No halt to ‘death sentence’ deportations
Deportations
of HIV positive people from Britain back to Africa continue apace despite
government pledges to the contrary. A decision by the Home Office to deport
former opposition activist Hainy back to Zimbabwe was highlighted in the Belfast
Telegraph in August. Asylum seekers returning to Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe
routinely risk harassment, beatings and torture at the hands of the police
and militants from the ruling Zanu-PF party. Hainy has the additional problem
of having Aids. In a country where 295,000 people need antiretrovirals and
only 8,000 receive them, largely at their own expense, the consequences are
almost inevitable. Andrew Colclough, director of Staffordshire Buddies, the
HIV charity supporting Hainy, said: “It would be unconscionable for
a civilized state to withdraw life-saving treatment knowing that in doing
so it will lead to his early and painful death with Aids.” Hainy said:
“I am staring death in the face. If I go, I won’t get the drugs
and won’t survive six months. I need to survive. I want the chance to
provide for my kids. They [the UK] have given me medicine for three years
and to take it away would be very cruel. ” Mark Fisher, Labour MP for
Stoke-on-Trent, has protested to home secretary, Charles Clarke, that a deportation
would be “very questionable from a human rights angle”.
Meanwhile, the Home Office says 24 Zimbabwean asylum-seekers are “detained
pending removal” despite protests from HIV and asylum organisations.HIV
charities in Britain are also concerned at reports that Mugabe’s security
service is actively watching asylum applicants within this country.
Former UKC volunteer Stella Zuze, featured in April’s PN, is still fighting
her own battle against deportation back to Zimbabwe. As PN went to press,
a Ugandan HIV positive asylum seeker remains on hunger strike at Yarls Wood
detention centre.
Poor planning leaves doctors on dole
New doctors trained at an estimated cost of £237,000 each are
struggling to find post-graduate training posts in the NHS, according to a
recent British Medical Association (BMA) survey.
Up to 1,000 are applying for each training post. As a result, many new doctors
are now considering leaving the country, abandoning the profession or going
on the dole, the BMA allege.
The news comes despite government pledges to increase the number of doctors
in Britain and to substantially increase health spending by billions of pounds.
The BMA said the problem was caused partly by an increased number of graduates
leaving medical schools and partly by a failure to plan for an increase in
the number of post-graduate training posts. As a result, 87 per cent of doctors
surveyed said they were concerned about shortages of posts, 58 per cent said
they would consider going abroad and around a third were thinking about leaving
the profession altogether. Simon Eccles, chair of the BMA’s junior doctors’
committee, said: “It makes no sense that at a time when the country
is short of fully trained medical staff, we’re pushing doctors into
unemployment. It costs around a quarter of a million pounds to train a doctor
to this level. A lot of talent and taxpayers’ money is going to waste.”PN
has also learned from upcoming HIV specialist doctors that there is a great
shortage of new posts in HIV and GU medicine within the NHS.
One registrar at a top London HIV clinic has now moved over to treating liver
disease because there are no senior jobs available for her and a top Russian
doctor is said to be serving coffee at a branch of Starbucks while he awaits
BMA approval to practise in the UK.
HIV watchdog to police insurance industry
A
group of activists are to monitor new guidelines designed to protect gay men
and people with HIV from discrimination by the insurance industry.The guidelines
come into force from 30 September and
are intended to end enforced HIV tests for gay men seeking insurance cover.
The new Expert Working Group, comprising of experts in the field of HIV, activists
and insurers, will police the new guidelines and ensure they are respected
by the insurance industry. The group will monitor how gay men are treated
and report anything it considers discriminatory to the Association of British
Insurers (ABI). Chris Morgan (right), editor
of www.pinkfinance.com and member of the Expert Working Group, said: “This
move will ensure gay men are treated fairly when applying for insurance products
in the future.”In the past, gay men, or those in professions where they
were assumed to be gay, were often refused insurance cover because they were
considered an HIV risk. And gays and lesbians were often charged higher premiums
than their straight counterparts for the same insurance or endowment policies.As
well as monitoring the treatment of gay men, the group also intends to supply
the industry with evidence of HIV risk and changing cultural attitudes.Last
month PN reported a survey which showed 20 per cent of UK insurers would still
not insure HIV positive travellers. Professor Donald Jeffries, chair of the
Expert Working Group, said: “Insurance has an important part to play
in assessing the risks associated with HIV and Aids, and the industry has
a duty to research and explain these risks to consumers.”
Double-standards within UK treatment access
HIV campaigners have been quick to point out that Britain’s commitment
to fight HIV abroad is not being matched by a big increase in investment at
home. Although the Government urged G8 members to help provide universal access
to HIV drugs by 2010, it has so far failed to do so in the UK. Here, some
failed asylum seekers and illegal immigrants are subject to NHS charges, even
though there are compelling health reasons for making them free. Yusef Azad
(left), director of policy at the National Aids Trust, said: “This shows
double standards, supporting universal access to HIV treatment abroad, but
not in the UK. Denying vulnerable people free HIV treatment condemns them
to death. Not only is this morally indefensible, it demonstrates a complete
failure to respond effectively to the spread of HIV in the UK.”
news on the side
Increased needle
transmission of HIV
New HIV infections among injecting drug users appear to be on the increase
in England and Wales, according to a study carried out by the UK’s Health
Protection Agency and Imperial College, London. The study, published in the
journal AIDS, suggests the increase is most pronounced among younger and more
recent injecting drug users. By the end of 2002, only seven per cent of the
UK’s estimated 56,000 HIV infections were associated with intravenous
drug use, but the researchers say there is evidence of an increase in risky
injecting practices and needle sharing.
Pan-London consortium to close
A body set up in 1992 to co-ordinate some 50 HIV organisations receiving statutory
funding in London, is to close due to lack of funds. “We no longer have
adequate funding which is necessary to enable us to deliver the sustainable
level of service needed,” said Bryan Teixeira, chair of Pan-London HIV
Providers Consortium.
Welsh HIV case
‘misreported’
The UK media faces accusations of misreporting the case of a young Welsh woman,
now aged 20,
convicted of ‘reckless’ transmission of HIV under the 1861 Offences
Against the Person Act last month. Sentenced to two years in custody, it was
widely reported that she had ‘deliberately’ infected her boyfriend
with HIV. Only The Times used the correct and less inflammatory phrase, ‘knowingly
infected’. The judge at Cardiff Crown Court has refused press applications
to name the defendant in the case.
Girl, 15, discovers HIV
during pregnancy screening
Campaigners in Wales are concerned about the growing HIV problem among young
heterosexuals following the news that a 15-year-old schoolgirl only found
out she had HIV when she became pregnant. She gave birth via caesarean section
at Swansea’s Singleton Hospital last month. The baby tested negative
but needs another test in three months. Welsh HIV rates have risen by 45 per
cent in the last two years.
Spare meds for Africa?
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital’s Kobler clinic and the charity InterCare
are getting together to send your unwanted antiretrovirals to Africa’s
rural communities. Anyone changing medication can hand in unwanted drugs to
a doctor or nurse, not the clinic’s pharmacy, providing they are in
sealed packaging and not out of date.
Cash boost for sexual health
The Government’s decision to plough £15 million into genito-urinary
services has been widely welcomed. “Increasing awareness of sexually
transmitted infections and rising infection rates means clinics are still
faced with overwhelming demand for treatment,” said Anne Weyman of the
Family Planning Association.
Study shows HAART success
Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) has reduced the rate of progression
of HIV positive people to Aids by 86 per cent, according to a recent study
carried out Dr Jonathan Sterne at the University of Bristol. The study of
3,200 Swiss patients since 1996 found that the effectiveness of HAART increased,
rather than decreased, over time. But HAART was less beneficial to people
infected through intravenous drug use, the researchers found.
New Zealand man fined for removing condom
Greater rights for sex workers, granted under New Zealand’s 2003 Prostitution
Reform Act, has resulted in a conviction and fine of NZ$400 (£153) for
one man. Daniel James Morgan, 48, pleaded guilty to removing a condom during
sex and putting the prostitute’s life at risk.
HIV drugs for children
cost more
Newer antiretrovirals can cost up to 12 times more in sub-Saharan Africa,
according to Médicins Sans Frontières. Paediatric formulations
are also more expensive than adult ARV drugs. Even using cheap generic drugs,
treating a child could cost as much as $816 a year against a triple drug regime
of $182 for an adult. The availability of paediatric formulations is also
a major problem for HIV clinics in Africa.
Rape in US prisons
It is estimated that one in 10 prisoners are raped in US jails, according
to Senator Edward Kennedy. Fear of reprisal, a code of silence among inmates,
personal embarrassment and lack of trust in staff means that many cases are
not reported. The US prison population now tops two million, believed to be
the highest for any country in the world.
GNP+ Lima conference put off till 2006
The Living 2005 Conference, scheduled to be held in Lima in October this year,
will now to take place between 12 and 16 March 2006. Organisers the Global
Network of HIV Positive People (GNP+) say the decision to postpone was due
to funding problems and the need to combine two conferences. For more details
check the conference website, www.living2005.org.
