Month: November 2011

Ecuador releases 70,000 square meters of antipersonnel mines in 2011

|

Phnom Penh, 30 nov (EFE).-Ecuador cleaned up 70,000 square meters of landmines over the last year, seven times more than expected initially, today announced its delegation to the meeting of the Ottawa Convention being held in Phnom Penh.

The Counsellor of the foreign service of Ecuador, Veronica Aguilar, said that the initial goal of clean 10.150 square metres was able to overcome with the introduction of machinery in some affected areas.

“Until 2013 will do mine clearance in the South of Loja and Zamora, which can enter with machinery”, he said Aguilar, however, warned that in other areas the tasks will be more expensive.

“Our productivity low when we entered the forest and have to manually clear under very difficult weather conditions,” added.

Ecuador expected to disable more than 16,000 antipersonnel mines that are buried since 1995 on the border with Peru of El Oro, Loja Andean coastal provinces and the Amazon of Morona Santiago, Pastaza and Zamora Chinchipe.

Ecuador joined the Ottawa Convention in October 1999 and in 2008 won an eight year extension to the ten initially giving the Treaty to clean mine the country and eliminate the arsenal of such explosives.

This meeting in Phnom Penh began Monday with the assistance of more than one hundred countries responsible for reviewing the progress made with the Plan of action of Cartagena, and will close Friday.

The Ottawa Convention, which regulates the use, Stockpiling, production, sale and destruction of anti-personnel mines, came into force in 1999, with the aim that the world was free of these artifacts in 2009.

It has been ratified by 158 countries, of which 153 have confirmed that they already do not have devices stored.

Governments not signatories include China, India, Russia, United States, Israel, Morocco, Cuba or Singapore.

Picture of file (18/02/99) of two military Ecuadorian storing anti-personnel mines were deactivated during the demining along the border with Peru. EFE/file

Read More

Fundéu BBVA in the Argentina: “AIDS” is not the same as “HIV”

|

International, editorial 30 nov (EFE).-the foundation of the Spanish urgent (Fundéu BBVA) in the Argentina, with information on the world day of the fight against AIDS, recommended that “AIDS” is written in lowercase and to avoid confusion with “VIH”.

The word “AIDS” was formed as an acronym for “acquired immunodeficiency syndrome”. Due to the use, already has become a common noun, so the Fundéu BBVA advised it is written with lowercase letters, and not “sida”.

As well, examples such as “AIDS patients calling for a law to free travel” or “Successfully tested an experimental AIDS vaccine” would be more appropriate to write “AIDS patients calling for a law to free travel” or “They tested an experimental AIDS vaccine with success”.

Also the urgent Spanish Foundation, which works in the Argentina with the advice of the Argentina Academy of letters, recalls that the term “AIDS” is not a synonym for “HIV”, since “AIDS” is the name of the disease, and the acronym “HIV” (human immunodeficiency virus) refers to the virus that causes the.

The foundation of the Spanish Express (www.fundeu.es) is an institution promoted by the Agencia Efe and sponsored by the BBVA Bank that has as main objective the good use of the Spanish in the media. EFE

Read More

Sex between men enlivens the AIDS epidemic in Latin America

|

Geneva, 30 nov (EFE).-unprotected sex between men and the lack of national programmes of prevention and treatment aimed at this group are stoking the AIDS epidemic in Latin America, where there are 1.5 million of those infected with the virus HIV.

They are data and conclusions included in the “report on the response Global to HIV/AIDS”, produced by the World Health Organization (who), UNICEF and UNAIDS, and launched today in Geneva.

Against the global trend that has registered a decline of 15% of persons carriers of HIV in the past five years, in Latin America the total number of people living with the virus has risen from 1.3 million in 2001 to 1.5 million in 2010.

What is a seemingly negative data, it is not at all, that the report attributes this increase to the increase in people receiving antiretroviral therapy, which has made to reduce the number of people who die from causes arising from the AIDS.

In 2010, the number of deaths in the region was 67,000 from a peak of 83,000 from 2001 to 2003.

In the same period there was a drop in the incidence of HIV among children under 15 years: 47,000 carriers in 2001 has passed to 42,000 in 2010; of new infected 6,300 annually has passed to 3,900, and deaths from AIDS-related causes has gone from 4400 to 2,700 per year between 2001 and 2010.

In this context of positive data, the concern of the United Nations is the spread of the virus by the unprotected sex between men, a group which in the last decade the prevalence of the virus has been 10% in 9 of the 14 countries of the region.

Rates of infection in this group reaches 21% in Bolivia, from 19% in Colombia and Uruguay areas, and 12% on average in the 10 cities of Brazil and the three cities of Honduras where carried out case studies on this topic.

According to the report, men who have sex with other men in Latin America are 33% more chances of contracting HIV than the average male.

In a study that was done in 2010 in two provinces of Nicaragua (Managua and Chinandega) it was found that 3% of men who have sex are carriers of HIV, of which only one-third said using condoms.

In another study of 2009, is recalled in the report, has been identified an incidence of the virus in 3.5% among individuals in this group attending Centre public health in Lima.

And one concrete fact: San Pedro Sula (Honduras), found that 9% of men aged 18-24 who have sex are carriers of the AIDS virus.

The problem of transmission not concerned only this group, as highlighted in the report, since many of these men also have sex with women from way to normal.

The authors of this study by the UN denounced the lack of national programmes that are focused on preventing and treating infection of HIV in this social group, being the only country who spent more than 5% of its total investment to prevention activities to programmes for sex between men Peru.

Peru was also the exception among the Andean, together with Central Americans demonstrated lack of resources to address and combat the problem, as said in press conference Gottfried Hirnschall, responsible for the fight against HIV in the who.

Hirnschall noted that these countries need to rethink their goals, and urged them to overcome the stigma that continues to weigh on homosexual relationships with campaigns against homophobia, which have already yielded positive results in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

The head of the who said that the stigma lies also with transsexuals, a collective on which there is little information or unreliable information, in the incidence of HIV.

The report cites a study conducted in 13 cities of Argentina, who revealed “alarming” the HIV prevalence rates, and that 34% of transgender prostitutes are carriers of the virus. EFE

Read More

Deaths from AIDS fell 22 percent in the past five years

|

Geneva, 30 nov (EFE).-deaths from AIDS fell 22 per cent in the past five years, period in which the number of people infected with the HIV virus fell by 15%, according to a report released today so jointly by several agencies of the United Nations

The “report on the response Global to HIV/AIDS”, produced by the World Health Organization (who), UNICEF and UNAIDS, stressed the need to strengthen the support policies for the prevention and treatment of the disease to maintain this trend positive.

“The world has cost him 10 years achieving this momentum”, she said in a press conference Gottfried Hirnschall, director of the Department of the who HIV.

“At the moment there is a very real of the epidemic, to anticipate chance but this can be achieved only supporting and accelerating the momentum over the next decade and beyond,” added the head of the who.

These agencies based their optimism on innovations and scientific progress in the fight against HIV, but warn that it will be necessary to apply them quickly so that they are not affected by the economic crisis International.

The report highlights concrete achievements, such as improving access to testing of the HIV/AIDS in Africa, which has enabled to reach 61 per cent of pregnant women in the East and South of the continent, 14% more than in the year 2005.

Has been also that 48 per cent of infected pregnant women receive an effective medication to prevent transmission to the baby and that 6.6 million people carry the virus in poor countries and in development (where estimated 14.2 million affected) currently receive antiretroviral therapy (ART).

The authors also have an impact on the economic impact that this represents and estimated at $ 34 billion potential benefits until 2020 by improving activity and productivity in the countries most affected by the disease.

“2011 is still a year in which change the rules of the game.” “With new scientific advances, unprecedented political leadership and the steady progress of the response to AIDS, countries have the opportunity to seize the moment and go one step further, said Paul Lay, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS.

Despite good data from the report, the authors point out that there is much to be done, that more than half of those needing an antiretroviral therapy in low income countries still do not have access to this treatment and, in many cases, are not even aware that they are HIV-positive.

In many countries is not paid due attention to higher risk groups, which generally remain out of prevention and treatment programs: teens of female drug addicts injecting intravenously, homosexual, transgendered men, prostitutes, prisoners and emigrants.

Worldwide, 64% of the population aged between 15 and 24 infected with AIDS are women, a rate that in the case of sub-Saharan Africa increases to 71 per cent, due to the fact that prevention strategies are not coming to this region.

There is also a marginalization of key groups, such as drug users in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which represent more than 60% of HIV-positive, but amounting to only 22% of people with access to antiretroviral therapy.

Despite the improvements to prevent transmission from mothers to children, some 3.4 million children live in the world with HIV, a population group that also suffer treatment discriminatory.

Developing and underdeveloped countries of development, one of four children with the AIDS virus only received treatment in 2010, with one of every two adults.

“We note that progress for children is slower,” said Leila Pakkala, Director of the UNICEF Office in Geneva, which considered “alarming” the level of coverage for the child.

By region, in Africa there were 1.9 million new infected in the last five years, which puts the total number of carriers of HIV on the continent in 22.9 million.

In Asia there was stabilization of the epidemic, with 4.8 million infected (49% in the India), as in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the figures stabilized around 1.7 million (1.5 million in Latin America and 200,000 in the Caribbean).

The most dramatic increase occurred in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where new infections have increased by 250% over the last decade, with 90% of the cases in Russia and Ukraine.

In Middle East and North Africa there were 59,000 people infected by 2010, an increase of 36% over 2009.

Photograph of Sunday 27 November, which shows a patient with AIDS while receiving medicines in the Buddhist temple Wat Phra Baat Namphu, renowned for his treatment to the patients with HIV positive and AIDS, in the province of Lopburi (Thailand). EFE/file

Read More

US Government appeals ruling on cigarette warnings

|

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – the US Government called the

ruling of a judge who blocked the attempt to bind to the

tobacco companies to show graphic images in packages of

cigarettes and advertising, as a man who exhales the smoke to

through a hole in the throat.

The appeal was expected after the district judge

Richard Leon took the side of the tobacco companies to

earlier this month and granted a term interim

blocking requirement.

Leon said that companies would probably have success in

his claim of unconstitutionality against the new

warning graphic as a violation of the first

Amendment.

Food and Drug Administration

United (FDA for its acronym in English), launched in June nine

warnings new so that they enter into force in September of

2012, the first change in the warning labels of

cigarettes in 25 years.

Congress ordered the FDA to impose new labels

as part of a law of 2009 makes the Agency

responsible for regulating products with tobacco.

The requirement was that the warnings cover the

top of the front and the back of the package half

cigarettes and 20 percent of the ads printed.

In addition, the warnings should contain color images

of the consequences for the health of the consumption of tobacco, such as

lung diseases, rotten teeth and corpses.

But Leon said that the images were not adapted, as

that means that it is unlikely that they will survive the supervision

constitutional.

Stressed that they provoke an emotional response rather than

limited to provide factual information and not

controversial, crossing the line to use the publicity of the

company to promote actions officers.

The Government appealed the ruling of Leon the Court of

United States for the District of Columbia appeals. In

ultimately, the case could end up in the Supreme Court.

R.J. Reynolds of Reynolds American Inc., Lorillard unit

Inc., Liggett Group LLC and Commonwealth Brands Inc, property of

the British Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, sued the FDA in

August to block the new warnings.

Argued that the new graphic warnings the

forced “to participate in the anti-smoking defence” in the name of the

Government, which violated their right to freedom of

expression.

Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable deaths in

United States and represents one in every five deaths in the

year, according to the Centers for prevention and Control of

Diseases.

About 21 percent of American adults

smoke cigarettes, a number that has changed little since the 2004.

Read More

Surah Al-Rehman – The Ultimate Free Remedy for Incurable Diseases

(By Listening Only- 20 Minutes Only)

Kindly download the Surah “AL-REHMAN” (recited by Qari Abdul Basit without translation) from here.


Treatment Plan

Just Listen to it three times a day (morning, afternoon, evening) for seven consecutive days using following procedure:-


    Before listening:

  • Close your eyes
  • Feel your self in front of ALLAH Almighty/ God
  • Then listen to it with greater concentration and closed eyes

    When the recitation/ AUDIO is finished:

  • Open your eyes and take half glass of water
  • Close your eyes again and say “ALLAH” three times in your heart with deep affection/ love
  • Then drink the water with closed eyes in three sips

Surah Al-Rehman – The Ultimate Free Remedy for Incurable Diseases

(By Listening Only- 20 Minutes Only)

Kindly download the Surah “AL-REHMAN” (recited by Qari Abdul Basit without translation) from here.


Treatment Plan

Just Listen to it three times a day (morning, afternoon, evening) for seven consecutive days using following procedure:-


    Before listening:

  • Close your eyes
  • Feel your self in front of ALLAH Almighty/ God
  • Then listen to it with greater concentration and closed eyes

    When the recitation/ AUDIO is finished:

  • Open your eyes and take half glass of water
  • Close your eyes again and say “ALLAH” three times in your heart with deep affection/ love
  • Then drink the water with closed eyes in three sips