WORLD AIDS DAY HIV-positive patients getting free life-saving drugs double since ’08

More People Want To Get Treated: Docs Mumbai: The happy news on the HIV epidemic front continues. Just when United Nations AIDS (UNAIDS) has praised India for reducing  new HIV infection rate by 57% in a decade, news from Mumbai shows that the number of patients put on life-saving drugs has almost doubled in the last five years. Figures released by the Mumbai District AIDS Control Society (MDACS) on the eve of World AIDS Day show that 36,920 HIV patients in the city have been put on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) over the years.      The therapy has been instrumental in changing the perception of AIDS from being a death sentence to a manageable chronic disease. "This is a 96.2% increase in the number of patients taking ART since 2008," said Dr B Adsul, additional project director at MDACS. The numbers show that the AIDS-control programme is spreading wider into the community. The city's government-aided AIDS control programme has registrations of 67,326 patients across the city.      "In the last five years, we have managed to increase the number of patients coming to us for treatment by 60%,'' added Dr Adsul. That HIVpositive individuals are living healthier lives can be gauged from the fact almost 40% of the registered patients don't need ART yet, said an MDACS official.      The MDACS, which works under the civic body, operates 69 centres for testing and counselling patients as well as 10 centres to distribute ART medicines.      In the last five years, the number of people getting themselves checked for the disease has gone up by 39%. The number of pregnant women getting themselves checked for HIV has increased by 5%. India among 12 nations with most HIV+ adolescents: UN Global AIDS Deaths In 10-19 Age Group Up 50%  New Delhi: A new report puts India among 12 highburden countries like South Africa, Nigeria and Tanzania that are home to the 2.1 million adolescents living with HIV in 2012.      A UNICEF report says that AIDS-related deaths amongst adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 increased by 50% between 2005 and 2012, rising from 71,000 to 110,000 and that many adolescents were unaware that they were infected.      The 2013 Stocktaking Report on Children and AIDS—released on the occasion of World AIDS Day on Sunday— says that an estimated 74% of the 2.1 million adolescents live in 12 high burden countries. It says that investments to the tune of $5.5 billion by next year will be required to avoid an added two million adolescents, particularly girls, getting infected by 2020. Investments in 2010 were US$3.8 billion.      "If high-impact interventions are scaled up using an integrated approach, we can halve the number of new infections among adolescents by 2020," said UNICEF executive eirector Anthony Lake. "It's a matter of reaching the most vulnerable adolescents with effective programmes – urgently."      The report also found that girls are more vulnerable among adolescents. Of the total of 2.1 million individuals, 1.2 million are females. The total infected adolescent population in South Asia is 130,000 with 51% men and 49% women.

55% of 21,000 diabetics in Mumbai are women

Mumbai: Even as the BMC will attempt to detect more cases of hidden diabetes by randomly checking the blood sugar of more than two lakh Mumbaikars on Wednesday, existing statistics reveal a worrying trend. More women than men—55% of the 21,000 patients are women—seek free treatment at BMC's 55 diabetic clinics.      "We were surprised to find more women than men as patients," said additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar on Tuesday. However, city's executive health officer Dr Arun Bamne said that the gender bias could be a reflection of the fact that women were free to attend the civic clinics that function during afternoons.      But the BMC's more-woman-patients theory ties in with a similar finding three years when Metropolis Laboratory found more woman patients among the two lakh people tested for the disease. "Diabetes usually doesn't discriminate on gender lines, but Indian women could be more prone because of their poor vitamin D levels," said endocrinologist Shashank Joshi from Lilavati Hospital.      The BMC's diabetes programme began with 21 special clinics offering free tests and medicines in 2011. It now covers 52 clinics. "We offer free medicines to 35,647 patients registered at our suburban hospitals. Another 34,782 are listed at our teaching hospitals and get free insulin too," said Mhaiskar. TNN

CHOCOLATES SPELL CLASS, NOT COST THIS FESTIVE SEASON, PEOPLE CHOSE PERSONALISED CHOCOLATES OVER MITHAI AS A GIFT

While chocolates as Diwali gifts have been around for the last couple of years, they've never really surpassed good ol'mithai. However, this Diwali along with the corporate firms, many people also opted for ribbon-wrapped crowns of soft-centers over gooey Indian mithai.      Chocolates, beautifully wrapped, intricately moulded and often with the corporate logo embossed on each piece make a smarter and more costeffective bulk gift. So, while a beautiful box of chocolate could cost you merely Rs 150, abox of dry fruits is anything from Rs 350 to Rs 2,000.      "Chocolates speak of class. Mithai is boring — besides you can't give pedhas and any dry fruit mithai is expensive. Chocolates have a standing that has style, individuality and a character. And of course, they are cheaper without being perceived to be," says 38 year-old Anita Sabharwal.      According to Mehernosh Khajotia, a shopkeeper, "It's all about the money. When you have to distribute sweets to half the city, you are looking for a cheaper, yet impressive option. And a box of assorted, hand-made, beautifullywrapped chocolates makes better sense than a handful of dry fruits."      Another deciding factor that tilts the scale in favour of chocolates ishealth consciousness. While you would not normally think of a chocolate as healthy, weigh it on the same scales as mithai and it's definitely lighter on your waist. And of course, the clincher —kids always prefer chocolates. Since the shelf-life of chocolate is far longer than traditional mithai, parents can also ration it for longer.

Helpouts: Get advice from experts via video chat

San Francisco: Google Inc is launching a service that lets consumers pay for live video chats with experts who can provide everything from step-by-step turkey cooking instructions to marriage counselling. The Google Helpouts service, introduced on Monday, features roughly 1,000 partners in fashion, fitness, computers and other topics, available for live, oneon-one video consultations. The video sessions can be as short as a few minutes or can last several hours, depending on the topic, with pricing set by each individual provider. 

    The video consultations represent an expansion of Google's traditional web search service, which for years has answered consumers' questions by pointing people to the most appropriate web page. 
    While Google remains the world's No.1 internet search engine, consumers are increasingly turning to social networks like Facebook Inc to get advice and recommendations from their friends about movies, restaurants and other topics. "Most of the world's useful information still resides in people's heads," Udi Manber, vice president of engineering at Google said at a small briefing with reporters in San Francisco on Monday. Helpouts "opens the door to that information as well." 
    Manber said that Google will initially provide tight oversight of the Helpouts website, deciding which types of services can be offered on Helpouts. For providers of medical consultations, Google will conduct background checks to ensure that the provider has valid credentials. In addition to individual experts, brands such as Sephora, Weight Watchers and Rosetta Stone will also be offering video sessions on the Helpouts service. 
    Google will take 20% of the fee that the providers collect from consumers for the video chats, though Google is initially waving the transaction fee for providers in the Health category. Consumers can leave reviews of the different video chat experts and Google will refund consumers who are not satisfied with their video consultation, the company said. REUTERS

HELP AT HAND: Google will allow consumers to pay for live video chats with experts who can provide help for everything, from step-by-step turkey cooking instructions to marriage counselling