There’s a big article in the New York Times today about diabetes in India (thanks, Gitanjali and Builder). It’s impressive partly because of some surprising statistics given about the spread of both obesity and diabetes in India, and because of some touching individual interviews that illustrate some of the particular difficulties faced by Indians dealing with the disease.

I would recommend people go read the article, but here’s a summary of some of the stats I found notable:

• There are probably about 35 million people in India with Type 2 Diabetes (adult Diabetes) now. In a few years, there could be as many as 75 million. The current rate is 6 percent of adults have the disease, but that number is higher in Indian cities (in Chennai, Kleinfield reports, 16 percent of adults have Diabetes).
  
• Even middle-class Indians tend to remain uninsured, so Diabetes can be a financially crippling disease.
  
• Indians are genetically predisposed to contract Type 2 Diabetes, and they tend to get it 10 years before people in other parts of the world get it. (Which means, the danger is also high for NRIs; apparently this has already been observed with the earlier generation of immigrants)
  
• One of the biggest dangers in India in particular is that Diabetes, which leads to loss of sensation in the legs, often results in infections that can end in leg amputations. Since so many people go barefoot in India (even occasionally: as in, when visiting temples), the risk of foot and leg infections is much higher than in the west.
  
• In the world as a whole, there are now more people who are overweight than undernourished.
  

Any thoughts on this article, or recommendations for other things to read that will educate people on the danger of diabetes in the Indian subcontinent? I did find the tone a little irritating at some moments (“Diabetes — the dark side of India’s success”), but the research and the personal interviews were very informative. Continue reading →

The FDA has recently approved two drugs that will have a huge impact to the desi woman community; a) earlier this summer, the approval of the cervical cancer vaccine (or known as the HPV vaccine) and b) last week the approval of Plan B, the emergency contraceptive, as an over the counter drug for anyone over the age of 18. I think that both of these are huge landmark moments for the advancement of reproductive justice in our community.

According to a policy brief distributed by the National Asian Pacific Women’s Forum (NAPAWF)…

The vaccine, Gardasil, is 100% effective in preventing the infection of human papillomavirus (HPV) which causes 70% of all cervical cancer cases worldwide. The FDA approved the vaccine for safe use among girls and women ages 9-26. Asian Pacific Islander (API) women will greatly benefit from this new HPV vaccine, given their high rates of cervical cancer, particularly among Vietnamese and Korean women.

In fact, in the U.S. cervical cancer is relatively rare. For many API women, however, lack of health insurance, lack of knowledge about Pap smears and preventive care, and lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate services prevent them from equally accessing the health care system, contributing to their higher rates of cervical cancer.

Although abstinence or faithful lifelong monogamy are the only real full-proof ways to protect against HPV infection, these may not be realistic. Regular Pap smears are perhaps one of the most effective measures to protect oneself against developing cervical cancer. Because HPV is sexually transmitted, experts argue that the vaccine should be administered before adolescents have their first sexual encounter.

To me, it feels like an enormous injustice to know that a disproportionate amount of women in my community will have a higher chance of getting a preventable cancer because of the social stigmas attached to sex in our society, especially as a South Asian American female. When I ecstatically announced the FDAs approval to my mother and declared the need to get all the girls in our extended family here vaccinated, I was met with a, “Isn’t HPV sexually contracted? Why would we need to vaccinate then?” I didn’t really know how to respond to her. Social stigma of sexuality in our community as a form of birth control and cancer prevention will only take us so far.

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Last week Toronto played host to the 16th International AIDS conference, a biennial summit that brings together HIV professionals, philanthropists, politicians, artists, writers and victims from all walks of life. It was a week of solidarity, hope and action through future thought for the 30, 000 participants representing the close to 40 million living with the infection/disease today and those 25 million who have died as a result of it. The theme for AIDS 06 was “Time to Deliver”, they should have added a “Now” at the end of that…

Two news items relating to the twin weapons of prevention and cure require mention here while at least two G-8 governments require a duo of tight slaps.

First up, courtesy of a great post on Pass the Roti (Thanks, Ennis!) we have details of a Bangladeshi group ‘Durjoy Nari Shangha’ having to close down sex-worker aid and education centers in Dhaka in order to keep in accord with US funding conditions:

The sex workers collective — its name translates roughly as “organization of women who are hard to repress” — had 20 drop-in centers before December, offering sex and literacy education as well as moral support, toilets and a place to wash and rest for up to 5,000 women. It closed them after signing what aid groups call the “prostitution loyalty oath” that requires groups receiving USAID funding to have a policy opposing prostitution and sex trafficking. The group now has just four centers, geared to children and children’s rights. Bagum said that before the centers closed, the group sold 73,000 condoms a month. That has fallen to 30,000, even though health experts agree that condoms are the best way of stopping the spread of AIDS.[Link]

Continue reading →