All the news that’s fit to print from the HIV sector
Right now one of the worst kept secrets in broadcasting is that charming actor
and comedian Stephen Fry is making a prime-time documentary
about HIV for the BBC. This will be a follow-up to his hugely influential
spotlight on bi-polar disorder. Many people living with HIV and those who
work in the sector have contributed to the making of the documentary in the
hope it will do for HIV what his last film did for depression, namely changing
public attitudes for the better.
During the filming, Fry visited Body Positive North West
to interview four service users. While on location at 
BPNW’s
spanking new Whalley Range centre, he gave the charity a further boost by
agreeing to become their patron. He is pictured above right with BPNW chief
executive Phil Greenham (right) and service user Alvin Gilbert.
In March public health minister Caroline Flint dropped in
on Positive Place in Deptford to find out more about their
expert patient programme. Service users took the opportunity to tell Ms Flint
how much benefit they get from complementary therapies which are no longer
to be included in voluntary sector contracts in south London.
Former home secretary David Blunkett has been busy championing
an HIV positive mother of five from Swaziland. Siphiwe Hlophe, founder of
Swazis for Positive Living, was Blunkett’s successful nomination for
the Bindmans’ Law and Campaigning Award. Siphiwe won the award in March
for showing “courage, resilience and creativity” in using the
law to fight for the rights of women living with HIV in Swaziland.
CHAPS has gone back to basics for Get It On,
its latest HIV prevention campaign to encourage more consistent condom use
for anal sex among gay and bisexual men.
Like the campaigns of the 1980s, Get It On, launched in April, has a single
broad message promoting condoms rather than focusing on harm reduction, PEP
and HIV disclosure. CHAPS deny it is a return to the ‘glib exhortations’
of 1980s’ campaigns that told gay men to use a condom every time.
“It consciously seeks to reassert condom use as contemporary, very widespread
and central to gay and bisexual men’s lives,” a spokesman said.
So far just 18 MPs have signed the parliamentary early day
motion 1250 which spotlights the 180,000 people in the UK
infected with hepatitis B – a virus 100 times more
infectious than HIV that can lead to liver cancer and death. Cases of hep
B are growing and it is a potentially serious health issue for people living
with HIV although people can be vaccinated against it. The EDM
calls for greater government efforts to improve its diagnosis, treatment and
prevention. So pester your MP and get them to sign up.
The European Men's Health Forum (EMHF) is surveying the quality of
life of men and women living with HIV. The survey is supported by dozens of
respected European organisations and will provide an update on the valuable
knowledge acquired from previous HIV-related quality of life projects. Any
HIV positive adult living in one of the listed European countries can take
part. If you would like to take part in this survey, visit www.emhf.org
Send your HIV sector news to: news@positivenation.co.uk
Denholm’s widow dies in house fire
Susan Elliott, widow of late, great actor Denholm Elliott, tragically died
in a fire at her flat in Hornsey, north London on Easter Friday.
Denholm died of Aids-related TB aged 70 at his home on Ibiza in 1992. Susan
and others founded the Denholm Elliott Project in his honour and worked closely
with the UK Coalition of People living with HIV and Aids.
The project benefited countless people with HIV across Europe in the days
before combination therapy through access to a cheap, supportive and homely
respite centre on the holiday island of Ibiza. More recently Susan had been
dogged with ill health herself, firstly through a brain injury after a fall
and more recently through hip replacement surgery which left her in a wheelchair.
UKC Chair Bernard Forbes said: "We are all shocked to hear this tragic
news and our thoughts are with her family and friends.”
Gay minister named ‘man of the year’
Black gay activist and ordained church minister Reverend Rowland Jide Macaulay
was named Man of the Year at the Black Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Awards held
in London in April.
Macaulay has worked tirelessly to support the sexual health needs of LGBT
people through the charity Big Up and as a board member for GMFA. More recently
he founded House of Rainbow, a church to meet the spiritual needs of lesbian
and gay people in Nigeria.
African HIV Policy Network, which works for fair policies for people living
with HIV in the UK, picked up the health promotion award.
Runners up in this category included Haydn Forde, UKC’s treatment adviser;
NAZ Project London’s health project coordinator Mohamud Yasin, for his
work addressing the sexual health needs of a wide range of black and ethnic
minority communities; and Anthony Johnson, gay men’s sexual health counsellor
with PACE.
