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A Critical Review of HIV-Related Interventions for Women Prisoners in the United States	This article reviews the literature on HIV-related interventions for U.S. women prisoners, with a focus on identifying strategies that enabled women to practice safer sex, reduce drug use, and to avoid recidivism. A comprehensive search indicated that only nine such interventions were evaluated in professional journals between 1994 and 2009. These interventions involved behavioral programs for women at risk for HIV and discharge planning for women releasees who were either infected with or at risk for HIV. Four interventions for incarcerated women achieved successful outcomes regarding self-empowerment and safer sex skills
Alabama and South Carolina: Stop Segregating HIV-Positive Prisoners	Alabama and South Carolina should immediately change their policy of segregating HIV-positive prisoners from the rest of the prison population, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU National Prison Project concluded in a report released today. Prisoners in the designated HIV units face stigma, harassment, and systematic discrimination that amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment, the report found.
Beyond the Shadow-Unmasking the HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination in Nigeria	Except for children born with HIV, most people living with HIV get infected several years after birth. These people live their lives like any other people, until the time a diagnosis of the infection is made	Pdf 565 kb
Characteristics of HCV positive patients in an Italian urban psychiatric unit	HCV infection in psychiatric patients constitutes a major threat to the health of psychiatric patients and is related with unfavorable social background, worse global functioning, hostile or violent behavior, substance-related disorders. It appears also to be a significant risk of suicidal behavior.
Depression in Hepatitis C Patients and Interferon Treatment	Power Point presentation	304 kb
HIV/AIDS Treatment Literacy	The EATG’s mission is to achieve the fastest possible access to state of the art medical products, devices and diagnostic tests that prevent or treat HIV infection or improve the quality of life of people living with HIV, or who are at risk of HIV infection.	Pdf 759 kb
HIV testing and counselling in prisons and other closed settings (Large report-increase download time)	This document was commissioned by UNODC and WHO in July 2007 to inform discussions about how to scale up access to HIV testing and counselling for prisoners, following the release of the WHO/UNAIDS Guidance on Provider-Initiated HIV Testing and Counselling in Health Facilities (WHO, UNAIDS, 2007). The WHO/UNAIDS Guidance briefly addresses issues related to HIV testing and counselling for prisoners,	Pdf 1353
How Effective Street Drug Testing Is?	In developed countries, it is widely agreed that the democratic public policies should be evidence-based. Evidence-based policy has been defined as an “approach that helps people make well informed decisions about policies, programs and projects by putting the best available evidence from research at the heart of policy development and implementation. This approach stands in contrast to opinion-based policy, which relies heavily on either the selective use of evidence (e.g. on single studies irrespective of quality) or on the untested views of individuals or groups, often inspired by ideological standpoints, prejudices, or speculative conjecture.”	Pdf 88 kb
Islamic Leaders Become a Force for Change in Indonesia’s HIV Response	Islamic leaders have tremendous influence in Indonesia, where the majority of citizens are Muslims. As a result, they are well positioned to act as change agents in a country where HIV is perceived as more of a moral and social issue than a medical one, and people living with HIV and the most at-risk populations are highly stigmatized. While the national government and national-level Islamic organizations have issued HIV policies and statements, implementation of the policies at the local level is often lacking or inadequate due to misconceptions, weak leadership, and limited capacity.	Pdf 117 kb
Liver Cancer Incidence Has Tripled Since 1970s, But Survival Rates Improving	Researchers also found for the first time that one- through five-year survival rates improved significantly for patients diagnosed with liver cancer between 1992 and 2005, in part because more patients were diagnosed at earlier stages, when treatment is more effective. Earlier diagnosis may be due to increasing awareness and screening to detect localized disease in patients at risk for liver cancer.
Male Circumcision & HIV Prevention in Eastern and Southern Africa	Male circumcision is an important intervention that is increasingly being incorporated into national HIV prevention programmes – especially in settings where HIV prevalence is high and the prevalence of circumcision is low. Effective communications is a vital component of any scale-up strategy.
Mental Health	The Nation’s contemporary mental health enterprise, like the broader field of health, is rooted in a population-based public health model. The public health model is characterized by concern for the health of a population in its entirety and by awareness of the linkage between health and the physical and psychosocial environment. Public health focuses not only on traditional areas of diagnosis, treatment, and etiology, but also on epidemiologic surveillance of the health of the population at large, health promotion, disease prevention, and access to and evaluation of services	Pdf 307 kb
Mentally ill people are sent to jail more often than hospital	"We're not trying to say this is a criminal population," says co-author James Pavle, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, a non-profit based in Arlington, Va. "All they have to do is step over a line — public urination, a misdemeanor. Then they get in jail, and the whole thing can spin out of control."
On The Road to Activism (Large article, increase download time)	In order to understand how deeply rooted prejudice is in society, we can look at statements like “marijuana is a springboard to heroin, and heroin users are incurable and live a maximum of five years” – which are often pronounced publicly by politicians, reported in the media, and expressed by medical doctors, sociologists, teachers, and others.	Pdf 1847 kb
Policy update concerning Ryan White Law (Large article, increase download time)	Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program funds are intended to support only the HIV-related needs of eligible individuals. Grantees and funded contractors must be able to make an explicit connection between any service supported with Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program funds and the intended recipient’s HIV status, or care-giving relationship to a person with HIV/AIDS.	Pdf 3180 kb
Routine Jail-Based HIV Testing --- Rhode Island, 2000--2007	To determine the number and characteristics of persons with newly identified HIV infection and estimate the proportion of detainees who might not have been tested if testing had been delayed, RIDOC examined jail incarceration and HIV testing data from 2000--2007. A newly identified case of HIV infection was defined in a person with a positive confirmed HIV test at RIDOC who had no record of a previous positive HIV test result according to RIDOH HIV surveillance data. Data from 2000--2007 were selected because reporting of positive HIV test results to RIDOH using unique identifiers began in 2000.
Sentenced to Stigma	In Alabama, people in the visiting room recognize the armband worn by John S. and ask him if he has HIV. In South Carolina, Ronald B. was sentenced to 90 days in jail, but because he is HIV-positive he went to the maximum security prison that houses death row prisoners. In Mississippi, guards tell prisoners in the segregated HIV unit to “get your sick asses out of the way” when they pass them in the hall. Many prisoners with HIV will spend more time in prison because they are not eligible for programs that promote early release. These are some of the harsh consequences of HIV policies in Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi, the only three states in the nation that have continued to segregate prisoners living with HIV. In March 2010, after reviewing the findings in this report, the Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections decided to terminate the segregation policy. The segregation and discrimination against HIV-positive prisoners continues to this day in Alabama and South Carolina, and constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of international law.	Pdf 654 kb
SEX TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES	Within the last decade, the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation has become a major concern for governments, NGOs and the media. Although, the United States has been less visible as a site of transnational and domestic trafficking in women than other countries in Europe, and countries such as Japan, Canada and Australia, this situation is beginning to change. Recent accounts about sex trafficking in the United States, mainly appearing in national and local media, indicate that trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation is a national problem, and one that is increasing in scope and magnitude. The U.S. government estimates that 50,000 women and children are trafficked each year into the United States, primarily from Latin America, countries of the former Soviet Union and Southeast Asia. However, little systematic research has been done on contemporary trafficking in the United States. This study by the Coalition Against Trafficking Women is the first to research both international and domestic trafficking of women for sexual exploitation in the United States and to include primary research information from interviews with trafficked and prostituted women in the sex industry.	Pdf 587 kb
Sexual and Reproductive Health of Women and Adolescent Girls Living With HIV (Large report, increase download time)	People living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA) have the right to freely choose whether or not to have children; how many to have and when to have them; and to have access to integrated health services promoting care and attention to sexual and reproductive health (SRH), including family planning (FP), prevention of HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), for themselves and their partners. The right to sexual and reproductive health extends to all men and women, irrespective of their serological status for HIV.	Pdf 3332 kb
Sexual behaviour change in countries with generalised HIV epidemics? Evidence from population-based cohort studies in sub-Saharan Africa	It has been 27 years since the beginning of the HIV epidemic in Africa and, although we understand more about the transmission and treatment of the disease, our knowledge of how new infections can be prevented remains limited.1 The risk of HIV acquisition is known to be closely associated with unprotected sexual intercourse, and adoption of safer sexual behaviour is still the main message of most national HIV prevention programmes. However, while declines in HIV prevalence have been associated with changes in sexual behaviour,4 ecological studies have failed to find associations between risk behaviour and the prevalence of HIV or other sexually transmitted infections (STI), and scientific trials show no evidence for a population-level effect of behavioural interventions.
Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-09 (Large report, increase download time)	The result of this process yielded a sample representing 26,551 adjudicated youth held nationwide in state operated and large locally or privately operated juvenile facilities.1 A total of 10,263 youth participated in the survey. Of these, 1,065 received an alternative survey on drug and alcohol use and treatment, and 9,198 youth participated in the survey of sexual victimization.	Pdf 1168 kb
Surveillance for Violent Deaths --- National Violent Death Reporting System, 16 States, 2007	An estimated 50,000 persons die annually in the United States from violence-related injuries. Homicide is the second leading cause of death for persons aged 15--24 years, the third leading cause for persons aged 10--14 and 25--34 years, and the fourth leading cause for persons aged 1--9 years. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for persons aged 25--34 years, the third leading cause for persons aged 15--24 years, and the fourth leading cause for persons aged 10--14 and 35--44 years. Only unintentional injury in those aged 1--34 years and malignant neoplasms and congenital anomalies in children aged 1--14 years were more common
THE REPUBLIC OF TAJIKISTAN Methodological guidelines for implementation of harm reduction programmes	Therefore, being guided by the three-ones principle of the coordinated approach in planning, implementation and evaluation of prevention programmes, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Tajikistan pays special attention to HR programmes implemented in close cooperation with public organisations working in the area of HIV prevention, care and support for the most at-risk and vulnerable populations.
TANZANIA: What every bride needs to know	"The training at kitchen parties is geared toward making the bride so subservient, so docile and quiet. It gives women all the responsibility to make the marriage work," said Charles Kayoka, of the Association of Journalists against AIDS in Tanzania, a group advocating greater male involvement in HIV prevention. "The intention is not bad – to make the marriage home peaceful and harmonious - but the outcome can be dangerous."
The Slave Trade is Back: Confronting Human Trafficking in Canada and Beyond	“Slavery is a weed that grows in any soil,” cautioned Edmund Burke. Even a quick skim through the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report is enough to demonstrate that modern-day slavery is thriving in countries as diverse as Cambodia and Costa Rica, India and Italy, as well as the Ukraine and the United States itself.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria	The Global Fund Secretariat has started developing the ‘IDU Initiative’ which explores and recommends ways to create demand at a country level for programming and evidence-based interventions for injecting drug users (IDUs). The Initiative is also intended to highlight how the Global Fund can play a role in advocacy and show leadership in the area of access to prevention and treatment services for IDUs.
"So What?" Report	Improving reproductive health and promoting gender equity are key components of the Programme of Action (POA) from the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994. As the tenth anniversary of the ICPD approaches, it is time to take stock of the progress made toward implementing the POA. Does taking a genderbased approach to policy and programming as proposed in the POA have an effect on reproductive health outcomes? This question, posed to the USAID Interagency Gender Working Group (IGWG), formed the basis for a review of the evidence that integrating gender into reproductive health programs makes a difference to outcomes—both reproductive health outcomes and gender outcomes.	Pdf 864 kb
UNDERSTANDING MEN’S HEALTH AND USE OF VIOLENCE: INTERFACE OF RAPE AND HIV IN SOUTH AFRICA	South Africa has one of the highest rates of rape reported to the police in the world and the largest number of people living with HIV. The rate of rape perpetration is not known because only a small proportion of rapes are reported to the police. There is considerable concern about the links between these two problems. Obviously HIV can be transmitted in the course of rape and this compounds the human rights violation of the rape.	Pdf 94 kb
U.S. Report: Rape, Sexual Abuse Rampant in Juvenile Corrections Facilities	A shocking 12.1 percent or almost one in eight of the detained youth who participated in the survey reported sexual abuse at their current facility during the previous year. On any given day, there are approximately 93,000 youth confined in juvenile facilities, more than half of whom are 16 or younger.
Why HIV/AIDS prevention strategies fail in Botswana: considering discourses of sexuality	A phenomenological study that was carried out among ﬁve ethnic groups of Botswana revealed the importance of taking into account culturally situated sexual realities when prevention policies for HIV/AIDS are considered and implemented. Furthermore the study threw light on the ineffectiveness of the current national HIV/AIDS prevention strategy of ‘Abstain, Be faithful, or use a Condom’ (ABC), a strategy that has been externally imposed on communities, without sufﬁciently engaging the behavioural practices and values of the communities themselves. This paper therefore advocates educational strategies for HIV/AIDS prevention that take into consideration localised social relations and value systems. Devising policies that engage with the discourses that are dominant in each ethnic group can make a difference in a country that has been hard-hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Why is the policy brief on HIV testing and counseling in prisons and other closed settings important, and what are its main goals?	The policy aims to ensure that people held in prisons and other closed settings are not left out of countries’ efforts to scale up access to HIV testing and counseling – prisoners and detainees also need greater access to HIV testing and counseling. At the same time, the policy brief aims to ensure that HIV testing in prisons is never undertaken without the informed consent of the person tested – in prisons, as outside, testing without informed consent is not justified.

Liver Cancer Incidence Has Tripled Since 1970s, But Survival Rates Improving

The Slave Trade is Back: Confronting Human Trafficking in Canada and Beyond