There were 364 new cases of HIV in Ireland last year, the country’s National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC) reported last month, and over a half of them were among immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. About two thirds of the new cases were among heterosexuals, up 34 per cent on 2001. There were four more Aids-related deaths in Eire last year, bringing the total to 369. The NDSC said the figures were probably an underestimate due to the delay in reporting HIV in Ireland. “The figures highlight the continuing need for appropriate prevention and treatment services for all risk groups in Ireland, including migrants and ethnic communities,” said the NDSC’s Mary Cronin.
A ban on life insurance for people living with HIV is unfair and unjustified, according to a Swiss study. The research, published in The Lancet, said that insurance companies routinely deny insurance to people with the virus and this ban does not take into account the success of antiretroviral therapies, which for most people has prolonged survivability. “The study provides preliminary evidence that life coverage should be considered,” said Dr Bernard Hirschel of Geneva University Hospital. But the study did find that short-term mortality is significantly higher among people with HIV who fail to respond to antiretrovirals and among those who are also infected with hepatitis C. (See also British Insurers Review HIV ban)
Indian drug manufacturers were the first in the world to sell a triple combination of anti-HIV drugs for as little as $1 per patient per day. Yet most of India’s estimated five million people with the virus still do not have access to the drugs. The Indian government spends less than $12 a year on each person under healthcare. Irfan Khan of New Delhi’s care homes for people with Aids, said: “The drugs are out there and can be bought across the counter at most drug stores, but most sufferers just don’t have the money to buy them.” At the moment the only ones who get free medications in India are government employees.
“It is vital to avoid a Darwinian process of the survival of the fittest
in which the military, or men with power and money are favoured over women,
children and the poor.”
UNAIDS director
Dr Peter Piot speaking about ensuring fairness in the way anti-HIV drugs are
administered.
“Africans lie dying from Aids while mountains of Aids treatments sit
unused in warehouses...The world is dying from Aids and the West has a moral
duty to provide for them.”
Johann Hari,
from the Independent.
“Be your own heroes. As long as you’re true to yourself, you can’t
deny yourself.”
Ex-Olympic diving champion
Greg Louganis speaking about the relief of coming out as both gay and openly
HIV positive.
“When someone discloses his HIV positive status, too often we smile,
say it doesn’t matter, and then politely extricate ourselves from the
sexual encounter, relationship or even friendship.”
Dr
Stephen Fallon, in the Seattle Gay News.
“Personally, I don’t know anybody who has died from Aids.”
South African President Thabo Mbeki in an interview
for the Washington Post, despite the fact that 600 people die from the disease
in his country every day.
“Mr Mbeki’s know-nothing obstructionism has killed more South
Africans than any apartheid leader ever did.”
Nicholas Kristof, in the New York Times, on the delays
the South African President has put into the treatment of people with HIV in
his country.
