And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.5 (32)
>Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 11:19:02 -0500
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: B.C. Aboriginal women 8x AIDS rate
>Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>Action urged on AIDS among
> B.C. aboriginal women
>
> Monday, February 1, 1999
> PAUL WILLCOCKS
> Special to The Globe and Mail
>
> Victoria -- Aboriginal women in British
> Columbia are eight times as likely to contract
> HIV as non-native women, and urgent action
> is needed to address the crisis, says a
> task-force report on aboriginal HIV/AIDS
> strategies to be released today.
>
> A growing number of young female victims
> and high native birth rates create the threat of
> an epidemic and widespread infection of
> children, says the report by the B.C.
> Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Task Force, made up
> of representatives of more than 20 native
> organizations working with the federal and
> provincial governments.
>
> "Given the much higher birth rates among
> aboriginal women . . . HIV/AIDS is
> increasingly becoming a family affair," the
> report says. One Vancouver clinic reports
> that more than a third of the HIV-positive
> children it is treating are aboriginal.
>
> The report, called The Red Road --
> Pathways to Wholeness, says 200 new cases
> of aboriginals infected with the human
> immunodeficiency virus are reported annually
> in B.C., and the real number is likely much
> higher.
>
> The task force found that aboriginal people,
> though less than 5 per cent of the population,
> make up about 16 per cent of those testing
> HIV-positive.
>
> "This level of over-representation indicates
> the need for urgent attention to managing this
> crisis," says the report, the product of more
> than two years of work. There is also
> mounting evidence that natives with AIDS
> live significantly shorter lives than
> non-natives with AIDS, likely because of
> poverty.
>
> Of the aboriginal women infected from 1995
> to 1997, the task force found that 24 per cent
> reported involvement in the sex trade as one
> of their risk factors, far higher than among
> non-natives. The report says it is necessary to
> focus prevention efforts on injection-drug use
> and prostitution.
>
> But prevention efforts also must "address the
> conditions which lead young people into such
> dangerous and self-destructive behaviours,
> conditions such as poverty, unemployment,
> racial discrimination, lack of education and
> physical and sexual abuse of children."
>
> Andrew Yellowback, an elder who
> contributed to the report, said the aboriginal
> community has seen AIDS as "not our
> disease," and discussion has been limited by a
> tradition of not speaking of sex or
> "two-spirited people," the preferred term for
> gay people.
>
> The report says the provincial government
> provides about $8-million a year for
> community-based HIV/AIDS services, but
> aboriginal organizations rarely win funding.
>
> "Aboriginal communities and individuals
> typically cannot afford to volunteer their
> services and expertise," the document warns.
> "They are too busy trying to survive."
>
> The task force also argues for drug-law
> changes to reduce the rapid spread of HIV
> among intravenous-drug users, calling for
> more access to methadone programs,
> especially in remote areas; needle exchanges
> in reserves and rural communities; and
> decriminalization to encourage addicts to
> avoid high-risk practices.
>
> It also calls for a freeze on plans to transfer
> responsibility for HIV/AIDS programs to
> regional health boards. Aboriginal
> communities aren't adequately represented on
> the boards set up under the Health Ministry's
> regionalization program, the task force found.
> And it proposes programs to address the risk
> created by the large number of aboriginal
> people in prisons.
>
>
>
> <= we're not machines you know =>
> we're not going to fall over in rows Dr. King - On
>The Beach - 1959
>
> < the more we do to you, the less you
> seem to believe we are doing it >
> Dr. Joseph Mengele
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> www.aches-mc.org
>
>
>
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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