Compiled by Martin Flynn & Bruce Wainwright
Treatment Action Campaign gets UK boost
HIV campaigners came together in London this month to launch the Friends of
the Treatment Action Campaign (FoTAC), a UK-based charity set up to campaign,
fundraise and support the work of the TAC in South Africa. Pictured at the
launch are, l-r, photographer Wolfgang Tillmans; singer Annie Lennox; Sipho
Nthathi, TAC general secretary, and writer Gillian Slovo. www.fotac.org
HIV treatment chaos in Zimbabwe
As Zimbabwe descends further into economic chaos and political dictatorship,
people living with HIV are suffering more than most. Almost a quarter of Zimbabwe’s
population is infected with HIV and Aids and hospitals are struggling to carry
out basic testing because of shortages. Tendai Nyakuedzwa, a lab scientist
at Chitungwiza Hospital, 20 miles from the capital Harare, said equipment
used for accurate HIV testing had not operated at the hospital for four months
because of the lack of reagents. The hospital’s viral load machine has
also been lying unused for the past year.Zimbabwe’s Health Minister
David Parirenyatwa has blamed the problems on a shortage of foreign currency.
As a result, imports of medical supplies from South Africa are often no longer
possible.
The country’s teachers’ union meanwhile reported the deaths of
566 of Zimbabwe’s teachers from Aids-related illnesses over the past
year. Of the 1.8 million Zimbabweans reportedly living with HIV and Aids,
fewer than 20,000 are receiving free antiretrovirals from the government,
a problem made worse by spiralling inflation. HIV positive Zimbabweans this
summer found that the cost of antretroviral (ARVs) drugs had quadrupled in
the country.In July, a fixed dose combination of ARVs went up from $7.7 to
$17 but has now risen to over $46 at most pharmacies. Zimbabwe, with the world’s
fourth highest rate of HIV infection, is going through a serious economic
crisis with serious fuel and food shortages due to recurring droughts and
land redistribution from white farmers, which has disrupted agricultural production
and slashed export earnings. “People are giving up their drugs,”
said Lynne Francis of the Centre, a support organisation for 4,500 HIV positive
Zimbabweans: “They have to choose between feeding and educating their
kids or taking ARVs. It’s becoming more of a struggle to get the basic
necessities. ARVs are way down on their list of priorities.”
UN Summit disappoints on HIV and Aids
Aids
activists have condemned the largest UN World Summit in years for failing
to recognize that the Aids epidemic is far out-pacing the global response.
More than 170 world leaders, including Tony Blair, gathered in New York in
September to discuss UN reform, the war on terror, human rights and progress
towards the Millennium Development Goals.These goals are eight internationally
agreed targets for 2015, designed to halve poverty, cut mortality and illiteracy,
and reverse the spread of HIV and Aids. But HIV campaigners have branded the
summit a ‘disappointment’.“The international community failed
to recognise that the epidemic is ahead of the response, and that treatment
costs are way beyond the reach of the most poor and vulnerable,” said
Leonard Okello, head of HIV and Aids for the campaign group ActionAid. Originally
billed as a review of the eight goals, the summit failed to measure the lack
of progress in reversing the spread of HIV, malaria and TB; the three
epidemics singled out for priority action by the UN. The summit reinstated
the commitment, made this July at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, to
achieve universal access to treatment for HIV in all developing countries
by 2010, albeit in watered down language. However, the summit was silent on
trade-related intellectual property rules, known as TRIPS, which continue
to bar the poorest countries from obtaining affordable second generation treatment.
Even PM Tony Blair described the summit as “less than many people had
hoped for”.
In one significant new development, the French, German, Spanish, Brazilian
and Chilean governments announced a new tax on air travel, which they hope
to be channelled into international efforts to fight HIV and Aids in the developing
world. A development adviser to French President Jacques Chirac said the ‘airline
tax’ could potentially go to supporting the Global Fund to fight Aids,
TB and Malaria. Patrick Watt
Mother denies HIV link while daughter dies of Aids
US Aids denialist Christine Maggiore is being investigated for possible child
endangerment following the death of her three-year-old daughter from what
a coroner called ‘Aids-related pneumonia’.“Would I redo
anything based on what happened? I don’t think I would,” said
Maggiore, an HIV positive mother who denies the link between HIV and Aids.
“I acted with the best information and the best of intentions with all
my heart.” Maggiore refused to take antiretrovirals during pregnancy,
breastfed her daughter, Eliza Jane, and refused to have her tested for the
virus. Three years later, Eliza Jane died from Aids-related pneumonia.Following
her own HIV diagnosis in 1992, Maggiore founded the organisation, Alive &
Well: Aids Alternatives and appeared on primetime TV shows. She met fellow
HIV sceptic, South African President, Thabo Mbeki and wrote a popular book
questioning the link between the virus and Aids. On a radio broadcast, seven
weeks before Eliza Jane’s death, Maggiore spoke of her children’s
good health. Her husband, Robin Scovill, and their eight-year-old son Charlie,
are both HIV negative and the parents are challenging the LA coroner’s
verdict.The LA County Child Protection Unit is threatening to take the couple’s
son Charlie into care and a criminal investigation is being conducted into
the possible negligence of the parents towards Eliza Jane.
South African soldier fights HIV stigma and discrimination. Private
Andries Nhlengethwa lifts weights during a workout at a gym in Pretoria, South
Africa. He is one of the few South African soldiers living openly with HIV.The
31-year-old parachutist and bodybuilder said: “I think there will be
sufferers from HIV and Aids and there will be survivors. I strongly believe
I am one of those survivors.”
words
“With current waiting times for GU clinic appointments, it’s
no wonder STI rates are continuing to rise.
A quarter of people in England have to wait more than two weeks to be seen.
It’s simply not good enough.”
Terrence Higgins Trust chief executive, Nick Partridge
“Earlier this year officials from the LA Gay and Lesbian Center revealed
that out of 19,300 people who had tested HIV positive in the last two years,
one in three had used crystal meth.”
Rachel Halliburton, in US Time Out magazine
“You are just trying to firefight all the time. I can’t get people
through the system fast enough.”
Professor George Kinghorn, Sheffield NHS Trust, on the epidemic of
STIs among young people
“The power of stigma has made it very difficult for people with HIV
to come forward and become public leaders in the same way that has occurred
here in the US.”
Randall Tobias, US Global Aids Co-ordinator
“On average, physicians are not aware that they need to be thinking
about HIV as a possible diagnosis in their older patients.”
Dr Nathalie Casau, of Beth Israel Medical Center, New York,
on the epidemic of HIV among the over 50s in the US
