The INFO Project Blog

Demand for the English edition of INFO’s new guide, Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers, has come from nearly every corner of the globe. Health care providers, researchers, and programmers from more than 180 countries have ordered the guidebook, which is available at no cost to developing country readers. More than 65,000 copies, and more than 78,000 accompanying wall charts, were distributed in the first six months of publication.

INFO is collaborating with professional organizations and universities around the world to disseminate the resource to the widest audience possible: Currently, the project is overseeing the translation of at least 10 foreign language editions.

 UNFPA is supporting the production of Portuguese, Russian, French and Arabic editions–an imperative considering INFO has received over 2000 orders for Arabic-language handbooks alone.

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The staff at the Center for Communication Programs (CCP) was fortunate enough to screen the documentary HIV Positive Voices: An Inside Look at the AIDS Epidemic in Baltimore in observance of World Aids Day 2007. The documentary, produced by CCP in association with Stuart Productions, explores the stories of four individuals in Baltimore living with HIV. The Baltimore metropolitan area currently has the second highest rate of new AIDS diagnoses in the country.

The viewer experiences the touching story of Rickeena, a 15 year-old teenager who contracted HIV perinatally from her mother and who educates others in her community about HIV and AIDS. Then we meet David, who contracted HIV through injection drug use and who started a clean lifestyle after being released from prison for crimes committed.

Later in the film, Kimberly Smolen tells viewers that she was infected with HIV from a college boyfriend and discovered her HIV status after donating blood. She had been a marathon runner but then fell into a destructive period in her life consisting of drug addiction and homelessness.

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In the upcoming issue of the US edition of Marie Claire, singer Christina Aguilera shows off her belly and reveals that the pregnancy happened sooner than she and her husband planned. From an AP story about the cover story it appears she has some misconceptions about their new conception (sorry).

I had gone off the Pill to prepare my body, because I didn’t know how much time it would take. You’ve heard it takes some time — except with Power Egg and Super Sperm here,” she says. “… I’m like, `Oh my god, can you believe it just happened?’”

Well, Christina, don’t flatter yourself too much.

As program specialist Megan O’Brien pointed out when she read this inaccurate statement, this is a perfect time to dispel myths about contraception. Neither combined oral contraceptives (COCs) nor progestin-only pills (POPs) delay a return to fertility after stopping use–any more than stopping use of non-hormonal methods like condoms.

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I came across an interesting article yesterday: Older white women join Kenya’s sex tourists.

Upon reading the title, I wondered, am I mistaken? Should it read the other way around? So rich women apparently come to Kenya to pay for sex with attractive young Kenyan men. I have heard of sex tourism, and have seen older men walking arm in arm with various much younger women throughout various locales in Thailand, however I have never heard of the reverse phenomenon occurring.

In reading further, especially in light of World AIDS day, I was disturbed to discover that some of the women choose not to use condoms when engaging in transactional sex as they deem them too “businesslike” and an interruption to carrying out exotic fantasies. However, on a positive note, some hotel managers have begun to monitor the situation and discourage such negative tourism.

-Posted by Seth

Hakia is a new social searching tool that, in the eyes of some trend watchers, is making Google look “old school.”

After listening to the BBC World Service Health Check’s broadcast from Bangladesh, focusing on maternal health and doctor scarcity in this flood-prone nation, I was curious to see what its maternal mortality rate was. So I googled–oops, searched–for “bangladesh maternal mortality rate.” This is what it told me:

The following should help: Bangladesh’s maternal mortality rate - at 440 deaths per 100,000 live births - is a leading cause of death. See this page. …See the hakia gallery for Bangladesh

It then listed 10 resources with an answer to this query, highlighting the relevant passage.

Clicking through to the Hakia gallery for Bangladesh took me to a list of resources divided into tabs like Country Profile, Culture, and Cities.

A parallel search on Google did not answer the question, but the first hit, a UNICEF country profile, told me that Hakia’s statistics might be outdated. The adjusted rate (1995-2005) of MM is 380 per 100,000 births.

The “social” part of Hakia isn’t actually the conversational responses, which come from Ask.com, or the handy-highlighting (called Hakia ScoopBar), it’s checking to see who else searches like you.

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