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Letting “gorgeous” Charlie go is “the hardest thing we’ll ever have to do”, his parents say.

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The first day of a woman’s period can be challenging and uncomfortable.

Besides painful cramps some women find it embarrassing and a feeling of the “blues” often kicks in. To make matters worse, women don’t always feel comfortable asking for sick leave related to their period.

Now international media company Culture Machine’s Mumbai office is implementing a new policy, offering their female employees leave for the first day of their period.

Not too long after the organisation made the announcement, Mathrubhumi News Channel in Kerala implemented the same policy.

This is revolutionary because in certain parts of India or more specifically where “Chhaupadi” is practised, women are not allowed to live in the family home or participate in family activities for the duration of their menstruation cycle, because they are considered dirty or impure.

‘That time of the month’

Cuture Machine created a short video speaking to a few of their female employees about “that time of the month” and what they have to endure – physically and from other people, like their colleagues.

In the viral clip, Devleena Majumder, president of human resources for the company, says that the first day of menstruation is very uncomfortable for many women, and that it shouldn’t be an embarrassment, but rather accepted as part of life.

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#FOPLeave

In an interview with Mirror Now, CEO and Co-Founder of Culture Machine, Sameer Pitalwalla said they are not concerned about numerous employees taking off at once, but rather that they take time off to recover – whether physically or mentally.

Pitalwalla’s thoughts around what the company have dubbed #FOPLeave are similar to those of Olark’s founder and CEO Ben Congleton’s when his employee, Madalyn Parker, said she was taking a few days sick leave to focus on her mental health.

After emailing her boss, Parker was very taken with his response and proceeded to share it on Twitter. It was retweeted several times and Congleton was commended on being such a good boss.

Surviving your menses

Many women suffer from premenstrual syndrome, where they experience mood swings and become irritable and emotional. They may also experience physical changes, such as bloating and breast tenderness. Because of temporary hormonal changes, they may also crave certain foods.

Once a woman’s period starts, the PMS usually dissipates, but it could be replaced by cramps and diarrhoea. This can however often be alleviated by over-the-counter pain medications, applying heat or exercise.

If you suffer from unbearably painful menstrual cycles, you should consider consulting your gynaecologist.

Sick leave in South Africa

According to South African labour law, employers are compelled to give employees paid sick leave, and it’s in employees’ best interest to take their annual leave in order to improve wellness and avoid illness or “burnout”.

Read more:

‘I’m taking a mental health day’

SEE: How long should you stay home when you’re sick?

This is why you must take annual leave

A South African child born with the Aids virus has kept the infection suppressed for more than eight years after stopping anti-HIV medicines – more evidence that early treatment can occasionally cause a long remission that, if it lasts, would be a form of cure.

The case was revealed on Monday at an Aids conference in Paris, where researchers also gave encouraging results from tests of shots every month or two instead of daily pills to treat HIV.

“That’s very promising” to help people stay on treatment, US top Aids scientist, Dr Anthony Fauci, said of the prospects for long-acting drugs.

Early treatment

Current treatments keep HIV under control but must be taken lifelong. Only one person is thought to be cured – the so-called Berlin patient, a man who had a bone marrow transplant in 2007 from a donor with natural resistance to HIV.

But transplants are risky and impractical to try to cure the millions already infected. So some researchers have been aiming for the next best thing – long-term remission, when the immune system can control HIV without drugs even if signs of the virus remain.

Aggressive treatment soon after infection might enable that in some cases, and the South African girl is the third child who achieved a long remission after that approach.

The child was in a study sponsored by the agency Fauci heads, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, that previously found that early versus delayed treatment helped babies survive.

The child, who was not identified by researchers, started HIV drugs at two months old and stopped 40 weeks later. Tests when the child was nine-and-a-half years old found signs of virus in a small number of immune system cells, but none capable of reproducing. The child does not have a gene mutation that gives natural resistance to HIV infection, Fauci said, so her remission seems likely due to the early treatment.

The previous cases:

– A French teen who was born with HIV and is now around 20 has had her infection under control despite no HIV medicines since she was roughly six years old.

– A Mississippi baby born with HIV in 2010 suppressed her infection for 27 months after stopping treatment before it reappeared in her blood. She was able to get the virus under control again after treatment resumed.

At least a dozen adults also have had remissions lasting for years after stopping HIV medicines.

A study underway now is testing whether treating HIV-infected newborns within two days of birth can control the virus later after treatment stops. It started in 2014 in South America, Haiti, Africa and the United States, and some of the earliest participants might be able to try stopping treatment later this year.

‘Huge impact’

Treatment might get easier if two large studies underway now confirm results reported on Monday from a study testing a long-acting combo of two HIV drugs – Janssen’s rilpivirine and ViiV Healthcare’s cabotegravir.

Cabotegravir is experimental; rilpivirine is sold now as Edurant and used in combination with other drugs for treating certain types of HIV patients.

After initial treatment to get their virus under control, about 300 study participants were given either daily combination therapy pills or a shot every four or eight weeks of the long-acting drug duo to maintain control.

After nearly two years, 94% on eight-week shots, 87% on four-week shots and 84% on daily pills had their infections suppressed, with similar rates of side effects.

“The results were good regardless of whether people came monthly or every two months for their treatment. This has important policy implications,” said Dr Linda-Gail Bekker, deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town, and a co-leader of the conference.

The study was sponsored by the drugmakers. Results were published in the British medical journal Lancet.

Two large studies aimed at winning approval to sell the treatment are testing the monthly shots. Janssen said in a statement that good results from eight-week shots warrant reconsidering the longer approach.

If it works, “this will have a huge impact on how we manage that very important group of people who are not able to access and take drugs on a day-to-day basis,” such as those with mental health or drug abuse problems, said Dr Steven Deeks, an Aids specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.

Read more:

Early HIV treatment best

Rapid HIV treatment points to ‘functional cure’

TB drug hampers HIV treatment

A change to the screening system is thought to be the cause as fewer staff are replaced when they leave.

The nine-year-old has no active HIV in the body after catching the infection at birth.