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World News
Winter 2010
"Eastern Europe in Spotlight at Vienna AIDS
Conference"
Agence France Presse , (03.10.2010) CDC NPIN Summary
In Vienna on Wednesday, UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibe previewed the 18th
International AIDS Conference being held there this summer. “AIDS 2010 will be
the conference for people without a voice,” he said at a press briefing.
“The rapidly growing HIV/AIDS epidemics in Eastern Europe, fueled primarily by
unsafe injecting drug use, are topics under the spotlight at AIDS 2010,” to be
held July 18-23, UNAIDS and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a
joint statement.
Vienna is a gateway to Eastern Europe and Central Asia - regions where HIV
prevalence has nearly doubled since 2001, largely due to unsafe drug injection.
An estimated 1.5 million people are living with HIV in Eastern Europe and
Central Asia. By holding the conference in the Austrian capital, organizers hope
to highlight the regions’ marginalized groups like drug users, said Robin Gorna,
head of the International AIDS Society.
“To break the trajectory of the HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe, we must stop new
infections among injecting drug users and their partners,” Sidibe said. “People
who use drugs have a right to access the best possible options for prevention,
care, and treatment.”
“We can and must reverse the HIV epidemic, first of all by preventing the spread
of drug use, and then by providing treatment to addicts. In this comprehensive
program, HIV-targeted measures include providing clean injecting equipment,
opioid substitution, and antiretroviral therapy,” said UNODC head Antonio Maria
Costa.
For more information on the conference, visit
www.aids2010.org.
AFRICA:
"7 Percent of Sub-Saharan's Older People Living with HIV"
The Post (Lusaka, Zambia) , (01.27.2010) Margaret Mtonga
The national coordinator of the Senior Citizens Association of Zambia announced
recently that 7 percent of older people in sub-Saharan nations are living with
HIV/AIDS. “The problem that the older people are facing right now is that they
think HIV and AIDS is a disease that can only be contracted by the young in
society,” Rosemary Sishimba said, noting that prevention efforts typically do
not target seniors. She called on the media to work harder to provide HIV/AIDS
information to seniors, who are often pressed by the epidemic into becoming
caregivers for young children. “The non-governmental organizations need to
collaborate with media to sensitize the public and government about the need and
circumstances of older people in general and older caregivers,” Sishimba said.
“It is however very unfortunate that the media houses hardly have interest in
reporting on issues concerning the older people in society.”
Call for urgent action to improve coverage of HIV
services for injecting drug users
UNAIDS - 10 March 2010
http://www.aegis.org/news/unaids/2010/UN100316.html
A review carried out by the 2009 Reference Group to the UN on HIV and
Injecting Drug Use for the first time quantifies the scale of coverage of HIV
prevention, treatment, and care services for injecting drug users (IDUs)
worldwide. The study concludes that with, specific exceptions, worldwide
coverage of these services in IDU populations is very low and unlikely to be
sufficient to prevent, halt, or turn around HIV epidemics.
The paper, published by The Lancet in its online edition of 1 March 2010, also
highlights the need for improved data collection on injecting drug users in each
region in order to get a clearer picture of the extent of their needs.
UNAIDS Launches Plan To Address Gender Equality,
HIV/AIDS
3.3.10
Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report
UNAIDS on Tuesday launched a five-year initiative to help tackle gender
inequalities and human rights violations that increase the vulnerability of
women worldwide to HIV/AIDS, BBC reports (3/3).
Expert Panel Releases Comprehensive New Research
Agenda to Improve HIV Responses for Women and Children
International AIDS Society Press Release (3.8.10)
On International Women's Day, IAS-Convened Panel Seeks Significant New Focus
on Women and Children,
Who Make up the Majority of People Living with HIV Worldwide
8 March (Geneva, Switzerland) -- As the HIV pandemic continues to exact an
increasing toll on women and children, the International AIDS Society (IAS) and
15 other leading public and private sector organizations have released a
comprehensive new research agenda designed to significantly advance global
responses to HIV in women and children. The new consensus statement, Asking the
Right Questions: Advancing an HIV Research Agenda for Women and Children,
includes 20 specific recommendations to expand and improve responses to the
HIV-related challenges facing women and children worldwide.
The Agenda identifies
priority research questions within four broad categories: 1) clinical research
on prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) and pediatric treatment;
2) clinical research on treatment issues for women; 3) operations research for
women; and 4) operations and implementation research related to PMTCT, including
pediatric care, treatment and support. Recommendations in the fourth part of the
agenda were developed through a parallel initiative led by UNICEF.
The Agenda
outlines strategies to address issues such as:
-
Barriers to developing pediatric
formulations of HIV treatments
-
The impact of interventions for
TB, malaria and malnutrition on antiretroviral ARV) dosage
-
The impact of
in utero
exposure to antiretrovirals on uninfected children
-
Optimal weight - adapted
parameters for antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation and discontinuation
in children
-
The impact of female hormone
changes on treatment outcomes for women and adolescent girls
-
The impact of periodic ARV
exposure via vertical transmission prophylaxis on future maternal treatment
options
-
Barriers to ART access for women
and girls.
The report
recommends increased investment in research to address these challenges, greatly
expanded sharing of data from existing studies related to HIV and women and
children, and intensified efforts to disaggregate clinical data by sex to ensure
opportunities for gender-based analysis. The endorsing organizations also call
for collaboration between funders, researchers, health care providers, UN
agencies and civil society and diagnostic and pharmaceutical industry in
implementing the new research agenda.
HAITI:
"UN Calls for Action to Prevent Spread of HIV/AIDS in Haiti"
Voice of America News , (02.27.2010) Lisa Schlein CDC NPIN
Summary
The Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti has created an immediate need for assistance to
help the high-prevalence country manage its AIDS epidemic and prevent HIV’s
spread, UNAIDS reports. Disruption to treatment and prevention services, chaotic
conditions and overcrowded camps of displaced persons represent a substantial
risk, according to the agency.
“We estimate that there were 120,000 people living with HIV in Haiti,” said Tim
Martineau, UNAIDS’ director of technical and country support. “An important
concern obviously is for us to maintain treatment” among those who were already
on antiretroviral drugs before the earthquake, he said.
“The three most affected areas also had more than half of all the antiretroviral
treatment sites,” UNAIDS reported. The most-affected districts - Ouest, Sud-Est,
and les Nippes - are home to nearly 60 percent of Haiti’s HIV population. While
makeshift tent clinics have increased ARV access, Haiti’s Ministry of Health
“estimates that less than 40 percent of the 24,000 people living with HIV who
were on treatment before the earthquake have accessed them.”
Among the dispossessed, “The risk of violence, and particularly sexual violence
and violence against women, poses a great problem and challenge in terms of the
risk of HIV transmission,” Martineau said. “And, there [are] also roughly 1
million people living in camps. And with the HIV prevalence, the risk of the
spread of HIV is quite substantial.”
Before the earthquake, UNAIDS estimated Haiti’s annual AIDS budget
was $132 million. UNAIDS now says an additional $70 million is needed in the
next six months to meet immediate needs.
To read the full report, “Helping Haiti Rebuild Its AIDS Response,” visit
http://data.unaids.org/pub/FactSheet/2010/20100226_haiti_aidsresponse_en.pdf
.
Scientists at AIDS
meeting urge HIV prevention for long-term couples in Africa
SAN FRANCISCO - HIV continues to spread
among couples in long-term relationships in sub-Saharan
Africa because health authorities focus instead on the risks
posed by casual sexual encounters, especially in young
people. As a result, few HIV-prevention strategies have been
devised for this overlooked population.
Those are among the conclusions reached by scientists
presenting research at the 17th Conference on Retroviruses
and Opportunistic Infections, the annual mid-winter AIDS
meeting in the United States. The failure to recognize how
much HIV-transmission has occurred over decades in seemingly
low-risk couples is "tragic," said epidemiologist Rebecca
Bunnell of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
who worked in Uganda and Kenya for 14 years.
Author:
David Brown
Contributor:
Richard Walker AIDS Portal.org
The Global Fund's
leadership on harm reduction: 2002-2009
Int J Drug Policy. 2010 Feb 18. [Epub ahead of print]
Abstract on
Public Med.gov
Study integrating family planning and HIV treatment care funded by the Bill
Melinda Gates Foundation
UCSF has received a $1.15 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation to determine if integrating family planning into HIV treatment and
care will increase contraceptive use and decrease unintended pregnancy among
HIV-positive women. UCSF will partner with the Kenya Medical Research Institute
and Ibis Reproductive Health to conduct the research.
China's mystery
HIV-like disease may be all in the mind
AEGIS BBC
News - February 10, 2010
Hundreds of people in China believe they might have a new disease with HIV-like
symptoms, but doctors suggest their illness could be the result of a mental
rather than a physical condition.
PEPFAR FUNDING
THREATENED: What does this mean for HIV treatment and prevention programmes?
HIV Atlas clarke's blog 02/11/2010
American leaders are currently discussing the future of the
President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR. Global health
activists and experts have warned that these discussions could lead to
reduced funding for, and threaten the autonomy of, PEPFAR in a period
of declining donor interest in HIV/AIDS.
Haiti: HIV/AIDS In The
Aftermath, A Report From Port-au-Prince
Almost a month after a 7.0 earthquake
devastated Haiti's capitol city
Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas,
reports are beginning to emerge about the
impact on Haiti's AIDS response. ( UNAIDS)
 An
estimated 120,000 people were living with
HIV/AIDS in Haiti before the quake and as
UNAIDS reports, Haiti "is the country
with the most severe HIV epidemic among the
Caribbean states-home to half of all people
living with HIV in the region."
NFP AIDS Helpdesk (2.10.10)
Organizations with
HIV-specific experience in Haiti seek donations, volunteers for relief efforts
Several organisations which have been at the
forefront of providing HIV treatment and care in Haiti are seeking donations to
support earthquake relief efforts. These organisations already have extensive
experience of providing health care in Haiti, and are seeking to step up their
activities in order to mitigate the extensive damage caused by the devastating
earthquake earlier this month.
Read More at aidsmap.com>>
"AIDS Victims Not Forgotten in Haiti Quake Chaos"
Agence France Presse , (01.26.2010)
Ghiesko (Haitian Group for Studies in Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Opportunistic
Infections) is one of the oldest HIV/AIDS clinics in the world, founded by
Cornell University’s William Pape in Port-au-Prince soon after the epidemic
began in 1981. The group’s 28 centers care for roughly half of all Haitians
receiving antiretroviral treatment, or about 12,000 patients. And since Haiti’s
devastating earthquake on Jan. 12, it has continued to provide care for
thousands of people.
After the quake, Ghiesko took to the radio to notify HIV/AIDS patients they
could continue to access care and treatment, and it arranged carpools to bring
them from their neighborhoods to its clinics. “It’s a real pleasure for us
health workers to see our patients come here despite what has befallen them,”
nurse Naomi Jean-Charles said as she dispensed medications to dozens of people
waiting in line.
According to Pape, Ghiesko always provides its patients with extra medicines at
their monthly visits “so they won’t run short.” “What worries me more is not our
usual patients but this horrible emergency situation, offering care to people
who come in from all over with horrible injuries,” he said.
Ghiesko has had to move its operations to a wing of its Port-au-Prince facility
that remained intact after the quake. A military hospital with a surgical unit
has set up in a rear courtyard of the clinic, with assistance from the US
government and volunteer surgeons. Hundreds of injured Haitians have descended
on the clinic seeking treatment, while some 5,000 homeless people have taken
refuge on land next to it.
"Housing Works CEO Blogs from Haiti"
Advocate , (01.18.2010)
The CEO of Housing Works, the New York City-based organization addressing
HIV/AIDS and homelessness, began blogging Friday from Haiti. Charles King
arrived in the earthquake-ravaged nation with Vaty Poitevien, the group’s
medical director and a native of Haiti, to assist members of the AIDS coalition
PHAP+. King reported seeing one AIDS clinic that was destroyed and another that
was “still standing but clearly not for long.” King has now returned to New
York; his blog remains online at:
http://www.housingworks.org/blogs/category/charles-king-blogs/ .
"UN Lauds US and South Korea for Lifting HIV Travel
Ban"
Associated Press , (01.05.2010) Edith M. Lederer CDC NPIN Summary
The UN on Monday applauded the United States and South Korea for
ending their policies banning entry by people living with HIV.
UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe praised the actions as “a victory for
human rights on two sides of the globe.” Citing similar polices still held by
some other nations, he called for “global freedom of movement for people living
with HIV in 2010, the year when countries have committed to achieve universal
access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support.”
The US ban began as a Department of Health and Human Services policy in 1987,
and in 1993 Congress passed a law that named HIV infection as the only medical
condition making non-nationals ineligible to enter the country. Since that year,
no major international AIDS conference has been held in the United States.
In 2008, President George W. Bush initiated the process to eliminate the ban,
and in October President Barack Obama declared that his administration was
“finishing the job.”
Obama’s move drew praise from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who on Monday
also commended South Korean President Lee Myung-bak “for his country’s
leadership in ending restrictions towards people living with HIV that have no
public health benefit.”
“I repeat my call to all other countries with such discriminatory restrictions
to take steps to remove them at the earliest,” Ban added.
After Obama announced the change, the International AIDS Society announced plans
to hold its 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C.
UN Secretary-General applauds the removal of entry
restrictions based on HIV status
UN Secretary-General applauds the removal of entry restrictions based
on HIV status by United States of America and Republic of Korea
UNAIDS - 4 January 2010
http://www.aegis.org/news/unaids/2010/UN100101.html
CANADA:"Sexual History Dictates Blood Risk:
Lawyer"
Ottawa Citizen , (01.05.2010) Andrew Seymour CDC NPIN Summary
Canada’s blood service agency does not refuse donations from men who have sex
with men (MSM) due to their sexual orientation but rather due to their elevated
risk for HIV and other infections, the service’s lawyer argued Monday in an
Ottawa courtroom. Plaintiff Kyle Freeman alleges that the ban against blood
donations by any man who has ever had sex with another man even once since 1977
violates his Charter Rights and those of other MSM.
“No one has been excluded because they are gay,” said Sally Gomery, the attorney
for Canadian Blood Services (CBS). “They have been excluded because gay and
bisexual and heterosexual men who have this history have a higher risk.”
Freeman filed the civil suit after CBS brought him before the court for
negligent misrepresentation, alleging he lied on screening forms the agency uses
to “defer” unsuitable donors. From 1990 to 2002, Freeman donated blood 18 times.
The ban is justified since MSM are 300 times more likely to acquire HIV than
adults who are neither MSM nor injection drug users, Gomery said in court. Of
the 58,000 Canadians with HIV, 51 percent are MSM, she said.
The Charter should not apply to CBS since it is not a government agency, Gomery
argued, although it is regulated by the government and receives government
funding. Even if the Charter did apply, donors are not entitled to an equality
guarantee since donating is not a right, she said.
“The offer to give blood, like the offer of any other gift, can be refused,”
said Gomery. “Safety to recipients is the paramount value within the blood
system. If there is a risk something bad will happen, we must assume it will
happen and we must take steps to mitigate that risk.”
Freeman’s attorney is scheduled to make his closing arguments today.
See Fall 2009 Archived News |
