NUSA
DUA, Indonesia (AFP) - The News (Updated
August 16, 2009)
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Aug 10, 2009
NUSA
DUA, Indonesia (AFP) - The
Around 565,000 people in
the region are already receiving treatment, UNAIDS regional director Prasada Rao
said, adding he was "confident" of getting the medicine to another
half-a-million people by 2011.
"We're half-way
through. There are still about 500,000 more who need to be covered by
antiretroviral treatment (before we) reach the universal access target," he
told reporters on the sidelines of the ninth International Congress on AIDS in
Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in Bali, Indonesia.
An estimated five million
Asians are living with HIV, many of them in
"At any one point, 20
percent (of the people living with HIV) would be needing treatment," he
said.
The one-million figure
means "the region will be able to achieve something substantial in terms of
putting people on treatment" even though "new infections continue to
occur", he said.
"I'm very confident
we will be able to achieve it... because more money is coming from global
funding," he added.
Michel Kazatchkine, who
heads the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said nearly 1.5
billion dollars will go towards helping countries worldwide combat HIV/AIDS this
year and next.
One-fifth of the HIV/AIDS
budget goes to Asia Pacific countries, he said, adding that the money will be
split "50-50 between prevention and treatment" of the disease.
Rao told reporters that up
to 80 percent of HIV-positive people in
Delegates from 65 nations
are attending the meeting, which runs until Thursday, to discuss topics ranging
from HIV risks among migrant workers to the impact of the financial crisis on
those with the disease.
By EDITH M. LEDERER,
Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer Tue Aug 11
UNITED NATIONS – An
estimated 50 million women in
The report produced by the
Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, known as UNAIDS, and its partner
organizations said the HIV epidemics in Asia vary between countries but are
fueled by unprotected paid sex, the sharing of contaminated needles by drug
users, and unprotected sex among men who have sex with men.
Men who buy sex constitute
the largest infected population group and the report said most of them are
either married or will get married.
"This puts a
significant number of women, often perceived as 'low-risk' because they only
have sex with their husbands or long-term partners, at risk of HIV
infection," UNAIDS said in a news release.
According to a report last
year on the global AIDS epidemic, an estimated 5 million people in
The new report, released
Tuesday at the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in
UNAIDS estimated that more
than 90 per cent of the 1.7 million women living with HIV in
According to the report,
at least 75 million men regularly buy sex from sex workers in
UNAIDS said many of these
men are in steady relationships and it is estimated that 50 million women in the
region are at risk of acquiring HIV from their partners.
"HIV prevention
programs focused on the female partners of men with high-risk behaviors still
have not found a place in national HIV plans and priorities in Asian
countries," Dr. Prasada Rao, director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team
Asia and the Pacific said at the launch of the report, according to a U.N.
release.
The report notes that the
strong patriarchal culture in Asian countries severely limits a woman's ability
to control her sex life.
While society tolerates
extramarital sex and multiple partners for men, women are generally expected to
refrain from sex until marriage and remain monogamous afterward, it said.
"Discrimination and
violence against women and girls, endemic to our social fabric, are both the
cause and consequence of AIDS," Jean D'Cunha,
The report calls for stepped up efforts to prevent HIV infections for men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, and clients of female sex workers. It said that programs should emphasize the importance of protecting their regular female partners.
12 Aug 2009 15:42:21 GMT
BALI,
12 August 2009 (IRIN) - An estimated 50 million women in Asia are at risk of
contracting HIV from male partners who engage in risky sexual behaviours, says a
new UNAIDS report released at the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and
the Pacific (ICAAP) in Bali, Indonesia, this week.
The report, HIV
Transmission in Intimate Partner Relationships in Asia, cites evidence from
several Asian countries indicating that most women are acquiring HIV as a result
of their partner's sexual behaviour, not their own: of the 1.7 million women
living with HIV in Asia, more than 90 percent are thought to have acquired the
virus from their husbands or long-term boyfriends.
"HIV and intimate
partner transmission is nothing new - it was previously recognized under the
term 'spousal infection'," said Dr Prasado Rao, director of the UNAIDS
Regional Support Team for
"However, we need to
expand this term to include MSM [men who have sex with men] - who are not gay
but have sex with both female and male partners - injecting drug users, and
clients of sex workers."
The drivers of the HIV
epidemic in
The Commission on AIDS in
Men who buy sex constitute
the largest HIV-infected population group; most are either married or will get
married, increasing the HIV risk for a significant number of women previously
perceived as "low risk".
Secrecy often surrounds
MSM behaviour so it is difficult to determine the precise number, but the
Commission put the figure at around 16 million. Many are either married or have
regular female partners, but do not always identify themselves as bisexual.
An estimated four million
injecting drug users add to the number of men at higher risk of HIV infection
who may pass the virus to their female partners.
Patriarchal culture
The strong patriarchal
culture in Asian countries severely limits women's ability to negotiate safe sex
in relationships; while multiple partners and extramarital affairs are tolerated
for men, women are expected to abstain from sex until marriage and then remain
faithful to their husbands.
In
Studies show that by 2008,
women constituted 35 percent of all adult HIV infections in
"These women are a
tragic reminder of the deeply engrained social construction of gender, which
enables terrible acts to be perpetrated on women across the region, which
tolerates extra marital sex and multiple sex partners for men, and which fails
to enable women to negotiate safe sex and protect themselves from HIV,"
said Rao of UNAIDS.
Domestic violence
The UNAIDS report also
indicated that up to 65 percent of women in
A demographic and health
survey in
"Risks for women
living with HIV are different and very high - they become exposed to domestic
violence, experience disinheritance, and are sometimes disowned by their
families," said Jean D'Cunha, regional director of the UN Development Fund
for Women (UNIFEM).
D'Cunha noted that women
who were married or in long-term relationships were being largely bypassed by
current HIV/AIDS interventions, and called for a gender-based response to the
problem of HIV transmission among intimate partners.
"Discrimination and violence against women and girls, endemic to our social fabric, are both the cause and consequences of AIDS," he said. "Striking at the root of gender inequalities and striving to transform male behaviours are key to effectively addressing the pandemic."
12 Aug 2009 13:08:21 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Tan Ee Lyn
BALI, Indonesia, Aug 12
(Reuters) - Up to a quarter of a million women and girls in Southeast Asia,
mostly adolescents, are forced into prostitution each year and face violence and
the prospect of contracting HIV/AIDS, researchers said on Wednesday.
The researchers, in a
report documenting criminal activity in
Trafficking victims, many
of them aged 12 to 16, are raped, locked up, denied food, water and medical care
or forced to take narcotics and alcohol, they said.
"Victims of
trafficking suffer horrendous, horrendous violations of human rights,
deprivations of the most basic human dignity. It's a form of enslavement,"
said Jay Silverman, an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public
Health.
Narcotics and alcohol were
used in
Caitlin Wiesen, an HIV
expert at the U.N. Development Programme, said most victims were lured away by
promises of jobs as domestic workers or in restaurants to end up in brothels
where they faced "extreme situations of violence and exploitation.
"
The study, entitled
"Sex trafficking and STI/HIV in
It found that in
In
The researchers said the
financial crisis would prompt more women to look abroad for jobs, making them
easy prey.
"They are getting
more desperate and travelling under more unsafe circumstances that make them
terribly vulnerable to unsafe migration, HIV and exploitation such as
trafficking," Wiesen said.
Rosilyne Borland of the
International Organisation for Migration said criminals "take advantage of
places where people are looking for work, places where people need to go find a
better life".
The researchers called for
a dialogue between the United Nations, non-governmental organisations and law
enforcement agencies. Police had to be "sensitised" to the problem and
avoid raids and imprisonment which would only drive the activity further
underground.
(15-08-2009)
|
|
|
Students
in |
The young man burst into
tears as he asked these questions of social workers during a forum for homeless
teenagers at HCM City Open University yesterday.
The youth, who is a drug
addict and also HIV positive, was one of many people who expressed high anxiety
about their state of health and the future that awaits them.
The seminar seeking to
promote a healthy life for street teenagers in the city was organised by the
university’s Centre for Applied Social Work.
More than 60 street teens
addicted to drugs or infected with HIV or both were invited to listen to doctors
and social workers on how to quit their drug habits and get information about
organisations that could support them.
Several such seminars have
been held over the past year under a project launched by the university to help
more young addicts to kick their habit and give them the information needed to
prevent epidemics, especially of sexually transmitted diseases.
Lost limbs
Dr Nguyen Dang Phan of the
During 2004 and 2006, he
had witnessed 85 HIV/AIDS patients die at the Mai Khoi Charity Medical Centre.
Ninety-three per cent of them were male drug users.
Phan said 66 per cent of
HIV positive people were infected through drug abuse, and 18 per cent got the
virus through unsafe sexual intercourse.
About 70 per cent of them
are from poor or broken families, he said.
Le Thi My Hien, director
of the Centre for Applied Social Work and sociology lecturer at the university,
said a group of 15 former drug users was established under the project last
September.
They were given the
responsibility of inviting other drug-using teenagers they know to join the club
for further support.
"On a weekday, the
teenagers walk around parks and public places to encourage their peers to stop
the habit. So far, more than 700 teenagers have been brought to the club for
frequent information exchanges with socials workers and health experts,"
Hien said.
Every week, a volunteer
introduces 15 to 25 teenagers to the centre. Its target this year is to help
more than 1,000 people.
Join the club
Le Minh Thien, a 19-year
-old street boy, said he has been homeless since he was 12, when his parents
divorced. He sells lottery tickets, newspapers and polishes shoes to feed
himself.
"I have used drugs
for four months but I decided to stop. This is the first time I am coming here.
I will ask my friends to join the club," Thien said. — VNS
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated
Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer Mon Aug 10, 6:20 am ET
LUANDA
Clinton, the first
secretary of state to visit
She also met with
President Eduardo dos
In the Congolese capital
of
While in the eastern city
of Goma, Clinton also plans to meet Congolese President Joseph Kabila to press
him and his government on democratic reform and fighting corruption in the wake
of a brutal conflict that at its height drew in a half dozen of the country's
neighbors.
On Sunday, she urged
Angola's government to build on successful legislative elections held in 2008
— the first in 16 years — by holding presidential elections as soon as
possible and dealing with the legacy of 27 years of civil war.
"We look forward to
"So, Mr. Minister, we
have our work cut out for us," she said.
But
"I am not looking at
what anyone else does in
Despite its oil wealth,
The war ended in 2002, leading to major energy sector investments. But the country ranks near the bottom of U.N. development statistics and the gap between rich and poor is among the worst in the world.
By
Tan Ee Lyn
BALI, Indonesia, Aug 12
(Reuters) - A small band of protesters holding aloft a banner disrupted a large
HIV/AIDS conference in Indonesia on Wednesday to demand access to drugs to treat
HIV patients dying from Hepatitis C.
The World Health
Organisation says 4-5 million people living with HIV/AIDS around the world are
also infected with hepatitis C, a disease that can cause liver failure.
"Hepatitis C +
silence = death," read the banner carried by protesters accusing
pharmaceutical giant Roche AG of setting the price of a drug to fight Hepatitis
C virus (HCV) too high for dying patients to afford.
Protesters said pegylated
interferon, a drug marketed by Roche and intended to flush out the virus, costs
$1,500 a month.
"Shame on you Roche,
shame on you!" they chanted.
Roche was not immediately
available for comment.
Most people infected with
both HIV and Hepatitis C are injecting drug users. Both diseases are blood borne
and transmission is through the sharing of used needles and other equipment,
even cotton swabs.
Although international
health agencies and governments have sought to make HIV drugs available to
sufferers, high costs limit access to treatment for hepatitis C in most
countries.
According to the WHO,
injecting drug users are excluded from treatment in many countries due to fears
of the interaction between drugs and the likelihood of reinfection.
But Nanao Haobam, who is
infected with both viruses, said such an approach was untenable as patients were
dying.
"In my community back
home, I have seen more than 50 (HIV positive) people die because of HCV. There
must be many more than that," he said.
Haobam, 38, is a former
injecting drug user and now an HIV/AIDS activist in
"I was on treatment,
but that didn't get rid of all the HCV. I recently saw a doctor and he advised
me to start treatment for hepatitis as I am now in the initial stage of
cirrhosis," he said.
"But I just can't
afford it, I have to leave this matter in the mercy of God."
Failure to treat
cirrhosis, the hardening of the liver, will lead to a patient requiring a
transplant or dying.
The prevalence of chronic
HCV infection among patients with HIV in western Europe and the
Co-infection rates average
over 40 percent in eastern Europe and extend to 70 to 95 percent in
"If governments can't
make the drug available, the least they can do is to get rid of the patent, so
that generic versions can be made," Haobam said.
Thu Aug 13
The American Civil
Liberties Union has fought to end the practice for decades and on Thursday
praised the Alabama Department of Corrections for doing so this week.
Corrections officials say
all eligible prisoners with HIV have been approved to participate in the work
release program.
Margaret Winter, associate
director of the ACLU National Prison Project, said the organization is thrilled
with what she called an overdue change.
Work release allows
eligible inmates to hold free-world jobs, earn money, wear plain clothes and
spend the day without supervision of corrections staff.
Sun Aug 16,
12:07 am ET
HAVANA
Cubans aged 19 to 24 are
at the greatest risk of infection, said Jorge Perez, deputy director of the
Tropical Medicine Institute in Havana, warning of the dangers of unprotected
sex.
"This is something
that tends to happen more to young people because of the dynamism of youth, not
thinking about the future and only about the present... Having a no-fear
attitude and doing things that are risky," he told local television in this
communist country of 11 million people.
"We must tell you
beware, because there is danger in trust."
Of the total of 11,469
cases of HIV infections recorded in
The national anti-AIDS
program offers free medical care and antiretroviral therapy, out of six
Cuban-manufactured generic drugs
