News (Updated April 15, 2007)

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Chinese AIDS victims blocked from protesting

Wed Apr 11, 1:27 PM ET

PhotoAbout 350 people infected with HIV/AIDS were blocked by police in central China Wednesday from protesting over drug treatments they are receiving from the government, a leading activist said.

Two activists, Zhu Ruiyi and Li Xia, were taken into police custody after trying to lead protesters into Henan's provincial capital, Zhengzhou, the director of the AIDS Action Project, Wan Yanhai, told AFP.

The protesters came from Zhecheng county and most were infected with the HIV virus after they donated blood in tainted government-backed blood drives in the 1990s, Wang said.

"On the way to Zhengzhou, they were stopped by hundreds of police," Wan said.

"They wanted to organise a petition campaign to express concerns over drug treatment."

Police in Zhecheng city refused to comment on the action when contacted by AFP.

The government only recently agreed to provide free medical help for thousands of those infected in the tainted blood drives.

"The current drugs are not effective for these patients because they are becoming resistant to the drugs and lack a second line of medication," Wan said.

"Many of these people are seriously sick. It is only natural that people protest when they feel their lives are threatened."

China's health ministry said last November that 183,733 people were confirmed with HIV/AIDS in the country at the end of October -- a 27.5 percent rise from the end of 2005.

The number of confirmed cases is significantly lower than the estimate of 650,000 put forward jointly by the government and United Nations health agencies in January 2006.

 

China's Lack of HIV/AIDS Awareness Undermines Control Programs

By Dune Lawrence

April 9 (Bloomberg) -- Two-thirds of China's 1.3 billion people don't know how to protect themselves against HIV, undermining the nation's efforts to stem the spread of the virus that causes AIDS.

HIV/AIDS cases are increasing by 30 percent a year in China, with 84,000 new infections and 25,000 deaths recorded last year, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The data was presented by the aid organization at a forum in Beijing late last week.

Programs have failed to improve awareness of the disease and to control its spread. Last year, 3 billion yuan ($388 million) was spent on HIV projects, equal to the cost of building 20 kilometers (12 miles) of road in Beijing, said Jing Jun, an adviser to the government on AIDS policy and director of the Social Policy Research Institute at Tsinghua University.

``China is entering a stage of AIDS fatigue,'' Jing told the forum. ``China is facing an enormous task, and we can't claim that we have won the battle, or even have a draw with the AIDS epidemic.''

At least 650,000 people in China are estimate to be living with HIV, or the equivalent of 0.1 percent of adults aged 15 to 49, according to the United Nations. That compares with the global prevalence of 1 percent.

``The government, in a very short period of time, has developed policies which are excellent,'' Henk Bekedam, the World Health Organization's representative in China, told the forum. ``While China is very much promoting intervention programs, it's also very clear that those intervention programs are not having good coverage.''

Sexual Transmission

While shared needles used by injecting drug users are the dominant cause of HIV transmission in China, accounting for about 38 percent of infections, sexual transmission is becoming the leading cause of new infections, said He Jinglin, Country Officer for UNAIDS in China.

``It's really changing in China,'' He said. In the past, injecting drug users and those donating blood were most at risk of infection, He said.

China had about 320 government-run clinics using methadone to treat drug addiction at the end of last year. Another 1,200 are needed to ensure adequate coverage, Bekedam said, adding that 75 percent of those living in China don't understand how AIDS is spread or how to protect themselves.

``China has made 10-fold more money available for HIV/AIDS over the last two to four years,'' he said. ``I'm not saying that's enough, but I do also want to note that in the provinces where we go, many counties have money but they don't know what to do with it.''

 

HIV Cases Rise to Record High in Shanghai

The Chinese city of Shanghai reported a record number of new HIV infections last year, the China Daily reported Saturday quoting the municipal public health administration.

There were 718 reported HIV infections in 2006, and 53 HIV patients developed AIDS. The number of infections represents a 54 percent increase over the previous year and a record.

Despite the higher figures, the incidence rate of the disease in Shanghai is still lower than the national average, the Chinese newspaper quoted Cai Wei, vice-director of the municipal public health administration, as saying.

Shanghai reported its first HIV infection in 1987. Since then, 2,313 infections had been reported by the end of 2006. One hundred people have died.

Cai attributed the increase to a variety of factors present in the city, including the sex trade and drug addiction. Health authorities have been working to combat the disease, but many underground businesses offering sex services continue to operate in the shadows, making it difficult to compile accurate data.

Health authorities have been working with police to shed light on such businesses. And Shanghai is planning to strengthen its public health system under a three-year plan. The city is also slated to open more methadone clinics for drug users.

"Shanghai is like other larger cities in East China, which have been reporting more HIV transmissions through sexual intercourse in recent years," said an official surnamed Zhuang from the city's disease control center.

"All government departments should be involved," the China Daily quoted Zhuang as saying. "HIV is not just an infectious disease, it is a social problem, and fighting it will take coordination from all departments, from legal and educational bodies, to the women's federation and border inspectors."

The city's recently published five-year plan against HIV/AIDS emphasizes government intervention and education. It requires 90 percent of government officials to be trained in how to deal with the disease and calls for most citizens and migrants to receive some sort of education about preventing HIV/AIDS and blood safety.

Sexually transmitted diseases are becoming increasingly common in Shanghai. In March alone, the city reported 935 syphilis cases, accounting for more than a quarter of the new cases of serious infectious diseases in the city.

Health authorities operate three hotlines dealing with HIV/AIDS prevention. They provide information about the disease, expert advice about prevention and medical advice for infected patients.

"The hotlines are effective in spreading information and helping intervention," Zhuang was quoted as saying. "The treatment of AIDS is covered by the city's medical insurance system."

He added that people who are not covered by the system can receive free medication if they apply.

Australia PM says no to HIV-positive immigrants

 
By Reuters
Saturday April 14, 07:45 AM

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said people who are HIV-positive should not be allowed to migrate to Australia, a remark condemned by health groups as racist.

"My initial reaction is no (they should not be allowed in)," Howard told Southern Cross Broadcasting on Friday, adding that he would like more advice on the matter. "There may be some humanitarian considerations that could temper that in certain cases but prima facie, no."

Australia already bans people with tuberculosis from entering the country as migrants, while all people over the age of 15 who apply for permanent residence are tested for HIV.

Applicants for permanent residence who have a medical condition for which the lifetime treatment cost exceeds A$21,000 ($17,000) are refused entry.

Howard said he would look at changing the law to stop HIV-positive people coming to Australia.

"I think we should have the most stringent possible conditions in relation to that nationwide and I know the health minister is concerned about that and is examining ways of tightening things up and I think people are entitled to be concerned."

AIDS experts attacked the comments as an overreaction.

"It is already extremely difficult for people with HIV infection to be accepted as migrants or refugees," The Australian newspaper on Saturday quoted Don Baxter of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations as saying.

"Those people accepted, chiefly spouses and partners of Australian citizens, can and do contribute enormously to Australia's benefit."

Others said the comments were discriminatory.

"It's a hysterical overreaction, it mixes racism with a phobia about infectious disease," an infectious disease physician, Chris Lemoh, told the Australian Associated Press.

"I think to not allow people to come on the basis of any health condition is immoral, it's unethical and it's impractical to enforce," Lemoh said.

"Most of the people who acquire HIV acquire it here and most of them are born here."

 

139,000 Mozambique babies born with HIV in six months

Mon Apr 9, 1:06 PM ET

PhotoA total of 139,000 Mozambican babies have been born with the AIDS virus in the last six months, according to a report released on Monday by the United Nations Children's Fund.

The same report said that 146,000 pregnant women had been diagonosed as being HIV carriers but a programme of drug treatment had managed to prevent the virus from being transmitted to some of the babies.

Like much of southern Africa, Mozambique is struggling to combat AIDS which affects nearly 1.5 million people, around 16.2 percent of the overall population.

Around 20,000 children under the age of five died of AIDS in the country last year, according to figures from the health ministry.

 

AIDS groups slam Africa's funding shortfall

Wed Apr 11, 3:15 PM ET

PhotoDemonstrators carried a coffin outside a meeting of African Union health ministers on Wednesday to protest at what they called government back-sliding on pledges to fund the fight against AIDS.

A coalition of anti-AIDS groups which staged the protest urged governments to recognise the pandemic as an "emergency that needs an extraordinary response," saying most of the targets set in previous meetings had been missed.

"We refuse to be told that our lives are expendable and ... demand that our governments keep the promises they made and specific targets they agreed to," they said in a statement at the protest in Johannesburg.

Speaking on Tuesday ahead of the three-day gathering, AU Commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare raised concern about governments' failure to stump up enough cash to fight the diseases on the continent.

"Last year we made new commitments to make resources available, but when I look at the tools being implemented, I see no positive developments."

A 2006 report by UNAIDS shows that 63 percent of all adults and children with HIV live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Africa plans to produce own drugs, reduce reliance on West

Wed Apr 11, 10:40 AM ET

Africa is gearing up to produce its own essential drugs, reducing reliance on the West for lifesaving medicines for disease such as malaria and tuberculosis, the African Union said Wednesday.

A plan detailing options for the continent to produce cheap, quality generic drugs for those in need would be presented to health ministers attending a conference in Johannesburg.

"We need to produce (medicines) in Africa. We have the potential, why do we want to take them from outside when we can take it in Africa?" Mamadou Diallo, chief pharmacist in the AU commission's medical services directorate, told AFP.

"The main objective is to identify which kinds of medicines we are going to produce, essential drugs we need for Africa, and who is going to produce these drugs."

Many African countries currently rely on India and China for imports of affordable generic drugs, but both countries are subject to patent laws which threaten Africa's access to the medicines.

According to Diallo, Africa has all the resources and capacity at its disposal to manufacture essential medicines for the opportunistic infections like tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS which plague the continent.

Egypt has more than 30 drug manufacturing plants, Nigeria and South Africa already produce medicines and a World Health Organistion (WHO) assessment showed that out of 46 countries, 37 had pharmaceutical industries.

"All the resources are already available. Since those manufacturing plants are already in place, there is already the capacity to run them. The manpower to run that plant is already there," said Diallo.

He said it would be up to the respective health ministers at the conference to take the plan forward.

Nthari Matsau, deputy director general in South Africa's health ministry, confirmed that the respective ministers would be discussing the pharmaceuticals plan but refused to give further details until after the meeting.

 

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