UK scores with HIV cash
International Development Secretary Hilary Benn chats with HIV campaigner
and Manchester City goalkeeper David James (left) at London’s Somerset
House on World Aids Day.
Benn’s department has announced an extra £20 million to the International
Aids Vaccine Initiative and £7.5 million to the International Partnership
on Microbicides. “The UK is making good on promises made at the Gleneagles
summit,” said Benn.
One in three with HIV live in poverty
A third of those diagnosed with HIV in the UK have experienced extreme
poverty as a direct result of their status, according to Crusaid. Fear of
disclosure and stigma means HIV positive people in the UK are left ostracised
and homeless and in worse health as a result. Many are diagnosed when they
have already become ill, and poor health makes it much harder for them to
stay at work. Crusaid says HIV and poverty then create a vicious circle which
can carry a person further and further away from anything resembling a normal
life.
“In the past five years we have seen the average income of applicants
to Crusaid’s Hardship Fund decrease sharply from £93.79 to £54
per week,” said Steven Inman, head of grants and projects at Crusaid.
“When people apply to the Hardship Fund, they come to us as a last resort
because there are simply no other benefits or help available to them. “We
have seen increasing numbers of HIV positive people in the UK living on the
edge of poverty, many from marginalized groups such as asylum seekers and
those from black and ethnic communities.”
State benefits, such as Incapacity and Disablility Living Allowance, are now
incredibly difficult both to claim and receive for the newly diagnosed.Many
thousands of Africans with HIV in Britain are living below the poverty line,
being effectively barred from both benefits and work.
Home Office ‘softens’ asylum
seeker rules
Asylum
seekers are to get more notice of their dispersal within the UK after Aids
charities protested that short-notice dispersal was risking the health of
those living with HIV.The Home Office has repeatedly come under fire for giving
asylum seekers as little as one day’s notice of dispersal and thereby
preventing alternative HIV treatment arrangements to be made.But now the National
Asylum Support Service (NASS) has changed the rules so people facing dispersal
will get between two and six week’s notice.
Asylum seekers will only be dispersed when the treating clinician is notified
of the asylum seeker’s new address, so medical records can be transferred.
The clinician should also be satisfied that appropriate facilities exist,
including accommodation, to ensure continued care and that a sufficient supply
of medication is provided to cover the journey and arrival in the new area.
NASS agreed the new rules after consultation with National Aids Trust.
Meanwhile, HIV positive asylum seekers in Britain are still facing deportation
to countries without adequate HIV drugs. Members of Africans Getting Involved
told PN that notifications of detention and potential deportation were still
being sent out, although deportations of asylum seekers back to unsafe Zimbabwe
remain on hold.
TUC say HIV is now ‘a union issue’
Whether
or not it is safe for HIV positive employees to disclose their status in the
workplace was a key issue of a conference held at the TUC before World Aids
Day.
Despite the safeguards of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) now being
applied under UK law, many HIV positive employees remain afraid to be open
about their status for fear of discrimination or even loss of their jobs.Dr
Margaret Johnson, head of HIV medicine at London’s Royal Free Hospital
and chair of the British HIV Association, said the situation for those with
HIV had improved dramatically since she started working in the sector in 1989.“I
now say to my patients that I see no reason why you shouldn’t have a
normal life expectancy,” said Dr Johnson. “There is almost no
area of work where HIV should be a bar to work.”
“Discrimination against people with HIV at work is entirely unacceptable
and there’s no
scientific basis for it,” she added. Howard Leigh, from the Department
of Work and Pensions (DWP), said the DDA gave rights to all HIV positive people
from December 2005: “Unlawful employment acts would now include direct
discrimination, a failure on the part of an employer to make a manageable
adjustment in the workplace for disabled employees, harassment or victimisation.”
PC Andy Hewlett, the UK’s first openly HIV positive policeman, revealed
that the Metropolitan Police had now adopted model equal opportunity policies
to ensure the rights of HIV positive workers.
“Some refused to work with me,” said Andy of his disclosure. “I
did face discrimination but I took HIV by the horns. I had very little thrown
back in my face. Disclosing was the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Both he and the Met are now getting regular enquiries from HIV positive recruits
and are now not seeing the police as a sexist or homophobic employer. The
TUC’s Owen Tudor explained that over 36 million of the world’s
HIV population were of working age and his organisation now saw the illness
as a trade union issue.
“Our members have it, their families have it and some of our members
make the pills that are saving lives,” Tudor said. “The workplace
is the place where people go to earn the money to improve their lives to get
out of poverty which is the main reason why HIV is spread.”
“If you’re a worker you’ve got something to be proud of,
no matter what else is going on in your life.” he added.
Dr Richard South, director of HIV and Malaria Programmes at GlaxoSmithKline,
explained he’d been living with HIV for ten years. South said: “Where
I work, with 2,000 others, the fact that I’m HIV positive is irrelevant
99 per cent of the time. There are tangible benefits in being open about your
HIV, including an absence of stress, which is good for health.” Christina
Earl, UKC’s employment development manager for Ensuring Positive Futures,
that organised the debate, said the key to the new law was not to accept any
discrimination in the workplace and to treat everyone the same, with equal
rights. So is it now safe for HIV positive employees to disclose their status
in the workplace? Owen Tudor said: “No activity is risk free. As a trade
unionist it’s my job to stop nasty things
happening at work. But no, it’s not safe to disclose.”
PC Andy Hewlett said: “When people know about HIV it lowers stigma.
The more people who take that risk to disclose the better it will be for everyone.”
Top HIV consultants have
said that the so-called ‘miracle cure’ of 25-year-old Andrew
Stimpson in November was one of many false-positive HIV tests which occur
every year. The case received widespread media coverage with claims that Stimpson
was the first person in the world to clear the virus from his system without
HIV meds. When the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital refused to pay him
damages over the test, Stimpson sold his story to the News of the World and
Mail on Sunday.
Professor Jonathan Weber, principal researcher at Imperial College, said Stimpson
had now agreed to collaborate in further research on HIV tests.Dr Anton Pozniak,
of Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, insisted they had not breached patient
confidentiality and never would, but had been forced to comment on the Stimpson
case when threatened with legal action and after the story had emerged in
the press. As many as one in 1,000 HIV tests are known to produce a false
positive result. That was the reason why all positive HIV tests are now repeated
two or three times, Dr Pozniak explained.
news on the side
Gay couple get legal aid to challenge PEP rules
A gay couple have been granted legal aid to challenge the Department of Health
on its provision of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), sometimes known as the
‘morning after’ pill. Taken within 72 hours of exposure to HIV,
a one-month course of antiretrovirals can prevent the virus taking hold. However,
PEP is not widely available, except to health-care workers.
No more free condoms
Soon gay men may not be able to pick up free condoms in bars, according to
GMFA.
Gay men were encouraged to always use extra-thick condoms for anal sex, but
research published by City University in 2001 found any thickness of ‘Kitemarked’
condom was appropriate. The report said: “The fact that gay men can
safely use any type of condom means condoms for gay sex are easy to get hold
of practically anywhere.” Low-price condoms and lubes are available
at www.freedoms-shop.com.
Hep C deaths double
Deaths from hepatitis C have doubled in less than a decade, according to the
Health Protection Agency. Those requiring hospital treatment and transplants
have tripled. The Hepatitis C Trust believes that, unless diagnosis and treatment
are improved, 200,000 will die in the next 20 to 30 years.
Kensington & Chelsea to cut HIV support
Faced with a £2 million overspend, the London borough of Kensington
& Chelsea is to disband its HIV health team, responsible for HIV social
services support. It’s to be absorbed into a wider disability team.
It’s feared the process will see ‘care packages’ for people
with HIV cut by half.
Plans for compulsory testing plans dropped
A petition to the Scottish Executive from the Scottish Police Federation demanding
mandatory testing for all blood borne viruses, including HIV, has now been
rejected. Instead, current guidance will be updated and education, training
and support for police officers will be improved.
HIV spreads to UK regions
New HIV diagnoses in the UK in 2004 rose from 7,219 to 7,275, figures from
the Health Protection Agency reveal.
The official total of people living with HIV in the UK now stands at 58,300.
The majority of these new cases occurred in heterosexual men and women and
of these, around 73 per cent acquired the virus in Africa. Geographical distribution
of HIV is also changing, with regions outside London now seeing diagnoses
at three or four times the levels of 2000. The HPA confirmed that a third
of those with the virus remain undiagnosed and are, therefore, a greater potential
risk to others. Voluntary HIV testing has continued to rise and antenatal
testing has cut mother-to-baby transmissions from 90 per cent to one or two
per cent. Deborah Jack of National Aids Trust said: “Ending the stigma
around HIV is one of the most effective ways we can increase the public
willingness to test.”
Law Lords refuse to consider Dica case
Law Lords have refused to consider a further appeal in the Mohammed Dica case
to examine the public health implications of his conviction. Dica, of Croydon,
was jailed for four-and-a-half years in 2005 for recklessly transmitting HIV
under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.
Chicago Gay Games under threat from poz-friendly rival
Gay Games organisers are hoping to win federal ‘designated event status’
to avoid US entry rules that exclude non-US citizens with HIV or Aids from
entering the country. However, athletes are unhappy because even if they are
granted a waiver, it may be recorded on their passport and could result in
exclusion elsewhere.
Meanwhile, activists are organising the Out Games in Montreal, Canada, which
runs 29 July to 5 August, just
before Toronto’s World Aids Conference, which will allow HIV positive
athletes to take part. www.montreal2006.org
Libya lifts death sentences in kids with HIV case
The death sentences passed on six foreign health workers were lifted by Libya’s
Supreme Court on Christmas Day. The court has ordered the retrial of five
Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of deliberately infecting
426 children with HIV at a Bengazi hospital. The defendants maintain that
their confessions were obtained by torture and said infection control and
sanitary controls at the hospital were poor.
Peru HIV conference cancelled
With less than 25 per cent of the necessary funds raised, organisers of the
Living/Vivir 2006 Conference planned to be held in Lima, Peru, this March
have cancelled the event. Organisers, the Global Network of People Living
With HIV/Aids (GNP+), decided to cancel the biannual conference this year
because of a lack of funding from pharmaceutical companies and a lack of interest
from international Aids funding organisations. The conference aimed to highlight
the role of home-based and community care in responding to HIV/Aids.
