A recent paper by a Belgian team discusses the health impact of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in sub-Saharan Africa, and highlights the potential short-termism of a strategic approach focussed on “quick wins”. Many of the health issues discussed touch on sexual health. The year 2001 saw poverty become the focus of the global political […]
Category: health policy
Non-targeted HIV testing in health settings – worthwhile?
A large, recently published French study, based in metropolitan Paris, places a question mark over the value of non-targeted HIV screening as a strategy to lower the number of undiagnosed infections and improve early detection. Late diagnosis of HIV remains a common problem both in France – where, despite accessible testing, one-third of diagnoses are […]
First ever WHO guidelines on HIV prevention and treatment for MSM and TG
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued its first ever guidelines on the prevention and treatment of HIV for populations of men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender individuals (TG). The guidelines have been in preparation since the September 2008 WHO global consultation in Geneva. Both populations – MSM and TG – are […]
The right way forward for global HIV/AIDS response?
Almost thirty years exactly after the first official AIDS diagnosis on 1st June 1981, and 10 years since the landmark UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, member countries meet once again to review the global response to HIV AIDS at the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/ AIDS from 8–10 June in New […]
US Republicans prepared to put the poor at risk in order to make a political stand on abortion
A key provider of free STI testing and treatment to America’s poor and uninsured, Planned Parenthood (PP), faces the immediate loss of all public funding in Indiana State. This is thanks to a new law signed by Republican Governor Mitch Daniels (likely Republican presidential nominee) intended to defund sexual health service providers who perform abortions. […]
The records of the US syphilis experiments in Guatemala: read them yourself!
Now open to public access: the documents at the heart of last October’s scandal over unethical experiments by US researchers in Guatemala. In 1946-48, the US team, seeking an opportunity to study the effectiveness of penicillin against syphilis and gonorrhoea, conducted experiments involving the deliberate exposure to those diseases of 700 Guatemalan soldiers, mental health […]
Centres of sexual health misinformation ?
A recent judgment by a federal judge in Baltimore US marks the another move in the ongoing political struggle around Crisis Pregnancy Centres (CPCs), or Limited Service Pregnancy Centres (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jan/28/pregnancy-disclaimer-law-ruled-unconstitutional/). These volunteer run centres have established themselves with some social service agencies as an appropriate referral for women facing unintended pregnancy. According to their detractors […]
Should boys have HPV vaccination?
3rd February saw the publication of the results of a 4 year study to ascertain the efficacy of HPV vaccine for boys against HPV strains 6, 11, 16 and 18 . The sponsors were Merck, producers of the HPV vaccine, Gardasil. The double-blind study included 4,065 healthy men aged 16-26 in 18 countries. Efficacy was […]
Sexual health this week…chlamydia, female circumcision, WHO and America’s future
Better access to reproductive health care in the US: a promise stillborn? A Step Forward. Obama’s health reform (PL111-148), while conceding nothing to the pro-choice lobby, offers genuine promise of better access to sexual health care. This is thanks to Barbara Mikuski’s provision requiring all new health insurance plans to cover preventive services for women […]
Are the new Standards for Managing STIs a good thing?
This month`s journal sees a stirring editorial by Dr. Celia Skinner (1) in support of the new UK standards for the management of Sexually Transmitted Infections ( 2), published by the medical sexual health charity “MedFASH” in collaboration with all the major players in the field. Many would see such a document as being rather […]