News (Updated June 27, 2010)

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China Exclusive: Action needed to address workplace discrimination against HIV/AIDS

  by Xinhua writer Tian Ying

BEIJING , June 27 (Xinhua) -- Soon after Zhou Yi's HIV positive status was known by his colleagues, he found them sterilizing their office telephone with alcohol, and refusing to use the office microwave oven.

Then he quit. "I quit my job (two years ago) not because my boss made me, but because I couldn't stand the discrimination any more," said Zhou, from Shanghai , at a Workshop for Discrimination in the Workplace hosted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Beijing Friday.

Zhou, still unemployed, is just one of many people living with HIV who lost or changed their jobs due to workplace discrimination.

A survey conducted by UNAIDS and China , found 23.3 percent of 2,096 HIV-positive workers claimed they had been denied employment, and many did not expose their positive status for fear of discrimination.

There are currently an estimated 700,000 people living with HIV in China , including about 75,000 AIDS patients.

In 2009, China reported that AIDS had become the country's leading cause of death among infectious diseases for the first time.

The Friday's workshop set agenda on the new international labour standard on HIV and AIDS passed by ILO in June, which has been ratified by China .

The standard sets principles and provides recommendations on protecting workers' rights to employment and medical treatment.

Dr. Richard Howard, senior specialist for the ILOAIDS program in the Asia Pacific said, " China has an advanced policy framework to protect the rights of people with HIV."

Li Chuangchun, an official with All China Federation of Trade Unions, said China actually took action to protect HIV positive workers' rights well ahead of the introduction of the international standard.

China began implementing a regulation on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in 2006. The Law on the Promotion of Employment, which took effect in 2008, stipulates that employers cannot deny jobs to carriers of infectious diseases.

However, workplace discrimination is still fierce as the report of UNAIDS suggests.

Xue Cheng, an officer with UNAIDS, said the problem facing China was not so much lack of policies or laws, but a shortage of detailed regulations and a lack of supervision of law enforcement.

Liu Yutong, an official with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said one measure in action was labor arbitration facilities across China .

He said each province in China already had such facilities to which people with HIV could resort if they suffered workplace discrimination.

The ministry is also training labor inspectors to oversee the protection of rights of employees.

However, Michael Shiu, Vice President of Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said the priority should be increasing public awareness.

He said that in a program his organization carried out, employers said even though they would hire HIV positive staff, they couldn't do so because other employees might be terrified, which would jeopardize harmony in work place.

Shiu said that not only the government, trade union and employers needed to make efforts, but the whole of society to eliminate discrimination and safeguard the right to work of people with HIV.

French first lady calls on world to make AIDS history

Saturday, June 26 04:51 pm

French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy called Saturday for the world to come up with the "billions of dollars" needed to make AIDS history, possibly through a global tax.

Carla Bruni is a goodwill ambassador for the global fund against AIDS, tuberculosis and …

"We have a historic opportunity," she wrote in the daily Liberation. "In a few years we can eradicate AIDS from the surface of the planet."

The former model and singer is a goodwill ambassador for the global fund against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as well as wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

She pointed to recent research showing that people with HIV reduced the risk of handing on the AIDS virus by an astonishing 92 percent while they were taking antiretroviral drugs.

The research provides the strongest evidence to date that drugs which treat the human immunodeficiency virus could also be incorporated into strategies for fighting HIV's spread.

"Treating everyone means halting transmission of the virus, in other words stopping the epidemic," Bruni said, "but we must act very quickly."

Calling for a "big effort" from the international community, she said the measures needed would cost billions of dollars a year. "Solutions can be imagined for today and tomorrow," she added, citing an "international tax."

Bruni welcomed Friday's decision by leaders from the Group of Eight industrialised countries to pledge five billion dollars (four billion euros) to help fight child and maternal illness.

"It's an encouraging signal," she said, hoping that similar action will help to boost the budget of the global AIDS fund when it comes up for renewal later this year.

Donors Urged To Maintain Commitment To Global HIV Response Ahead Of The G8 Summit

25 Jun 2010   

In 2005 the international community made an historic commitment to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care by 2010 at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Gleneagles , Scotland . Despite important progress, the world is not yet on track to achieve this commitment, and there are troubling signs that donors and implementing countries are capping or shrinking funding for the HIV response.

"Walking away from this commitment would be extremely short sighted," said Julio Montaner, President of the International AIDS Society, "It will not only undermine any gains that have been made, but will undoubtedly lead to an increase in infection rates, illness and death."

The 2010 G8 Summit, in Muskoka , Canada on the 25-26 June, will emphasize the need for increased focus on Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 (reducing child mortality) and MDG 5 (improving maternal health). Evidence shows that combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases is essential to meeting these important goals. "Improving the health of women demands a sustained commitment to addressing HIV which is the leading killer of women of reproductive age worldwide and one of the leading causes of adult and child deaths in low- and middle-income countries." added Professor Montaner "We absolutely recognize the importance of emphasizing maternal and child health, but the interrelatedness of the health MDGs and the centrality of an effective AIDS response to maternal and child health cannot be denied. It is striking that countries that have made the least progress with regards to reducing maternal deaths are the countries in which the AIDS crisis has been most severe".

Evidence has also demonstrated that effective responses to AIDS have multiple benefits for other health issues, reducing not only HIV transmission, but also tuberculosis (TB) transmission and deaths from TB. The expansion of AIDS services has led to an improvement in maternal and child health and significantly strengthened health systems in low and middle income countries.

Discussions on the resources needed to achieve universal access may also have overestimated the long term financial implications for governments as they have failed to fully account for the prevention effect of treatment roll-out and the impact that this could have on HIV incidence. 'We are concerned that discussions about the 'treatment mortgage' have failed to take fully into account the potential longer term savings arising from a reduction in infections as a consequence of wider treatment uptake', said Mats Ahnlund, Acting Executive Director of the IAS 'A continued and robust response to AIDS could ultimately reduce health spending in many areas, including TB and maternal and child health'.

As G8 leaders gather, they must not ignore the fact that 2010 is the deadline established by the G8 itself to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care for all those in need. While there has been substantial progress towards this goal, it is still far from being met.

The G8 needs to hold itself accountable to previous commitments made; progress towards these commitments needs to be measured and more importantly the G8 must ensure that these commitments continue being taken forward. Failure in this regard will not only undermine the credibility of the G8, but will result in more lives being lost

At a minimum the G8 needs to make the following commitments in Muskoka:

A recommitment to the achievement of universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support by 2015 at the latest;

A political commitment for the continued work of the Global Fund and a financial commitment of at least $20 billion for the Global Fund 2011-2013 replenishment.

'The credibility of the G8 will be determined by accountability' said Professor Montaner 'Sidelining the commitment to AIDS threatens this credibility, and also undermines the validity of new commitments on global health made at this year's summit. Universal access is a collective commitment, a shared responsibility, and a realistic, achievable goal.''

UN forms team to look at impact of discriminatory AIDS laws

June 24,2010

The United Nations Development Programme and UNAIDS said Thursday that they have formed a commission to examine the impact of laws around the world that discriminate against people living with HIV.

Some 49 countries in the world have laws that criminalise transmission or exposure to HIV

"Laws that inappropriately criminalise HIV transmission or exposure can discourage people from getting tested for HIV or revealing their HIV positive status," said the two agencies in a statement.

They can "punish rather than protect people in need," added the agencies.

The new commission is therefore aimed at addressing "one of the main handicaps" of the fight against the illness, said the head of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS Michel Sidibe.

"In many places, what I experienced is very simple -- instead of universal access to help to deal with social injustice... people are facing ... universal legal obstacles," said the UNAIDS executive director

Some 49 countries in the world have laws that criminalise transmission or exposure to HIV, said Sidibe.

In addition, 86 countries have homophobic legislation, including seven which can impose up to the death penalty for homosexuality.

Sidibe did not name the countries, but said they were mostly countries in the Middle East .

Around 52 countries also apply restrictions on the movements of people with AIDS.

Sidibe noted that almost 70 percent of new HIV infections in Eastern Europe and central Asia affect drug users, of whom the majority have no access to medication because it is not authorised.

It is time to "restore the dignity of people and to remove the bad rules," said Sidibe.

The commission will send experts to different countries to gather and share evidence about the impact of laws on people living with HIV.

It will then produce a set of recommendations in 18 months.

Almost 60 million people have been infected by HIV and 25 million people killed by causes related to the virus since the epidemic started, according to data published by UNAIDS in November 2009.

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