Rub On Viagra, Circumcisions, Morning After Pill, Cell Phone Sex Ed, AIDS related Criminal Charges, and goodbye Abstinence Only Sex Ed

May 12, 2009 at 1:36 am | Posted in Medical, Politics | Leave a comment

Medical Monday

United Kingdom Coming Soon: Rub On Viagra:

British Columbia Premier promises up to $20 million to help AIDS victims:

Premier Gordon Campbell opened an international HIV/AIDS conference in Vancouver with a promise of up to $20 million a year for a pilot program to help hard-to-reach victims of the disease in Prince George and Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. Of course, the funding is contingent on Campbell’s Liberals winning re-election May 12.

Botswana encourages nation’s men to get circumcised to help curb spread of AIDS.:

“The country hopes to circumcise 460,000 men over the next five years, after a series of studies found that circumcised men were two to three times less likely to contract HIV”.

Tech There’s a problem with sexual information from the top medical web sites: pinochio's nose breaks the computer

It’s wrong.

“Even widely trusted sites like WebMD are not that accurate when it comes to adolescent reproductive health,” says Dr. Sophia Yen, a Stanford University Med School instructor in Adolescent Medicine. She conducted an online review last summer and concluded many of the web sites weren’t just incomplete — they were often wrong, wrong, wrong.

United States Cellphones Teach Sex Education:

intimate, private and crucial information can be delivered to teenagers on the device that holds millions captive: their cellphones. Programs in Washington, D.C.; Chicago, Toronto and San Francisco allow young people to text a number, select from a menu of frequently asked questions (“What 2 do if the condom broke”) and receive automated replies, with addresses of free clinics.

South Africa Fight Aids With innovative Cell Phone Project:

“Ignorance is the biggest enemy and it must be stemmed in order to quell these terrible epidemics. In addition to the social stigma attached to the disease, misinformation is widespread and many really do not know how the disease is actually spread”.

“Project Masiluleke represents a monumental attempt to harness the power of mobile technology to confront one of the world’s gravest public health crises. This innovative and ambitious endeavor is destined to help South Africa in its overwhelming conflict with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis epidemics”.

United States The End of Abstinence-Only Sex “Education”:

As I explained in the magazine a couple of months ago, abstinence-only programs have not proven nearly as successful as approaches that combine the message that abstinence is a good goal for teenagers (see: Bristol Palin) with comprehensive and accurate education about contraception, disease prevention, and decision-making skills.

The Obama budget eliminates the main federal funding streams for abstinence-only education (some of which have been around since welfare reform) and replaces them with $110 million in competitive grants to “fund teen pregnancy prevention programs,” with at least $75 million reserved for “programs that replicate the elements of one or more teenage pregnancy prevention programs that have been proven through rigorous evaluation to delay sexual activity, increase contraceptive use (without increasing sexual activity), or reduce teenage pregnancy.” It also authorizes $50 million in new mandatory teen pregnancy prevention grants to states.

Thanks for the tip off Dan

United States F.D.A. Easing Access to ‘Morning After’ Pill:

“Seventeen-year-olds will soon be allowed to buy morning-after contraceptive pills without a doctor’s prescription after federal drug regulators complied with a judge’s order and lowered the age limit by a year”.

The long-running controversy involving Plan B has had more of a political impact than a public health one. The drug consists of two pills that can prevent conception if taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse, and is not related to RU-486, the abortion pill. Since 2006, when Plan B became widely available to women 18 and over without a prescription, it has had no measurable effect on the nation’s abortion or teenage pregnancy rates.

More charges related to unprotected sex:

HIV-positive German pop diva arrested for unprotected sex:

“A member of hit German girl group No Angels has been arrested for allegedly having unprotected sex although she knew she was HIV positive”.

Lawyers for Nadja Benaissa, a 26-year-old singer with the succsessful girl band, is accused of having had unprotected sex with three men in 2004 and 2006, according to state prosecutors in Darmstadt, Germany.

One of the three men is now HIV positive, possibly as a consequence of his sexual relations with Benaissa.

Ontario Toronto man charged with attempted murder for HIV nondisclosure: