Compiled by Martin Flynn & Brucec Wainwright
Bid launched to slash drug
prices
Four countries have teamed up to launch a new programme to supply low
cost medicines to combat Aids, TB and malaria. UNITAID was launched by France,
Norway, Chile and Brazil in September to secure dramatic price reductions
and wider access to affordable drugs for poorer countries by bulk purchasing
through the International Drug Purchasing Facility. It is hoped this French-inspired
plan will help treat 100,000 children with HIV and a further 100,000 people
who have become resistant to antiretroviral drugs. Some 150,000 children with
TB and 28 million with malaria are also to be helped. Pledging £15 million
from the UK government, international development minister Gareth Thomas said:
“With our partners in UNITAID, we will work to ensure that prices are
pushed down and that poor countries get the maximum benefits from intellectual
property rights’ agreements and exemptions.”
The UK contribution, however, came in for strong criticism from the Stop Aids
Campaign which said it was just one-tenth of the French contribution and little
more than those made by developing countries such as Brazil and Chile.
Campaigners said the UK was not offering any new money unlike France and Norway
which are providing additional money from an ‘air-ticket solidarity
levy’.
Madge
funds HIV projects in Malawi
Pop star Madonna has helped launch a project for orphaned children living
with HIV and Aids in Malawi.
Madonna is planning to raise at least £3 million for an orphanage and
childcare centre.
The diva has also controversially applied to officially adopt a one year old
Malawian boy.
She travelled with husband Guy Ritchie to highlight the problems of children
with HIV in the region.
The 48 year old singing star already has two children of her own, nine-year-old
Lourdes and five-year-old Rocco.
Battle to end Indian anti-gay laws
India has an estimated 5.7 million people living with HIV, more than
in any other country in the world.
But the fight against HIV has not been conducted with the urgency it deserves
in a country which often retains highly conservative sexual attitudes.
Section 377 of the Indian Criminal Code, passed in 1861, makes sexual acts
between men punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison. The decriminalisation
of homosexuality in India is now the subject of a vigorous repeal campaign
led by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and author Vikram Seth.
The Victorian law has been used to suppress the work of legitimate HIV-prevention
groups, leaving gay and bisexual men even more defenceless.
At present, only 50,000 HIV positive Indians are currently receiving the necessary
antiretroviral drugs, even though the government’s target is 100,000.
India’s Supreme Court is to ask the government to explain why it has
failed to deliver on its promises and why this has been postponed twice already.
Failure to achieve the very modest target is particularly difficult to explain
in a country which is the world’s largest supplier of cheap generic
antiretroviral drugs. Generic manufacturers say the Indian government refuses
to buy the cheap generics for its own HIV positive population, apart for a
few hundred senior civil servants. Meanwhile, ignorance of HIV/Aids in India
is widespread.
“Many health workers in India still think Aids can be spread by just
touching,” said Aids activist, Ramen Pandey. In rural areas, it is not
unknown for those with HIV to be stoned to death.
However, India’s traditional matchmakers are playing some part to reduce
stigma and discrimination and are now bringing together HIV positive men and
women to marry.
“We are all living with uncertainty every minute,” said Sanjay
Joshi, a Surat engineer who lost his wife to Aids four years ago: “Let
us try and enjoy every bit of life with a companion.”
FC
Barca joins battle against Aids
European champions Barcelona have done a deal with UN children’s agency
UNICEF to donate 1.5 million euros a year for five years to help poor children
with HIV in developing countries.
The first instalment will go to Swaziland where 40 per cent of adults have
HIV.
The footballers will raise awareness in their own country and abroad by wearing
their famous scarlet and blue team shirts with the UNICEF logo on the front.
The team is pictured wearing the
logos at the UEFA Champions League match against Levski Sofia.
European HIV ignorance hits new low
The level of ignorance about HIV transmission in Europe is getting worse,
according to a recent Eurobarometer survey.
Only 55 per cent of all Europeans know for certain that HIV can’t be
transmitted by sitting on a toilet seat, according to a new study. Thirty
per cent of Europeans think it is possible to be infected by a meal prepared
by someone who is HIV positive. Handling objects touched by someone with HIV
can transmit the virus, according to 22 per cent and 17 per cent think that
shaking hands will have the same result.
The new accession states appear to be the least well informed, with Slovakia
topping the list, but the ‘old’ 15 states, including the UK, show
a worrying decrease in awareness as well.
Meanwhile, although most Europeans (94 per cent) know HIV can be transmitted
via unprotected sex, 40 per cent of them take no precautions.
The result is a 39 per cent increase in infections in the past five years,
according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Portugal and Estonia have the highest rates of infection, more than three
times the average for Europe.
Jamaica takes steps to tackle HIV stigma
Jamaica has finally taken steps to address the needs of its burgeoning
HIV positive population by launching an anti-HIV stigma campaign.
For some time now, Jamaica has been in denial about HIV and the country’s
reputation for anti-gay violence is well known. Jamaica has one of the fastest
growing HIV rates in the world but homophobia is hampering efforts to promote
HIV prevention. Anne Marie Dobson of Jamaica Aids Support said: “There
is a general acceptance now that HIV affects everybody. Overall, there has
been improvement in the way people think and feel about HIV.”
Jamaican attitudes to homosexuality and the country’s oppressive anti-gay
laws remain a major hurdle to HIV prevention work. Nancy Anderson, of the
Jamaica Council for Human Rights, said: “I don’t think [Jamaica’s
reputation for anti-gay violence] is overstated at all. You are in a very
dangerous situation if you openly say that you are gay.”
The ‘abominable crime of buggery’, as the Jamaican Offences against
the Person Act chooses to describe it, is still punishable with up to 10 years
in prison, and ‘physical intimacy’ is sufficient to land you in
jail for two years.
Meanwhile, notorious Jamaican dancehall star Buju Banton, who achieved prominence
with Boom Bye Bye, a song which advocates shooting gay men, was acquitted
on assault charges in a highly controversial trial in January.
LA ads ‘seek to re-gay HIV’
A new HIV campaign is targeting gay men in Los Angeles with the stark phrase:
‘HIV is a gay disease’.
With the message and tag line ‘Own It. End It’, the LA Gay and
Lesbian Centre says it is trying to reach HIV-complacent gay men.
The ads have stunned gay and HIV charities who recall the early years of the
epidemic when anti-gay rhetoric was used and homophobic stigma was loaded
onto the gay population.
Words
“HIV criminal prosecutions make disclosure more difficult
and discourage personal responsibility for safer sex. Everyone should take
responsibility for their own sexual health instead of instinctively trying
to blame someone else.”
Deborah Jack, NAT
“The public interest is not best served by pursuing justice against
the few at the expense of the health of the many.”
British Medical Journal
“Existing scientific tests cannot prove direct HIV transmission
from one person to another. It can show whether two people are infected with
a similar virus, but that does not prove that person A gave it to person B.”
Dr Anna-Maria Geretti, Royal Free Hospital
“In some ways the diagnosis of a life-threatening disease is easier
for the patient to bear than his or her loved ones, who have to stand by and
watch it.”
Alan Bennett, from his book ‘Untold Stories’
“There is no alternative to the use of condoms in fighting Aids.
The Catholic church is against abortions, and the use of condoms would avoid
abortions too.”
Princess Stephanie of Monaco, new UNAIDS ambassador
“HIV causes many commentators to project onto it other fears that
they have: fears of blacks, fears of homosexuality, fear of drugs.”
Paul Barker, 20 Years of Independent Journalism
