International Conference on alcohol &HIV

[MAITRI]

International Conference on alcohol &HIV

Aditya Mukherjee, TNN, Oct 9, 2010,

The Second International Conference on Alcohol and HIV, which was held
recently at the India Habitat Centre, has called for multilevel
community based approaches for combating pervasive alcohol use and the
resulting HIV transmission.

A special emphasis during the discussion was on gender norms. The
researchers emphasised the need to produce greater gender equality and
to shift norms that place aggression, violence and sexual exploitation
within the masculine domain and are aggravated under the influence of
alcohol.

Ongoing research in different countries suggests that women's risk of
gender-based and sexual violence is also increased by their partner's
alcohol consumption. Therefore, without addressing gender issues,
efforts to reduce alcohol-related sexual-risk behaviour might only be
partly successful.

Speaking at the conference, Dr Ravi Verma, regional director,
International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), said, "Gender is
missing from many alcohol related as well as HIV related
interventions. Interventions of any kind in the development sector
must be conscientious of gender. Failure to do so may reinforce
existing discrimination against women and girls."

According to him, the majority of people who go for paid sex are
problem drinkers and that they don't even use condoms. Some of the
eminent researchers and subject experts who participated in the
conference included Dr Kendall Bryant, director, Alcohol and HIV/AIDS
Research, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Dr Jean
J. Schensul, founding director, Institute for Community Research and
Dr KS Reddy, president, Public Health Foundation of India.

The revelations of the studies presented by the key researchers prove
that alcohol plays a direct and indirect role in promoting situations
and decisions leading to unprotected sex with multiple partners in the
general population and in vulnerable populations including mobile
workers, and female sex workers, and those infected with HIV.

The conference was organised by ICRW, in partnership with the Public
Health Foundation of India, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism and the Institute for Community Research. They had brought
together programme specialists and researchers from India and
neighbouring South Asian countries as well as US researchers working
in India.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/parties/delhi/International-Conference-on-alcohol-HIV/articleshow/6713295.cms#ixzz11njhyJFY