Compiled and edited by Martin Flynn
Aids 'sidelined' at Johannesburg summit
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Former South African President Nelson Mandela expressed
the disappointment of many that the HIV and Aids issue was sidelined at
last month's World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.
"Aids attacks the most economically active segment of the population...
It can destroy a country's economy," Mandela said.
Mandela also stunned his audience in Johannesburg by admitting that his
own family had first hand experience of the devastation caused by HIV.
He confirmed that his 22-year-old niece and two young sons of his nephew
had died of Aids in the eastern Cape.
Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, told the conference:
"The world is experiencing just the beginning of the HIV/Aids epidemic,
even in the worst-affected countries…It becomes a vicious circle.
Aids increases poverty, which increases Aids again…there will be
no sustainable development without controlling Aids". Otherwise,
Aids received scant attention during the Johannesburg summit, despite
being held in the continent with 70 per cent of HIV cases.
Although South African President Thabo Mbeki covered health in his speech
to the summit, he made no mention of HIV. His government is still refusing
to provide HIV drugs to close to five million HIV positive people despite
promises and recent court rulings.
S. Predrag
Thai Airways turns away dying woman with Aids
Thailand's national airline refused to fly a Thai woman with Aids from Tokyo to Bangkok last month because, they say, she did not provide adequate medical records.
The passenger, who is in the final stages of the disease, wished to spend her last days with her family in Thailand but did not provide the airline with with "the necessary
