JOHANNESBURGNews (Updated
November 8, 2009)
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By Laura MacInnis
Reuters
In the WHO Bulletin, a
journal produced by the World Health Organization, Xiang-Sheng Chen of
While
"The areas with
higher syphilis prevalence are usually places where the economy is booming but
where there is also greater economic inequality, such as the south-eastern
coastal areas," Chen said.
The Chinese CDC's deputy
director for sexually transmitted disease control said there were 278,215
officially reported syphilis infections in 2008, triple the number from 2004 and
a tenfold increase over the past decade.
"On average, syphilis
cases are increasing by 30 percent a year across the nation," he said.
MIGRANT WORKERS
Much of the rise has come
from unsafe practices of migrant workers, including men who left their wives
back in their home villages and solicit sex from prostitutes who do not use
condoms, Chen said.
Fears of stigma and a lack
of privacy have also kept many patients from going to seek treatment for
syphilis and other sexual infections which can make people more likely to catch
and spread HIV/AIDS, according to the Chinese expert.
There are no national
statistics on how many people in
Globally, the WHO
estimates that there are at least 340 million new cases of curable sexually
transmitted infections -- such as syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia and
trichomoniasis -- every year among people aged 15 to 49.
Infection with sexually
transmitted infections can cause acute symptoms, chronic infections and delayed
consequences including infertility, ectopic pregnancy and cervical cancer.
Michel Sidibe, the head of
the U.N. program UNAIDS, and his colleague Kent Buse appealed in a separate WHO
Bulletin article on Tuesday for more collaboration between work on HIV/AIDS and
sexually transmitted infection worldwide.
Pregnant women and their
partners should be offered HIV screening as well as services to prevent sexual
infections as part of their regular treatment, they recommended, saying:
"The moment is right to take the AIDS response out of isolation."
Copyright 2009 Reuters
News Service. All rights reserved.
By DONNA BRYSON,
Associated Press Writer Donna Bryson, Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 5,
2009
JOHANNESBURG
Medecins Sans Frontieres
campaigners said at a news conference in
HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS, is a major concern in sub-Saharan
"We think we are at a
very dangerous turning point," said Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer, director
of the aid group's campaign to provide essential medicines. "The donors are
getting cold feet about commitment to longterm, chronic disease."
He said he has been told
that donors wanted to spend on "cheap and easy" illnesses rather than
AIDS, which can mean a lifelong commitment to providing expensive drugs.
A spokesman for the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said despite the
"challenging" financial times, "there is no interruption in any
funding whatsoever."
The fund provides a
quarter of all international financing for AIDS, two-thirds for tuberculosis and
three-quarters for malaria, and MSF raised concerns Thursday about its ability
to take on new projects.
Fund spokesman Andrew
Hurst said its directors would meet next week to discuss a new three-year round
of funding — the current round ends next year — and meetings with donors
would follow.
MSF also said a top U.S.
AIDS initiative was faltering. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief,
or PEPFAR as the project started by former President George W. Bush is known,
plans to keep funding at current levels for the next two years, even though
needs are growing, MSF said.
PEPFAR officials did not
immediately respond to requests for comment.
Shrinking funds means
spending will have to be smarter, said Helen Epstein, who has written about
managing AIDS programs in
Philip Stevens, a public
health specialist at the International Policy Network in
MSF officials said other
models, such as a levy on international money transfers to fund health care,
should be considered. And while they disagree that it should be a choice between
treatment and prevention, they said there were areas where savings could be
made, such as on the cost of drugs.
Olesi Ellemani Pasulani,
an MSF worker at a hospital in rural
He said that when the
group started working in the Thyolo area in 1997, there was only enough funding
for AIDS education and counseling, and many died of AIDS. The clinic began
providing AIDS treatment drugs with Global Fund money in 2003, and by 2007 was
getting them to everyone who needed them in Thyolo — some 18,000 patients, he
said.
"We have seen
patients who were bedridden going back to their lives," Pasulani said.
"Let us be there for them, now and forever."
Copyright © 2009 Yahoo!
Inc. All rights reserved.
06 Nov 2009 21:57:00 GMT
Source: Human Rights Watch
(
The report, a 10-page
analysis of the bill, was released in
"We know what works
and what doesn't in fighting HIV," said Beatrice Were of the Uganda Network
on Law, Ethics & HIV/AIDS. "This bill, unfortunately, is full of
ineffective approaches that violate human rights and will set us back in our
efforts to fight the AIDS epidemic and expand HIV programs nationwide."
The report cites
The report also
highlighted how laws that criminalize HIV transmission can result in
disproportionate prosecution of women because more women are tested as part of
pre- or ante-natal medical care and therefore know their HIV status. Women's
inability to safely negotiate condom use or disclosure to partners who might
have been the source of their infection is not recognized in the bill as
defenses against criminal penalties. Women who transmit HIV to their infants
after birth via breast milk would also be subject to criminal prosecution, the
report says.
"Women and girls have
been disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS," said Joseph Amon, health and
human rights director at Human Rights Watch. "My fear is that mandatory
testing and disclosure will lead to prosecution and violence instead of
treatment and care."
The bill also criminalizes
a wide and ill-defined range of conduct, such as discrimination against people
living with HIV/AIDS and breach of confidentiality. According to the report,
many of these acts are better dealt with through civil liability. Criminalizing
such a wide range of actions opens the door for the government to prosecute
people in selective or abusive ways while adding to the huge backlog in
The report highlights
other areas in which the bill lacks specificity or appropriate guidance,
including provisions that waive consent to testing when it is "unreasonably
withheld." The report also found that the bill contains insufficient
protections relating to the testing of children and their subsequent treatment,
care, and support.
Further, the bill would
mandate compulsory testing for drug users and sex workers, two already
marginalized and criminalized groups. The report expresses concern that the
proposed law, combined with other legislative efforts strengthening penalties
related to homosexuality, is adding to a body of repressive criminal law in
"It's important to
have a law that protects the rights of people with regard to the HIV/AIDS
epidemic," Amon said. "But the bill as drafted would only make
it harder to prevent and treat HIV and would put
In early November, a
slightly updated version of the bill was made available for public comment. The
most troubling aspects, including the lack of consent in testing, third party
disclosure by medical practitioners, and criminalization of transmission have
not changed. The modifications to the bill are in some instances harmful, in
others beneficial.
The bill introduces
additional, troubling provisions:
Attempted transmission of
HIV is now criminalized. This further opens the door for abusive prosecutions.
Government responsibility
to take steps necessary to ensure access to essential medicines at affordable
prices by persons with HIV/AIDS has been deleted.
Some changes to the bill
improve the potential for human rights protections, such as:
Failure to inform one's
sexual partners of HIV status is no longer criminalized, and discriminatory acts
are now subject to civil, rather than criminal, liability.
Failure to take reasonable
steps and precautions to protect oneself from HIV transmission is no longer
criminalized.
Children born to
HIV-positive women are guaranteed immediate appropriate treatment, care,
support, and routine medication.
Thursday, November 5 05:46
pm
An estimated 33 million
people around the world are HIV positive, the bulk of cases emanating from the
developing world which relies on donor aid to reduce infections and treat
carriers of the disease.
Here are some facts about
AIDS.
* Sub-Saharan
* Global deaths from AIDS
reached an estimated 2 million in 2007, down from 2.1 million deaths in 2006.
Since the AIDS pandemic started in the early 1980s, more than 25 million people
have died from the virus.
* The annual number of new
HIV infections declined to 2.7 million in 2007 from 3.0 million in 2001.
* Some 33 million people
had human immunodeficiency virus infections in 2007, most of them in
* An estimated 1.9 million
people were newly infected with HIV in sub-Saharan
* More than half of the
9.5 million people who need AIDS drugs cannot get them, a United Nations report
said at the end of September.
* In
Sources:Reuters/UNAIDS
Source: IRIN
KABUL, 5 November 2009
- Over 50 people have been diagnosed as HIV-positive in Afghanistan
over the past nine months, bringing the number of registered cases to 556,
according to the National HIV/AIDS Control Programme.
"Most of them have
got the virus through intravenous drug use," Malika Popal, the Programme's
advocacy and communications adviser, told IRIN, adding that three HIV/AIDS
patients had died so far this year.
The Health Ministry
estimates 2,000-3,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in
Armed conflict, lack of
awareness of HIV/AIDS, lack of access to basic social services such as education
and health, rising intravenous drug addiction, and the poor social status of
women are among the factors which, experts say, could lead to a rapid spread of
HIV/AIDS.
By Wang Eng Eng, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 06 November 2009
PHNOM
PENH
From this year, new drivers will have to learn more than just how to handle a
vehicle; they will also be quizzed on their knowledge of AIDS/HIV infection.
"Every year, we have more than 20,000 people who want to get a driver's
licence. So during the examination, we'll put 12 questions on HIV
prevention," said Lim Sidenine, director of Planning and Admin General
Department, Ministry of Public Works & Transport,
Questions include how AIDS/HIV infection is transmitted and how to protect
oneself against the disease.
The Ministry of Public Works & Transport is also taking the lead in
educating truck and lorry drivers, as this group is considered at greater risk
of AIDS/HIV infection.
Truck and lorry drivers play a key role in
However, most of the infrastructure and road improvement projects are
concentrated in towns with a high prevalence of AIDS/HIV infection such as
Poipet, which is at the Thai-Cambodia border.