Geneva: Eastern and Southern Africa, the region most affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, is making great strides to scale up access to prevention and treatment services, a United Nations official said on Thursday, adding that focus is on behavioural change and prevention of mother-to-child transmission.

Of the estimated 34 million people living with HIV/AIDS across the world, almost three quarters live in Eastern and Southern Africa, Sheila Tlou, the Director of the Regional Support Team for the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) told a media briefing in Geneva.

KARACHI: Karachi has the highest figure— 42 per cent — prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Sindh province and third in the country amongst the injecting drug users (IDUs), says a report released here.

According to the fourth round of surveillance (2011) carried out under a Canada-Pakistan HIV/AIDS project, the highest number of IDUs (16,544) was in Karachi, followed by Faisalabad and Lahore with 7,907 and 3,596.

Being a drug addict is an adult problem, yet young people desperate for treatment are being denied it because there are no facilities to help them

Secure units for children feel more comfortable managing children’s addictions instead of treating them, says Mark Johnson. Photograph: Julien Behal/PA

It can cost as much as £600 a day to keep a young offender in a secure unit designed for children. Most youth justice resources are concentrated on the incarceration stage but, when released, children – often returning to neglectful, chaotic or addicted families – frequently revert to old behaviours because of a lack of support.

Washington: Prophylactic use of antiretroviral medications may protect exposed, uninfected persons from acquiring HIV, researchers suggest.

In an Annals "Ideas and Opinions" piece, researchers summarize results of some of the most recent and promising HIV prevention studies.

Evidence has been inconsistent that prophylactic use of antiretroviral medications could protect exposed, uninfected persons from acquiring HIV.

Stavudine disfigures, affects peripheral nervous system permanently

THE National AIDS Control Organisation in November procured in bulk anti-HIV drug stavudine, which is being phased out worldwide. NACO officials unofficially cite funds crunch for depending on the low-cost drug. Stavudine requires less monitoring of patients, they say. NACO provides free treatment to HIV/AIDS patients in the country.

In 2010, the WHO had revised its HIV/AIDS treatment protocol and recommended countries to phase out stavudine as the preferred first-line therapy due to its long-term, irreversible side-effects. The drug causes lipodystrophy, or irregular distribution of fat in the body, resulting in sunken cheeks and buffalo humps at the back and neck. It also damages peripheral nerves, causing numbness and burning pain in hands and feet. WHO had urged countries to move to less toxic alternatives such as zidovudine, tenofovir and abacavir.

NAGPUR: Ad-hoc judge KL Vyas has sentenced a pathology laboratory technician to five years in jail for abetting the suicide of a man who ended life after being informed that he is HIV affected. The court also awarded a compensation of 1 lakh to the man's mother who is his sole survivor.

The accused has also been slapped with one-and-half-year jail term and an additional fine of Rs 1,500 following the conviction in different provisions of the Medical Practitioners' Act. The verdict was announced on Thursday.

Washington: The level of HIV-1 in the blood of an HIV-infected partner is the single most important factor influencing risk of sexual transmission to an uninfected partner, according to a study.

James P. Hughes, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle; the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa; the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta National Hospital, in Kenya; and the Rwanda-Zambia HIV Research Group were behind the study.