Uh ohhh...don't like the sound of this...

Australian leader: HIV-positive immigrants should not be allowed

Prime Minister John Howard said Friday people with the AIDS virus should not be allowed to migrate to Australia, and the government was investigating whether it could tighten existing restrictions. The comments triggered anger among AIDS workers, who accused Howard of xenophobia and of blaming sufferers for their illness.

Asked in a radio interview whether people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, should be allowed into Australia as migrants or refugees, Howard said he would like to take "more counsel" on the issue but added, "My initial reaction is no." However, he said there may be "humanitarian considerations" in certain cases.

"I think we should have the most stringent possible conditions in relation to that nationwide, and I know the health minister is concerned about that and is examining ways of tightening things up," Howard said.

Howard was asked about the issue during a visit to Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, where the state health minister said this week that 70 of the 334 new HIV infection cases reported in Victoria in 2006 were among immigrants who had arrived in the country with the virus.

Australia has long had restrictions on people who try to immigrate who have health problems that could threaten to spread disease or impose an additional burden on the public health system.

Don Baxter of the nongovernment group the Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations said HIV tests are already among health checks for prospective immigrants and that most HIV-positive applicants are rejected. "It's very tight already," Baxter told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Chris Lemoh, an infectious disease specialist who is working on a doctorate on the spread of AIDS among African immigrants in Victoria, said excluding people with HIV should be condemned. "It's a hysterical overreaction, it mixes racism with a phobia about infectious disease," he said. "To not allow people to come on the basis of any health condition is immoral. It's unethical, and it's impractical to enforce."

Many countries, including the United States, impose restrictions on immigration and visa approvals for people with HIV, though there are often exceptions in special cases.

AIDS was first diagnosed in Australia in the early 1980s, and the disease has mostly been concentrated in large cities such as Sydney and among people belonging to high-risk groups such as gay men and needle-sharing drug addicts.

The National Center for HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research said in an October 2006 report that since it was first detected, 25,703 infections had been reported in Australia, of which 9,827 people developed full-blown AIDS and 6,621 had died. (Rohan Sullivan, AP)

Sooo, it's been awhile

Yes, it appears that it's been awhile since I've last blogged. I do hope everyone is doing well. Hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter holiday. I myself have had a great few days off. Here in Australia, everyone has Good Friday off, and most people get Easter Monday off. And as it is Tuesday, and I'm still at home, I was able to get a "flexi" day today...so I'm thoroughly enjoying my 5 day weekend.

I stareted to get a headache last night, and I think it's my mind telling me that it knows it has to go back to work tomorrow. And ohhh the work that I will have to come back to. ::raises hands up in the air:: I guess that is my own punishment for taking an extra day off, from a long weekend.

A part of me is stressing, because a colleague of mine (bless his soul) put in his resignation, and his last day is in Friday. Now, what is going to happen to his caseload, no one knows. No one has told us anything, and frankly, I don't think anyone knows what is going to happen. We most likely won't find out, until Friday, his last day ::shaking head::

Work has been getting the better of me lately. I've moved into my team, which is not a problem. But I don't have the support like I did when I was within my other team. It's still new, and I know everyone else has their own work to do, but it's just "different."

Another friend of mine, who I will sadly miss when she leaves, I think will be putting in her resignation in the next couple of weeks. She's soooo ready to get outta here, and I don't blame her. She hasn't been happy, and her team leader hasn't been giving her the support that she really needs. I feel for her, and will miss her dearly. But in truth, I think think management needs to do some hard evaluating, just for the simple fact, that in the past 6 months, we have had so many people leave. Management says that we have the lowest turn over rate, but that's b/c we have the biggest department. We may have less people who leave the company, but it's so much harder to hire someone and keep them. Our department has always struggled, but yet nothing is being done to figure out why (i.e. pay increase would be nice....hint hint).

Hmm, so what else has been going on? My mum rang me on the phone last weekend, for the first time EVER. I've been with my partner for over 7 years now..and this is the first time she's rang me from home. I'm quite happy and quite proud that she rang me. It will be my turn next, which will be Mother's Day, or around there. But we actually met up yesterday on the webcam, which was nice. Everyone seems to be doing well.

Around here, things were pretty full on this weekend. We had a Good Friday afternoon tea, then Saturday, was my sister in law's 44th birthday party. It's a good thing we've had a few extra days to settle down. Lucky for my partner, she gets all of this week off. And let me tell you, she's milking it for all it's worth ::laughing lightly::

We were going to look for a kitten today, but my partner has to go to the doctor for her 3 month checkup. She had a biopsy done on her breast, and everything was okay back in December. But they wanted her to come back just as a final check up I guess. So once again, the search for a kitten has been put on hold.

Will most likely get another tattoo, within the next few weeks. My partner and I were busy coloring and designing our tattoos. I found a really cool design online, and was busy making it look pretty. I'm hoping it get it in the next few weeks...we'll see.

Well, I will close for now...until next time folks!!