Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skywatcher who wrote (80375)	5/22/2007 1:36:34 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 93284

nice healthcare here. Cruel twist leaves women's lives in the balance A Canadian man willingly spread HIV to several unknowing partners. Now, one of them faces deportation back to Kenya By LISA PRIEST AND MARINA JIMÉNEZ Monday, May 14, 2007 Page A10$ With a report from Johanna Boffa A Kenyan woman who came to this country in search of a better life, only to become infected with the AIDS virus in a sexual assault by a Canadian man, faces possible deportation for being a burden on the health-care system. The 29-year-old, who cannot be named due to a court-ordered publication ban, was infected more than five years ago by Adrien Sylver Nduwayo, who is now serving the toughest prison sentence in Canada - 15 years - for intentionally infecting others with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. In the process, the Vancouver-area nurse and mother of two has become a victim not only of Mr. Nduwayo's crime but of the immigration system. That's because some HIV immigrants with significant health needs, such as requiring many months of costly antiretroviral therapy, can be deemed a burden on the health-care system. This victim of crime could face a one-way trip back to Kenya, where access to antiretroviral medication is uncertain. Advertisements Click Heread1 Register ad1 "It's just not right," the woman said. "It was a deliberate spread, it was very devastating. It still upsets me to think about it." But had she been a refugee as Mr. Nduwayo once was, she would have access to the best the Canadian health-care system has to offer. By the late 1990s, he had become a Canadian citizen. Individuals seeking permanent residence in Canada who are assessed as likely to pose an excessive demand on Canadian health and social services - determined as costing $20,285 or more in health and social services over a five-year period - are considered inadmissible on health grounds, according to Mélanie Carkner, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada. In fact, in sentencing Mr. Nduwayo, Mr. Justice John Truscott of the B.C. Supreme Court noted that the Kenyan woman "is not allowed to emigrate to Canada as a skilled worker, and may not be allowed to stay in the country the next time she has to apply for a work permit. Even if she can remain in the country, she may not be able to continue working as a nurse." The Kenyan woman knows she is in legal jeopardy. "I don't know what the decision is going to be for my immigration," she confirmed in a telephone interview. "... I went to see two lawyers who said: 'There is no way you would be allowed to immigrate.' " With her dreams of travelling the world as a nurse gone, her day-to-day struggle is focused on survival. There are weekly doctor appointments, tests for liver and pancreas function and drugs to keep the disease - which would otherwise kill her - at bay. At one point, her CD4 count was as low as 190; in a recent interview she said it was up to 260. CD4 cells are an important type of white blood cell and are part of the body's defence against infection. HIV attacks CD4 cells and uses them to make more copies of HIV. In doing so, the CD4 cell becomes unable to do its job of protecting the body. Though a normal count in a healthy, HIV-negative adult can vary, it usually hovers between 600 and 1,200 CD4 cells per cubic millimetre of blood. It is a horrific predicament and cruelly paradoxical, given that she emigrated disease-free from Kenya, where AIDS is endemic. Although it is impossible to know precisely how much transmission occurs on Canadian soil, one researcher estimates as many as one-third of infected people in Ontario from Africa and the Caribbean actually contract HIV here. "People from HIV-endemic regions are the fastest-growing group in terms of prevalence," said Robert Remis, a University of Toronto professor who leads the Ontario HIV Epidemiologic Monitoring Unit. "They [provincial and federal authorities] have been slow to recognize this as an important public health issue." Prevalence of HIV in Ontario among people from Africa and the Caribbean increased by 82 per cent in the five years from 1999 to 2004. About 15 per cent of Ontario's 24,250 HIV-infected persons are now among people from these countries - the second-largest group after gay men. Nationally, the figure is about 12 per cent, although people from HIV-endemic countries account for just 2 per cent of the population.