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Volume 2 Number 27
August 15, 2002
In this edition:
1.1 Million HIV/AIDS Orphans in Kenya
The official figure for numbers of HIV/AIDS orphans in Kenya
is now 1.1 million, Kenneth Chebet, the head of the National
AIDS Control Council told IRIN. The figure had been arrived
at by the Ministry for Health, NGOs and the Bureau of Statistics,
he said.
Speaking about the high numbers, Kenyan Health Minister Sam
Ongeri said that the figure could triple “if further
preventive measure are not emphasized,” the East African
Standard reported.
Chebet said between 40 and 50% of Kenya’s hospital
beds, excluding those in maternity wards, were currently occupied
by patients with HIV/AIDS-related illnesses.
In 2001, a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the
Kenyan overnment
of failing to take responsibility for the estimated million
children who had been orphaned by the virus. “The rights
of children have been the missing piece of the AIDS crisis,”
said Joanne Csete, a researcher with the rights advocacy group.
“If their parents had died in any other way, these children
would have been at the top of the agenda. But because the
parents died of AIDS, with all of the stigma that implies,
they’re at the bottom.”HRW reported that many
such orphans - unable to inherit property to which they were
entitled due to cumbersome legal processes - were being forced
to leave school early to become breadwinners, and subsequently
exploited by having to engage in potentially dangerous labor
inappropriate to their age.
[Africa News, 8/14/02]
Children Plead for Better Protection from
HIV/AIDS
Around 60 children from cities and provinces in Vietnam attended
a three-day forum called “Children Speak out on HIV/AIDS”,
which wrapped up in Hanoi. The forum aimed to raise awareness
about HIV/AIDS among children and call on parents and relevant
bodies to show more concern over the impact of the epidemic
on the age group.
Attendants performed plays and dances and sang songs during
the forum, co-held by members of the Save of the Children
Alliance in Vietnam and the National AIDS Standing Bureau,
to express their knowledge and hopes about help from the community
and adults in preventing the disease.
Speaking at the forum, the Chairman of the Bureau, Prof Chung
A, suggested conducting a campaign about the impact on children,
as the increasing number of HIV-infected children, particularly
infants, is connected to a lack of shelters for them in the
country.
Many children do not know how to access health services when
they are in danger of sexual abuse and/or drug use. They also
called on the government to introduce more HIV/AIDS and gender
issues into school curricula from grades four or five, particularly
extracurricular activities.
The Ministry of Health reports over 5,000 under-18s as being
HIV/AIDS carriers, accounting for 10% of the total patients
nationwide, down from 12% in 1999 and 11% in 2000.
[Vietnam News Briefs, 8/15/02]
Kenyan Girl Guides to Train One Million HIV/AIDS
Educators
A million Girl Guide peer educators will be trained by the
year 2004 in an ambitious program to fight AIDS in Kenya.
The Kenya Girl Guides Association national chairman, Mrs.
Honorine Kiplagat, said so far, 25,000 educators had been
trained under its Peer Education Program.
The government, through Health Minister Prof Sam Ongeri,
pledged to support the association implement the project.
In future, promised the minister, the government would assist
the association, whose membership is young girls and women
aged 18-30 years, source funding from external donors for
its war against AIDS.
Prof Ongeri challenged the association to hit its one million
mark target a year earlier and pledged both human and material
support from the ministry. In particular, the ministry would
give technical advice particularly on health-related issues
of HIV/AIDS, voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), prevention
of mother-to-child transmission and care for those infected.
He remarked that girls and women aged 15-24 years are sexually
active and twice as likely to be infected than males of the
same age. Mrs. Kiplagat said HIV/AIDS had devastated the youth,
particularly girls and young women.
She noted that the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl
Scouts had put in place an AIDS training program and the local
association had adopted training along the same lines. The
training program is dubbed the First Youth Leadership Forum
(on HIV/AIDS) for Girl Guides from Africa.
In the week-long training whose theme is “Empowering
African Young Women”, the guides representing 28 countries
will be exposed to various HIV/AIDS issues that they are expected
to pass on to their youth peers in the continent.
[Africa News, 8/14/02]
Idols to Talk On HIV/AIDS in Uganda
The Ministry of Health is to appoint celebrities including
sports and entertainment idols as ambassadors to speak to
Ugandans about HIV/AIDS, state minister Mike Mukula has said.
Mukula told a visiting American delegation at the ministry’s
headquarters that the celebrities could make the messages
sink because they are widely admired and respected.
“We are going to give them certificates and people
look to them as role models. The youth will be looking to
them and when they (stars) speak, they (youth) get the message,”
Mukula said.
In a related move, the Ministry of Health will devise means
to deliver free condoms to nightclubs countrywide. Prof. Francis
Omaswa, the Director General of Health Services, told the
visitors that the move would not promote promiscuity, but
save those who cannot abstain or be faithful. The American
team was led by Mr. Shepherd Smith, President of the Institute
for Youth Development in the United States. Their visit was
organized by the First Lady, Mrs. Janet Museveni.
The World Health Organization representative, Dr. Oldapo
Walker, reaffirmed Uganda’s progress in reversing the
trends of HIV/AIDS. He said the success is real added that
“the challenge is how to ensure that the infection rate
continues to go down.” Currently the Ministry of Health
estimates that 900,000 Ugandans have died of AIDS, 1.1 million
are living with HIV and 120,000 suffering from AIDS.
[Africa News, 8/14/02]
HIV Infection Rates Soaring in Swaziland
More than 34% of adults in Swaziland have the HIV virus that
causes AIDS, giving the tiny African kingdom the second-highest
infection rate in the world, government researchers said.
The figures are much higher than those released by the government
earlier this year which pegged HIV infection rates among adults
at 20.5%. “34.2% of Swazis are HIV-positive,”
Dr Derrick von Wissell, director of the National Emergency
Response Committee on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA), told Reuters.
Swaziland’s southern African neighbor Botswana has
an infection rate of nearly 40% among adults, the highest
in the world. NERCHA is an independent body appointed this
month by Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini to distribute funds
to non-governmental organizations fighting the disease.
In Manzini, Swaziland’s most-populous town, more than
50% of women in their twenties are HIV-positive, and 44% of
women in their thirties are infected. “Manzini has the
highest percentage of HIV-positive residents of any city in
the world with the possible exception of Gaborone, Botswana,”
Alan Brody, acting United Nations representative to Swaziland,
told Reuters.
Swaziland’s absolute ruler, King Mswati III, urged
all his subjects in May to take an HIV test, saying the disease
was a national disaster. The country has a population of just
under one million. Swaziland’s National AIDS project
has blamed rising infection rates on polygamy and a reluctance
to use condoms.
[Reuters, 8/14/02]
Kenya Expands AIDS Control Program for Mothers
Kenya plans to expand a program that provides free drugs
to expectant mothers who are HIV positive to stop them from
passing the virus to their babies, health officials said.
Kenya is one of the hardest hit countries in the world by
the AIDS pandemic, but only a fraction of its 2.2 million
people who are HIV positive have access to the drugs that
could help prolong their lives.
Health Minister Sam Ongeri said the government planned to
increase the number of centers where pregnant women who are
HIV positive are given free anti-retroviral drug treatment
to 256 by the end of next year, from the current 85.
“The government has made prevention of mother to child
transmission of HIV a priority intervention,” Ongeri
told the launch of the program. “Voluntary counseling
and testing and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission
services are and will continue to be absolutely free.”
About 13% of the adult population of Kenya are believed to
be HIV positive. Many are women who are likely to get pregnant,
the Health Ministry says. The United Nations International
Children Fund (UNICEF) estimates that more than one million
babies will be born in Kenya in the next 12 months and 150,000
of these will be born to HIV positive mothers.
Approximately 30 to 40% of babies born to HIV positive mothers
get infected and most of them develop AIDS and die within
two years, UNICEF said. It was unclear exactly how many mothers
would gain access to anti-retroviral drugs under the expansion
drive. Ongeri said Kenya had about 106,000 HIV positive children
below five years of age, most of whom have no access to cheap
drugs.
The Kenyan government passed a bill last year that paved
the way for the import of cheap copies of antiretroviral drugs
to increase the affordability of AIDS treatment.
But its implementation was hampered when a clause was later
inserted requiring importers to get permission from patent
holders before bringing in the drugs. The clause was removed
last week after a public outcry, making it possible for easier
importation of the cheaper drugs, the minister said.
[Reuters, 8/14/02]
AIDS Drug Prices Drop 54% in Latin America,
Caribbean
Prices of antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV/AIDS dropped
up to 54% last year in Latin America and the Caribbean countries
as a result of agreements between ministries of health and
drug manufacturers, according to a survey by the Pan American
Health Organization (PAHO).
But there are also wide differences between the countries
surveyed, with some countries paying up to 10 times more for
the same treatment, the survey revealed. Antiretroviral drugs
have been shown to improve health status, productivity and
quality and length of life of people living with HIV/AIDS.
The PAHO survey compared the prices of drugs purchased in
May 2001 and May 2002 by the ministries of health of 14 countries
in Latin America and the Caribbean. To calculate the annual
cost of treating a person living with AIDS, PAHO selected
two of the most common combinations of antiretroviral therapies.
On average the reductions for 3TC/ZDV+NVP were 25% (from $3701
to $2746). For 3TC/ZDV+EFV the prices decreased 54% (from
$5506 to $2499).
These prices do not reflect further reductions that some
countries were able to negotiate with the companies since
then. According to information received by PAHO after the
survey, in some Caribbean and Central American countries the
cost to provide drugs to AIDS patients is now around $1100
per year. The Caribbean has the second highest prevalence
rate of HIV/AIDS in the world, after sub-Saharan Africa.
Until now, negotiations were carried out on a country-by-country
basis and some governments were more successful in obtaining
antiretroviral price reductions than others. In Haiti, for
instance, the cost of 3TC/ZDV+EFV dropped from $21,489 to
$1606 in the period surveyed. Another country that managed
to reduce prices significantly was Brazil, where the cost
of 3TC/ZDV+NVP fell from $1408 to $635, the lowest in the
region of the Americas. For the same combination, however,
some countries were paying more than $6000.
Under the framework of the WHO/UNAIDS Accelerated Access
Initiative, AHO is supporting countries in the region in their
efforts to increase access to comprehensive HIV care and support,
including antiretroviral medicines. As drug prices drop and
health systems improve, significant progress is being made
in these areas. Even with greatly reduced drug prices, however,
many countries cannot afford to provide antiretroviral drugs
to all those in need. It is estimated that at least 475,000
people need antiretroviral treatment in Latin America and
the Caribbean, (25% of the 1.9 million people living with
HIV/AIDS in the region), but only 170,000 currently have access
to the drugs, the majority of them in Brazil.
The world AIDS epidemic “has reached alarming proportions,”
according to Dr. George Alleyne, director of PAHO. “In
the Region of the Americas, 1 in every 200 persons between
15 and 49 years of age is HIV-infected. In the Caribbean,
1 in every 50 people has the infection, and it is clear that
the incidence of HIV among men continues to increase worldwide.”
[AIDS Weekly, 8/12/02]
De Beers Becomes Latest Company to Make AIDS
Drugs Available to its Employees
With a swipe at South Africa’s often criticized AIDS
policy, diamond giant De Beers announced it would heavily
subsidize the cost of AIDS medicine for its employees.
The announcement made De Beers the latest major business
in southern Africa to offer its employees medicine to fight
the devastating pandemic. “This is essentially a strong
humanitarian and moral statement by this company,” managing
director Gary Ralfe told reporters. The offer was necessary
because of the South African government’s attitude toward
the disease “that at best is ambivalent” and at
worst is “pusillanimous,” Ralfe said.
De Beers plans to offer to pay for 90% of the cost of AIDS
medicine for its 11,000 employees and their spouses. The company
estimates that 12% of its employees are infected with HIV
and that the program would cost about 25,000 rand (2,500 dollars)
for every employee that takes up the offer. The program was
expected to start in January and would last for two years.
The company would then re-evaluate the program in light of
new medical breakthroughs and a possible change in the government’s
position.
South Africa has come under strong international criticism
for its AIDS policy. Until recently it had refused to provide
pregnant women with an inexpensive medicine to prevent the
transmission of the virus to their children. It continues
to resist providing AIDS medicine to those infected, saying
such a program would be far too expensive for a poor country.
An estimated 4.7 million South Africans are infected with
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Businesses say the AIDS pandemic will have a devastating
effect on the economy, and research has shown that providing
workers with drugs is cheaper than paying for absenteeism,
loss of productivity, hospitalization, funerals and training
of replacement staff. Last year, auto giant DaimlerChrysler
announced it would make free anti-AIDS drugs available to
its 4,445 employees as well as their families in South Africa.
Debswana, Botswana’s national diamond company which
is partly owned by De Beers, announced last year a 90% AIDS
drug subsidy for its 6,000 employees in Botswana. That tiny
southern African country has the world’s highest AIDS
rate. Mining giant Anglo American, which partially owns De
Beers, said last week it planned to make AIDS drugs available
to all its 90,000 employees.
“We hope this trend will continue and we will see a
serious war effort against the AIDS pandemic” that will
include government, De Beers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer said.
Dr. Peter Piot, head of the United Nations’ AIDS agency,
UNAIDS, praised the recent announcements as “extremely
encouraging.”
“This is one of the most significant ways that a large
corporation can respond to this global pandemic, especially
in the most-affected communities,” he said. “I
call on all the global corporate community to follow the lead
of these pioneers, including De Beers, and to make the health
of their workforce a primary concern.”
[Associated Press, 8/12/02]
Africa Grapples with Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission
Africa south of Sahara is still locked in the struggle to
contain mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus, unlike
in developed countries where research and proactive measures
in that direction have all but made a breakthrough.
Mother-to-child transmission is the most significant source
of HIV infection in children, with Kenya having about 106,000
cases of infected children under 5 years of age. The virus
can be transmitted during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding.
According to Kenya’s Public Health minister Sam Ongeri
- himself a pediatrician - breastfeeding of babies born to
HIV positive mothers increases the rate of transmission of
the virus in the babies. “The rate of transmission is
about 5-10% during pregnancy in HIV positive mothers and 10-20
% during delivery and breastfeeding respectively,” Ongeri
indicated at the launch this week, of a Prevention of Mother
to Child Transmission (PMTCT) program by the National AIDS/STD
Control Program (NASCOP).
“Studies by Kenya’s ministry of Health reveal
that 30-45% of children who are born to HIV positive mothers
and are breastfed for 18-24 months get infected from the mother’s
milk,” the minister said. He urged mothers to consider
not breastfeeding their babies at all, saying 25-35% of those
breastfed for 6 months get infected while only about 15% get
infected if not breastfed.
Ongeri agrees with new research findings that administration
of Nevirapine and other antiretrovirals has been proved to
reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of
HIV by 40-50 %. Consequently, he said, the Kenyan government
has made PMTCT a priority intervention not only as a measure
to prevent HIV infection but also as a child-survival mechanism.
During the program launch, Ongeri commended the new multi-
sectoral approach that has seen the involvement of all stakeholders
in the fight against HIV/AIDS, saying it has borne fruit and
calling on other African countries to borrow a leaf from Kenya.
Kenya UNICEF representative Nicholas Alipui conceded that
dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic is a great challenge made
more difficult by the very fact that it was more than just
a medical issue.
“It is also a social issue that requires behavioral
change if any meaningful impact is to be made in interrupting
its spread,” he told PANA. According to Alipui, the
dilemma as to whether mothers should breastfeed or not, has
social and cultural underpinnings.
“For some, replacement feeding is not even a viable
option due to limited household resources and the risk of
diarrhea infections due to poor hygiene and sanitation,”
he added. Other challenges the mothers face include poor state
of health services, the prohibitive cost of antiretroviral
drugs, the high level of poverty and the stigma associated
with AIDS.
To contain these, Alipui says it is important to “intensify
efforts in creating greater awareness of the disease, its
consequences and the available services, thereby breaking
the silence about its spread.”He adds that “concrete
steps must be taken to eliminate the stigma associated with
the infection.”
The UN Special Session on Children held in May in New York
set a goal of reducing the proportion of HIV-infected infants
by 20% by the year 2005 and 50% by the year 2010. Alipui,
however, says this goal would remain far-fetched unless the
spread of HIV in women is stemmed through intensive social
mobilization by improving the welfare of the girl child, advocating
the rights of women and upholding good traditional and societal
values and morals.
“Additionally, we should ensure the provision of affordable,
acceptable and accessible services to help prevent transmission
from an infected woman to her baby, as well as provide simple,
effective and safe anti-retroviral prophylactic regimens to
reduce MTCT by at least 40%,” he urged. Equally important
is the need to pay urgent attention to finding affordable,
acceptable safe and nutritious alternatives for infants of
poor HIV-positive mothers.
In 2001, about 800,000 children globally were infected with
HIV through MTCT. Some 90% of the cases were in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Alipui concedes that the global community, governments,
local communities and individuals “have a moral responsibility
and duty to protect, respect and fulfill the rights of all
children and adolescents affected by HIV/AIDS.”
In Kenya alone, the HIV virus has infected 100,000 children
and orphaned 1.5 million others. The launched PMTCT program
would include the provision of information on maternal health
and nutrition during pregnancy, education and counseling on
how to reduce the risk of infection, and routine supplementation
with hematinics and multivitamins. It would also include screening
for sexually transmitted infections and minimizing of the
infant with maternal blood and secretions during labor and
delivery.
[Panafrican News Agency (PANA) Daily Newswire,
8/14/02]
South African Companies Face AIDS Reporting
Requirement
Companies listed in South Africa would have to report HIV/AIDS
infection rates among their employees and detail the steps
they were taking to fight the pandemic under proposals being
considered by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
South Africa would be the first country to insist on health
declarations by listed companies if the guidelines come into
force as expected at the beginning of next year. The move
is a response to investor concern about the extent of the
illness and the costs of treating it. International investors
are anxious to have forecasts of the effect of HIV/AIDS on
the South African economy as the pandemic develops over the
next 10 to 15 years.
One London analyst said: “You’ve got to begin
to wonder about the effect of HIV/AIDS when companies like
South African Breweries (SAB/Miller) say that they expect
shrinking demand in South Africa. It’s partly because
of the effects of HIV/AIDS on the market.”
Russell Loubser, stock exchange president, confirmed it was
considering HIV/AIDS prevalence disclosure as a listing requirement.
The exchange is working with the South African Institute of
Chartered Accountants on how to encourage companies to assess
their exposure to HIV/ AIDS. Mr. Loubser said the institute
might include an HIV/ AIDS audit as part of standard company
reporting practice. “We are working with Saica to see
whether an accounting policy is appropriate and what form
it should take.”
Another key concern among international investors is the
South African government’s plans to promote black ownership
in the mining sector. Leading mining groups Anglo American
and De Beers sought to reassure investors by declaring they
would work with the government on developing a mining charter
to encourage greater black participation.
[Financial Times (London), 8/15/02]
Cheaper HIV-AIDS Drugs to Improve Treatment
for Patients in Bahamas, Official Says
An agreement with drug makers to sell cheaper HIV/AIDS drugs
to Caribbean countries will greatly improve patients’
access to treatment in the Bahamas said a health official.
Six leading pharmaceutical companies agreed to slash prices
of anti-retroviral drugs during a July AIDS conference in
Barcelona, Spain. Under the deal, infected patients in the
Caribbean who now pay12,000 dollars a year for anti-retroviral
drugs could pay at little as 1,100 dollars.
“This agreement will enable our program to accelerate
access to all patients who need treatment,” Health Minister
Marcus Bethel said. The Caribbean has the world’s second
highest infection rate after sub-Saharan Africa and, like
that region, as many women are infected as men.
An estimated 2 % of people, or about 500,000, are HIV-positive,
according to a regional AIDS task force. The statistics exclude
Cuba, where rigorous isolation and prevention programs have
kept infection rates low. The six companies that have committed
to lower prices include GlaxoSmithKline of Britain, Hoffmann-La
Roche AG of Switzerland, Boehringer Ingelheim of Germany and
the U.S. firms Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, Merck & Co. and
Abbott Laboratories, Caribbean officials said. The cheaper
anti-retroviral drugs should be available by 2003, officials
say.
The Bahamas is considerably wealthier than Caribbean countries
such as Haiti or Guyana, and one Bahamian government program
already has been distributing anti-retroviral drugs for free
to HIV-infected women and children.
[Associated Press, 8/12/02]
China Mobilizes to Prevent AIDS in Various
Ways
Short films about AIDS are screening after an ad on the electronic
screen in a bus station waiting room in Nanning, capital of
south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
In China today, few people would feel as sick, shy or surprised
at such scenes as they might once have, for the country is
intensifying its spread of information on AIDS to prevent
and control the deadly disease, using a range of channels.
Statistics show that the number of HIV carriers in China reached
30,736 by the end of 2001. But experts estimate that the actual
number may have already climbed to more than 600,000.
Fearing the further spread of the infectious disease among
its people, China is setting up a comprehensive system for
AIDS prevention and aiming to reduce the number of HIV carriers
to below 1.5 million by 2010. However, “the mass media
should first raise the general public’s awareness and
draw attention to the AIDS threat,” said Dong Boqing,
an AIDS prevention expert.
A study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences reported
that China’s major mass media broadened its coverage
of AIDS between 1995 and 2001, with non-trade newspapers publishing
at least one story every 2.8 days on average. Open reporting
by the media on the facts of the AIDS epidemic, which was
once considered “taboo”, is becoming increasingly
common in China. High-profile reports and programs on AIDS
patients can be seen frequently in the media. Even a few brave
AIDS patients have broken their silence and appealed to the
public for respect by citing their own experiences via the
media.
Thousands of health officers, university students and volunteers
go to the countryside and offer people brochures and audio-visual
material on AIDS prevention. In Guangxi, bus companies are
screening AIDS prevention videos on their buses and major
courses are running in schools. Authorities are also planning
to publicize AIDS prevention information on trains and other
public transport.
[Xinhua Economic News Service, 8/9/02]
Uganda; Stop Willful HIV/AIDS Spread, Ali
Warns
The Second Deputy Prime Minster and Minster of Disaster Preparedness,
Brigadier Moses Ali, has warned that spreading AIDS deliberately
is a crime, reports Herbert Ssempogo. “You should abstain
when infected. You must change your ways, repent your sins
and turn to God instead of infecting others,” Ali said.
He was laying a foundation stone for an orphanage, Greenland
School and Orphanage, at Kyebando in Wakiso district. “When
some people realize they have been infected, they shift to
other places in order infect others who do not know their
status,” he said. He said although the numbers of people
being infected everyday is slightly reducing, there should
be no room for complacency.
[Africa News, 8/12/02]
GBH Charge for Woman who ‘Gave Her
Lover HIV’
A Woman is to appear in court accused of knowingly passing
on the HIV infection to her boyfriend. Masozi Mvula, 31, originally
from Zambia and now living in the UK, will appear before Enfield
Magistrates in north London next month.
She is charged with grievous bodily harm with intent and
GBH wounding, Scotland Yard said. Mvula, a graduate working
for a telecommunications company, will appear in court on
September 6. She was arrested by officers working as part
of Operation Sapphire, a unit that deals with allegations
of sex-related crimes. It is understood the 40 year-old boyfriend
of Ms. Mvula discovered he had contracted HIV in 1999. He
asked her to take a test and two weeks later she allegedly
informed him the results were positive.
The couple began attending a support group together, but
the boyfriend is said to have discovered that she had attended
the same support group previously without telling him. He
contacted police, who searched through her immigration files
and confirmed that she had entered the UK from Zambia in 1994
seeking treatment for HIV. Mvula, of Bush Hill Park, north
London, was arrested on July 4 this year on the grounds that
she had allegedly withheld information from her partner.
A police source said: “The man contracted HIV and asked
her to be tested. She then told him she had HIV. He went to
the police whereupon she was charged with GBH wounding and
GBH with intent.”
The allegations follow the case of Scot Stephen Kelly, 33,
who was jailed earlier this year for infecting a mother-of-three
with AIDS. Former drug addict Kelly became infected after
sharing a dirty needle in prison.He tricked his girlfriend,
Anne Craig, 35, into having unprotected sex by claiming he
tested negative for HIV. He was sentenced to five years but
is appealing.
Miss Craig said: “I am not surprised by the appeal.
He will not accept what he’s done to me.” The
young mother has been told she has less than 10 years to live.
The case was the first of its kind in the UK. Judge Lord Mackay
of Drumadoon said the sentence had to reflect “the gravity
of the offence”.
[TheExpress,8/10/02]
Taiwan Reports 4,366 Registered AIDS Cases
as of End of July
There were 4,366 registered AIDS cases in Taiwan as of the
end of July this year, according to statistics released Wednesday,
August 14 by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) under the
Cabinet-level Department of Health. Of the 4,366 AIDS patients,
4,003 are Republic of China nationals, the statistics showed.
Ou Nai-ming, head of the CDC’s AIDS prevention division,
said that the number of newly registered AIDS cases in Taiwan
has been increasing at an annual rate of 12%. Most of the
cases were transmitted through heterosexual contact, he added.
So far, 128 couples have contracted AIDS, Ou said, adding
that one of the eight “AIDS babies” given birth
by their infected parents has died. With Chinese Valentine’s
Day on August 15, the CDC will organize several activities
to educate the public about the transmission of the disease
and how to practice safe sex.
[BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific, 8/14/02]
Over 6,000 Teachers in Kenya Dying of AIDS
Annually
The country is losing 6,205 teachers annually to the HIV/AIDS
scourge, the Teachers Service Commission TSC revealed. TSC
secretary Mr. Benjamin Sogomo said 17 teachers die daily from
the HIV/AIDS virus and other related diseases. As a result
he warned teachers against engaging in promiscuous behavior.
Sogomo said the rate at which teachers were dying of AIDS
was alarming. He advised them to shun behaviors that jeopardize
their health and profession. He said that the worrying situation
especially among the young teachers were as a result of ignorance,
as they did not follow the stipulated Code of Regulations
for teachers.
Sogomo said this in a speech read on his behalf by a senior
commissioner, Mr. C. Aluku, during a graduation ceremony at
Kamwenje Teachers College central Kenya. Over 400 teachers
graduated.
[BBC Monitoring Africa, 8/11/02]
Th e HIV Update International is a weekly report of articles,
studies and other information related to HIV/AIDS, sexually
transmitted diseases and related risk behaviors compiled from
various news sources by the Children’s AIDS Fund.
The Children’s AIDS Fund is a non-profit, non-partisan
organization dedicated to helping limit the suffering of HIV-impacted
children through direct assistance and resources, as well
as through technical assistance for their parents and care-givers.
Previous editions of the HIV Update International are available
on-line at www.childrensaidsfund.org.
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