Stars sing for their supper for Terrence Higgins Trust Over 500 invited
guests attended 40 Supper Club dinner parties held simultaneously in private
homes and top restaurants around the country this month to raise funds for
Terrence Higgins Trust. After dinner, guests travelled to Bayswater’s
Porchester Hall for champagne cocktails and a special show by the cast of
hit musical Guys And Dolls, including stars Ewan McGregor (pictured centre),
Jenna Russell (left) and former AllyMcBeal star, Jane Krakowski. Debbie Holmes,
director of fundraising at THT, said: “They put on an amazing show and
helped us raise over £60,000 for our vital work,
supporting people living with and affected by HIV and Aids.”
www.tht.org.uk
HIV prosecutions come under fresh scrutiny
Use of the archaic 1861 Offences against the Person Act to prosecute
people who have transmitted HIV will come under fresh legal and political
scrutiny this autumn. Law Lords are due to decide at the end of this month
whether to consider an appeal from 39-year-old Mohammed Dica. Dica, of Croydon,
was jailed for four-and-a-half years in 2005 for recklessly transmitting HIV
under the 1861 Act. The Court of Appeal has ‘certified’ the case
on the grounds of public interest, to enable Dica to try to take it to the
highest court in the land.
If the Law Lords agree to look at the case, there is a strong chance they
will also look closely at the public interest arguments for prosecuting reckless
transmission of HIV.HIV charities Terrence Higgins Trust and National Aids
Trust are preparing detailed submissions should the appeal go ahead.Whether
this will result in the stopping of prosecutions of people with HIV for transmitting
the virus remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, HIV charities and activists on the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)
working group are continuing to advise the CPS on drawing up their draft guidelines
for prosecutors. People living with HIV will get a chance to comment on these
draft guidelines when they are put out to consultation on the CPS website
early in the New Year. The CPS will also hold a public meeting as part of
that consultation process.For more information, a briefing paper on the issue
of HIV prosecutions can be downloaded from www.sigmaresearch.org.uk/reports
Troubled
HIV charity picks up award Oasis North London has won the 2005 Camden
Volunteering Organisation of the Year award, despite having funding slashed
by Camden and Islington councils.
Oasis has also won a £211,000 grant from the National Lottery Fund and
will fight to continue to provide a wide range of services in an area of the
capital which houses the second highest number of people living with HIV in
the country.Pictured at the awards are (left to right): Peter Davey, Oasis
director, comedienne Victoria Wood and Johanna Ehrnrooth, who runs healthy
eating classes at Oasis. www.onl.org.uk
Beginning of end for ‘one-stop’ HIV care?
A growing number of people living with HIV in London are being told they can
no longer get non-HIV drugs from their HIV clinics. Most HIV hospital clinics
in the capital have already told patients they now had to visit their GP to
get drugs for conditions like fungal infections, depression, sexual dysfunction,
blood pressure and asthma.
The change could spell the end of so-called ‘one-stop’ care for
people with HIV who are used to getting almost all their care and treatments
from the HIV clinic.Historically, the ‘one-stop’ arrangement has
allowed people
living with HIV to remain anonymous when seeking care and avoid telling their
GP about their HIV status.
The prohibitive cost of prescribing drugs in hospital is behind the move.
HIV clinics in London are currently trying to head off a £5 million
end-of-year overspend, and managers are desperate to find ways to slash the
drugs bill.Meanwhile, London NHS commissioners are telling HIV clinics to
take account of cost when prescribing combos. In a separate move to cut the
drugs bill, London hospitals are running home delivery of HIV drugs for some
stable patients, allowing them to avoid having to pay VAT on each prescription.Bernard
Forbes, chairman of UKC, said: “In principle there is nothing wrong
with GPs providing non-HIV treatments. Hospital pharmacies have to pay 17.5
per cent VAT on every drug they prescribe whereas community pharmacies pay
no VAT.“In addition, HIV specialists tell me they have huge concerns
about their competence to
prescribe drugs that fall outside their HIV specialisms.“But equally,
most GPs do not have the training to deal with complex HIV-related matters
or understand the many complicated interactions that can arise between other
drugs and ARVs.”Meanwhile, NHS managers have announced another major
change to the NHS, just five years after the last shake-up. The number of
primary care trusts (PCTs) in England and Wales may be cut from 303 to 95
and each PCT will lose responsibility for providing healthcare outside hospitals.
Sir Nigel Crisp, head of the NHS, said the changes should result in savings
of around 15 per cent.
The government wants to see an increasing number of services provided at GP
level. PCTs will be unable to provide these services and will have to commission
them from other, as yet unspecified, bodies.
The BMA warned doctors were “confused” by the proposals. It said
PCTs should not shed their provider status, “before they can demonstrate
there will be non detriment to delivery of services or patient care”.
HIV hospital welcomes Royal
HRH Princess Alexandra visited east London’s Mildmay Mission Hospital
last month to celebrate the charity’s 20th anniversary.
Europe’s first HIV hospice continues to look after seriously ill people
living with the virus and has in recent years expanded its care, education
and development services to Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
In the 1980s over a half of Mildmay London’s admissions were among people
with advanced forms of Aids who needed terminal care. These days much of the
centre’s work focuses on the rehabilitation for people with multiple,
complex and chronic conditions such as HIV-related brain impairment.
Pictured with Princess Alexandra at the anniversary celebrations is 43-year-old
Mildmay patient Paul Hoyle. He said: “I was on a spiral of self-destruction
and had become very depressed. Thanks to Mildmay I got my life back together.
I’ve just had a two-week stay here where the care team looked after
me, helped me re-evaluate things and get a more positive outlook.”www.mildmay.org
news on the side
‘Without condoms’ course
Michael Shernoff brings his controversial workshop ‘Without Condoms’
to London on 13 January. Designed to stop the spread of HIV among gay men,
the gay therapist believes the days of ‘using a condom every time’
are past, and the way forward is to help both positive and negative gay men
to use a variety of ways to minimise risk. To book a place, contact training@pinktherapy.com
There are limited places.
Crack users getting more HIV and HCV
Injecting drug users are an increasing public health concern, according to
the Health Protection Agency. The HPA is particularly concerned that the increase
in injecting crack cocaine may be responsible for recent increases of viral
infections, including hepatitis C and HIV. Around one in 25 of the estimated
50,000 crack users in London are thought to be HIV positive.
TB infections up by a third
New cases of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in Britain increased by 19 per cent
in 2003. This indicates that the pool of people with TB who are highly infectious
has grown substantially. Data from the HPA, presented at the October conference
on Lung Health in Paris, also indicated that drug-resistant TB was on the
increase. Many arrivals from sub-Saharan Africa have both HIV and TB and co-infection
coupled with late diagnosis often make this a fatal combination.
301st HIV charity enters ‘turf war’
There are now over 300 HIV/Aids organisations
in Britain and last month another joined the list. The UK Aids and Human Rights
Project, set up by Dr Delphine Valette, a former employee of National Aids
Trust (NAT), aims to use international human rights legislation to campaign
for people with HIV. But the group has come under fire for duplicating campaigning
already done by NAT and THT.
‘Hot oil attack’ woman has jail term doubled
A Luton woman has had her prison term for GBH doubled to eight years by the
Court of Appeal. Lord Justice Latham agreed that Bianca Chikanya, 22, had
been “provoked” when her boyfriend ridiculed her about her HIV
positive status. But she had left 25-year-old Constantine Chikamba’s
face a “grotesque” mess when she tipped a pan full of hot oil
on him, and plunged a knife into his back.
Avert wins top BMA award
Sussex-based HIV/Aids charity Avert has won this year’s prestigious
British Medical Association Patient Information Award for its website. Praised
by the judges as “very well referenced, information-rich and having
a clean look”, the Avert website attracts 100,000 visitors a week. Director
Annabel Kanabus said they were proud to receive the award, which comes ten
years after the site launched.
www.avert.org.uk
HIV and Aids ‘driving South Africans to suicide’
According to a report from South Africa’s Depression and Anxiety Group,
people with HIV in the country are 36 times more likely to commit suicide
than the rest of the population.
US medical professionals ‘discriminate’
Over a quarter of America’s HIV positive patients think they have been
discriminated against by healthcare workers, according to October’s
Journal of General Internal Medicine. Because of perceived discrimination,
patients believed they had worse access and receive lower standards of care.
‘Use condom or face fine’
Male customers in one red-light district in Indonesia can expect to pay a
$500 fine for failing to wear a condom. Sex workers are to be encouraged to
file reports about such customers and the regional health office will conduct
a three-month programme to educate prostitutes and their customers about the
new regulations.
Undertakers in HIV clash
South Africa’s United Funeral Association want HIV status to be recorded
on death certificates, claiming the virus places mortuary workers at risk.
But undertakers in Johannesburg disagree, saying that if the right precautions
are taken, there is no risk.
Oz HIV ban latest
We reported last month that a ruling by Australia’s Federal Court would
mean it would be impossible for short stay and student visa applicants to
enter the country. Subsequently, Australian Immigration officials have informed
PN that the move is “not a blanket ban” and said they would take
each case on its
merits. However, HIV positive visitors could face a medical on arrival in
Australia, they added.
