News (Updated
August 1, 2010)
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2010-07-30
Xinhua writers Du Jie,
Shang Yang, Xu Yalan
BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhua)
-- A leading international expert on HIV/AIDS Friday challenged China's gay men
to front up to their responsibilities in fighting the spread of the disease.
Dr. Ray Yip, director of
the China Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said the spread of
HIV/AIDS in
Dr. Yip told CNC World,
the satellite news television station run by Xinhua News Agency, that HIV
transmission through "MSM" (men having sex with men) had boomed since
2003.
This year, the
Poor awareness of safe sex
among gay men contributed to the sharp rise as many gay men had multiple sex
partners, and did not always use condoms.
"We need the MSM
group to engage their community to take part in the intervention," Dr. Yip
told CNC.
"Will they promote
safe sex? Will they be promoting early testing? Will they be supporting people
already with HIV? So the key is their involvement in the prevention."
Social pressures forced
many HIV carriers to remain hidden, and many were reluctant to admit they were
HIV carriers, said Dr. Yip.
They need to show their
faces and let their voices be heard, said Dr. Yip.
Homosexuals, sex workers,
drug abusers and underground blood donors were all most at risk of infection and
the biggest danger to others.
"The prevention of
the spread of HIV, regardless of which group, drug users, sex workers or men
having sex with men, is the same," Dr. Yip said.
"The key thing is
that the high risk behavior needs to be reduced.
"It is those people
who don't know they are HIV carriers are dangerous. We need to find them,"
said Dr. Yip.
However, he said, "
The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation had committed 50 million U.S. dollars to support HIV/AIDS prevention
efforts in
"We fund government
programs in about 15 cities across
The foundation, which
cooperates closely with
Luo, the head of Zhitong
programs who would only give his surname, said, "We give away condoms and
brochures in gay bars and parks, set up a free hotline, and conduct salons or
lectures regularly."
The organization, which is
financially supported by the Gates foundation and local health agencies, has
more than 200 volunteers and claims to have contacted at least 60,000 people.
MOH figures showed that by
the end of last year, MSM transmission accounted for 32.5 percent of
The Chinese government has
lifted the 20-year-old ban on entry of foreigners with HIV/AIDS in a move to
eliminate unequal treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Since the end of 2003, the
government has carried out a policy of free blood tests for those with HIV, free
education for orphans of AIDS patients, and free consultation, scanning tests
and anti-virus therapies for pregnant women.
(Note: Su Jing and Li Dongxu also contributed to the story.)
Editor: Zhang Xiang
Residents in parts of
Northwest China's
The regulation is just
part of a series of measures to stem HIV/AIDS in parts of Xinjiang, where the
disease is spreading the fastest, according to a report by the Xinjiang
Metropolis Daily.
Many aspiring couples
abandoned pre-marital medical checkups after
However, the news report
said the abolition has led to a rise in birth defects among newborns in the
country, for example.
The draft law takes a more
complete approach toward HIV/AIDS, however. Under the draft law, health care
workers testing potentially HIV/AIDS infected people will get on-the-job
stipends, as is common for other people whose jobs may put them into contact
with the disease, Tianshannet.com, a local news portal, reported.
Meanwhile, those already
infected with the virus, who or have become sick or are no longer able to work,
should be eligible for government assistance or consolation grants, reported the
news portal.
Patients or carriers
living in cities with financial hardships or those from rural areas would also
have access to free medicine, counseling and examinations.
Xinjiang's legislative
body has held a discussion on the draft and local media reports did not say when
the draft would be enacted.
As of early this year,
Xinjiang had the fifth-largest population of reported HIV/AIDS patients or
carriers among all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in
The latest official data
shows
Government funds for the
prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Xinjiang would amount to one billion
yuan ($146.8 million) this year, Zhang Yongzhong, deputy head of Xinjiang's
health department, said in an interview with China Daily in 2009.
This is almost threefold
over the funds in 2009, which were 35 million yuan, said Zhang. As of end of
last year, a combined number of nearly 180 million yuan of government funds have
been contributed to the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Xinjiang since
1999.
Opioid substitutes are a
key tool in the drug treatment box. Their use should not be restricted for
political reasons
The medical profession has
reached a consensus. The front page of last week's BMJ reads "Drug users
and HIV: Treat don't punish". Within its pages is a an analysis piece
entitled "Why Russia must legalise methadone" and a report on the
Meanwhile, the Lancet has
a series of papers highlighting that while there have been large gains in
fighting the HIV epidemic in the general population, the socially marginalised
such as people who use drugs and who often enter prison systems, continue to be
denied access to treatments, particularly opioid substitution therapy that both
saves lives and prevents HIV transmission to others. The Lancet's editor, Dr
Richard Horton, says: "Complacency about the HIV/Aids epidemic now would be
a terrible mistake."
The evidence for the
benefit of treatments such as methadone is overwhelming. At a time when the UK
should be leading the way in ensuring such benefits are available everywhere I
am left wondering why the UK National Treatment Agency for Substance Abuse is
instead pandering to politics by raising the possibility of returning to the
outdated and discredited policy of time-limited methadone prescribing.
As a doctor I use
methadone and buprenorphine with many patients alongside a variety of
psychosocial and other healthcare interventions. Prescribing can last for one
week or it can last for 30 years – it is and should be completely
patient-driven and dependent on them as individuals. An arbitrary time frame
imposed on any patient's medication regime is unacceptable and I for one will
not accept such political interference. It is essential that this new
government's drug policy is based on sound evidence and we the clinicians must
strongly resist a potentially lethal change to policy.
Most sensible clinicians
see abstinence as one end of a spectrum and see no conflict whatsoever with
substitute prescribing. In my experience most people working in the field want
the best for their patients. I am deeply offended by language such as
"people indefinitely parked on methadone", "routinely writing off
full potential" etc. If any of my patients wants to try and come off all
drugs – they have my full support.
Recently a group of
doctors launched International Doctors for Healthy Drug Policies after becoming
increasingly aware over the past few years of the wide divide between what we
know works and the drug policy made by politicians and their appointees – most
who have no background in practice and never meet nor work with people who use
drugs.
Reliable and persistent
research shows that substitute prescribing treatment substantially reduces
deaths, crime, HIV infection and drug use while also assisting social
functioning such as improved education, training, parenting and employment.
Methadone treatment has been endorsed by UN agencies: the United Nations Office
on Drugs and Crime , the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS, as well as Nice
and the Department of Health in the
July 29, 2010
State officials and the
AIDS Healthcare Foundation are urging Bristol-Myers Squibb to reduce the price
of its HIV/AIDS medication Reyataz in
Earlier this month,
Controller John Chiang (D) sent a letter asking BMS to join other
pharmaceutical companies that have already reduced the cost of their drugs.
CalPERS and the California
State Teachers' Retirement System, which have investments in BMS, also sent
letters asking the company to cut the price of Reyataz (Calvan/Reese, Sacramento
Bee, 7/29).
In addition, the AIDS
Healthcare Foundation banned BMS sales representatives from its clinics
until the firm reduces the price of its antiretroviral drug (Payers &
Providers, 7/29).
Effect of Drug Costs on
State Budget
During the last fiscal
year,
About two-thirds of the
funding for
BMS Response
Representatives of BMS
declined to say whether the company planned to reduce the costs of its drugs.
However, they said the
firm already provides several assistance programs and does not intend to turn
its back on patients with HIV/AIDS (Sacramento Bee, 7/29).
You snigger on hearing
that a friend will appear on Channel 4’s The Hospital. You picture them
writhing in awkward horror amid a freak show of halitosis, warts and ingrown
toenails. You don’t expect a programme devoted to sexual health, or rather the
lack of it.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases happen to other people, usually effete young men
on Hollyoaks, or that small band of the promiscuous for whom sense is
subordinate to gratification. Under this complacent fug, STIs have surged, or so
the government and their alarmist advisors insist. The government’s message is
ignored – STIs, remember, happen to other people. What the government needs to
do is show The Hospital in schools and clinics.
Sex wouldn’t be sex if people didn’t lie. And some of the show’s stars are
preposterously funny. Young lotharios swagger into the clinic, their imagined
manhood so colossal it makes them bow-legged. Then the questions begin. ‘How
many people have you slept with in the last three months?’ ‘Don’t
remember.’ Really? Don’t remember? Doesn’t sound like fun pal. ‘What are
you in for then?’ With breathtaking flirtatiousness, our hero replies: ‘I
must’ve caught it on the law of averages.’ I mean seriously, you could only
make this stuff up.
Unsurprisingly these men emerge free of disease and hit on the pharmacist on
their way out. The medical staff look harassed, short of sleep but they shrug it
all off. Prurient would-be Casanovas come with the territory; the NHS has
greater worries.
A woman enters the clinic. The camera hovers above her right shoulder. Her face
is obscured, but her voice carries a constant note of resignation; it’s not
angry, it’s disbelieving and terrified. This woman is HIV positive and she is
about to start the AIDS treatment that will manage her symptoms until she dies.
She is sixteen. It is a truly shocking spectacle. The doctor’s impassive
expression is strained. The small screen is riven by deep but
incomprehensible emotions. She does not understand how she has caught the virus
– she is young, straight and professes (and there’s no reason to disbelieve
her) to be careful.
That is the conceit bred of complacency. HIV is rampant among young
heterosexuals, and it takes a scene such as this to express both the danger and
the misery. The consultant explains that 1 in 200 people in
The Associated Press
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Charlene Cotton will talk
to anyone about sex. Several days a week she stands behind a table decorated
with a bowl of flavored condoms and safer sex pamphlets, calling to women
passing on the street, "Come check out my table. Don't be scared."
She asks: "Have you
heard of the female condom?" Then, to show how it works, she picks up her
demonstration kit _ a condom and anatomical models.
It's a seemingly awkward
conversation to have on a city street, but Cotton isn't embarrassed. She's part
of a citywide effort to promote female condoms in the hope they can help stop
the spread of HIV in
Community groups are
handing out 500,000 of the female condoms, flexible pouches that are wider than
a male condom but similar in length, during instruction sessions at beauty
salons, barber shops, churches and restaurants.
CVS is selling them in all
its
The ads, which feature a
cuddling couple, a female condom package and the words "Get turned on to
it," will run for three months and again in the spring. "The female
condom with pleasure points for her and him _ to tease, please and protect. Go
on, give it a try," the ad urges.
"Everybody is doing a
full-court press," said Mary Ann Leeper, who heads the introduction of the
condom in the
The question is if better
access means women will use the condoms. It's a crucial question in
After the study's release,
the city's health department came up with the female condom outreach plan and
The MAC AIDS fund gave a $500,000 grant to get it started. Five community groups
are now participating in outreach.
The city isn't the first
to distribute female condoms, but its campaign is the broadest.
The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration approved female condoms in 1993, though they have never been
widely available in the U.S. Leeper estimates that only only 1 percent or 2
percent have tried them.
That's in part because the
original version wasn't popular. Users complained about the price, about $3.60
for a single condom. Others said the material, polyurethane, reminded them of a
doctor's examination glove and sounded like a plastic bag crinkling when used.
About a year ago, however,
the FDA approved a new version of the condom called the FC2. Made of a synthetic
material called nitrile, it is less expensive _ about $2 each _ and not noisy.
Still, it is more
expensive than a traditional male condom, and many women seeing it for the first
time are intimidated by its size or uncomfortable with the idea of inserting it.
Advocates are trying to help women get over the hurdle of, "You want me to
put what, where?"
Their pitch goes like
this: A female condom is as effective as male condoms in preventing pregnancy,
HIV and sexually transmitted diseases _ and because a female condom covers more
area, it may provide broader protection. It can also be inserted up to eight
hours before intercourse. And, most importantly, it allows a woman to be in
control of whether protection is used.
"We're hoping that
this will just be part of their arsenal," said Dr. Nnemdi Kamanu Elias of
the district's Department of Health, who is overseeing the part of the
department that deals with HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.
"It's something they themselves can initiate and they themselves have
control over."
Theresa Exner, a research
scientist who has done work on the female condom, said officials have a tough
but not insurmountable task. Using the female condom can be tricky, but studies
suggest that promoting the female condom alongside the male condom increases
overall use.
"There's all kinds of
positive aspects of the female condom. The trick is educating people
sufficiently that people can feel confident that it's something they can
use," said Exner, who works at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral
Studies at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University.
Charlene Cotton, the
condom demonstrator, said the first step is helping people become more familiar
with the condoms. She demonstrates how to insert the condom and has people feel
and hold it. She gives each woman three and does her demonstration for men, too.
Nikita Fletcher, 39, who
watched Cotton's presentation recently, said he'd be open to having his partner
use the condom, but he isn't sure about his buddies.
"Men are intimidated
by trying new things, particularly things we don't have control of," he
said.
Jamika Roundtree, 24, who
also watched the presentation and left with three condoms, said she was willing
to experiment. A few days later she reported the female condom didn't irritate
her body like latex condoms and was easy to use.
"It's better than any
other condom I've used yet," she said.
The
World Bank released information on Sunday regarding two studies linking cash
payments to Malawian and Tanzanin youths with “significantly lower” rates of
sexually transmitted diseases/infections and HIV.
In the first study, young
Malawian girls, stricken with poverty and high HIV infection rates, were entered
into a two year program that rewarded them with cash payments in lieu of regular
school attendance. In the second
study, the World Bank paid young adults in
The studies “show the
potential for using cash payments to prevent people, especially women and girls,
from engaging in unsafe sex while also ensuring that they stay in school and get
the full benefit of an education,” said the head of Bank’s global HIV/AIDS
program, David Wilson.
In the Malawian study that
focused on education and school attendance, the Zomba district which is infected
with high HIV and school dropout rates among young girls, proved that when cash
payments were made for at least 75 percent of school attendance each month,
infection rates were reduced by 60%, as compared to an unpaid control group.
“Girls who received
payments not only had less sex, but when they did, they tended to choose
younger, safer partners,” the World Bank said in a statement regarding the
studies, which was released on the first day of the 18th International AIDS
Conference in
Young girls and women in
the study who received cash payments, produced a significantly decreased number
in “transactional sex,” the term used for young girls and women who have
traded intercourse for assistance, gifts or money.
According to the study,
schoolgirls who received cash payments tended to shy away from older, wealthier
men who are more likely to be HIV positive than schoolboys.
“Programs like these
could become an important missing part of effective HIV-prevention
strategies,” said Berk Ozler, a senior economist with the World Bank’s
Development Research Group, who conducted the study with researchers from
Ozler said the findings
suggest that “empowering girls financially can lead to reduced risk — not
just by reducing their sexual activity or practicing safer sex, but also by
enabling them to choose partners who are less likely to be infected with HIV in
the first place.”
Meanwhile, young men and
women of
“Existing prevention
strategies have had limited success, so we have to look for creative new
approaches to help people change their behavior and finally stop and then
reverse the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” said senior World Bank economist Damien de
Walque, who carried out the study with researchers from the University of
California and the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania.
The World Bank has
provided HIV prevention, treatment, and care and support programs with funds
totaling 4.5 billion dollars, to date.
