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| RAPE EXPOSES WOMEN TO HIV KENYA: HEALTH/RIGHTS/ /19/07/02 Sabanews NAIROBI – Some 16,500 women in KENYA were raped in 2001, according to Kenyan police statistics. But these are only the reported cases, says Inter Press Service (IPS) in a report. “Marital rape is not seen as an offence,” says Marie Evelyne Petrus, director of Amnesty International's Africa regional office, which released a new report on rape in KENYA in an attempt to break the silence. “Rape exposes women to opportunistic infections as well as
the HIV virus,” says KENYA’s Penal Code does not recognise marital rape as a criminal offence. Amnesty International is putting pressure on the Kenyan government to protect its female citizens. ''It is high time that the commitment given by the Attorney General and the Police Commissioner in August 2000 to set up separate rape desks at police stations and to educate the police working on these to be gender-sensitive be made reality,'' Petrus told IPS. /Sabanews/an .. ENDS SABANEWS ..
CHINA: RIGHTS/HEALTH/ /19/07/02 Sabanews BEIJING – A farmer living with AIDS is the first person in CHINA to go public with his story on TV, according to a report by Inter Press Service. Liu Ziliang is 33 years old, and the ‘star’ of CHINA’s first programme on HIV/AIDS. Liu says he will keep on retelling his story to help battle the discrimination faced by people like him in CHINA. Apart from a documentary film on him, Liu has made many TV appearances. Liu contracted HIV from selling his blood to itinerant “blood traders” who keep on reusing the needle. He was not the only person in the community who tested HIV-positive. His household became outcasts. His daughter was discriminated against in school, and his wife was driven out when she tried to use the public bath. The community refused to buy the vegetables he grew. As a last resort he fled to the Chinese capital city. Liu sought out the You'an Hospital here, which is known for its HIV/AIDS ward. It was there that a director of the Beijing TV station met him and made a documentary of Liu’s exile from his family and community. /Sabanews/an .. ENDS SABANEWS ..
HEALTH-JAMAICA By Zadie Neufville KINGSTON, Jamaica, Apr 24 (IPS) - The pending closure of Jamaica's oldest and largest non-governmental support group for people living with HIV-AIDS is raising questions about funding policies that activists say rob millions of people in the developing world of much needed care and medication. Head of the National AIDS Committee (NAC), Verity Rushton, says Jamaica AIDS Support (JAS) is just one of many NGOs in the developing world being forced to close because the policies of funding agencies say they can provide money for programmes, but not for the staff needed to run them. With the rate of HIV in the Caribbean second only to sub-Saharan Africa, activists say there is urgent need to address the problem. The 10-year-old JAS provides medical care and general support to people living with HIV-AIDS. Most of its clients are unable to afford any medical care or support service. Rushton says agencies, including the World Bank, insist that the money they give for HIV-AIDS care should not cover the operational and administrative costs of the projects. So while hundreds of millions of dollars are available for HIV-AIDS care, education and prevention programmes, many are ineffective because governments like Jamaica's can't afford to staff them. JAS, the force behind several successful educational, care and training projects for high-risk groups and those with the virus, will have to cease operations Apr. 30 because it can't pay the rent, utility bills or the 28 people that run its projects and supervise more than 200 volunteers. For the last six years, 80 percent of JAS' operational costs have been met by a grant from the government of the Netherlands. On a monthly budget of 25,000 dollars, the organisation provides testing, individual and group counselling, home-based care, advocacy, lobbying and referrals to doctors and other service providers. But that funding dried up more than six months earlier than originally expected and many believe the JAS will share the fate of its 16-bed hospice, which was forced to close 18 months ago when Dutch government funding ran out. And while health officials and NGOs acknowledge the need to address flaws in funding guidelines if third world countries are to make any progress in the fight against HIV-AIDS, "there is no money to fund the staff to campaign for those changes", says Rushton. Alternative funding sources are also limited. JAS board member Matthew Pragnall is disappointed that despite two years of fund raising, the stigma associated with HIV-AIDS is still causing corporate institutions to stay away. "It's unbelievable to see how hard it is to get corporate bodies involved even though the virus affects all levels of employees - from directors down," says Rushton, whose organisation serves as a bridge between government and NGOs. Health Minister John Junor has joined the ranks of lobbyists and fund seekers for the organisation, as have the island's chief medical officer Peter Figueroa and Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) officials in Jamaica. Health officials say JAS plays a number of essential roles: it is a key part of the government's new National Strategic Plan to halt the spread of HIV-AIDS; a major player in the government's international lobby programme; a major participant in the island's prevention education programme, and a bank of expertise on HIV-AIDS in the Caribbean. "The JAS came at a time when there was no support for, especially, the poor with the virus," Figueroa says, and it still serves those most in need. Estimates are that about 20,000 people here are living with HIV and up to 90 per cent of them are unable to afford even the cheapest care, meaning that many must turn to organisations like the JAS for care, medication and counselling. About a quarter of the more than 5,545 Jamaicans diagnosed as living with AIDS since the first case in 1982 have benefited from the organisation's services. Twenty-nine-year-old Christopher (whose full name is being withheld to protect his privacy) has been HIV positive for more than five years. He believes the poor and under privileged have the most to lose if JAS goes. "They (JAS) were the only ones I could trust with my identity. It has given me a livelihood so I can live as a normal person," he said. Devon, HIV-positive and jobless, depends on the organisation for almost everything, "sometimes food too", he says. The 32-year old caregiver lost his job when the hostel closed. Many JAS clients risk being thrown out of their homes, rejected by relatives, dismissed from their jobs and beaten if their HIV status becomes public knowledge. The JAS in-house care that replaced the hostel provides the only alternative to the over-crowded homes for the indigent that have become refuge for many men and women living with the virus who have no place to go. Head of the national HIV-AIDS campaign, Yitades Gebre, says JAS' work in prisons and among the gay and lesbian communities would be missed the most. "The biggest gap and unmet need is the outreach programme for the gay community. The JAS is accepted and trusted by lesbians and gays and is better able to address the needs of these groups than the ministry of health," he says. And while government can provide low cost anti-retroviral drugs, not many Jamaicans can afford the medication. It is for these reasons, activists say, that the demise of the JAS could kill "the effort to provide information, refuge and care to those in need". "It will see the death of the HIV-AIDS NGO sector and set back the fight 10 years," says McKnight. Many others say the JAS' expertise is crucial to reaching high-risk groups like inner-city residents as government readies new care and education initiatives and a project to distribute and monitor medication under the "people-friendly AIDS/HIV policies" recommended by the PAHO. (END/IPS/CA/HE/DV/ZN/ML/AA/02) . HEALTH-ARGENTINA: HIV/AIDS Troubles Worsen with Economic Crisis By Marcela Valente BUENOS AIRES, Jun 12 (IPS) - Argentines with HIV/AIDS are on the alert because the supply of medications for treating their disease could be completely cut off in July as a result of the economic and social crisis thrashing this South American nation. There have been interruptions in drug supplies in the past, but this time the culprit would be the postponement of a 60-million-dollar disbursement that the World Bank pledged to provide help for Argentines with HIV/AIDS for the rest of the year. The economic crisis, unemployment, shortages of state resources to ensure the continuity of treatment and the delay in agreements with multilateral credit organisations have created a lethal combination for the people with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, the precursor to AIDS). The antiretroviral treatment, which entails several medications, has proved effective in slowing the development of the virus. But this medical "cocktail" must be administered on a continuous and regular basis, because interruptions in treatment give the virus time to develop resistance to the drugs. "The most serious problem continues to be the lack of access to medications, but now we also have to deal with the problem that many do not have money to buy food or to make the trip to downtown Buenos Aires to protest the situation," Marcela Alsina, leader of the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, told IPS. "We work with women who have infant children but cannot nurse them for fear of infecting them with HIV. And they don't have enough money to buy infant formula. One of the women is ill, alone, unemployed and her children are also ill. And worse, her husband is in prison," Alsina said. An estimated 130,000 people in Argentina are HIV positive and more than 20,000 have developed full-blown AIDS. Currently, there are three men with the disease for every woman. Twelve years ago, the ratio was 12 to one. The Network that Alsina leads, consisting only of people with HIV/AIDS, has chapters in nearly all of Argentina's two dozen provinces. Alsina is the representative of the largest chapter, which covers the entire province of Buenos Aires and the outskirts of the capital. Non-governmental organisations that work with HIV/AIDS patients have repeatedly demanded continuity in the supply of medications in order to prevent the risk of interruption of treatment. But the tone of their demands took on a note of desperation in December, when Argentina's economic and social crisis exploded. Towards the end of 2001, the Fundación Desida filed five to 15 petitions per month for special legal protection for people who were not provided with the necessary drugs to treat the disease. Such lawsuits have multiplied dramatically since then, the organisation's psychologist, Noemí Perelman, told IPS. Fundación Desida is preparing to file a special legal petition with the justice authorities to seek guarantees of immediate distribution of medications to all HIV/AIDS patients if the promised World Bank assistance does not arrive, Perelman said. The release of the 60 million dollars the World Bank promised has been postponed until July, leading many to believe that the institution is waiting for the Eduardo Duhalde government to sign a financial aid agreement with International Monetary Fund (IMF) before it will disburse the money. The government temporarily resolved the problems in medication distribution that people with HIV/AIDS confronted earlier this year, Kurt Frieder, director of the Fundación Huésped, told IPS. But Frieder, whose organisation specialises in disseminating information about HIV/AIDS, warned that the shortage of medications could be total in July if foreign aid is not renewed. "The Health Ministry was able to guarantee a portion of the treatments, but the doses were minimal and some patients chose not to make the effort to obtain them since they only lasted a week," he said. "This is very serious for someone who has already initiated treatment, because the virus becomes increasingly resistant if therapy is halted," Frieder stated. The problem deepened at the same pace as the national crisis. Several health enterprises, whether private sector or run by the trade unions, were left without sufficient medical supplies, forcing many patients to turn to the public hospitals. Furthermore, rising unemployment means thousands of people are left without medical insurance coverage. When the hospitals order 3,000 doses, the government health authorities send 1,000, complained Alsina. "That means we have medications for four or five days, and when they run out, the procession to the Health Ministry begins again to obtain only a small portion of what is needed," she added. "The situation worsened a great deal since last year. When we complained then, we would obtain enough doses for one or two months," she said. In 2001, when the economic crisis had not yet reached December's explosive levels, people with HIV/AIDS staged loud protests in downtown Buenos Aires. "But then we had to call off the protests that we regularly held in front of the Health Minister because nobody had enough money for bus fare to get there," said the activist. "If the patients are arriving at the doctor appointments on bicycle, how can we expect them to attend a protest or appear in court to file a lawsuit?" Fabián Salguero, another Network coordinator, told IPS that his health insurance company has not provided the HIV/AIDS medications he needs, even though it is required by law to do so. Salguero filed a petition for legal protection, and as a result he was included on the list of people to be provided with the drugs, but an insurance official - in Salguero's presence - crossed another patient's name off the list of recipients when he added Salguero's name. "One problem is that the law forces the state to ensure supplies of medications, but not the transportation to pick it up, or food or clothing for the patient's family," said Frieder. The Network delegates in Buenos Aires province are meeting this month to organise their next legal move, in case the World Bank assistance does not arrive in July. In drawing up the strategy, they have to avoid requiring too much effort from those in the group whose health is already deteriorating, are unemployed and lack money for adequate food. Fundación Huésped proposed that the government could give people with HIV/AIDS a free pass for public transportation, but the authorities have not yet taken a decision on the matter. In order to combine trips outside the home, "we hold our meetings on the same days that the infectious diseases specialist is attending patients at the hospital because we know that people can't get around very easily," said Alsina. The Network coordinator, 36, works at a law office. She was infected with HIV 15 years ago. Since then, she has followed a series of treatments that have allowed her to keep the virus under control in the last few years. But recent months have been "a nightmare." "I had to interrupt treatment for 15 days because there were no drugs available. They would gave me a handful of pills when I asked for them, but there were no tests to measure the viral burden, which are essential for the infectologist to control the body's reaction to the medicine," Alsina said. (END/IPS/LA/HE/TRA-SO LD/MV/MJ/02) HEALTH: The Main Victims of AIDS Are Women By Alicia Fraerman BARCELONA, Spain, Jul 12 (IPS) - The main victims of the AIDS epidemic are women, shouted some 200 female activists Friday at the closing ceremony of the 14th International AIDS Conference in this port city in northeastern Spain. The closing speakers at the week-long event that drew 15,000 delegates were former presidents Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Bill Clinton of the United States, after a week of debates on AIDS consisting of 16 plenary sessions and 300 conferences. ''AIDS is a war against humanity...which requires total mobilisation of the entire population,'' said Mandela, who was given a standing ovation. He highlighted the dramatic effects of the epidemic for the 14 million children orphaned by AIDS, as well as the stigma suffered, especially by women living with HIV. AIDS is caused by HIV, which destroys a kind of lymphocyte known as helper T-cells, thus weakening the immune system and leaving the patient susceptible to secondary viral or bacterial infections. Of the 40 million people living with HIV worldwide, only 730,000 - less then two percent - are receiving medical treatment, 500,000 of whom live in industrialised countries, according to the joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), which organised the conference. Addressing the plenary session of the conference Thursday, Graça Machel, Mandela's wife and the director of a foundation that assists orphans in Mozambique, said ''women of the world, face up to stop the HIV/AIDS pandemic with the force of a lioness protecting her family.'' The whistle-blowing women activists who broke into Friday's plenary session were demanding stepped up action from governments to curb the spread of the epidemic among women, especially in Africa and Asia. The latest statistics show that most infections are now occurring in young women. ''The sense that the epidemic has a woman's face is now everywhere felt,'' said Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy on HIV and AIDS in Africa. Another demonstration was staged by women Thursday night, when dozens of sex workers marched in downtown Barcelona, demanding recognition of their social and labour rights. Many prostitutes also took part in a parallel meeting on human rights and sex workers, organised by the city government, under socialist Mayor Joan Clos. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and six transnational drug companies agreed at the conference to reduce the price of antiretroviral drugs by 80 to 90 percent for the countries of West Africa. But activists complained that the agreement did not cover the countries of southern Africa, which account for a majority of the people living with HIV in that continent. The results of research on several new vaccines and AIDS medicines were presented at the conference, and industrialised countries pledged to increase spending against AIDS. Machel, a former education minister of Mozambique, stressed that only 2.8 billion dollars have been provided to date, of the 10 billion promised by the world's richest nations for a global AIDS fund. She pointed out that only Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands live up to the UN target of earmarking 0.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to official development aid. ''How many times will we come to these conferences and watch people make promises which they go home and forget? Where are the financial resources promised by rich nations?'' asked Machel. Meanwhile, the Kaiser Family Foundation noted that AIDS poses a growing threat to young people, reporting that the number of people between the ages of 15 and 24 living with HIV, who totalled 12.4 million in 2001, would climb to 21.5 million by 2010. But discrepancies over prevention among the young arose at the conference, with Roman Catholic Archbishop of Nairobi, Raphael Ndingi, telling a group of 50 young delegates from 25 countries that abstinence is not only the safest method, but it is free of cost and has no side-effects. However, one young Kenyan woman who asked to speak said her sister would not have died of AIDS if she had received timely information about safe sex. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, spoke up to underline the ABC's of AIDS prevention: Abstinence, Be Faithful, and Condom Use. Ndingi remained silent as Piot added that the Catholic Church insists on A and B, while UNAIDS adds C, because ''we know that good-quality condoms provide protection from AIDS.'' Clinton, who co-chairs the International AIDS Trust with Mandela, urged developing nations to purchase antiretroviral drugs from countries like Brazil, which produce them at a lower cost. Having won a fight against the transnational companies that hold the patents for anti-HIV drugs, Brazil produces its own generic versions, which enables it to provide free treatment to 115,000 patients at a cost 10 times lower than the price tag of such therapy in developed countries. Exporting that model to the rest of the developing world is the aim of NGOs like Act-Up Paris that trashed the exhibition stands of several governments and pharmaceutical companies at the conference to demand affordable drugs and stepped-up funds for the international effort against AIDS. But the director of Brazil's STD/AIDS Programme, Paulo Teixeira, said at Thursday's plenary that ''there is no Brazilian model. What we have been doing is to put into practice principles that have long been recognised by the international community. ''At the very core (of Brazil's programme) is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted more than 54 years ago. None of these outcomes could have been achieved without embracing a balanced prevention and treatment approach and the firm advocacy of the human rights of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS,'' said Teixeira. In Brazil, the average annual cost of treatment per patient has been cut in half in recent years due to two related factors: investment by the Ministry of Health to develop national laboratories, which now produce eight of the 15 antiretroviral drugs that are distributed in Brazil, and price reductions negotiated with the transnational corporations Abbott, Merck and Roche to cut the price of four drugs by more than fifty percent. ''National production under compulsory licensing has been a strong argument to push these companies to the negotiation table,'' Teixeira underlined. (END/IPS/WD/HE HD/TRA-SO SW/AF/MP/02)
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