A
woman pins a red ribbon on her shawl after participating in a rally to mark
World AIDS Day in News (Updated
February 12, 2012)
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08 Feb 2012
Source: alertnet // Thin
Lei Win
A
woman pins a red ribbon on her shawl after participating in a rally to mark
World AIDS Day in
By Thin Lei Win
BANGKOK (AlertNet) - With
enough money spent in the right way, the world could soon reduce new HIV
infections to zero, but global apathy and the financial crisis mean it might
take another 50 years to stop the AIDS epidemic, a U.N. expert has said.
At a time when HIV/AIDS
efforts face an unprecedented decline in funding, Paul De Lay, deputy executive
director of UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS), called on
developing states to take more responsibility for tackling HIV in their own
countries rather than relying on international assistance.
In Asia, for example, many
countries - including Vietnam and India which are seen as economically stable -
rely heavily on foreign funding, for up to 95 percent of their HIV budgets in
some cases, according to UNAIDS.
Around 34 million people
worldwide are living with HIV. Since AIDS emerged in the 1980s, more than 60
million have been infected and nearly 30 million have died, but there has also
been significant progress.
New infections have fallen
by about 20 percent in the past decade, deaths from AIDS-related illnesses have
decreased, and about 6.6 million people - a little less than half the population
needing treatment - were on lifesaving antiretroviral therapy (ART) at the end
of 2010, De Lay told AlertNet on the sidelines of high-level intergovernmental
meeting on HIV/AIDS in Bangkok this week.
“But it’s been a slow,
steady decline,” he added. “If we continue at the same rate, we’re talking
40 to 50 years of this epidemic. Zero (transmission) is a long, long way off. So
either we accept that or we have to do something different.”
That would mean focusing
on the most effective ways of preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS, measuring
programme impact and success differently, and boosting efficiency and
cost-effectiveness amid limited resources, De Lay said.
‘AIDS FATIGUE’
AIDS activists say the
goal of zero new transmissions is within reach, thanks to new technologies, the
recent finding that early treatment can reduce the spread of the virus to others
by 96 percent, and a three-fold increase in people receiving ART since 2006.
Yet donor cutbacks in 2010
led to a decline in international support for AIDS programmes for the first time
in 15 years. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was forced
to cancel its annual funding round for 2013 due to shortfalls for the first time
in its 10-year history, suggesting that the trend may continue.
“We have to realise
it’s unlikely we’re going to have a substantial increase of funds over the
next four to five years, so how do we make the money we have more effective and
efficient?” said De Lay. “In public health, if you mention the words
efficiency and cost-effectiveness, you’re a pariah. But we have to do it.”
UNAIDS is aware it’s not
just high levels of government debt in rich countries that is squeezing funding.
“There’s a fatigue
about AIDS,” De Lay said. “The attention span of the aid and global health
community and the politicians is short-lived, and there are other priorities.”
“The AIDS epidemic...
opens up too many sensitive areas of society, culture and religion, so it’s
easy for this epidemic to drop off the screen, and I think that’s the real
danger,” he added.
VALUE FOR MONEY
Nonetheless, UNAIDS is
hoping that funding for the global AIDS response will rise to $22 billion-$24
billion by 2015, a increase of around 50 percent from the $15 billion available
in 2011.
De Lay urged programmes to
target those most in need of treatment and prevention, and explore new methods
of measuring impact.
In the Global Fund’s
early days, success was judged by how quickly you could move money, he said.
“Just saying we’ve got
50 percent coverage of prevention programmes, or x number of condoms, doesn’t
mean anything,” he said.
Evaluation of results
should include patients’ quality of life, life expectancy and the
sustainability of programmes, he added.
Other ways of boosting
value for money include cutting down on the broader health and social activities
HIV/AIDS programmes used to support and pushing for cheaper drugs, De Lay said.
(Editing by Megan Rowling)
(Xinhua)
2012-02-08
Wang Yu, director of the
A draft regulation on
HIV/AIDS prevention is expected to be handed over to the standing committee of
the region's local people's congress for approval. The regulation states that
HIV tests should be carried out on a real-name basis, with those who test
positive obliged to inform their spouses or sex partners.
"HIV carriers might
spread the virus to others through unprotected sex or other channels. Under such
circumstances, should we protect the privacy of the carriers, or control the
epidemic and protect public health?" said Wang.
Wang said he believes that
real-name testing could ensure that those who test positive are informed in
time, allowing them to change their behavior and seek early treatment.
Wang said international
practices have shown that by simply informing people of their HIV-positive
status, the odds of them passing HIV on to others can be reduced by 70 percent.
Wang said professionals in
the field have increasingly realized that treatment itself is the best form of
prevention. If HIV carriers are given antiviral treatments in time, the
intensity of their infection can be lowered, as well as the chance that they
will pass the infection on to others.
"Without real-name
testing, none of this work can be accomplished. The carriers themselves might
not even be informed," Wang said.
Wang said public health
policies in
By Shan Juan
China Daily/Asia News Network
Tuesday, Feb 07, 2012
BEIJING
The regulation, still in
draft form, is expected to take effect in six months, said Ge Xianmin, director
of HIV/AIDS prevention and control at the local health department.
It stipulates that the
sufferer has to tell his or her partners within three days of being confirmed as
HIV positive. If not, this would be done by health workers.
"Given that Guangxi
has been hit relatively hard by HIV/AIDS and that sex has become a major
transmission route, such rules would help protect sufferers' partners and avert
secondary transmissions," he said.
It also helps partners to
supervise sufferers' treatments, he added.
Of the total of HIV cases
detected last year in Guangxi, about 87 per cent were infected through unsafe
sex, both homosexual and heterosexual.
Only the northwestern
Xiao Dong, leader of a
civil organization committed to HIV/AIDS control in
"The sufferer should
inform their partners because one's life is more important than personal
freedom. We mustn't satisfy our selfishness by harming other's lives," he
said.
But Meng Lin, an AIDS
patient in
"I don't think the
Guangxi regulation should make health institutions inform sexual partners of
someone's HIV-positive status if that person refuses to do so," he said.
Meanwhile, to keep better
track of HIV carriers for the provision of support and medication, the new
regulation will require people to show identification before undergoing HIV
screening, which gives preliminary results in 15 minutes subject to laboratory
confirmation.
Ge said many people simply
disappeared after screenings showed positive results, which made follow-up
counseling and treatment very difficult.
Xiao Dong said: "We
should respect people's choice of whether to give personal information or not.
Not everybody going for a HIV screening is prepared to face up to the impact on
their lives if it proves positive and they will be less stressed going
anonymously."
Meng Lin warned:
"Given HIV/AIDS discrimination and stigma are still rife here, it will
drive more potential sufferers away and lead to more inaccurate statistics about
the epidemic."
In most parts of
In
However, in
Huang Feifei in Guangxi
and Wang Qingyun in
(Xinhua) 2012-01-21
BEIJING
The report on the epidemic
situation of HIV/AIDS in China, which was jointly produced by China's Ministry
of Health, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS and the World
Health Organization, said that the number of people living with HIV/AIDS
increased by 40,000 in two years from 2009, although cases of new infections
remained at a low level.
With about 780,000 people
living with HIV/AIDS nationwide, including 154,000 AIDS patients, the total
infection rate of the country stands at 0.058 percent, the report said.
The major reasons for the
rise of the number of AIDS patients on record are the government's increasing
efforts in prevention and intervention of the disease, which helped reduce
deaths out of the patients, as well as some long-infected HIV carriers showing
symptoms, said the report.
The report added that more
than 136,000 AIDS patients had received anti-virus treatments by September 2011,
bringing the treatment coverage rate to 73.5 percent, an increase of 11.5
percentage points compared to 2009.
The epidemic situation of
HIV/AIDS is showing some new trends, as imported and sexually-transmitted cases
keep increasing, according to the report.
It called for expanding
the checking range in relevant groups, further strengthening the treatment of
people with HIV/AIDS, as well as expanding the coverage of health education and
reducing social discrimination.
February 11th 2012
Approximately
16 million women in
A new report has estimated
that there are approximately 16 million women in
“But their wives are struggling to cope and their plight should be
recognised,” he was quoted by the state-run China Daily.
However, the gay community is split on the claim. “Zhang’s estimation is
unsubstantiated and I even feel it’s pointless to research the issue,” Xiao
Dong, a 36-year-old gay, who heads a civil organisation for HIV/AIDS prevention
and control, said.
“To put gays’ wives under the spotlight might cause more public
misunderstanding or even hatred toward the gay population, which does not help
defuse existing social discrimination against them,” he said, while adding
that the question of marriage is complicated for them.
27 year old
does not want a heterosexual marriage, he would consider it so as not to hurt
the feelings of his parents.
“I may marry a lesbian and we can keep going with our own lifestyle more
honestly,” he said.
Homosexuality was decriminalised in
(AFP) – 9 Feb., 2012
But in a statement
released late Wednesday, the government said parliament had the right to debate
the legislation, which was shelved last year after widespread condemnation.
"The bill itself was
introduced by a backbencher," said the statement.
"It does not form
part of the government's legislative programme and it does not enjoy the support
of the prime minister or the cabinet.
"However, as
David Bahati, the MP
behind the legislation, reintroduced the bill on Tuesday after lawmakers voted
last year to automatically pass it over to the new session of the parliament.
MPs had failed to debate it last time round.
Lawmakers applauded Bahati
as the bill -- which US President Barack Obama has described as
"odious" -- was introduced, clapping their hands, thumping the seats
in parliament and chanting "our bill".
Homosexuality is already
illegal in
It would introduce the
death sentence for anyone caught engaging in homosexual acts for the second
time, as well as for gay sex where one partner is a minor or has HIV.
It also proposes to
criminalise public discussion of homosexuality -- including by rights groups --
with a sentence of up to seven years in prison.
While the government said
that even if the bill were passed it "would not sanction the death
penalty," parliament officials insisted it had been tabled without
amendments and still included the controversial clause.
"One might ask for
example, if Uganda enjoyed as close a relationship with the US and European
countries as Saudi Arabia (which sentences homosexuals to corporal and capital
punishment) would we have attracted the same opprobrium as a result of allowing
this parliamentary debate?" the statement said.
The reintroduction of the
bill sparked strong criticism from rights groups. Amnesty International urged
MPs to reject it.
"If passed, it would
represent a grave assault on the human rights of all Ugandans, regardless of
their sexual orientation or gender identity," Michelle Kagari, the rights
group's Africa programme director said this week.
Copyright © 2012 AFP.
(AFP) – 10 Feb., 2012
CAPE TOWN — South Africa
on Friday unveiled plans for a 1.6 billion rand ($208 million, 157 million euro)
pharmaceutical plant, in a joint venture with Swiss biochemicals group Lonza to
produce anti-AIDS drugs.
Lonza, headquartered in
"This joint venture,
named Ketlaphela, will establish the first pharmaceutical plant to manufacture
active pharmaceutical ingredients for anti-retroviral medicines in
The plant would produce
the key ingredients needed to make the anti-retroviral drugs that have turned
AIDS into a chronic condition, rather than a death sentence, in a nation where
5.6 million people have HIV.
"Lonza's high Swiss
standards plus their superb track record of establishing and maintaining
successful commercial operations in developing countries, make them a valuable
and desirable partner," she said.
A statement from Lonza on
its website Friday said a deal had not yet been finalised.
"The discussions are
still at an early stage and nothing has been signed," it said.
However, a Lonza vice
president Simon Edwards told media in
"From Lonza, we are
incredibly proud and honoured to be part of this project," he said.
"This is the start of
it today," he added.
The new plant will help
stabilise the price of drugs used to fight AIDS, as
The plant will create
about 2,600 jobs once it's running in 2016, he added. About 3,800 people will be
employed for its construction.
The treatment programme
has already made gains in combating the epidemic, but the numbers of people
needing drugs will keep growing as more and more people begin a lifetime on the
medicines.
Copyright © 2012 AFP.
10 Feb 2012
Source: alertnet // Thin
Lei Win
About 2880 candles are
seen lit during a World AIDS Day event in
By Thin Lei Win
BANGKOK (AlertNet) –
When Dr Nafsiah Mboi noticed that more and more Indonesian housewives were
contracting HIV due to their husband’s reckless behaviour, she decided to
reshape people’s perception of what a macho man should be.
It is not an easy task for
Nafsiah who is secretary of
The archipelago, the
world’s fourth largest by population, is made up of 17,000 islands and
numerous ethnic groups with different languages and beliefs, and Nasfiah has
limited resources. What is unlimited though is her desire for change.
“Last year, the largest
number of people who needed treatment for HIV/AIDS were housewives. That’s
really disconcerting,” Nafsiah told AlertNet this week on the sidelines of a
high-level intergovernmental meeting on HIV/AIDS in
She said the big rise in
HIV infections in a section of society traditionally considered low risk –
housewives who are monogomous and not using drugs - showed the need to focus on
men's behaviour.
“We decided to change
the social image of men to say a strong and macho man is not selfish, but is
responsible and caring,” she said.
The Commission embarked on
several awareness campaigns in 2009, expanding its focus from drug users and sex
workers to heterosexual men, with the message that being a real man means being
responsible and safe and using a condom.
ADDRESSING GENDER ROLES
In
“In sexual
relationships, men are supposed to be macho and they have to have their will and
if they resort to violence, well, it’s ok because they’re men,” she said.
“If a housewife comes
into the health centre with sexually transmitted diseases or infections,
immediately everybody thinks she’s a whore, but if it’s a man, (people go)
‘poor dear’,” she added.
Nafsiah says research in
2009 identified there were 2 million women in
The Global AIDS Report in
2008 described the AIDS epidemic in
By 2009, a quarter of the
300,000 or so people living with HIV/AIDS in
SLOW PROGRESS
Campaigns have included
mobile clinics, video essays and a Condom Week. Nafsiah says they are seeing
some changes, albeit at a slower pace than she’d like.
For example, condom sales
increased from 75 million in 2008 to 300 million in 2011, a four-fold rise in
three years, she said.
Research has also shown
that the proportion of people saying they had used a condom when they last had
sex has increased to 50 percent in places targeted by the Commission.
By comparison, national
figures show consistent use of condoms is around 10 to 15 percent, Nafsiah said.
The sheer size of the
country and the population are some of the biggest challenges in tackling
HIV/AIDS, she added.
Nafsiah is also worried
about young people, another group that is alarming experts because of growing
infection rates.
“According to a survey,
only 14 percent of young people aged 15-24 years can correctly identify how to
prevent sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS,” she said.
“That (leaves) 64
million people. How do you reach 64 million people in 17,000 islands?”