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Volume 2 Number 38
November 9, 2002
In this edition:
Ghana Launches National Program to Encourage
Compassion and Support for People Living with HIV/AIDS
Muslim and Christian religious leaders will foster support
and compassion for those living with HIV/AIDS under a new
program launched in Ghana, where approximately a half-million
people are living with the virus that causes AIDS.
Reach Out, Show Compassion for people living with HIV/AIDS
is the second phase of the successful Stop AIDS, Love Life
national communication program, which began in February 2000.
Stop AIDS, Love Life is a joint effort of the Ghana Ministries
of Information and Health, the Ghana Social Marketing Foundation,
and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center
for Communication Programs [CCP], with support from the U.S.
Agency for International Development. The Christian Council
of Ghana will coordinate the religious groups in implementing
the Reach Out, Show Compassion campaign.
The launch featured Ghana’s Vice President Alhaji Aliu
Mahama and his wife Hajia Rahmatu Mahama; Professor F.T. Sai,
Presidential Adviser on Reproductive Health; Professor S.A.
Amoa, Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission; members
of Ghana’s Council of State and Parliament; and from
the U.S. Embassy, Charge d’affaires Gary Pergl.
“Let us all go from here with the singular resolve
of showing compassion to all persons living with HIV and AIDS
and their families, and supporting each other to adopt appropriate
safe behaviors that will lead us to win the fight against
HIV/AIDS,” Vice President Mahama said.
“We must do everything we can to treat our fellow Ghanaians
with respect, support, and, most of all, compassion when they
learn they are HIV-positive,” said Sai, who chaired
the launch ceremony. “Our response to those living with
or affected by HIV/AIDS can either give them hope or lead
to despair. We choose to give them hope.”
Twenty-three Muslim leaders and 25 Christian leaders committed,
in an historic Communiqué presented to Vice President
Mahama at the launch, to work together with the Government
and other stakeholders in confronting the problems Ghana faces
because of HIV/AIDS.
“We do not only have to impart to the human society
the type of moral education that will contribute to the prevention
of HIV/AIDS transmission, but also have to inculcate in the
individuals of society the need to show compassion to HIV/AIDS
infected and affected,” the Communiqué stated.
The new program will increase the number of religious organizations
and congregations and humanitarian groups engaged in HIV/AIDS
issues. Training programs for 900 clergy, Imams, and other
religious leaders will be held throughout Ghana to help set
up compassion programs. Television and radio spots will also
support a compassionate response by quoting directly from
the Bible or Koran where compassionate behavior is demonstrated.
“Reducing the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS is a
critical element of any strategic communication program,”
said Emmanuel Fiagbey, CCP’s country representative
in Ghana. “People living with HIV/AIDS need more than
medical support; they need emotional and spiritual support,
they need to live in caring communities. This will slow the
spread of HIV because people will not be so likely to hide
their status if they can expect more compassion.”
With representatives in more than 30 countries, CCP is a
pioneer in the field of strategic, research-based communication
for behavior change and health promotion that helped transform
the theory and practice of public health communication. The
Bloomberg School of Public Health established CCP in 1988
to focus attention on the central role of communication in
health behavior and to provide leadership in the field of
behavior change communication.
[PR Newswire European, 11/6/02]
Rape Suspects Should Be Tested for AIDS Says
French Medical Academy
France’s most prestigious medical authority said suspects
in rape cases should be tested against their will for the
AIDS virus in order to provide emergency help for victims.
Breaking a taboo, the Academy of Medicine called on the health
ministry and justice ministry to “urgently” revise
the law so that rape suspects no longer had the right to refuse
an HIV test of their blood.The author of the appeal, Roger
Henrion, said many rape victims are given a month-long course
of three drugs as soon as possible after their attack to reduce
the risk of HIV infection.
However, many victims stop taking the medication after a
while because it often has serious side-effects, he said.
Knowing for sure whether the suspected rapist carries the
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) would therefore encourage
victims to see the drug regimen through to the end.
The number of recorded rape cases in France rose 23%, from
4,800 to 5,900, from 1999 to 2001. During this time, doctors
administered around 4,000 emergency courses of HIV drugs,
a fifth of them in rape cases.Emergency courses of antiretroviral
drugs are a poorly-explored area of medical research.
Scientists are leery about concluding whether the drugs destroy
the virus at the earliest stage of infection or merely reduce
it to undetectable levels.
They are also cautious about talking about this emergency
therapy, fearing to do so could promote unsafe sex and encourage
resistance to these important drugs.
[Agence France Presse, 11/4/02]
Uganda; Grownup ‘AIDS Kids’ Still
In the Dark
The Ministry of Health warned that babies who got mother-to-child
HIV/AIDS infection in the mid-1980s were now adolescents and
could be innocently passing on the virus to their sexual partners.
Dr. Elizabeth Madraa, the program coordinator for Sexually
Transmitted Diseases and the AIDS Control Program in the Ministry
of Health, said some surviving parents of such children have
had no courage or skill to reveal their status, leaving the
children in the dark.
She said there was an urgent need to address the sero status
of these adolescents lest they caused a fresh round of the
epidemic.
Madraa was speaking at a dialogue on the support for children
and families affected by HIV/AIDS at Hotel Africana, Kampala.
The dialogue was sponsored by the United States Agency for
International Development.
“Most of those children have never openly been told
about their HIV status and now time is running out,”
Madraa said.
She said fluconizal or diflucan, a drug that treats opportunistic
infections in HIV/AIDS patients, was available and free throughout
the country.
She said all clinics handling ordinary HIV/AIDS patients
should work out a mechanism for preparing the youth psychologically
and, where necessary, telling them their sero status and its
implications.
[Africa News, 11/4/02]
Russian Government Enacted Draft Law AIDS
Prevention among Vulnerable Groups
Russian Government enacted a draft law AIDS Prevention among
Vulnerable Groups. This bill is the most important component
of the program for cooperation with Russia in sphere of HIV/AIDS
prevention, budgeted by Britain s International Development
Ministry.
The aim of this program is to work out the project of consistent
and combined HIV/ AIDS prevention in two Russian experimental
regions. The program is to guarantee the control for the spread
of disease and it can find an application in other regions
of Russia as well, being an efficient model of HIV/ AIDS preventive
measures.
The project is to be realized within five years, its budget
amounts to 12mln pounds ($19 mln). The final stages of the
program s development on the territorial level are planned
for March 2003. In April 2003 the project is to come into
force. On the part of Britain the project is to be realized
by London University Imperial College with the help of specialists
from other research institutes. The program will be enacted
in close cooperation with Russian Ministry Of Health Care,
Moscow Medical Academy named after Sechenov, Saint Petersburg
Institute For Graduates, Federal Center Of HIV/AIDS Prevention,
Ministry of Finance and other federal and regional Ministries.
In addition, this program will give reasonable support to
the UNO.
[Economic News, 11/5/02]
Study Shows over 60,000 Infected with HIV
in Nepal
The number of people who were infected with the human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV) in Nepal will exceed 60,000 by the end of 2002,
according to a study conducted by the country’s research
centre.
Meanwhile, those affected with the acquired immune deficiency
syndrome
(AIDS) in Nepal are estimated to reach 3,000, Gopal Raj Shakya,
president of
the Nepal AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease Research Centre,
said
recently.
“Maximum number of injecting drug users have been
affected the virus,” Shakya said.
The Nepali government has realized this fact and has been
active to check the menace, he noted, adding “Some positive
outcomes have been observed as a result of campaigns by various
governmental and non-governmental organizations on checking
the spread of the dreaded disease.”
The Nepali National Centre for AIDS and Sexually-transmitted
Diseases Control launched in July massive advocacy and awareness
programs throughout the country in the fiscal year of 2002/2003,
which began from 16 July this year to 15 July next year, in
an attempt to control HIV/AIDS.
As many as 153 Nepalese people died of AIDS in June this
year. According to the statistics provided last year by the
World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people suffering
from HIV/AIDS in Nepal was around 40,000.
[BBC Monitoring, 11/2/02]
Vatican Prefers Chastity to Condoms
The Vatican repeated its opposition to using condoms as a
way to fight AIDS, saying that chastity was the best way to
prevent the spread of the deadly virus.
Monsignor Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical
Council for Health Workers, acknowledged that to some, the
Vatican position may sound “ridiculous in the society
in which we live.” But he said there was only one way
to prevent AIDS and the HIV virus from spreading. “We
say that prevention ... is called chastity.”
Barragan made the comments ahead of a three-day Vatican symposium
on health care in Catholic hospitals and clinics around the
world.
The Vatican has been criticized for its steadfast opposition
to condom use, particularly in poor regions of the world like
Africa which have been devastated by the AIDS epidemic.
More than 90% of the world’s 37.1 million HIV-infected
people live in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts
for 26 million - or 70% of the total, U.S. and U.N. statistics
show.
The Church has argued that condoms don’t offer 100%
protection and only contribute to what Barragan called a “pan-sexual”
society in which sex has been separated into an act of pleasure
or procreation.
“In this separation, according to this mentality,
it’s absurd that the church says ‘no’ to
condoms,” he said. “But we have another ethical
horizon: That is life.”
Two years ago, a Vatican official hinted at a possible softening
in the Church’s position, writing in the Vatican newspaper
L’Osservatore Romano that condoms were one of the ways
to “contain” the spread of HIV.
The author, Monsignor Jacques Suadeau of the Pontifical Council
for the Family, stressed that chastity was the only way to
prevent the spread of the virus, but that in the case of Thai
sex workers, for example, condom use was a “lesser evil.”
Suadeau later denied he was signaling a change.
[Associated Press Online, 11/6/02]
Women Still Lead in HIV/AIDS Death Toll in
Uganda
As more adults than children continue to die of the HIV/AIDS
in Uganda, women lead the death toll in comparison to men,
the ministry of health has revealed in a surveillance report
here. According to the statistics, death toll since the scourge
was detected in 1983 till June 2002 totals 947,552, of which
91% are adults.
While it has killed one percent of children under the age
of 15 years, the report shows that more girls than boys have
died in that age bracket. Total HIV/AIDS deaths in Uganda
include 55% of women and 44% of men, the report says.
The epidemic has killed more poverty-stricken rural dwellers
who have little or no education than it has killed their urban
and fairly-educated counterparts who are found be using preventive
methods, it laments.
Condom use among women with non-cohabiting partners was high
especially with those of at least secondary education background
and living in urban areas than their rural counter parts.
At the same time, “condom use is found to be high among
males in the early twenties age group living in urban areas
and with at least secondary education than rural males,”
it points out.
Uganda, being a low developing country whose economy still
depends on peasant agricultural practices, there is evidence
that the bulk of its population is rural based and therefore
hard hit due to persistent high levels of non-literacy and
poverty.
Recent population and housing census results found the country
to have a total of 24.6 million people with females edging
slightly more than 50% over males.
The report further shows there exists a difference between
urban dwellers and rural based masses in the levels of knowledge
of HIV/AIDS preventive practices saying that the traditional
and customary unprotected sexual practices among the rural
folks are their biggest undoing.
“Sexual activity among men starts earlier than among
women,” says the report.
Only 9% of men of 25-54 years were sexually active by the
age of 15.The maiden age at first sexual intercourse for women
and men of 20-49 years was found at 16.7 and 18.8 years, respectively.
[Panafrican News Agency, 11/3/02]
Home in Kenya Cares for HIV Kids
A 3-year-old named Samuel weighs only about 20 pounds, and
he’s very sick. He’s one of 85 HIV-positive orphans
at Nyumbani, an orphanage set up 10 years ago by American
priest Angelo D’Agostino.
Since Samuel receives anti-retroviral drugs, new drugs that
keep his HIV in remission, doctors and caregivers at the orphanage
can’t figure out what’s wrong with him.
The little boy is exactly what Katalin Szabo, a volunteer
lab worker from Cleveland, Ohio, feared before she moved to
Kenya about one month ago. Watching Samuel breathe with difficulty
and cough as she stayed up with a nurse the last few nights
to watch him, made all her fears come back again.“I
was worried about the children when I thought about it in
the United States -- that sooner or later, we’re going
to be faced with the fact that children will die,” Szabo
says, looking down quickly. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Fortunately, children at the orphanage are dying a lot less
frequently since anti-retroviral drugs were made available.
Children used to die at the alarming rate of about one per
month, D’Agostino says. In the last two years, since
children have started taking the drugs, only two have died.
“At that time, it was pretty depressing, but now we’re
doing well,” D’Agostino says. “Only 30 need
medication now.”
Other children are now healthy through good eating habits
and with volunteers carefully monitoring their immune systems,
D’Agostino says.That’s where Szabo and six other
American volunteers come in. After graduating from college
with a degree in pharmacology, the 28-year-old decided to
work in Kenya for a year before going to medical school. She
analyzes the blood of the children, looking for hepatitis,
low red blood cell counts -- anything that might make them
sick.
“Samuel’s CD-4 count is below 200. What that
means is that he has an immune system that can’t function
at all,” Szabo says.
When D’Agostino started the orphanage, he was one of
the first to help HIV-positive children in Kenya. Because
of the stigma attached to AIDS, most of the children are shunned
by relatives after their parents die. African women who are
HIV-positive often abandon their babies, believing that they’ll
die soon after they’re born.
In a strange quirk of fate, three-fourths of the children
who initially test HIV-positive, and who have HIV-positive
mothers, later turn out to be HIV-negative, D’Agostino
says. Szabo also tests the children’s blood for that
possibility.
D’Agostino estimates there will be 40 million children
orphaned by parents who have died of AIDS in the next six
to 10 years.
“There are thousands of children being born to HIV
parents,” D’Agostino says. “What are we
going to do? We have orphans and grandparents.”
So many parents die in Kenya and other African countries
because the cost of anti-retroviral drugs continues to be
prohibitive, D’Agostino says. Most people in Kenya make
slightly less than $2 per day, but the drugs cost almost $3
per day, he says. That’s even after drug companies have
offered the life-saving drugs at a discount, D’Agostino
says bitterly. He raises money from private donors and public
agencies to pay the $250,000 budget needed to take care of
all of the children. But there’s still cause for optimism,
says Daniel Oliver Beck, 27, another volunteer.
“Nyumbani has done so much for these children,”
Beck says. “You’d fully expect them not to be
with us for much longer, but this gives them a second
ease on life.”
[United Press International, 11/2/02]
AIDS Education Fails to Change Behavior
HIV/AIDS education in schools in Sub-Saharan Africa has failed
to effect behavior change despite high levels of knowledge
among primary and secondary school pupils.
Researchers at the University of Sussex in Britain says there
is little evidence to show that school-based HIV/AIDS education
has had major impact on sexual behavior. The report of the
study on the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on education
sector in sub-Saharan Africa has criticized curriculum design
and delivery of HIV/AIDS education.
“The issue is that lack of time, resources and training
meant that curriculum based education as well as counseling
and peer education were inadequate,” says Nicola Swainson
of the Centre for International Education of the University
of Sussex.
The study that was carried in Uganda, Malawi and Botswana
argues that the poorly trained teachers were shy to teach
sex education and others lacked commitment to teach topics
in an already over-crowded and examination-driven curriculum.
Schools were found to offer little support for children affected
by HIV/AIDS and there was insufficient guidance from education
ministries and a lack of resources to carry out any support
programs. However, this is the case in most countries in Sub-Saharan
Africa where most governments have been slow to respond to
the teenage -AIDS crisis.
The study found that AIDS epidemic was on the increase among
school children in Sub-Saharan Africa and will impact negatively
on education in the region. “Economic and socio-cultural
pressures that fuel unsafe sex among adolescents in Sub-Saharan
Africa remain as high as ever,” says Paul Bennell, the
team leader of the study.
Consequently, the report noted there is growing concern about
the risk of female pupils contracting HIV from teachers and
other older men. The study concurred with earlier findings
by UNAIDS that showed dramatic HIV/AIDS increase among girls
aged 15-19 in most cities across Sub-Saharan Africa.
But the main worry is that despite the mounting concern about
the vulnerability of pupils in contracting HIV/AIDS, there
is limited information on how to make an assessment of the
extent to which teenagers would change their sexual behavior
in response to the AIDS threat, says the report. The situation
is bleak as AIDS cases among students in Sub-Saharan Africa
are expected to rise in the next decade.
“Without appropriate levels of support school enrolment
will drop considerably in the region,” says Swainson,
who was the coordinator of the internationally funded study.
The researchers projected that if the current trend continued,
by 2010 between 30-40% pupils in Sub-Saharan Africa will be
AIDS-orphans and drop out rate will be enormous.
And in an effort to combat the epidemic, the report recommended
that schools should be made to become the focus of prevention
of HIV/AIDS. Ministries of education were urged to develop
a professional cadre of full-time sex and family life education
teachers in both primary and secondary schools and that there
should be regular time-tabled lessons for this subject for
all children right from the start of the primary education
cycle.
The report noted the emphasis should be combined with integration
of sex education in the curriculum. “While HIV/AIDS
education in schools should focus on sexual abstinence, the
role of condoms in preventing infection cannot be ignored,”
said Bennell.
[Africa News, 11/2/02]
Nigerian Women Entrepreneurs Ask Federal
Government to Tackle AIDS Menace
The Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (WEAN) has
called on the Federal Government, international organizations,
and women generally to pay special attention to the alarming
level of HIV and AIDS infection among Nigerian women as a
matter of urgency.
In a statement issued weekend the WEAN lamented that with
the estimated 1.7 million women, as against 1.5 million men
living with HIV/AIDS, Nigeria ranks second to South Africa
with 2.5 women compared to 2 million men living with HIV/AIDS,
noting that these are the latest joint United Nations program
on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) figures on the epidemic.
The association argued that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among
these women in their most productive and reproductive years
explains the reason for the alarming level of the infection
among children aged 0-14 years. “With 270,000 children,
living with HIV/AIDS, Nigeria has the highest level of HIV/AIDS
infection among children in Africa. Of the 28.5 million adults
and children estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS across 45
countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, 3.5 million are in Nigeria”
WEAN stated.
It also called on the other African Heads of State to adopt
a more effective strategic approach to combat this epidemic
among women, adding that of the estimated 26 million adults
living with HIV/AIDS across the countries of sub-Sahara Africa,
women make up 15 million while 11 million are men. This infection
rate among adults is 9% of total population according to UNAIDS.
In Africa South of Sahara, there are already six women with
HIV for every five men the figure indicated, showing that
four-fifth of all infected women globally are Africans.”
The association contended that “though not much can
be done against the biological vulnerability of women to HIV
infections, the WEAN is calling for more effective approaches
to reduce the social and economic vulnerability. Because of
their socio-economic circumstances, women’s autonomy
is often crippled. Lacking economic resources of their own,
and fearful of abandonment or violence on the part of their
male partners, they have little or no control over how and
when they have sex, and hence over their risk of becoming
infected with HIV.”
[Africa News, 11/4/02]
HACI Welcomes World Vision in its
Fight against AIDS
Hope for African Children Initiative (HACI), a collaboration
of leading international humanitarian organizations, announced
that World Vision International has joined them in their work
to address the enormous challenges faced by more than 13 million
children whose lives have been affected by the AIDS pandemic
in sub-Saharan Africa.
The wealth of experience and expertise of HACI’s existing
partners -CARE, Plan, Save the Children, the Society for Women
and AIDS in Africa, and Religions for Peace - will be complimented
by the knowledge and practical experience that World Vision
brings to the initiative. HACI supports sub-Saharan African
communities in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS, mitigates
the impact of the pandemic, and provides care and support
to children and families affected by AIDS.
“The Hope for African Children Initiative is truly
a partnership and we welcome World Vision’s commitment
to working with communities to improve the lives of African
children,” said Dr. Pat Youri, the initiative’s
Nairobi-based executive director. “As HIV and AIDS continue
to devastate whole families throughout Africa, global partnerships
have an integral role to play in enabling communities to tackle
this issue head-on.”
World Vision has integrated HIV/AIDS prevention, care and
advocacy into its development programs in the 25 African nations
in which it works. “Through collaboration with civic
groups, churches, and other non-governmental organizations,
World Vision helps African communities reverse this deadly
epidemic,” said Ken Casey, who directs the organization’s
global HIV/AIDS efforts. “Joining HACI is a great opportunity
to combine forces to do more for children affected by HIV/AIDS.”
[Canada Newswire, 10/31/02]
Health Activists, AIDS Sufferers in Thailand
File Suit to Dislodge Patent on HIV Drug
Wanting cheaper treatment for Thailand’s estimated
1 million HIV/AIDS sufferers, people with the disease and
consumer activists on October 9, 2002, filed a lawsuit to
invalidate a drug patent held here by U.S. pharmaceutical
giant Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Three AIDS sufferers and the local Foundation for Consumers
filed a suit in the Central Intellectual Property Court which
claims the patent on the drug Videx EC should be withdrawn.
If they win their suit, other companies could produce generic
versions for the drug more cheaply.
The plaintiffs argue that Videx is not the company’s
innovation, but merely a combination of an antacid and the
active ingredient didanosine - for which the company holds
no patent.
Bristol-Myers developed Videx after licensing didanosine
from the U.S. National Institute of Health. It claims Videx
can be patented because it increases the drug’s effectiveness
by including a buffering agent.
The company did not have a representative in court, and its
executives in Thailand did not return calls seeking comment.
A Bristol-Myers spokesman in the United States said that the
company was committed to providing drugs to fight AIDS at
an affordable price in the developing world.
Kamol Uppakaew, a plaintiff in the case, said it was well-known
that antacids should be taken with didanosine in order to
reduce stomach acidity and help the body absorb the drug.
“It’s just general knowledge,” said Kamol,
who is also a leader of the Thai Network for People Living
with HIV/AIDS.
Health activists around the world have been seeking to reduce
the price of HIV medicines, saying the high prices discriminate
against the poor. Drug companies have trimmed prices, but
they generally oppose steep cuts, saying they need to recover
the high costs of research and development.
Activists in Thailand won a minor legal victory when the
Central Intellectual Property Court ruled invalid part of
the Videx patent.The court’s ruling that Bristol-Myers’
patent covers only pills containing between 5 and 100 mg of
didanosine - also know as ddI - paved the way for other drug
makers to market pills with dosages above 100 mg.
[Drug Week, 11/8/02]
India Could Be Model for Prevention of AIDS
India can become a model for preventing the spread of HIV
and AIDS because of the interest shown by the government and
organizations fighting the disease, US software mogul Bill
Gates said.
In an interview to the India Today weekly ahead of a visit
here next week, Gates said India had a “huge”
role to play in “tackling its own health problems and
also in the creation of a pharmaceutical industry.”
“In India, because the government is interested and
partners are interested, we think we can make it into a model
for preventing the spread of the disease,” said the
Microsoft chief, the world’s richest person.
Gates regretted that the “difficulties of the conditions
of the developing countries are ignored.”
Nearly four million Indians carry HIV, the virus that leads
to AIDS, making it the largest HIV-positive population in
the world after South Africa. Unofficial estimates put the
figure at closer to five million.On his November 11-14 trip
to India, Gates is due to meet with key government officials,
academics and corporate leaders.
The software mogul, who has an estimated fortune of 43 billion
dollars, set up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with
his wife to conduct charity work.
It will be Gates’ third visit to India, which has a
major software industry.
Microsoft has had a presence in India since 1987, with offices
in five Indian cities including the southern IT showcase city
of Bangalore.
[Agence France Presse, 11/3/02]
The 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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