar to those of other childhood diseases and the adult tests do not work for children. As a result, many children die or are left with lasting damage from the disease.
In this European Union- funded study, Levin and colleagues investigated more than 2,800 children with TB symptoms in hospitals in South Africa, Malawi, and Kenya. The researchers examined blood samples to determine which genes were activated or suppressed in children with TB. Results showed that 51 genes were able to distinguish TB from other diseases depending on whether they were activated or suppressed. The researchers assigned each child a TB risk score based on this information, and accurately diagnosed TB in more than 80 percent of the Kenyan children.
Levin noted the study took seven years and the work of clinicians and scientists in the United Kingdom, Africa, and Singapore. He commented on the need for collaboration with biotechnology and industrial partners to translate the findings into a simple, rapid, and affordable TB test for use worldwide.
The full report, “Diagnosis of Childhood Tuberculosis and Host RNA Expression in Africa,” was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (2014; 370(18):1712–1723). | | Read Full Article | Share this Article | | Back to Top | | | Local and Community News  | Health Department Establishes Clinic in Response to Rise in STDs MICHIGAN :: HIV/AIDS,STDs
Cadillac News (04.30.2014) :: By Jeff Broddle | | | Cadillac News reported that the Cadillac, Mich., District Health Department Number 10 set up a separate clinic for STD testing in March after chlamydia rates in Wexford, Missaukee, and Lake counties increased dramatically during the first months of 2014. In 2013, 48 of 747 people (approximately 6 percent) tested positive for chlamydia, which was consistent with historical trends. In the first three months of 2014, 10 percent tested positive for chlamydia. The district began offering the clinic in Wexford and Mason counties in March, and plans to expand the clinic to Lake, Missaukee, and other District 10 counties in the future.
The health department hoped the establishment of a separate clinic would encourage more men to come in for STD testing, since men were reluctant to use the health department’s family planning clinic, according to Sheryl Slocum, supervisor of the STD clinic. The family planning clinic already offered testing for HIV, chlamydia, and gonorrhea. The STD clinic aimed to expand testing to include syphilis, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C screening. The clinic offered testing on a sliding fee scale.
Dr. Robert Graham, the health department’s medical director, stated that although STD rates overall have increased in recent years, chlamydia diagnoses have risen more quickly than other STD cases, possibly because of better testing. Graham emphasized that antibiotic treatment could cure chlamydia, but would not prevent reinfection. The health department recommended that all people who were sexually active, but not monogamous, use condoms consistently to prevent STD infections.
The Central Michigan District Health Department, which established a separate clinic for STD testing approximately a year ago, reported a similar increase in chlamydia diagnoses during 2014. | | Read Full Article | Share this Article | | Back to Top | | | | News Briefs | | | | |
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