Gloucester birth control flap prompts resignations

By Mike Underwood
www.bostonherald.com

Two fed-up medical officials have quit Gloucester High School's health center amid a teen pregnancy "crisis" in a fight over handing out condoms and birth-control pills.

Medical Director Dr. Brian Orr and chief nurse practitioner Kim Daly resigned in outrage after their recommendation to confidentially give contraceptives to students was rejected by Addison Gilbert Hospital, which administers state funding for the school clinic.

"We had 17 teen pregnancies this academic year . . . a real worsening of the problem," Orr told the Herald yesterday. Normally, the school has about four pregnancies per school year.

"We wanted a comprehensive program that would address this crisis, including giving condoms to the guys and oral contraceptives for teen women."

But, Orr said, the hospital rejected his proposal over fears it could be held liable if teen women suffered health complications after being given the pill.

"This risk is almost nil," said Orr, a pediatrician for 18 years.

He said the confidential distribution of contraceptives is practiced at many other school clinics in the state.

The hospital's executive director, Cindy Donaldson, expressed concern about community reaction as well liability if a teen had ill effects from taking contraceptives.

"I'm surprised to hear of the resignations," Donaldson told the Gloucester Daily Times.

"When the issue came up of confidential contraception around February, we said 'yikes,' " Donaldson was quoted as saying by her hometown paper.

Orr, who will continue to work for Cape Ann Pediatricians, said he felt he had no choice but to resign Friday from the school clinic.

"This was not an easy decision for me at all," he told the Herald. "I believe in this (program)."

Gloucester birth control flap prompts resignations

By Mike Underwood
www.bostonherald.com

Two fed-up medical officials have quit Gloucester High School’s health center amid a teen pregnancy “crisis” in a fight over handing out condoms and birth-control pills.

Medical Director Dr. Brian Orr and chief nurse practitioner Kim Daly resigned in outrage after their recommendation to confidentially give contraceptives to students was rejected by Addison Gilbert Hospital, which administers state funding for the school clinic.

“We had 17 teen pregnancies this academic year . . . a real worsening of the problem,” Orr told the Herald yesterday. Normally, the school has about four pregnancies per school year.

“We wanted a comprehensive program that would address this crisis, including giving condoms to the guys and oral contraceptives for teen women.”

But, Orr said, the hospital rejected his proposal over fears it could be held liable if teen women suffered health complications after being given the pill.

“This risk is almost nil,” said Orr, a pediatrician for 18 years.

He said the confidential distribution of contraceptives is practiced at many other school clinics in the state.

The hospital’s executive director, Cindy Donaldson, expressed concern about community reaction as well liability if a teen had ill effects from taking contraceptives.

“I’m surprised to hear of the resignations,” Donaldson told the Gloucester Daily Times.

“When the issue came up of confidential contraception around February, we said ‘yikes,’ ” Donaldson was quoted as saying by her hometown paper.

Orr, who will continue to work for Cape Ann Pediatricians, said he felt he had no choice but to resign Friday from the school clinic.

“This was not an easy decision for me at all,” he told the Herald. “I believe in this (program).”

Ex-surgeon general: Condoms, not promises, help teens

Ex-surgeon general: Condoms, not promises, help teens

By JANET ELLIOTT
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle


AUSTIN — Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders on Monday said condoms are more likely to protect teens against sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy than vows of abstinence.

"Many of our children don't use condoms because we don't teach them about condoms," she said. "Our government tells them that condoms will break. I always say, the vows of abstinence break far more easily than latex condoms."

The 74-year-old pediatrician said the best place for children to get information about sexual health is from their parents.

She spoke outside a bus sponsored by condom manufacturer Trojan. The bus was at an Austin hotel where public health officials from around the state are attending the Texas HIV/STD conference sponsored by the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Elders said she knows that many parents are uncomfortable talking about sexual issues with their children. But she said it is particularly important in Texas, where students receive little information at school beyond a message of abstinence.

President Bill Clinton named Elders the first African-American surgeon general in 1993 but fired her 15 months later after she made controversial remarks about masturbation after a speech at the United Nations on World AIDS Day.

She said she continues to speak out about the need to educate young people about safe sex because the United States is a "sexually unhealthy nation."

"Compared to other industrialized nations, we have one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates," she said. "More than 65 million people in our country have an incurable STD. These are just unacceptable numbers."

In March, a federal study found that at least 1 in 4 teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. Nearly half the black teens in the Centers for Disease Control study had at least one sexually transmitted infection, versus 20 percent among whites and Mexican-American teens.

The most common one is the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer, which was the subject of heated debate in Austin last year after Gov. Rick Perry ordered schoolgirls to be vaccinated against the virus. The Legislature overturned Perry's order and made the vaccine voluntary.

An estimated 100,000 new cases of STDs were reported in Texas last year, including 5,000 HIV infections. The state does not track HPV cases.

"We still have a major challenge with HIV and STDs, not only nationally but here in the state of Texas," said Dr. David Lakey, Texas health commissioner.

Prevention, early diagnoses and treatment are critically important in the fight against STDs, Lakey said.

CondomDepot.com Sponsors Thiago "Pit bull" Alves for the UFC 85 Main Event and Marcus "Maximus" Aurelio for UFC 86

Tampa, FL - CondomDepot.com announces their sponsorship deals with mixed martial artists Thiago "Pit bull" Alves and Marcus "Maximus" Aurelio. CondomDepot.com will show their support for Alves as he takes on former two-time UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes in the UFC 85 Main Event. This sponsorship deal with Alves also marks the first time that CondomDepot.com will sponsor a fighter for the main event. CondomDepot.com who sponsored Marcus "Maximus" Aurelio for UFC Fight Night April in which he defeated Ryan "Are You Ready" Roberts, will be cheering for his victory again as he fights Tyson Griffin for UFC 86.

UFC 85 will be broadcasted live on PPV from the O2 Arena in London England on June 7^th. UFC 86 will be on PPV Live from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on July 5^th.

"We are proud to support such wonderful and talented fighters, Thiago Alves and Marcus Aurelio. To be a fan of the UFC and participate as a sponsor is something that we are extremely proud of. In the past we have sponsored talented fighters including Andre "The Pitbull" Arlovski, Ed "Short Fuse" Herman, Chris "The Crippler" Leben, and Pete "Drago" Sell, and Gabriel "Napão" Gonzaga. Our participation as a sponsor for these fighters has also been a great way to nationally promote our positive safe sex message. Our entire staff will be cheering for Alves' and Aurelio's victory," states John Fidi, Vice President of CondomDepot.com.

ABOUT CONDOMDEPOT.COM

CondomDepot.com is a provider of safe sex information, product reviews and safer sex products. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, CondomDepot.com sells its products wholesale to the public through its highly visited website while offering its safe sex information free of charge. Product lines include Trojan, Durex, Lifestyles, Crown, Trustex, AstroGlide, Pjur and other hard to find brands. For more information please contact Marketing Director Jennifer Amato (813) 885-4400 xt 16.

Birth control for men? They're working on it

By AMY CRAWFORD
Columbia News Service, island packet.com

Published Tuesday, May 20, 2008

NEW YORK -- Though they didn't look like much, the white specks squirming under a microscope in researcher Debra Wolgemuth's lab could have a big impact in the high stakes world of controlling fertility, not for women but for men.

The specks were sperm from mice that had been treated with a new contraceptive. The healthy, swimming cells showed that the new drug did not have a permanent effect once the mice had gone off it. For Wolgemuth, this was an important first step toward one day testing the drug in human men.

Professor Wolgemuth and other researchers at Columbia University Medical Center were using the drug, called BMS-189453, to block retinoid receptors -- proteins that bond with vitamin A to turn on certain genes. The drug prevented sperm from developing normally, making the male mice unable to impregnate females.

"We demonstrated that the mice are infertile," explained Wolgemuth "We take them off the drug, and then after a certain period of time they're fertile again."

If the method works as well in humans, it could become a true contraceptive option for men. Maybe one day, biologist Sanny Chung said as she weighed mouse testes, "males can play a bigger role" in family planning.

NEW OPTIONS

Men, on the other hand, still have only two options for controlling their fertility.

"You have condoms, which are in the moment, and vasectomies, which are permanent, and nothing in between," said Elaine Lissner, founder of the nonprofit Male Contraceptive Information Project.

But researchers around the world are working on new options for male birth control, including retinoid blocking, implants that could be removed when a man decides to become a father, and even special underwear that prevent sperm production. A new analysis of 30 studies done between 1990 and 2006 shows that male hormonal contraception might not be that far away. One day, there could be two dial packs of birth control pills on the nightstand, one for her and one for him.

"The initial work toward producing contraceptives focused on women, because women get pregnant," explained Ronald Swerdloff, head of the endocrinology department at the University of California, Los Angeles, Harbor Medical Center. "That attitude has changed with the changing attitudes of partners. Women, in multiple surveys, have said they would like to share responsibility with a partner, just like we have come to believe that men and women should share economic and childcare roles."

Because of the commercial success of the female birth control pill, many researchers are trying to develop a men's pill, which would block sperm production using the body's chemical signals, just as the women's pill blocks ovulation.

Normally, a man's pituitary gland produces chemicals that tell the testes to make sperm and testosterone. A male hormonal contraceptive would consist of testosterone, along with the female hormone progestin. Once in the bloodstream, these hormones would tell the pituitary that the testes already had done their job, so the pituitary would not produce the signals.

"It's fooling the system," said Swerdloff, who worked on the new analysis. "The signals that normally regulate the system are used to turn it off." He uses the analogy of an air conditioner, which produces cool air until it gets the signal that the air is cool enough. "We want to turn off the thermostat, if you will."

NOT FOR EVERYONE

Swerdloff's analysis showed that this method works very well in about 86 percent of men. Unfortunately, it does not work for all men, and scientists do not yet understand why.

"That's what's kept it off the market," said John Amory, who studies male contraception at the University of Washington Medical Center. "After three months, you'd have to test them and tell one out of six people it didn't work. Hormones are still worth pursuing, but it's going to be a while."

Amory is working on an effective pill form of testosterone, which currently is administered as a gel or an injection. This could be helpful for contraception, as well as for men who have testosterone deficiency. Like Wolgemuth, at Columbia, Amory also is beginning to study retinoid blocking.

Wolgemuth thinks this method is promising, but she said that there still are questions she and her team would like to answer. They want to understand retinoids' role in sperm production more fully, and they need to determine how long the drug can be used before it damages the testes permanently. The next goal is to test the drug in monkeys, a step toward eventually testing it in humans.

Are men ready for this? Definitely, say researchers. In a 2002 survey of 9,000 men on four continents, more than half said they would use male hormonal birth control. Male hormonal birth control methods appear to have lower risks of side effects than female methods, which can be dangerous for some women, according to Swerdloff.

Methods such as the Intra-Vas Device, an implant that blocks the flow of sperm, and an injectable gel called RISUG would be ideal in developing countries, where access to pills or condoms is not always guaranteed, said Lissner.

Act Your Age - Get That Checkup

Have you been to the doctor recently? Probably not, if you're like the men polled recently by CNN and Men's Health magazine. That survey showed that one-third of American men haven't had a checkup in the past year and that 9 million of them have not seen a doctor in five years.

Those statistics are problematic, says Gervais Fréchette, MD, Medical Director of Le Docteur and certified HIV specialist by the American Academy of HIV Medicine. Fréchette believes there are health risks for men at every age. Here's a guide to the self-exams, doctor's office visits, and vaccines Fréchette recommends you schedule, starting at age 20. In addition to the tests indicated, don't forget that during each year you're sexually active, you should request that your doctor screen you for STDs.

Monthly
Testicle self-exam: After a warm bath or shower, stand in front of a mirror to look for any unusual swelling on the skin of the scrotum. Hold one testicle with your index and middle finger underneath and your thumb on top. Gently roll the testicle between your fingers and thumb. Repeat with the other testicle. If you feel any lumps or bumps, call your doctor immediately.

Yearly
Skin self-exam: Look for any new growth or skin change on your face, head (use a blow dryer to see your scalp), hands, nails, elbows, arms, underarms, neck, chest, torso, back, shoulders, upper arms, butt, legs, feet and genitals. For information on the size, color and shape of melanoma, click here.

Dental exam: Your dentist or dental hygienist will examine, X-ray and clean your teeth.

Eye exam: Your doctor will give you a series of painless vision tests, like the eye muscle test (you'll be asked the track the movement of an object with your eyes), a visual acuity test (the traditional test where you're asked to read letters of the alphabet from 20 feet away) and refraction assessment (your doctor will shine a light into your eyes and observe the movement of the light reflected by your retina) and check for diseases like glaucoma. For more on what to expect at the eye doctor, click here.

Blood pressure test: Your doctor will use a blood pressure cuff and stethoscope to listen to the blood pumping through your artery. Ideal blood pressure is below 120/80 mm HG. The first number refers to the systolic pressure, or the amount of pressure the blood puts on the artery walls when the heart pumps; the second refers to diastolic pressure, or the pressure the blood puts on the artery walls between heartbeats.

Every five years
Cholesterol test: Cholesterol -- a soft, waxy substance found in your blood, necessary to help form cell membranes, but dangerous in high amounts -- is tested by having blood drawn and analyzed. The results will report the LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, and the HDL, or "good cholesterol." LDL levels above 160 mg/DL, HDL levels below 40 mg/DL, or a total cholesterol level of above 200 mg/LDL can put you at risk for heart disease, the leading cause of death in men.

Monthly
Testicle self-exam: After a warm bath or shower, stand in front of a mirror to look for any unusual swelling on the skin of the scrotum. Hold one testicle with your index and middle finger underneath and your thumb on top. Gently roll the testicle between your fingers and thumb. Repeat with the other testicle. If you feel any lumps or bumps, call your doctor immediately.

Yearly
Skin self-exam: Look for any new growth or skin change on your face, head (use a blow dryer to see your scalp), hands, nails, elbows, arms, underarms, neck, chest, torso, back, shoulders, upper arms, butt, legs, feet and genitals. For information on the size, color and shape of melanoma, click here.

Dental exam: Your dentist or dental hygienist will examine, x-ray, and clean your teeth.

Eye exam: Your doctor will give you a series of painless vision tests, like the eye muscle test (you'll be asked the track the movement of an object with your eyes), a visual acuity test (the traditional test where you're asked to read letters of the alphabet from 20 feet away) and refraction assessment (your doctor will shine a light into your eyes and observe the movement of the light reflected by your retina) and check for diseases like glaucoma. For more on what to expect at the eye doctor, click here.

Blood pressure test: Your doctor will use a blood pressure cuff and stethoscope to listen to the blood pumping through your artery. Ideal blood pressure is below 120/80 mm HG. The first number refers to the systolic pressure, or the amount of pressure the blood puts on the artery walls when the heart pumps; the second refers to diastolic pressure, or the pressure the blood puts on the artery walls between heartbeats.

Flu shot: Made up of three dead influenza viruses, the flu shot causes your body to make antibodies that will attack the virus if you're exposed to it after the shot. It's best to get the flu shot in November or December, before flu season starts. For more info on the shot, click here.

Prostate exam: Consists of a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test and a digital rectal exam.

Stress test: Used to test for heart disease, a stress test is a 60-minute to-exhaustion exercise session done on a treadmill or stationary bike while electrodes attached to your chest measure your heart's electrical activity.

Every five years
Cholesterol test: Cholesterol -- a soft, waxy substance found in your blood, necessary to help form cell membranes, but dangerous in high amounts -- is tested by having blood drawn and analyzed. The results will report the LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, and the HDL, or "good cholesterol." LDL levels above 160 mg/DL, HDL levels below 40 mg/DL, or a total cholesterol level of above 200 mg/LDL can put you at risk for heart disease, the leading cause of death in men.

Every 10 years
Colonoscopy: A 30- to 60-minute exam done by your doctor to inspect your colon and large intestine. After you receive sedating medication, a long, flexible colonoscope is inserted through your rectum and blows air into your colon to make it easier to see. During the exam, your doctor may remove polyps or a small amount of tissue for biopsy.

Tetanus booster: A shot to vaccinate you against tetanus, a medical condition usually caused by a bacteria-laden wound that can lead to dangerous stiffening of muscles.

In your 60s
Shingles vaccine: Given by your doctor, a one-time Zostavax vaccine will prevent shingles, a painful rash-producing infection caused by the dormant virus behind chicken pox.

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to serve as medical advice. The information provided should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease. It is not a substitute for professional care. If you have or suspect you may have a health problem, you should consult your health care provider.

SOURCE: Beth Dreher, PlanetOut.com

Reducing Your Risk for Breast Cancer

By RONI CARYN RABIN, NEW YORK TIMES.COM

GO for regular checkups, do breast self-exams and get your mammograms on time, and chances are you'll detect breast cancer early on, when it is most treatable. But what about prevention? Short of radical surgery, are there steps you can take to reduce the risk?

Turns out there are.

True, immutable factors like genetics, a family's medical baggage and just being born female determine much of the risk of breast cancer. And, as with all cancers, that risk increases with age: a 30-year-old woman's chances of developing breast cancer over a 10-year period are less than half of 1 percent, or 1 in 234, while a 60-year-old has a 3.5 percent risk, or 1 in 28. (The often-heard "one in eight" figure refers to the lifetime risk that women face.)

But there is now solid evidence that lifestyle can play a role as well. Choices that have an effect include how much alcohol a woman drinks (none is best), the amount of physical activity she gets (the more the better) and whether she takes hormones (the less the better). Doctors also urge women to keep their weight down, as obesity increases the risk of developing breast cancer during the postmenopausal years.

"Breast cancer is a disease of how much estrogen you have in your body," said Heather Spencer Feigelson, strategic director of genetic epidemiology for the American Cancer Society, and these seemingly disparate factors - alcohol, physical activity and hormone pills - affect levels of estrogen and other hormones.

“There are things you can’t change, like when you got your first period, or your family history,” said Dr. Carolyn D. Runowicz, director of the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, Conn., referring to two well-known risk factors, early menstruation and having a close relative with breast cancer. “But you can change a lot about you. Empower yourself with knowledge and information.”

Know your family's medical history — but even if there is no history of breast cancer, don't be complacent. Consult a genetic counselor if you are concerned about your family history, and inquire about being tested for the genetic mutations that increase breast cancer risk (more common among Ashkenazi Jews). Do not forget that breast cancer genes come from both sides of the family, not just your mother's.

Among relatives, “the special red flags” are premenopausal breast cancer, bilateral breast cancer (cancer that appears in both breasts) and ovarian cancer, said Dr. Larry Norton, deputy physician in chief of breast cancer programs at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. But even if no one in the family had breast cancer, that is no guarantee that you are safe, said Dr. Runowicz; in fact, only 10 percent of breast cancer patients have a family history.

Cut down on alcohol, or avoid it altogether. When it comes to breast cancer, studies have been pretty consistent: there is no safe amount of alcohol. Even one glass of wine a day can increase your risk slightly, and the risk climbs with each additional drink. "This is something you can control," said Jasmine Q. Lew, a student at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago who recently completed a National Institutes of Health study that is one of the largest on the subject. "Women can choose not to drink."

Exercise, exercise, exercise. Obesity after menopause increases the risk of breast cancer, so try to keep your weight down. But exercise is beneficial regardless of weight, and even a small amount of physical activity may be helpful. “Women who are overweight and exercising are at lower risk than those who are overweight and not exercising; women who are lean and exercising are at lower risk than women who are lean but not exercising,” Dr. Feigelson said. Risk drops with increased hours and strenuousness of exercise, and studies have found that women who do an average of three hours of strenuous exercise a week reduce their risk of breast cancer by 20 percent.

Breast-feed if you can. Early menstruation, late menopause, postponing pregnancy and never having gone through a full-term pregnancy increase the risk of breast cancer, but those factors cannot be changed easily. If you do have a baby, however, you may want to breast-feed, and the longer the better; studies have found that breast-feeding reduces the risk of breast cancer.

Try not to take combined hormone therapy. The recommendation for all hormone therapy is to take the lowest dose for the shortest period necessary. A Women's Health Initiative study found a slightly higher risk for breast cancer among women who took estrogen with progestin after menopause, and a drop in breast cancer diagnoses since then has been attributed to the fact that many women quit using hormones. (In the same study, women on estrogen-only therapy, which is used by those who have had hysterectomies, did not have a higher breast-cancer risk.) A woman who has recently used birth control pills is also at greater risk; Dr. Norton urges women to find alternative contraceptive methods and avoid so-called natural or herbal hormones as well.

Have regular mammograms, but if you have very dense breast tissue or are at high risk of breast cancer for other reasons, insist on an M.R.I. as well. Having high breast-tissue density can drastically raise your risk of developing breast cancer, as does finding atypical hyperplasia, or abnormal cell growth, which is confirmed by a biopsy. After a mammogram, discuss the results with your physician. "Everyone just wants to hear that it’s negative," Dr. Runowicz said. But important information can be gleaned even from a negative screening, she said. “Learn about your breast density. If a biopsy shows hyperplasia, your doctor can put you on a chemoprevention program."

Become familiar with your personal risk factors. Your breast cancer risk could be higher than normal if you are above average height, upper middle class (probably related to the tendency to postpone childbearing and having fewer children), never had a full-term pregnancy or you had children after age 30, or if you ever had endometrial, ovarian or colon cancer or ever had high-dose radiation to the chest, your risk for breast cancer could be higher than average.

Media's Critical Role in Fighting HIV/Aids

By Issa Sikiti Da Silva, allafrica.com

Various speakers and panellists, including Nelson Mandela's wife Graca Machel, who addressed delegates at the 2008 International Public Television (Input) Conference in Johannesburg, have launched a persuasive call to the media worldwide to play a critical role in combating HIV/Aids, which continues to wipe entire communities. "It is clear that with the digital developments the media can help spread a powerful message out there to make a difference," Dali Mpofu, SABC CEO and chairperson of Global Media Aids Initiative (GMAI), said.

"Broadcasters and other media organisations should make HIV/Aids part of their core business and use whatever resources they have, including airtime, to ensure that people take their future into their own hands," Mpofu said.

"Media can help change society by connecting their audiences with Aids-related services like how to prevent the disease, get VCT (voluntary counselling and testing) and treatment. If we are to be part of the solution, then we should busy ourselves to be creative and provide accurate and reliable information on the disease that can save lives."

Input 2008, which kicked off at the Sandton Convention Centre on Sunday 4 May 2008 and ends on Saturday 10 May, is being attended by over 1000 people, including broadcasters, senior business leaders and filmmakers, from more than 100 countries across the globe.

Centre of GMAI's mission

As HIV/Aids continues to tear society apart and feature prominently at the centre of GMAI's mission, the organisers thought it should be part of a lengthy discussion at the conference.

According to UNAIDS statistics, the number of people living with HIV/Aids globally rose from 29 million in 2001 to 33.2 million in 2007 (68% in southern Africa), primarily due to continuing new infections - something Mark Stirling, UNAIDS director of Eastern and Southern Africa, said could be reduced if the media can play a central role in the fight against the disease.

"As a gatekeeper, media must lead this fight and use its enormous power and influence to challenge certain social and cultural values and norms that make us vulnerable. Provoke the Aids debate and get the nation talking. So far you have done an amazing job, but I implore you to redouble efforts in order to change the face of this disease," Stirling pleaded.

Called on the media

Machel called on the media to segment their messages to reach specific audiences and shame and denounce governments and Western leaders if they fail to fulfill their promises on HIV/Aids.

"We cannot afford to talk only about global village when it comes to business but not talk about global village when it comes to human lives," she said.

"Our social intervention on HIV/Aids has been ineffective and prevention is not working, partly due to poverty and lack of resources, which mostly were promised but are yet to be fulfilled.

"Media must help us and invent new ways to spread their messages, perhaps be specific for each specific age group to enforce self-respect, good citizenship and sense of responsibility in these challenging times."

Rare and wonderful platform

Monicah Waceke, Ugandan Broadcasting Corporation programme manager, told Bizcommunity.com that the fact that global broadcasters and public media meet to discuss global issues affecting their respective societies and share ideas so how to solve them, makes Input a rare and wonderful platform.

GMAI, a worldwide coalition of over 300 broadcasting companies, was launched in 2004 by former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Anan, to leverage the communication power of mass media to get out the information about HIV and challenge the stigma related to the disease.

GMAI's regional branches include the Africa Broadcast Media Partnership against HIV/Aids (ABMP). Partners include the Kaiser Family Foundation, Bill & Melinda Foundation, Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, MTN SA Foundation and Nelson Mandela Foundation.

GMAI's next board meeting will take place in June in New York, US, Mpofu told Bizcommunty.com on the sidelines of the gathering.

Pledge to protection

Trojan makes education tour

By: Drew Garver, dailytexanonline.com

Representatives from Trojan Condoms addressed both the sexually active and abstinent UT community on Thursday as part of its nationwide college tour.

"We are trying to get people to evolve past piggish behavior to being aware of the need for sexual safety," said Kari Kuka, spokeswoman and sexual health educator for the tour.

About 65 million Americans live with incurable sexually transmitted diseases, and another 19 million are diagnosed every year, Kuka said, adding that America has the highest rate of STD infections of any industrialized nation. This is made worse by the fact that only one in four sexual acts among singles involves the use of a condom, she said.

"It's important that we educate so that we can prevent these trends from continuing," Kuka said.

The Evolve Tour, which will stop at 65 college campuses nationwide, provides sexual education in the form of short videos and a lounge where

students can talk with sexual health educators. Students can also sign a pledge promising to use protection when engaging in any sexual acts, and students gave shout-outs to the UT community challenging members to live sexually healthy lives.

"It's pretty dang important to use protection so disease doesn't spread," said audiology graduate student Amanda Harris. "You have to contain the nasties."

Also central to the tour is a petition that asks people to commit to sexual education beyond the tour. Part of the petition calls for increased contraceptive advertising during prime time hours on basic television channels.

There are no laws restricting contraceptive advertising during prime time hours, but as a general rule, many of the biggest television stations decline to air ads during their prime time viewing hours, leaving contraceptive commercials to run late at night or on cable channels.

The other part of the petition seeks to make comprehensive sexual education in schools a standard, instead of abstinence-only classes.

"We support abstinence 100 percent. It's the only sure way to prevent STD transmission," Kuka said. "But some of these people are telling their students that condoms don't work. People need to make their voices heard. They need to say that they want the real information."

Condoms are not 100-percent effective in preventing STDs, especially those that are transmitted by skin contact, such as herpes and syphilis, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, they greatly reduce the risk of infection and are essentially impermeable to particles the size of STD pathogens.

Those who missed the tour and want information or to sign the petition can visit www.trojancondoms.com.