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Scientists believe a form of HIV probably entered the human population in Africa at least 60 years ago - and that war helped it spread.

Although HIV is usually spoken of as one virus, in fact it comes in two distinct types, HIV-1 and HIV-2.

HIV-1 came from chimpanzees, and has spread globally; but HIV-2, which came from sootey mangabey monkeys, has remained concentrated in west Africa, where it infects approximately 1% of the population.

A team of international researchers has calculated that HIV-2 crossed to humans sometime between 1890 and 1940 - probably shortly after HIV-1 made the same leap.

The researchers also made a detailed study of how HIV-2 spread within Guinea-Bissau.

They conclude it remained a low-level infection for many years, only spreading widely in the 1960s - a period which co-incided with the country's war to gain independence from Portugal.

Portuguese soldiers who had fought in the war were the first Europeans to contract HIV-2.

The scientists say that a number of factors prevalent in wartime - such as mass immunisations with unsterilised needles - could have helped the virus spread rapidly.

Scientists hope that the more they can discover about the way HIV has spread, the better the chances of coming up with new ways of combating the virus.

They were able to trace the evolutionary history of HIV-2 by comparing its genetic sequences with those from an ancestral monkey virus.

By estimating the number of genetic mutations in the sequences over time, the scientists were able to track the incidence of HIV-2 and learn when it transferred to humans.

The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

BBC News

The Vatican published an ethical dictionary yesterday saying homosexuality has "no social value", warning against concepts such as "safe sex" and "reproductive health" and insisting that condoms don't protect against sexually transmitted diseases. The book, one of the Vatican's most scathing attacks yet on what it considers deteriorating social values, caused outrage in Italy's gay community, among some Italian politicians and even at certain levels within the Vatican itself.

The 900-page Lexicon On Ambiguous and Colloquial Terms About Family Life and Ethical Questions queries the use by world leaders and public organisations of 78 key words related to sexuality, abortion and birth control.

Leaders who encourage the use of condoms for safe sex are running a commercially motivated "exercise in self-justification", the book says, concealing the fact that tests show condoms don't work 10% of the time.

"The Vatican, these imbeciles, are burning up years of work of professional doctors in a matter of seconds," said Fabio Canino, a popular gay television presenter in Italy, referring to the Vatican's message to the world's one billion Catholics on condoms.

He added: "The irony of this vicious message against homosexuality is that there are more gays per capita inside the Vatican than in most other countries."

Sophie Arie in Rome

The Guardian

HIV-positive men who underwent a "sperm washing" treatment have fathered children without risking their partner's health.

Having sex without protection in order to conceive a child would be considered too risky by many HIV-positive men, as their semen can harbour the virus.

Approximately 1,000 diagnoses of HIV involving heterosexual patients are made each year in the UK.

Clear surface

One of the only techniques which can be offered to men is "sperm washing", in which individual sperm are removed from the semen then used in insemination.

The sperm themselves are not thought to carry HIV on their surface.

However, there are still lingering doubts about the safety of the procedure.

The latest research, carried out by doctors at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, will prove reassuring to couples considering whether or not to go ahead.

Out of 53 couples taking part in the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital programme, a third were able to conceive a child using the method.

There were no instances in which HIV was present in the sperm sample following the washing treatment.

Risk reduction

Dr Carole Gilling-Smith, who led the research team, told the BBC: "Nothing is 100% safe in life. What we try to do is reduce that risk.

"Until this was available, couples had no option but to risk unprotected sex, or to resort to donor sperm - or to live a life without children."

She said that the procedure should be available on the NHS because, unlike standard fertility treatments, this was aimed at lowering the risk of either mother or unborn child getting HIV, which would add to the burden on the NHS.

"The government needs to support this, not only because every child born HIV negative means huge cost savings in medication.

"Forty per cent of our patients cannot go ahead with this treatment because of funding."

One woman who has managed to have a baby with her HIV-positive partner told the BBC how it had transformed her life.

She said: "I had expected to be a widow in my late 20s.

"Now I have a happy, long-lasting marriage, and the extra joy of a child.

"It helps my husband fight to live longer and stay healthier as well."

Sperm washing is not the only technique which has been suggested as a possibility for HIV-positive men.

Some scientists are investigating the possibility that sperm could be heated to 58 degrees - enough to destroy HIV - without ruining its ability to properly fertilise the egg.

BBC News

Liz Paul believes some woman need help to enhance their sex life A mother-of-three has been nominated for an award after she invented a device which she claims will help women achieve orgasms easier. Liz Paul's stimulator - for women suffering sexual difficulties - picked up the most attention at the British Female Inventor of the Year Awards on Friday.

The device has already sold well on the internet and is likely to reach high streets by August.

Among the other inventions at the central London show were an anti-allergy perfume "partner" and a lightweight ergonomic fork, which took the top prize.

Women are not told how to have an orgasm and it needs explaining to them.

Liz Paul Mrs Paul, from Ilkley, West Yorkshire, came up with the clitoral stimulator in a bid to benefit the estimated five million women in Britain who have trouble reaching orgasm.

Time reduction

Called Vielle, the device is a small plastic stimulator with eight nodules which fits over the finger.

Speaking at the ceremony at London's Café Royal, Mrs Paul, 49, said clinical tests had proved the device could halve the time it takes for a woman to climax and intensify the orgasm.

She said: "Women are not told how to have an orgasm and it needs explaining to them.

"I wanted to break through this barrier and help women with their sexual needs.

The device is designed to enhance female orgasms "I hope my invention will help all those women who have sexual problems." The device is disposable and is sold in packs of three at £9.95.

Trophy

Mrs Paul aims to sell 300,000 devices by the end of the year.

Winner of the British Female Inventor of the Year Awards was Tish Fearn for her Lite-Life Shaving Fork, to be used for mucking out stables. She received a trophy and resources from the event's sponsors to market the invention. Runner-up in the competition was Rachel Quayle whose Perfume Partner invention prevents irritations and allergic reactions to perfume, as well as making the scent last longer.

BBC News 290403

Clap is rising on a relentless scale - there has been an 87 per cent increase in gonorrhoea since 1996. Last week, middle England, and its many media representatives, immediately pointed a finger at their favourite culprits: rampant teenagers allegedly bonking like bunnies, living for today in a condom-free zone. How disgusting is that?

'Sexual health crisis blamed on teen promiscuity', read a not untypical headline in the Daily Mail, reporting on an article written by Professor Michael Adler, who advises the National Health Service on its sexual health strategy. The strategy, now in its third year, has the aim of reducing the diagnoses of HIV and gonorrhoea by 25 per cent in four years.

So far, even to an optimist, the chances of succeeding don't appear good. Attendances at genitourinary medicine clinics have doubled in the last decade with one million people now seen by sexually transmitted diseases (STD) departments. HIV, running at 3,500 cases in 2000, will probably reach 6,500 this year.

The cases of chlamydia, the so-called silent infection because the symptoms are often non-existent, have doubled to 71,225 since 1996, while syphilis, once virtually eradicated, is also rapidly re-emerging. But is it really all the fault of the young?

Professor Adler, writing in the medical journal, Sexually Transmitted Infections, has cogently argued that we face not a crisis in teenage sexual behaviour but a deterioration in the entire nation's sexual health. 'Sexual health is not an NHS or political priority,' he writes. 'Until it becomes so, we will witness further failure upon further failure.'

Part of this failure surely also lies in the determined effort of both government and the media to focus the cause primarily on what the under-twenties do. This has a double consequence. First, it narrows down the solutions, leaving most of the problem unresolved. (Warning against being part of a sexual lottery in the lads' mag FHM is hardly going to persuade the 60-year-old businessman to put a condom on it when he pays for his pleasure with an eastern European call-girl.) Second, grown-up sexual behaviour is allowed to remain in the place it loves most - the dark.

The Department of Health is a prime propounder of this skewed analysis. For instance, it says, correctly, that 42 per cent of females with gonorrhoea and 36 per cent of females with chlamydia infection are under 20. Yes, a minority of teenagers are becoming sexually active at a very young age, sometimes for all the wrong reasons such as emotional neediness, lack of aspiration, booze and coercion, but what of the conduct of the 58 per cent of much older women with gonorrhoea and the 64 per cent with chlamydia? What's their justification for taking risks?

STD clinics, for instance, report a significant rise in the post-divorce thirty- and fortysomethings, primarily women, coming for treatment. Often, it's precisely because they had so little sexual experience in their teens that they now obey the advertisers' diktat and 'go for it'. What is described as promiscuity in a teenager is concurrence in a grown-up; both risk infertility. Among men, too, the majority of cases of sexually transmitted diseases are among older, not younger, age groups.

We all know we live in a highly sexualised age. As soon as a toddler can switch on the telly, he or she is bombarded with the message that almost every activity in life is wrapped around 'doing it'. Ice cream, cars, underwear, pop stars singing their latest hit - all are intertwined with having sex.

Against this setting, the small miracle is not how many, but how relatively few young people have multiple partners. The majority delay making their sexual debut until 16 or 17. Could they actually be heeding sex and relationship education in schools - poor as it so often is?

Anita Weston, nurse consultant in genitourinary medicine at Guy's and St Thomas', echoes the view of other clinics, that increasing numbers of young people are behaving responsibly, by having 'a sexual MOT'. They do so if they change partners or they are in a long-term relationship and they plan to dispense with a condom; the couple often attend the clinic together.

Here, perhaps, is the real reason for middle England's fulminations. It's not unprotected sex that raises their indignation - it's the fact that teenagers are having sex at all. Some will, some won't, but it's difficult to deliver the message that positive sexual health matters when so many adults, including many GPs, prefer to pretend that physical desire in the under-21s is an unnatural activity.

Dr George Kinghorn is a consultant genitourinary physician in Sheffield. He argues that a change of culture is required, a 'mindset' removed: 'Sexual health should be considered as much of a priority as heart disease and cancer.' He points out that while the Government has provided ?47.5 million for its sexual health strategy, that is barely enough to cover screening for chlamydia.

Clinics are overstretched. Anita Weston's was designed to treat 9,000 patients a year - and now deals with 35,000. Dr Kinghorn estimates between ?150m and ?200m is required over the next five years to improve clinics while more than 200 consultants need to be recruited. It is telling that in the new GPs' contract, the Government has introduced no obligation to undergo training to deal with sexually transmitted diseases.

For all but the dedicatedly monogamous (and that means 15 per cent of the population), sexual screening should become as automatic as a dental check. What is also required is a public-health campaign that eschews the propaganda of youth attack in favour of straight facts.

Chlamydia can cause infertility for women and men. A penis infected by gonorrhoea is not a pretty sight. Syphilis can kill. An HIV patient costs ?150,000 a year to keep alive. We should cease being obsessed with the sex lives of the young - many are already on the learning curve. The real worry is how we teach new tricks to the old dogs.

Yvonne Roberts
April 20, 2003

The Observer

The number of people being diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is now at record levels. Doctors have warned ministers they risk having a major public health crisis on their hands unless they take urgent action to tackle the problem.

STIs have jumped sharply in recent years. Syphilis has risen by 486% since 1996. Chlamydia is up by 108% over the same period and rates of gonorrhoea are 87% higher than they were seven years ago.

More people are also being diagnosed with HIV. In 2001, a total of 4,419 people were told they had the virus, up 17% on the previous year. The number of new infections is predicted to double between 1997 and 2005.

An estimated 40,000 people living in Britain are now HIV-positive. As many as one in three of these do not realise they have the disease.

Complicated issue

There is no clear explanation for the sharp rise of recent years. For instance, there is little evidence to suggest it can be attributed to more people engaging in casual sex.

"Changes in sexual behaviour are not sufficient to explain the increase in sexually transmitted infections," says Dr Roger Ingham of the Centre for Sexual Health Research at the University of Southampton. "It may be the case that more people are engaging in casual sex. However, the rise in STIs is so high that it cannot be explained by this."

Key statistics

• HIV: 4,419 cases - up 17%
• Syphilis: 715 cases - up 119%
• G'rhoea: 22,697 cases - up 7%
• Chlamydia: 71,125 - up 10%
• Herpes: 17,850 - up 5%
• Warts: 67,672 - up 2%

A big rise in sex diseases in England threatens to cause a public health crisis, warns the architect of the government's sexual health strategy. Professor Michael Adler is the latest expert to warn that growing levels of complacency about safe sex could have serious consequences. His comments come as a separate study shows that lesbian and bisexual woman often fail to take adequate precautions to protect themselves from sexually transmitted disease.

Although the rate of STI transmission among lesbian and bisexual women is relatively low, the report suggests that women who think they face no risk are wrong.

Writing in the medical journal, Sexually Transmitted Infections, Professor Adler, of the Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, paints a dismal picture of the nation's declining sexual health over the past decade. He points to the government's failure to deliver on all the sexual health targets set out in its publication, The Health of the Nation, in 1992.

There has been an upsurge in chlamydial and gonococcal bacterial infections of well over 70% since 1997.

Cases of HIV and Aids are set to rise almost 10% a year, and to double between 1997 and 2005. Syphilis has risen 374% since 1997, with an increase of 112% alone between 2000 and 2001.

In addition, the teenage pregnancy rate of 8.3 per 1,000 in 2000, is well below the Health of the Nation target of 4.8 per 1,000.

Professor Adler said the £47.5m the government has allocated for its sexual health strategy, announced in 2000, won't even cover one aspect of the strategy - the chlamydial screening programme. He warned sexual health clinics are struggling to cope with demand - with some people in large urban centres forced to wait over a month for an appointment. And he said consultant expansion in genitourinary medicine was currently 90% below target.

He said: "It is no exaggeration that we now face a public health crisis in relation to sexual health. "Sexual health is not an NHS or political priority. Until it becomes so, we will witness further failure upon further failure."

A Department of Health spokesman said a 10-year action plan had been put in place, but it was unrealistic to expect quick fixes.

He said: "We must both improve and modernise services, and also seek to change individual behaviour."

Lesbian survey

The same issue of the journal carries a survey of the sexual experiences of over 1,200 lesbian and bisexual women.

Among the 328 women asked about safer sex practices, a third who had had penetrative sex with men had never used a condom. And over 85% of lesbians engaging in oral sex with other women did not use dental dams. A dental dam is basically a small sheet of latex which acts as a barrier between the vagina or anus and the mouth.

In addition, one in five of those sharing sex toys said they did not wash them before sharing.

Although uncommon, women can pass on sexually transmitted infections to other women, including herpes, trichomoniasis, papilloma virus, syphilis, HIV and bacterial vaginosis.

The survey also found that the first sexual experience for many lesbians is with a man. One in four lesbians and almost a third (29%) of bisexual women had been pregnant. The average number of sexual partners in the preceding year was one, the survey showed.

15 April, 2003

BBC news

Every pregnant woman is offered an Aids test as part of their ante-natal care. But for some women the result is not the reassuring negative for which they had hoped. As well as coping with the reality that they have HIV and how it will affect themselves and their unborn children, the women also have to consider whether to tell their partners. Many fear their partners, particularly if they are negative themselves, will leave them. They fear rejection and anger. But a study of three years of data at North Middlesex University could offer a glimmer of hope to the women facing this agonising dilemma.

Hospital staff studied 59 HIV positive pregnant women and found that despite their diagnosis two thirds of the women stayed with their partners. Study author Dr Chris Wood, consultant HIV physician at North Middlesex and St Anns, said the results had surprised them.
"We were surprised initially. "I had not wanted to put people off testing and was concerned about putting up the results, but then when we looked at the figures we realised that most people actually stayed together."

Now the statistics are to be used to reassure other HIV positive people worried about telling their partners. Gus Cairns, of Positive Nation, an HIV and sexual health magazine, said they were quoting the statistics in a new pamphlet aimed at helping the newly diagnosed.
"In terms of encouraging people who do test positive it does send out a positive message and we hope it will give people hope. "We are preparing a pamphlet aimed at newly diagnosed people and one of the questions we cover is should you tell a partner and we quote the statistics from Chris Wood."

Dr Wood said hospital policy was to encourage disclosure of HIV status to partners to avoid further infections. But he realised that in some cases this was very difficult. He said that most of the patients testing positive in his clinic were African in origin and some had either lost touch with their partners or had been raped. Others had partners still living in their homeland, where HIV drugs were unavailable and they were reluctant to tell their partner as they feared little could be done to help them.

Dr Wood stressed it was important to deal with each case on an individual basis and said they would not force people to tell their partner.
"We are in a very awkward position and have to deal with each case as it comes. "I do always advocate that the women tell their partner. "But there is no easy way round it. In the end it will probably be solved by people being sued if they do not tell their partner they are HIV positive."

He said that although most couples stayed together the relationships could be very strained.

One case that graphically illustrates the difficult dilemma faced by pregnant women is that of Praise, from central Africa. She was diagnosed HIV positive when 22 weeks pregnant. Although she quickly came to terms with her diagnosis she delayed telling her husband and avoided having sex with him. When she did tell him about her status he refused to get himself tested. And even though she wanted herself and her child to get all the treatment available, he forbade this and she was too scared to disobey him. She dropped out of the system and did not contact the clinic again until she was 32 weeks pregnant. At the last moment the father agreed to interventions and fortunately the baby was born uninfected.

BBC news

Scientists believe they could be a step closer to developing a new way of stopping the transmission of HIV without using condoms.

Researchers from the US and Britain found for the first time that a microbicide - a chemical that kills microorganisms - can block the spread of the virus which can lead to Aids.

Correspondents say the research - published in the Journal Nature Medicine - could eventually benefit women whose partners refuse to use condoms.

Recent figures show that women are being hit hardest by the HIV epidemic, with the number of women infected with the virus increasing steadily worldwide.

Simian tests
The microbicides - possibly in the form of gels, foam sponges or pessaries - could be used by women before sexual intercourse.

They work to stop the virus from getting near the vulnerable cells it infects and increasing the body's defences.

In this case, the scientists applied a microbicide gel which contained a human antibody in the vaginas of macaque monkeys. They found that the gel protected the macaques from infection with the simian HIV virus for more than seven hours.

Wider protection
It is estimated there are now two million more women with HIV in Africa than men.

This is despite the fact that Aids agencies believe that more than half of all women in sub-Saharan Africa tend to have only one sexual partner - most often their husband. They are at risk of infection if their partners are not monogamous and if they refuse to use condoms.

Specialists say that microbicides offer more choice and control than other HIV barriers. Among other things, they remove the stigma which is often attached to using condoms.

Research has shown that women and their partners in both the developed and the developing world want this type of product for HIV prevention. BBC science reporter Ania Lichtarowicz says microbicides could also help women in industrialised countries.

Some of the 60 compounds now being tested can also be used as contraceptives, while others protect against sexually transmitted diseases like chlamydia and gonorrhoea - which are growing problems in developed countries.

BBC news

The former madam of a Dutch escort agency has opened a "Hanky Panky School" for prostitutes to teach the world's oldest profession how to make more money. Elene Vis -- whose frank autobiography "Escort Queen with Turbopower" made her a Dutch tabloid darling -- opened the school last week in a luxury Amsterdam canal house to offer prostitutes "exclusive sales training" to boost their business. "You could call it sales techniques. You have to sell yourself and it doesn't matter if you sell your body or you sell vacuum cleaners. The principle is exactly the same," Vis, 43, said on Monday.

The Netherlands, where brothels are legal and prostitutes pay tax, is renowned for its tolerant attitude to sex and soft drugs. The capital's red light district and its bustling coffee shops are tourist attractions that make millions a year.

Vis, once dubbed "The Five-Star Madam", ran a firm providing expensive escorts to wealthy clients for 20 years. She said the men and women prostitutes who worked for her agency could make about 6,000 euros (dollars) a month for 40 hours work.

"We train prostitutes to get a better life and more money out of their work," Vis said of the 450-euros course at what she called her "educational institute" providing video presentations and tutorials on positive thinking and Kama Sutra.

At least 10 people have already signed up for the course with dozens of other queries flooding in to her office, she said. "I teach them everything in half a day but if they have questions they can call me," Vis said.

Vis said communication and presentation skills -- including how to dress -- were a key part of the course she runs, employing experts to tackle different subjects. "Everybody can be beautiful. You have to know what your strong points are and your lesser points. You have to realise how you look. How other people see you."

Vis said positive thinking and confidence was important and that escorts could make a lot of money by ensuring clients spent as much time with them as possible. "If a man wants sex he will do anything to please you to get what he wants and that's the sex. So what he starts to do is bring you flowers, bring you chocolates, take you out for dinner, all those kind of things," Vis said.

"With 10 minutes of sex you cannot make a lot of money." The school also offers help with sexual and relationship problems, as well as courses on how to snare millionaires.

Prostitution has been protected by law in the Netherlands for almost 200 years. In 1988 it was officially defined as a legal profession and prostitutes joined the service sector union. They have paid income tax since 1996 and brothels were legalised in 2001.

7 April 2003