The New Nation - Internet Edition

Anirudha Alam

HIV/AIDS is not merely a health issues. It is sorely a development issues undoubtedly. The vulnerability to HIV/AIDS has a grave and in-depth impact on every aspect of life. So the responses from all the levels and parts of the societies are very much necessary to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS any how. In this regard, centering upon the collective action, gender development should be well-defined involving the particular roles of government, civil society and the private sections.

It is deeply depressing thinking that sixty per cent of new HIV transmissions are to women and fifty two per cent to young adults worldwide. To get rid of this pernicious situation, gender development is the gateway to salvage commitment to making headway in integrating responses to subdue the AIDS epidemic. Entering upon the partnership developed to flourish collaboration with GOs, NGOs and communities across assorted sections and at miscellaneous levels, gender development activities have to be tooled up to contribute to the national fight against HIV/AIDS.

In the development countries, self-sustained development is being hampered by gender inequality. As per the findings of an in-depth research entitled 'Vulnerability to AIDS due to Gender Discrimination' conducted by BCC Network in 2006, 80% rural young people who are severely vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh are certainly women. They do not have enough livelihood education to win over the war of poverty at all. So they have to choice the easy way for earning their livelihood apparently engaging themselves in risky behaviours.

Coping with time and need paying heed to gender development, AIDS prevention may entail a multi-pronged approach which integrates reproductive health literacy, women empowerment, provision of such protective measure as condoms, prevention of sexual violence as well as safeguarding human rights. Assessing specific responses to non-discriminatory practices and identifying the risk factors for HIV/AIDS for both women and men along with defusing the associated stigma and gender-based violence come in containing the impact of HIV/AIDS on a sector comprehensively. As a result, AIDS education and work-place prevention underpinned by well-founded gender policy are able to internalise the gender development effectively.

It is likely that spread of AIDS is more than a social problem. It is the curse due to the lack of changing societal values, attitudes and behavioural patterns that fuel the endemic. Poverty associated with gender discrimination and stigma contributes to swelling the onslaught of HIV/AIDS as a whole. In many countries with high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates, the available evidence indicates that gender-based disparities sustain the impact of HIV/AIDS robustly.

Gender discrimination has magnified the AIDS endemic into an economic and social calamity, mostly in greater Africa. For instance, by now 57 per cent of all HIV-positive adults are women, and 75 per cent of young people living with HIV are women and girls in Sub-Saharan Africa. If gender development is ensured through life skill development, the vulnerable people, especially women, will be empowered financially and socially. They will not be compelled by hunger and poverty to be engaged in risky behaviours.

According to a survey conducted in Central Asia, one third of young women had not still heard of HIV/AIDS - yet globally the rate of infection among women is mounting inexorably. In the light of the recent study conducted by Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallayan Foundation, inclusive initiatives have to be taken on the urgent basis in Bangladesh to empower women and enhance their abilities to withstand health threats like HIV/AIDS. Catering to the vulnerable groups especially the destitute and disadvantaged women, there is a need for generating different pilot interventions and educational effort in response to campaign of AIDS prevention.

Strategies and interventions should tune in to sensitising policy makers, senior health planners, programme managers and other implementers to create a willing and friendly environment for achieving equality in every sector. There is no doubt that gender equality is the key way to sustainable development. So it is necessary to ensure that both women and men have to have equal access to information, treatment, care, support and productive resources. Then in true sense, gender development will be meaningful all along in preventing HIV/AIDS.

(The writer is AIDS Researcher, BCC Network Dhaka )

Jamayet Ali

Karanja is an important medicinal plant found along the banks of streams and rivers or near sea coast in beach and tidal forests. It is often grown as a road-side avenue tree nearly all over Bangladesh and India. It resists drought and is moderately frost-hardy and highly tolerant of salinity. It is a shade bearer and is considered to be a good tree for planting in pastures, as grass grows well in its shade. The tree is used for afforestation, in the drier parts of the country. The tree starts bearing fruit at the age of 4-7 years. The fruits come to harvest at different periods of the year, but the harvest season extends in general from November-December to May-June. The pods are collected and the shells removed by hand. The seeds are mainly valued for the oil obtained from them which has many industrial and medicinal uses. The seeds contain 27-39 percent of a fatty oil which is used for leather dressing, soap making, lubrication, illumination and for medicinal purposes. The main use of Karanja oil is in the tanning industry for the dressing of leathers. The oil finds use to a certain extent in the preparation of washing soaps and candles. It is more suitable for this purpose after refining, since crude oil produces a soap with objectionable colour and odour.

The oil can be used after neutralisation as a lubricant for heavy lathes, chains, bearings of small gas engines, enclosed gears and heavy engines. Seed cake is suitable for feeding livestock. It has a high nitrogen content and is mostly used as a manure. The wood is white and somewhat lustrous. It is used for yokes of bullock carts, ploughs, solid cart wheels, rafters of thatched cottages, oil mills, furniture, small turnery articles such as planes, chisels and screw drivers. The leaves are lopped for fodder. They are rich in nitrogen, and contain 7.19 mg /100 g. of carotene. They are popular as green manure rice and sugar cane fields, areca gardens and coffee plantations. The stem bark is fibrous and is used for cordage. The fresh bark has a feebly sweetish and mucilaginous taste at first, but soon becomes bitter combined with a sort of pungency.

Medicinal Properties: The root and bark are hot, bitter, acrid; anthelmintic, alexiphannic, useful in diseases of the eye, the vagina, the skin; good for tumours, piles, wounds, ulcers, itching, ascites, enlargements of the spleen and the abdomen, urinary discharges; cure biliousness, "vata" and "kapha". The sprouts are stomachic, alexiteric, anthelmintic; improve the appetite' cure "kapha", "vata", piles, skin diseases, inflammation. The leaves are hot, digestive, laxative, anthelmintic; cure "kapha" ''vata'', piles, wounds, inflammations; cause biliousness. The flowers cure ''vata'' and "kapha", biliousness, diabetes. The fruit and the seed are hot; anthelmintic; cure diseases of the head, the brain, the eye, the skin; useful in keratitis; cure "kapha" "vata", piles, urinary discharges. The oil is hot, anthelmintic; cures eye diseases, pains due to rheumatism, leucodenna, itching, wounds, skin diseases, causes biliousness and "raktapitta" Ayurveda). The seed is bitter and acrid; canninative; purifies and enriches the blood; relieves inflammation; cures earache, lumbago, chest complaints, chronic fevers, hydrocele. The oil is styptic, anthelmintic; good in scabies, leprosy, piles, ulcers, lumbago, chronic fevers, pain in the liver. The ash strengthens the teeth (Yunani).

The seeds are used as an external application in skin diseases. The expressed oil of the seeds is used in these diseases as well as in rheumatism. A poultice of the leaves is applied to ulcers infested with worms. The juice of the roots is used for cleaning foul ulcers and closing fistulous sores. It is administered internally with equal quantities of cocoanut milk and lime water every morning for the care of gonorrhoea. The fresh bark is used internally in bleeding piles. A decoction of the leaves is used for medicated baths and fomentations in cases of rheumatic pains. The leaves are much resorted to as a domestic remedy in the treatment of diseases of children. The oil is useful in cutaneous diseases of a similar nature. It should be mixed with an equal quantity of lime or lemon juice and well shaken, when it forms a rich yellow liniment which has been used successfully in purrigo capitis, pityriasis, psoriasis. In Ceylon, the juice of the roots is used for sores; also for cleaning the teeth and strengthening the gums. The plant is recommended for the treatment of snake-bite and scorpion-sting. In Ceylon, in cases of snake-bite the fresh seeds and roots are ground with water or with human urine and applied to the eyes; and a small quantity poured into the nostrils in stupor and coma (Roberts). (Indian Medicinal Plants, K.R. Kirtikar & B.D. Basu, 830, 831).

Medicinal Values: In Sanskrit medicine the seeds are described as a useful application in skin diseases. The expressed oil is said to be valuable in these diseases as well as in rheumatism and a poultice of the leaves is mentioned as a good dressing for ulcers infested with worms (V.C. Dutt. quoting Chakradatta). The value of the oil was early recognised by European writers in India. Thus Ainslie notices its use in itch and rheumatism as well as the employment of the juice of the root as an application for cleansing foul ulcers and closing fistulous sores. The plant obtained a place on the secondary list of the Pharmacopoeia of India in 1886, where it is stated that according to Dr. Gibson, "no article of the vegetable kingdom is possessed of more marked properties" as a remedial agent in cases of scabies, herpes, and other cutaneous diseases than Pongamia oil. Dr. Dymock confirms this statement to a certain extent, mentioning that he has employed a liniment of the oil and lime or lemon juice with success in prurigo, pityriasis and psoriasis. From these facts it would appear that the juice of the stem and root and the oil both possess marked antiseptic properties.

The leaves are said to be given internally in leprosy along with those of plumbago, pepper, salt and curds, and according to Dymock also enter into the composition of many complicated prescriptions for "epilepsy and abdominal enlargements." The most recent writings on the subject are given as follows in the Pharmacographia, India. "Dr. P .S. Mootooswami mentions that use of the juice of the root with coconut milk and lime water as a remedy for gonorrhoea in Tanjore, and of the leaves in flatulency, dyspepsia and diarrhoea. He also informs us that broken rice is boiled with the leaves and those of Morinda citrifolia, dried in the shade, to feed young children with instead of cow's milk, which is supposed to cause glandular enlargements of the abdomen. He has noticed the use of the flowers as a remedy for diabetes and of the pods worn round the neck as a protection against whooping cough. Dr. B. Evers has seen the seeds administered internally for the last named affection."

The seeds are reported to be used as a fish poison. The oil is applied in scabies, herpes, leucoderma and other cutaneous diseases. Internally, it has sometimes been used as a stomachic and cholagogue in cases of dyspepsia with sluggish liver. Mixed with lime or lemon juice, it has been reported to be useful in the treatment of rheumatism (Chopra, 1958, 338). The juice of the leaves is prescribed in flatulence, dyspepsia, diarrhoea and cough. It is also considered a remedy for leprosy and gonorrhoea, a hot infusion of the leaves is used as a medicated bath for relieving rheumatism pains, and for cleaning foul ulcers and sores. Fresh bark is said to be given internally in bleeding piles. A decoction of the bark is used for beri-beri. In Bihar, the crushed bark is said to be given to buffalo calves to reduce their milk consumption. The dried flowers are used in decoction to quence thirst in diabetes.

Special Opinions: "The pulp of the seed said to be good in leprosy" (Surgeon H.W. Hill, Manbhum). "The young leaves of this plant have been recommended as an application for bleeding piles. I have not used it myself, but I have known a case cured by its use." (Civil Surgeon R. Macleod, Gya). "The expressed oil is used in rheumatism with good effect" (Honarary Surgeon E.A. Morris, Tranque bar). "Powder of rind of legumes useful in whooping cough" (Civil Surgeon B. Evers, M.D., Wardha). "The milky juice of the root bark is injected into flatulous tracts to hasten the healing process. Equal qualities of this milky juice and gingellyboil , together with sulphate of copper is a good preparation for sinuses" (Surgeon W.F. Thomas, 33rd Regiment, M.N.I., Mangalore) (Dictionary of the Economic Products of India)

Michael Abramowitz

Sporting a small red ribbon on his lapel to mark World AIDS Day, President Bush spent close to an hour in the music room of a small church here Friday listening to the tales of religious groups on the front lines of the battle to prevent and treat what is still the world's most devastating killer.

Rebecca Mink, a Christian missionary, related for the president how she and her husband set up a home in Namibia for 55 children orphaned by AIDS. Chris Dominick, a real estate agent and member of McLean Bible Church, described his plans to head to Zambia this weekend on a church mission to work with children who have AIDS.

A regal-looking Zambian woman known as "Auntie Bridget" noted that she is both a beneficiary and an implementer of the president's ambitious anti-AIDS initiative. Known as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the program is devoting about $15 billion over five years to buy antiretroviral drugs, create prevention programs and fund assistance for people suffering from the disease all over the world.

"I've seen the Lazarus effect," Bridget Chisenga of Catholic Relief Services told Bush. "I have seen hopes being raised. I have seen people coming back to life. And my message is, 'We are celebrating life to the fullest.' "

Bush appeared taken with her presentation. "You spoke volumes," the president told Chisenga, to laughter in the tiny room. "You wrote a novel."

After devoting much of his week to promoting Middle East peace, Bush took time Friday for another of his international initiatives. More than 1.3 million people infected with the AIDS virus are receiving antiretroviral treatment through PEPFAR, compared with 50,000 in sub-Saharan Africa only a few years ago, according to Mark R. Dybul, the global AIDS coordinator for the U.S. government.

To mark World AIDS Day, which is Saturday, Bush aides hung a 28-foot-tall red ribbon at the North Portico of the White House Friday morning before he and first lady Laura Bush boarded a helicopter that was to take them to Calvary United Methodist Church here.

After meeting with the AIDS service providers, Bush called on Congress to once again double spending on the PEPFAR initiative for the next five years, to $30 billion in all. He also announced that he will travel to Africa early next year to check on the results of the U.S. effort.

Asked Friday whether the United States is doing enough to combat AIDS at home, White House press secretary Dana Perino said: "We are putting resources and money towards it. . . . There is a need here in America, but there is also a need in other countries, including Africa, Latin America and Asia."

Some elements of the president's program have stirred controversy, such as the amount of money devoted to abstinence education, and experts say the long-term results of the new spending are yet to be known. On Friday, Bush chose to emphasize only the role of about 20 percent of the contractors, which come from the religious community. The White House calls them partners.

Bush focused on the moral dimension of what the United States is doing to fight AIDS. "I believe to whom much is given, much is required, and the United States has been given a lot," Bush said.

"It is in our moral interest," he said of the global AIDS initiative. "It lifts our spirits and souls to help neighbors in need, whether it's a neighbor across the street or a neighbor in the global community."

Bush appeared moved by his guests' personal stories of faith. After Dominick told of the calling he felt "from the Lord to go on a mission," Bush observed that it is "pretty remarkable" for "total strangers" to go to the other side of the world to help people in need.