Protecting women from HIV

Swaziland joined the world this past week in the celebration of Women’s Day. The role women play in home and society was recognised.
Often the commemoration emphasised the economic empowerment of women and how this improves the fortunes of family and nation. This is a good and appropriate approach, but in order for the social emancipation and economic empowerment of women to be realised, it is necessary for women to stay health by amongst other things sidestepping the AIDS epidemic. Online pharmacy viagra – cheap viagra professional 100mg.
In the spirit of this notion – that protection of women against HIV should be at the forefront of our thinking – a list of five ways this can be accomplished was distributed this week to health NGOs worldwide. Here they are:
ONE: An educated girl and woman is less likely to be infected with HIV.
According to UNAIDS, illiterate women are four times more likely to believe there is no way to prevent HIV infection, while in Africa and Latin America, girls with higher levels of education tend to delay first sexual experience and are more likely to insist their partner use a condom.
Educating girls has the added advantage of delaying their marriage and increasing their earning ability, both of which reduce their vulnerability to HIV.
Educated women are also more likely to access health services for themselves and their children, and to oppose negative cultural practices that can compromise their health.
TWO: A clinic nearby is a life saver.
In many developing countries, women have very limited access to vital reproductive health services. A combination of biological and social factors means women are more vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which, if left untreated, increase their vulnerability to HIV. Women living in humanitarian crises are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence and require services such as free, easily available condoms and safe blood for transfusions.
Improving access to reproductive health services enables women to make informed choices in determining family size and preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission.
THREE: Ending violence against women and girls is essential.
Throughout the world, one in three women has been beaten, experienced sexual violence or otherwise been abused in their lifetime, according to the UN. One in five will be a victim of rape or attempted rape.
More often than not, the perpetrators are known to the women.
Practices such as early marriage and human trafficking all increase women’s vulnerability to HIV, but more accepted forms of violence, such as marital rape, also play a large part in increasing women’s HIV risk.
According to UNAIDS, investment in HIV programming policies and addressing gender inequality and gender-based violence will help to achieve universal targets of HIV prevention, treatment and care.
FOUR: The economic empowerment of women boosts their health.
In his book, Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, Richard Robbins states that women do two-thirds of the world’s work but receive 10 percent of the world’s income and own just own own percent of the means of production.
Poverty prevents poor women from controlling when sexual intercourse takes place and if a condom is used, and often forces women into risky transactional sex to feed themselves and their families.
According to a study conducted last year on the subject, empowerment activities such as micro-finance give women access to and control over vital economic resources, ultimately enhancing their ability not only to mitigate the impact of HIV, but also to be less vulnerable to HIV.
FIVE: Men’s concern with women’s health is beneficial.
Men cannot be bystanders when it comes to the health of their wives, daughters and female family members.
They must get involved. More often than not, men control the dynamics of how, when and where sex happens. Encouraging more men to use condoms consistently has the knock-on effect of protecting their sexual partners from unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
By looking after their own health, men can boost the health of their wives. Men are less likely than women to seek health services; in the case of men involved with multiple women, this means that sexually-transmitted infections remain untreated for long periods while their female partners are also at risk of infection.
Teaching boys and young men to respect women, to be more involved in family activities and to avoid negative behaviour such as gender violence and alcohol abuse helps groom a generation of men who are less likely to take risks that endanger themselves and their families.

Defunding measure would harm women’s health

As a member of the clergy, a board member of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, and a member of the national Clergy Advisory Board to Planned Parenthood Federation of American, I am deeply distressed by a recent vote in the U.S. House of Representatives and the proposed bills in our own Indiana legislature attacking Planned Parenthood and the vital medical services this organization provides.

House approval of Indiana Rep. Mike Pence’s amendment to eliminate all funding from Planned Parenthood would have a devastating impact on the health centers that provide preventive care like family planning, annual exams, cancer screenings, contraception and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases. His amendment would foist terrible hardship on people already in great need, leaving women without access to family planning services, Pap tests, and cervical cancer screenings.

Jewish tradition is emphatic about the importance of providing health care for its most vulnerable residents. Supporting Planned Parenthood in its efforts to reach millions of underserved men and women honors our religious precepts.

One in five American women has received care from Planned Parenthood during her lifetime, and last year 3 million patients came to one of its more than 800 health centers. It is difficult to understand why members of the House who say they are opposed to abortion would do so much to undermine the family planning and contraception that prevents it.

Fish, omega 3 reduce eye disease risk

Eating fish that contains omega-3 is associated with a significantly reduced risk of developing age-related macular degeneration, U.S. researchers say.

William G. Christen of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues collected data on 38,022 women — part of the Women’s Health Study — who had not been diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration.

The women’s consumption of food was ascertained via questionnaire at the beginning of the study and included information on intake of docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid — omega-3 fatty acids found in fish — and arachidonic acid and linoleic acid — omega-6 fatty acids.

The women were tracked for about 10 years of follow-up and 235 cases of age-related macular degeneration were reported.

The study, published online ahead of print in the June issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, found women who consumed the most DHA had a 38 percent lower risk of developing age-related macular degeneration than women who consumed the lowest amount.

Consumption of one or more servings of fish per week, when compared to less than one serving of fish per month, was associated with a 42 percent lower risk of age-related macular degeneration.

“This lower risk appeared to be due primarily to consumption of canned tuna fish and dark-meat fish,” Christen says.

Opinion: Don’t touch funding for Planned Parenthood

AS A FORMER governor, I understand that this country faces a growing deficit and we must exercise fiscal discipline. As a Republican, I also understand that women, no matter their party affiliation, are concerned about the health of their mothers, their daughters and their sisters.

That’s why I am concerned that social conservatives are trying to hijack the budget process to include proposals that would wipe out access to family planning, HIV testing and counseling and breast and cervical cancer screening for millions of American women.

The health of American women, preventing unintended pregnancies and supporting sound family planning are goals that all of us, irrespective of political persuasion, should support. Not surprisingly, it turns out that what is good for women’s health is also good for our pocketbooks.

The simple fact is that every public dollar invested in family planning saves taxpayers nearly $4. Yet, the House is proposing to eliminate the National Family Planning Program, also known as Title X. Eliminating Title X would mean in just one year, at least two million women would be denied access to Pap tests, 2.3 million would go without clinical breast exams and more than five million women and men wouldn’t benefit from contraceptive services.

The House leadership is also proposing to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funds. This is unacceptable.

Value of preventive care

I know firsthand the value of Planned Parenthood health centers in providing preventive care to women. In rural areas, Planned Parenthood is often the only place to turn for vital health care needs as well as sex education, and in dense urban areas, Planned Parenthood provides these same services to women in disproportionately low income and underserved communities.

Every year, Planned Parenthood’s doctors and nurses provide more than 3 million women with preventive health care, including nearly one million lifesaving screenings for cervical cancer, 830,000 breast exams, contraception to nearly 2.5 million patients and nearly four million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Literally, they are a trusted health care provider to millions of women.

For those who oppose abortion, they should know that Planned Parenthood’s services prevent 973,000 unintended pregnancies and 406,000 abortions each year. Those are statistics that Republicans and Democrats should wholeheartedly embrace.

But the extreme proposals undermining both the National Family Planning Program and Planned Parenthood will have an adverse effect on those numbers. While defunding Planned Parenthood will do nothing to reduce the deficit or improve the economy, it will lead to an increase in unplanned pregnancies and abortions and result in escalating Medicaid costs.

Barring Planned Parenthood from critical federal public health funding would mean these women would face tremendous difficulties finding other health care providers to deliver high-quality reproductive health care. This would only increase these women’s risk of undetected cancer and unintended pregnancy.

In the heated, partisan environment in Washington, it is often forgotten that a Republican ushered the National Family Planning Program into existence. In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed Title X into law as a bipartisan approach to ensuring low-income Americans access to basic reproductive and preventive health care services.

No funding for abortion

A point often lost in this debate is this: Not a single cent of Title X funding may be used for abortion services. Not only is this fact stated in the Title X law, but it is also further supported by the Hyde amendment, banning the use of federal funds for abortions: the standard since its enactment in 1976.

More than 40 years later, as more women and families are facing difficulties in accessing health care due to increasing costs and a struggling economy, I urge the Congress to ensure women continue to have access to the health care they need and the trusted providers in their community by rejecting efforts to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds and eliminating the Title X family planning program.

Government plans women’s health campaign

The Indian government’s premier agency for science communication, Vigyan Prasar, is planning to launch a nation-wide programme to educate women on health related issues.

‘This is the first time when Vigyan Prasar is going to launch a programme for educating women about their health in different parts of the country,’ Anuj Sinha, director of Vigyan Prasar, told IANS on the sidelines of a media event here Monday.

He said the programme will be started in Delhi soon on a pilot basis.

Emphasising the need of communication, Sinha said, ‘Scientists generally believe that research is most important. But it is time to think that communication is as important as research.’

‘Vigyan Prasar will develop communication strategies and programme to reach out to the target women,’ said Kinkini Das Gupta Mishra, who will be heading the new programme.

‘By the end of six months from now, we plan to be ready with a proper line of action and communication materials to spread the programme at a bigger level,’ she added.

Vigyan Prasar in association with Sudinalay, an NGO, and the Institute of Gender Justice had begun a week-long consultative programme on the International Women’s Day (March 8) to educate women living in the slums in different parts of the capital about health related issues.

‘During the programme we found that increasing case of violence has made health a secondary issue for many women in the capital,’ said Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhary, founder of Sudinalay.

‘We found that most of the women have misconceptions about diseases such as depression, obesity and cervical cancer,’ she added.

To mark the end of week, a programme ‘celebrating the joy of empowerment’ will be organised Tuesday with President Pratibha Patil as the chief guest.

Thousands of grass root level women workers are expected to take part in the event.

Orrington Woman Pleads Guilty to Health Care Fraud

A woman from Orrington accused of over inflating insurance claims for a women’s clinic in Bangor pleaded guilty Monday to health care fraud.

37-year-old Dawn Zehrung, also known as Dawn Grover, worked at Bangor Women’s Health Care and was in charge of billing.

Federal prosecutors say in March of 2009, her bosses became suspicious about billing irregularities.

An audit found Zehrung repeatedly over billed for examinations, billed for procedures that were never performed and altered medical records.

The audit found more than $300,000 in over payments to the health care facility.

Zehrung faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and restitution.

HHS encourages women and girls to take action against HIV/AIDS

Today, National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day observes females nationwide, and encourages people to take action in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Coordinated by the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health (OWH), this day is meant to highlight the importance of developing products that women and girls could use independently of their sexual partners to protect themselves from HIV.

According to the OWH, more than 278,000 women and teenage girls in the US are infected with HIV, and an estimated 101,000 women and girls have died of AIDS since the disease was first recognized.

In the US, the majority of women become infected with HIV through sex, often in settings where refusing sex or insisting on condom use is not an option because of cultural factors, financial dependence or even the threat of violence. Therefore, the OWH supports research of products for women to protect themselves from HIV.

“While men account for most HIV/AIDS cases, the impact on women is growing. In addition, research shows that, when compared to men, women face gaps in access and care,” according to the OWH.

Nationwide, organizations will come together today to offer support, encourage discussion, and teach women and girls about prevention of HIV, the importance of getting tested for HIV, and how to live with and manage HIV/AIDS.

Every year on March 10, National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is observed, however, the OWH encourages organizations to hold events and spread awareness throughout the month of March.

Lawsuit Settlement Gives Women’s Health A Boost

Some organizations in Nashville will be getting a large chunk of money to promote women’s health after a recent class-action lawsuit settlement.

Vanderbilt Medical Center and Meharry Medical College will each receive more than $1 million. Safe Haven Family Shelter and The Nashville Lawyers’ Association for Women will receive thousands of dollars.

They were all part of a group of plaintiffs that sued the makers of the hormone-replacement drug Estra-Test, claiming that it was falsely advertised.

The Nashville awards are part of the leftover money that a federal court has ordered to be given to nonprofit organizations nationwide.

This year’s Women of Achievement named

The 2011 class of Women of Achievement includes community organizers, philanthropists, a doctor, a health advocate and a jewelry designer, among others.

For more than 56 years, the Women of Achievement organization has recognized women who have a record of leadership in volunteer service in the region. Ten women are selected annually for the honor and are feted at a luncheon at the Ritz-Carlton that is regularly a sold-out event.

This year’s luncheon will be May 10.

The honorees are: Lisa Boyce of St. Louis who will be recognized for Youth Enrichment, Karen Castellano of Town and Country who will be recognized for Community Service, Margo Deloch of St. Louis who will be recognized for Humanitarian Concerns, Diane Katzman of Ladue who will be recognized for Creative Philanthropy, Becky Kueker of Maryville, Ill., who will be recognized for Volunteer Leadership, Lisa Nichols of Chesterfield who will be recognized for Youth Dedication, Pam Toder of Ladue who will be recognized for Women’s Health, Dr. Corinne Walentik of University City who will be recognized for Health Leadership, Carol Weir of St. Louis who will be recognized for Senior Health Advocacy and Fran Zamler of Olivette who will be recognized for Community Betterment.

The luncheon chair is Suzie Nall and co-chair is Barbara Bartley Turkington. They will be assisted by a committee of former honorees. Alice Handleman is president of Women of Achievement.

Bills seek to limit abortions

The approval of two Arizona bills will place limitations on abortion availability and prohibit funding to programs.

With a vote of 40-18, House Bills 2384 and 2416 both passed the House, according to the Arizona State Legislature.

“The anti-choice legislators in our legislature have pretty much launched the most shocking attack on women’s health that I’ve ever seen,” said Michelle Steinberg, a public policy manager and lobbyist for Planned Parenthood.

H.B. 2416 would prohibit outlying areas in Arizona, such as Prescott, Flagstaff and Yuma, from distributing abortion pills, Steinberg said. In order to dispense abortion pills, the health centers have to be set up as surgery facilities, like those in Phoenix and Tucson. Viagra online Australia

“If you restrict availability to only Phoenix and Tucson, you’re creating a huge, huge burden for women who live outside those communities,” she said.

Women living in rural communities will be losing a significant amount of care due to this limited availability, Steinberg said.

Women will then have travel costs and be forced to delay their abortion procedure, Steinberg added. Prolonging abortion could result in women needing to have surgery. This is dangerous because it puts women at potential risk for even more invasive procedures, she said.

“If you’re eligible for an early, early abortion and you delay your care, and you end up having surgery, that’s a direct result of this bill,” Steinberg said.

In addition, H.B. 2416 also requires health centers to perform an ultrasound one hour before the abortion procedure, she said. At that time, the patient would listen to audible body sounds. Before the House approved the bill, Planned Parenthood had already been performing ultrasounds as standard procedure, but did not have patients wait an hour. There is no medical reason for a patient to have to sit and think about their decision, she said.

“They want women to change their minds,” Steinberg said.

Arizona state legislators such as Republican Rep. Kimberly Yee, from District 10, support the two bills. Yee has said in the past that H.B. 2416 is about protecting health safety for women and the one-hour requirement gives them the opportunity to make more educated decisions.

Calls to Republican legislators were not returned as of press time.

The second bill, H.B. 2384, prohibits public funding and the use of federal tax money for organizations that do abortion referrals and provide abortion coverage in their health insurance, Steinberg said.

“The law prohibits any public dollars or public funds as being directed toward training,” said Democratic Rep. Matt Heinz, from District 29 of the Arizona State Legislature.

Steinberg said that H.B. 2384 “works to make sure that Planned Parenthood gets absolutely no public money.” There is a state tax credit that offers donations to the working poor. However, Planned Parenthood is disqualified from participating in the program, she said. The bill sets up barriers for people who want to donate money to this health facility.

“By disqualifying Planned Parenthood, you’re really just taking money away from women who are receiving valuable life-saving care,” she said.

Supporters of H.B. 2384 have previously said that they don’t want state funds being used to promote abortions.

At the University Medical Center, law has prohibited teaching abortion procedures since 1974, according to an email statement from Katie Riley, the director of media relations and spokesperson at the Arizona Health Sciences Center.

Riley noted that Dr. Kathryn Reed, the department head of obstetrics and gynecology at the Arizona Health Sciences Center, confirmed that H.B. 2384 could affect an estimated 80 residents.

Kristin Anchors, a first-year graduate student of the College of Medicine, said that medical students cannot learn about abortion on campus. Students have to go to Planned Parenthood or get information on their own by going to conferences in other cities, she said.

“I find myself going out of my way to learn these things and to understand the law so that someday I can still provide this service for somebody in the future,” Anchors said, “which is kind of strange that I have to do that.”

Heinz said he suspects the obstetrics and gynecology program at the UA will not be in compliance for national accreditation because it requires the training program to offer the option of abortion-training procedures to their residents.

“It’s simply, purely a training issue and it should be left alone by the legislature,” Heinz said.

He also said the bill creates an enormous hurdle for the university to have to deal with in order to comply with the law.

“They’re doing everything that they can to intrude on a woman’s personal, private medical decisions,” Steinberg said.

Support women’s health

Readers of The Times Record may not be aware of the recent attack by Republican leadership of the House of Representatives on health care for women. These “leaders” have voted to eliminate all federal funds for Planned Parenthood. Those who support this extreme legislative measure do not try to argue that it will save a single cent on the budget or create any jobs. Rather it will eliminate the jobs of health-care providers currently serving the women of Maine while disadvantaging Maine women.

Our representatives, Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud, did not support the attack and voted against the measure.

What is at stake here for the women of Maine?

They will no longer have access to primary and preventive health care, breast and cervical cancer screening, annual exams, birth control, HIV testing, STI testing and treatment. The women who use the services of Planned Parenthood generally can not pay for these screenings and treatments on their own. In 2010 Planned Parenthood saw 11,600 patients here in Maine. Many of these women saw no other health-care provider last year.

There is still time to fight back. The legislation will shortly come before the U.S. Senate. We need Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to support women’s health as they have often in the past.

Please contact our senators and urge them to protect health care for Maine women by voting against the elimination of funding for Planned Parenthood.

The Challenge to a Woman’s Right to Chose and Women’s Health

If you are one of the majority of Californians who support a woman’s right to choose, the time is now to make your opinions known to your representatives. As we know the loss of reproductive freedom of choice will lead to an increase in children being raised in homes that are not prepared financially or emotionally to provide them with a healthy upbringing. The loss of access to birth control for the poor and more extremely a threat to birth control in general is an insult to the rights of humans to form responsible relationships within modern standards.

The Republican majority in the House of Representatives is mounting an effort to compromise the reproductive rights of women by eliminating federal funding for abortion by the introduction of HR 217. This bill is sponsored by Mike Penee R-Ind and is cosponsored by 147 other Republicans including Tom McClintock. HR-217- Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act amends Title X of the Public Health Service Act to prohibit family planning grants from being awarded to any entity that performs abortions. Planned Parenthood’s Heath centers are a prime target even though they do not perform abortions.

The Republican focus is double sided. They seek to both to eliminate government spending and to reduce the rights of women to seek abortions.

The provisions of HR 217 are:

1. the bill would allow public hospitals to refuse medically necessary abortions to pregnant women who are rushed in with life-threatening emergencies.

2. It would permanently deny abortion coverage to women who depend on the federal government for their health care, including Native Americans, federal employees, Peace Corps volunteers, poor women and women in federal prisons.

3. The proposal would prohibit anyone who receives a federal subsidy to buy insurance in the new health care exchanges from purchasing a plan that includes abortion coverage (i.e. reinstates the Stupak abortion coverage ban).

4. It would change tax laws in order to penalize businesses that offer abortion coverage and prevent women from deducting medical expenses related to abortion care.

The provisions of House Bill 3 are:

1. This bill would bar outright the use of federal subsidies to buy any insurance that covers abortion well beyond the new exchanges.

2. Tax credits that are encouraging small businesses to provide insurance for their workers could not be used to buy policies that cover abortions.

3. People with their own policies who have enough expenses to claim an income tax deduction could not deduct either the premiums for policies that cover abortion or the cost of an abortion.

4,People who use tax-preferred savings accounts to pay medical costs could not use the money to pay for a abortion without paying taxes on it.

5. It would make restrictions on federal funding for abortions that are now renewable every year permanent. It would allow federal financing of abortions which creates a new category of forcible rape which excludes statutory or coerced rape such as date rape. and in cases where a woman is in danger of death from her pregnancy but not serious health damage. It would free states from having to provide abortions in such emergency cases

The Battle against Roe v. Wade at the state level

In 2010 more that 600 measures were introduced to limit access to abortion and 34 secured passage.

29 governors are considered solidly anti abortion up from 21 before the election

In 15 states both the legislature and the governor are anti abortion compared with 10 last year.

87% of counties currently have no abortion providers

Current Supreme Court precedent restricts the governments ability to bar abortions prior to viability considered between 22 and 26 weeks. Nebraska has enacted a law last year that directly challenges this precedent and bans abortions after 20 weeks and includes a very narrow consideration for a woman’s life and physical health and lacks any exceptions for the discovery of severe fetal anomalies. Copycat laws are pending in other states.

CALIFORNIA IS DIFFERENT

1. A woman’s right to choose is ensconced in our constitution and statutes.

2. According to a Field Poll last July- 70% of all Californian’s support abortion rights as they are or want them further liberalized. 75% of independents favor making no changes to California law along with 40% of Republicans.

This attempt to turn back the rights of women for reproductive freedom and the rights of modern adults to form relationships with responsibility is an assault on the evolution of humanity. We are not animals that are destined to live at the whim of forces beyond our control but human beings that in order to mature, must take responsibility for the content of our lives.

Women’s Health adds nurse midwife

McDonough District Hospital is pleased to welcome Mary C. Thompson, Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM), as the newest member of the healthcare team for Women’s Health Center of Macomb, Inc. She joins Troy Eckman, MD; Sharie Harden, CNM; Brenda Powell-Allen, RNC, Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner (WHNP) and Sybil Mudloff, WHNP.

Their office is located in Health Services Building I on the MDH campus, 833-5959.

Thompson attended Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg where she received her Associate of Science in Nursing degree in 1990.

Thompson completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Blessing-Reiman College of Nursing in Quincy in 2002.

She continued her education at Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing in Hyden, Ky., completing her Master of Science in Nursing—Midwifery degree in 2010. Thompson worked at McDonough District Hospital in the Obstetrics Department as an LPN and RN for 27 years, where she also served as a Certified Lactation Consultant.

Thompson is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM), and the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric & Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN).

Thompson and her husband, Dale, have lived in Macomb for 20 years. They have three sons, Mark, Matthew, and Michael. In her spare time, Thompson enjoys walking, reading, knitting, and travelling.