Compiled by Martin Flynn & Brucec Wainwright
Big business proves slow to
fund Aids fight
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria received a major boost this
month from pop star Bono’s new campaign supported by major international
brands.
Sales of Product (Red) goods by iPod, Motorola, American Express, Gap, Converse
and Armani (see page 8) have already netted more than £10 million for
the fund.
But elsewhere, world businesses are proving slow to contribute to the Fund,
with the notable exception of Bill and Melinda Gates of Microsoft.
Only $5 million of the $4.7 billion dollars so far received by the Global
Fund has come from big business.
Meeting in Guatamala City at the end of October, the fund is expected to approve
grants to 95 countries, amounting to $2.7 billion over the next two years.
However, grants can only be made when sufficient pledges from donor countries
have been received, and at present, the shortfall is $300 million.
The Global Fund's retiring executive director, Professor Richard Feachem,
said: “This robust demand for new resources shows countries both need
and can absorb substantial additional resources to fight the three pandemics.
“Donor countries must respond to this challenge by pledging sufficient
additional resources so all recommended programmes can be funded,” he
added.
• www.theglobalfund.org
HIV centre in arson attack
A children’s day care centre and offices belonging to a Ukrainian
HIV charity were gutted in an arson attack last month. Damage to the Chernihiv
branch of the All Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/Aids totals
$100,000.
The centre, 150km north of Kiev, provided HIV support services to more than
1,500 people living with HIV including many pregnant women and families living
with the virus. To find out about making donations to help rebuild the centre
visit www.network.org.ua
New unity against Aids in South Africa
After years of bitter wrangling, a conference in Johannesburg involving 80
different organisations has brought the prospect of some unity in the fight
against Aids.
The gathering, organised by South Africa’s Council of Churches, Congress
of South African Trade Unions (COSATSU) and the Treatment Action Campaign
(TAC) aimed to end organisational infighting in a country where 1,000 people
a day die from Aids-related illness.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has now appointed deputy president Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka to chair the national Aids Council after years of HIV denialism
and delays in making life-saving antiretroviral treatments available.
Mbeki’s move follows a campaign against controversial health minister
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for advocating the use of garlic, lemon juice and
beetroot to beat the virus.
“We should work together to defeat this virus,” Phumzile told
the meeting in Johannesburg: “That’s how we defeated apartheid.”
More than five million South Africans are living with the virus and more than
350,000 become infected with HIV each year.
Some two million do not know they are HIV positive and over 2.5 million children
have been orphaned by Aids.
“Our country is in pain. We are all in pain. We are losing children,
mothers, fathers and teachers,” said Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, South
African deputy health minister: “If we work together we can conquer
the pandemic.”
Manto’s deputy received thunderous applause when she said the ‘ABC’
anti-Aids strategy – Abstain, Be Faithful, Use a Condom – was
not working, and that the country needed a new strategy to fight the virus.
A senior doctor was in tears at his government’s change of heart
“For the first time in ten years, I have a smile on my face,”
he said.
And the COSATU general secretary was optimistic: “We are looking at
each other and saying the days of marching against the government are over.
We seem to be united around one message of fighting the virus.”
Human Rights Watch honours Ugandan activist
Ugandan Aids activist Beatrice Were has been honoured for her Aids
activism. Beatrice, featured in a recent Positive Nation interview (PN 126),
was awarded the Human Rights Watch Defender Award, the organisation’s
highest honour. The mother-of-three was one of the first Ugandans to declare
her HIV positive status publicly and has become an outspoken critic of her
country’s abstinence-until-marriage prevention strategy.
She is founder of the National Community of Women Living with Aids, which
provides services to over 40,000 women and is national co-ordinator for ActionAid
International
“She has transformed her personal struggle into a courageous and inspiring
brand of activism,” Human Rights Watch said.
World leaders called to account on WAD
This 1 December, World Aids Day should focus on accountability, according
to organisers.
This follows claims that millions of dollars given for HIV programmes in Eastern
Europe and Africa are disappearing into a black hole of political corruption.
The theme ‘Stop Aids: Keep the Promise’ is driven by the need
to meet commitments to fund the global response to Aids.
There are 40 million people living with HIV worldwide and 90 per cent are
not receiving medication.
“Action taken by governments this year will determine the global response
to Aids for years to come,” said Marcel van Soest, executive director
of the World Aids Campaign.
“Either we are on track to reverse the spread of HIV or through failed
promises by individuals, communities and nations we will continue to see it
spread in every country.”
South Africa’s Treatment Action Campaign plans to mobilise thousands
of people to march on parliament on World Aids Day to demand universal access
to treatment by 2010.
The Indian city of Pune, where HIV infection rates are twice the national
average, is planning an intensive awareness raising campaign, and the Ecumenical
Advocacy Alliance is encouraging faith communities worldwide to hold special
services.
Drug resistant TB kills 52 positive people
A new and virtually untreatable strain of tuberculosis has been found
in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.
Spread much like the common cold through coughs and sneezes, the strain is
known as Extremely Drug-Resistant (XDR) TB and is usually fatal.
Of 53 people diagnosed with the illness, 52 have already died. All were HIV
positive and receiving antiretroviral therapy.
South Africa has some of the highest HIV infection rates in the world, with
20 per cent of the adult population estimated to be positive. TB also affects
half of the population, though many carry only a latent form.
“We are extremely worried about the issue of extreme drug-resistance,”
said Paul Nunn, co-ordinator of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) drug
resistance department.
“If countries don't have the diagnostic capacity to find these patients
they will die without proper treatment.”
In Eastern Europe, high levels of TB are creating what the Red Cross has described
as “the most alarming situation since World War Two”. It has urged
EU leaders to do more.
According to the WHO, the ‘hottest’ zones of new strains were
all on the borders of the EU, including Baltic countries like Latvia where
18 per cent of drug-resistant cases are the most extreme variant.
Markku Niskala, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies, said the message for EU leaders was: “Wake up, do
not delay, do not let this problem get further out of hand.”
Aids journalist shot
Reporters Without Borders has called on the Nigerian authorities to redouble
efforts to identify those responsible for the murder of Omololu Falobi, founder
and director of Journalists Against Aids (JAAIDS).
Falobi was shot on 5 October in Lagos as he sat at the wheel of his car.
A married father of two, Falobi used to edit The Punch, one of Nigeria’s
most popular newspapers. He co-founded JAAIDS in 1997 to make journalists
aware of the dangers of HIV.
www.omololuinourhearts.org
Words
“People shouldn’t die just because they have sex.”
Hilary Benn, secretary of state for international development
“People should still be advised to boil all drinking water until
their CD4 count is above 200.”
Professor Brian Gazzard, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital
“We’ve been saying fora decade that a quarter to a third
of gay men with HIV in Britainare undiagnosed.”
Dr Peter Weatherburn, Sigma Research
“Fisting in a public sex environment is a bit of a challenge.”
Profesor Graham Hart, University of Glasgow
“In real life, I’m not supposed to be here. I’m
here so what happened to me will not happen to you.”
Magic Johnson, HIV positive former US basketball star
“If public figures like prominent politicians, footballers,
lawyers and business people come forward, get tested and reveal their status,
it would help remove discrimination and stigma surrounding the disease.”
Tendayi Westerhof, director of Public Personalities against Aids in Zimbabwe
“Physicians everywhere must remember that most of their HIV-infected
patients will survive to develop diseases that plague us all.”
Dr Judith Aberg of New York University
