GENEVA
(Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of children are dying of AIDS in developing
countries because they do not have access to treatment readily available
elsewhere, U.N. health agencies said on Tuesday.News (Updated April 22, 2007)
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Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:25 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese basketball star Yao Ming and actor Pu Cunxin have
given their names to a campaign to combat stigma against HIV/AIDS in China, the
United Nations, which launched the program, said on Wednesday.
Yao, the 7ft-6in (2.29m) centre for the Houston Rockets, and Pu, who starred in the movies "Shower" and "Spicy Love Soup", will be pictured on posters to be distributed throughout China.
"We trust this campaign will help disseminate our common stand for positive action, care and full integration of people living with HIV and AIDS in our global society," UNDP China official Alessandra Tisot said in a statement.
China has an estimated 650,000 people living with HIV or AIDS and experts say the disease is moving into the general population and spreading ever faster, with the fight against the virus hampered by widespread discrimination and ignorance.
The poster campaign, which includes the slogan "HIV/AIDS will not affect our friendship", aims to promote inclusion of those with HIV in their workplaces, schools and families.
The posters will be printed in Chinese, Tibetan, Uighur and Jingbo, a language used in the southwestern province of Yunnan, which is among the provinces with the greatest prevalence of the disease.
Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:52 AM ET
By Laura MacInnis
GENEVA
(Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of children are dying of AIDS in developing
countries because they do not have access to treatment readily available
elsewhere, U.N. health agencies said on Tuesday.
While pediatric HIV disease has been almost eliminated in high-income countries, where mother-to-child transmission rates have fallen to below 2 percent, it remains "particularly aggressive" in poorer regions, according to a report from the World Health Organization (WHO), UNAIDS and UNICEF.
Only 11 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries are given drugs to prevent passing the immunity-destroying disease to their children during childbirth, and many infants born with HIV are undiagnosed and therefore untreated, the report found.
It said that 380,000 children died of AIDS-related causes last year, mainly infections that could have been prevented.
"Children continue to be the missing face of the AIDS pandemic," Ann Veneman, the head of UNICEF, said in a statement.
The agencies' report, which outlined advances in access to HIV treatment, said the number of people getting HIV therapy in poorer countries rose 54 percent last year to 2 million, though another 5 million still lack access to the life-saving drugs.
Just 15 percent of the 780,000 children in need of HIV treatment had access it by the end of 2006, and only 4 percent were given the antibiotic co-trimoxazole, which the WHO recommends for children with HIV and those born to HIV-infected mothers when early diagnosis is impossible.
"A greater effort should be made to follow up HIV-exposed children and to determine the HIV status of all children born to mothers living with HIV/AIDS so that appropriate care and support can be provided," the report said.
Treatment access problems were found to be most acute in sub-Saharan Africa, home to 25 million AIDS sufferers and 85 percent of all HIV-infected pregnant women.
Children account for 14 percent of those needing therapy in the largely impoverished region but only 6 percent of those receiving it. Some African countries with high HIV burdens, such as Nigeria and Zimbabwe, offer limited treatment for children.
The United Nations agencies said more investment was needed in diagnostic tests to quickly determine whether infants have HIV, and in fixed-dosed pediatric drug formulations that could boost the survival rates of infected young ones.
They also recommended more screening for tuberculosis, which can be lethal to those with HIV, and for sexually-transmitted diseases that can make it easier to catch and spread HIV.
PARIS (AFP) - Little more than one in four of poor people who are badly infected with the AIDS virus have access to the antiretroviral drugs that could save their lives, UN health agencies said on Tuesday.
In a report, the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNAIDS and Unicef warned that many obstacles clutter the road to the goal set last year by the UN, which demanded universal access to prevention and care programmes for HIV/AIDS by 2010.
WHO Director General Margaret Chan said donors, AIDS-afflicted nations, UN agencies and other participants were now making "substantial, ongoing progress" towards diagnosing and treating people with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
"Yet, in many ways, we are still at the beginning of this commitment," Chan said in a press release to flag the report. "We need ambitious national programmes, much greater global mobilisation and increased accountability if we are going to succeed."
By the end of 2006, 2,015,000 infected people in low- and middle-income countries were receiving antiretroviral drugs, which suppress HIV but do not eradicate it, the report said.
That is an increase of 54 percent compared to the 1.3 million people on treatment a year earlier in these countries.
But at the same time, it represents only 28 percent of the estimated 7.1 million badly-infected people who need the lifeline drugs.
It also falls badly short of the WHO's own former vision -- the much-ballyhooed "Three by Five" initiative that sought to get these treatments to three million needy people by the end of 2005.
The report highlighted some good news, though.
Of the 2.015 million on treatment today, more than 1.3 million are in sub-Saharan Africa, where coverage is between 24 and 33 percent of needs. In 2003, there were only 100,000 Africans on treatment, and coverage was just two percent.
Prices for firstline drugs in the world's poorer countries fell by an additional 10 to 20 percent last year, bringing the reduction to between 37 and 53 percent since 2003.
But second-line drugs -- the next option if a patient exhausts all the possibilities in firstline drugs -- "remain unaffordably high" in these countries.
In addition, the evidence to date shows that in poor countries where the drug rollout has taken place, people are responding just as well to the drugs as in rich countries.
In past defence of their now-scapped pricing policy, big pharmaceutical companies argued antiretroviral drugs were too complex for poor countries, which lack medical staff and laboratory testing.
But ways have been found to use medical orderlies rather than doctors to do some of the routine work, such as ensuring that a patient is taking his daily drug regimen, and get by without costly lab tests.
On the other hand, only 11 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women are getting drugs that could prevent them passing the virus to their baby, said the report.
"There is still a long way to go," said Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS. Blocking mother-to-child transmission of HIV "remains one of the simplest and cheapest proven prevention methods available," he said.
The report identifies eight "major challenges" for achieving the 2010 goal set by the UN General Assembly last June. Among them:
-- Universal access to treatment will require a steep increase in the numbers of people starting these drugs each year.
-- Making mother-to-child transmission a top priority for prevention, and scaling up help for infected children. Only 115,500 children of the 780,000 needing HIV treatment have access to it.
-- Stepping up HIV diagnosis and support for those who find they are infected. Surveys in 12 badly-infected African countries in 2005 found that only 12 percent of men and 10 percent of women had been tested for the AIDS virus.
-- Incorporating male circumcision into the arsenal of weapons to prevent the spread of HIV. A trio of clinical trials found that men who were circumcised were more than 50 percent less likely to get HIV than uncircumcised counterparts.
However, promoting male circumcision also requires safe surgery, cultural sensitivity, absence of coercion and informed consent, said the report.
+ "Towards Universal Access: Scaling Up Priority HIV/AIDS Interventions in the Health Sector." Published by the WHO, UNAIDS and United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Only 19 percent of Asians who need AIDS drugs receive them, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report said on Tuesday, calling for a surge in treatment to meet a 2010 goal for universal access.
South, southeast and east Asia, including India with the world's highest caseload of HIV-positive people, all lag behind Sub-Saharan Africa, where 28 percent of people needing treatment received it in 2006, the report said.
"Universal access by 2010 will require a steep increase in the number of people starting treatment every year," said the report.
In 2006, the U.N. General Assembly agreed to work towards universal access to "comprehensive prevention programmes, treatment, care and support" by 2010.
Asia compares poorly with the Caribbean and Latin America where overall treatment coverage is around 72 percent, although 280,000 people in south, southeast and east Asia were on anti-AIDS treatment in 2006, a four-fold jump over 2003.
The WHO report is backed by the United Nations' anti-AIDS agency (UNAIDS) and UNICEF. Its figures excluded Central Asia.
There are 7.8 million people living with HIV in east, south and southeast Asia, out of the world's total of nearly 40 million cases.
India, with 5.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS, falls way behind South Africa -- home to the second-highest number of people with the virus -- in terms of treatment.
India has only around 100,000 people on treatment while South Africa has 325,000. Referring to India, the report said: "This is far short of the total need."
Some 520,000 Indians need AIDS drugs.
INDIA'S MIXED RECORD
India's National AIDS Control Organisation chief Sujatha Rao said the epidemic in India was "well under control" and "prevention would remain the bedrock of our strategy".
Rao, speaking at the release of the WHO report in New Delhi, said India would boost treatment centres from 130 to 250 by the end of 2009.
She also said India planned to increase the number of people being tested from four million in 2006 to 22 million by 2010.
"Testing is our big challenge and we are focusing our attention on this," she said.
Asia does better than Sub-Saharan Africa on treatment for children but on both continents the majority of children needing drugs do not receive them, the report said.
Only an estimated 13 percent of the 680,000 children under 15 in Sub-Saharan Africa who need anti-AIDS drugs receive them, while in Asia it is 21 percent of an estimated 64,000 children.
Less than three percent of HIV-positive pregnant women in India received drugs for prevention of viral transmission from mother to child in 2005. India is a focus nation of the report.
"It is a huge challenge to get prophylaxis treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission," Rao told reporters, adding that one major problem was access as millions of Indian women gave birth at home each year.
The WHO report said Thailand was a rare success in Asia when it came to treating pregnant women with HIV.
Ninety-eight percent of women who gave birth in state-run facilities in Thailand were tested and counselled. Of those found positive, 94 percent were treated to prevent transmission.
Rao said she was worried about the rising spread of HIV among injecting drug users in newer areas in India from its concentration in the northeast until now.
"There is evidence to show that Punjab and New Delhi, which are in the mainland, are being affected."
Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:00 AM BST
By Peter Griffiths
LONDON (Reuters) - A
public inquiry starts on Wednesday into the deaths of hundreds of patients
infected by contaminated blood in what has been called the NHS's "worst
treatment disaster".
Labour peer Lord Archer will lead the inquiry into how nearly 5,000 haemophiliacs were exposed to hepatitis C or HIV during their treatment with commercial blood plasma in the 1970s and 1980s.
Of those infected, 1,757 have died and many more are terminally ill or struggling to support themselves financially, according to the Haemophilia Society.
"The purpose of the inquiry is to unravel the facts, so far as we are able, and to point to lessons that may be learnt," Lord Archer said in his opening statement.
Haemophilia is an inherited blood disorder which prevents the blood from clotting properly, leading to uncontrolled bleeding. There are 6,000 haemophiliacs in Britain.
Since the 1970s, doctors have treated haemophiliacs with replacement plasma, the liquid part of blood, processed from a dried powder.
The powder was made in the United States, often with plasma from donors who were paid for giving blood. Some of the blood products were later found to be infected.
The inquiry will examine claims that the authorities ignored warnings about using the donated blood products, the BBC's Newsnight programme reported on Tuesday.
The BBC said it had obtained a 1983 letter from the head of Britain's public health surveillance centre warning about the risks and calling for a ban on the U.S. blood products.
Fertility expert Lord Winston has described the infection of thousands of haemophiliacs as "the worst treatment disaster in the history of the National Health Service".
The Haemophilia Society said many of those infected had suffered financial hardship and even lost their homes.
"Many more have found themselves to be uninsurable, unemployable and unable to make adequate provision for their dependants," the society's Chairman Roddy Morrison said.
Thu Apr 19, 5:20 PM ET
Cameroon will start giving free treatment and antiretrovirals to nearly 50,000 people living with HIV, Urban Health Minister Olanguena Awono said Thursday.
Awono said the move was made possible by a 50-million-euro (68-million-dollar) grant from UNAIDS for the period from 2007 to 2009, state radio said.
The move targets some 43,000 adults and 4,000 children living with the virus that can cause AIDS and are registered at special health centres dispensing treatment to HIV patients, a health ministry spokesman told AFP.
Cameroon has slashed fees for biological tests and ARVs several times since 2004. But AIDS groups in the west African country say the rates are still far too high for the common man.
According to the latest UNAIDS estimates, about 5.5 percent of Cameroon's adult population has HIV.
Tue Apr 17, 11:51 AM ET
UN health officials on Tuesday called for greater efforts to prevent the spread of AIDS pandemic.
Kevin De Cock, director of the World Health Organisation's HIV/AIDS department and Michel Sidibe, deputy director of UNAIDS, spoke at a London press conference after publication of a major report from UN agencies.
The review by the WHO, UNAIDS and Unicef says that only 28 percent of poor people who urgently need antiretroviral drugs have access to the lifesaving treatment.
These drugs can suppress the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to below detectable levels but not eradicate it, and if they are stopped, the pathogen rebounds.
"We can't treat our way out of this epidemic," De Cock said.
"If 700,000 people are accessing therapy every year, but every year we have over four million new infections, for every case that goes on to treatment, there's six more getting to the back of the line who will require therapy.
"A rebalancing of our perception of the epidemic and reinvigorating prevention is absolutely essential. If there's one big lesson, it's that you cannot separate prevention from treatment."
Sidibe echoed his comments, saying that it was necessary to "turn off the tap."
He illustrated his point with the example of Malawi, southern Africa, where last year 40,000 people received treatment for the first time, but the number of new cases was double that.
Individual countries should take ownership of targets for HIV/AIDS treatment, De Cock said, while admitting that some African nations were still not showing proper leadership over the issue.
"I think those who are committed remain committed and those that are not committed also haven't changed that much," he said.
And Sidibe raised questions about how the fight against HIV/AIDS would be funded in the long-term.
Current funding levels are around eight billion dollars (5.9 billion euros), he said, adding that this would have to rise to up to 23 billion by 2010 to fund prevention, care and treatment programmes.