News (Updated September 9,
2007)
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By Reuters
Sunday September 9, 10:10 AM
BEIJING (Reuters) - China reported 18,543 new cases of HIV/AIDS in the
first half of this year, state media said, near the number for the whole of
2006.
Drug abuse was the main cause of new infections, Xinhua news agency
quoted Han Mengjie, an official with AIDS Control Work Committee of the
State Council, as saying in a report on Saturday.
Han also warned of the danger of the virus spreading to the general
public through unsafe sex and the greater migration of the infected
population.
China has become increasingly open about AIDS in recent years, facing up
to an epidemic once stigmatised as a disease of the West.
The nation had 214,300 officially registered cases of HIV/AIDS by late
July, Xinhua said, an increase of five percent over the figure for April.
The United Nations estimates the true number of the killer disease in the
country to be around 650,000.
Beijing backs campaigns to educate citizens on preventing infections, and
victims infected through reckless commercial blood collection in the central
province of Hunan have been given free medicines.
| Adam Legge, Friday, September 07, 2007 |
Risky behaviour and HIV transmission rates are on the rise among men who
have sex with men in China according to surveys carried out in 2004, 2005
and 2006.
The survey authors say MSM-friendly HIV testing, STI services and education
is urgently needed to stem the rise.
The three annual surveys of MSM were carried out at the HIV voluntary
counselling and testing clinic at the Beijing Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
Participants were men who had ever reported having sex with another man. The
lower age limit for participants was set at 18 in 2004 but lowered to 16 in
2005 and 2006 and 325 men were surveyed in 2004, 427 in 2005 and 540 in
2006.
There was no significant increase in consistent condom use over the three
years.
But the numbers of men reporting multiple partners increased dramatically.
In 2004 2.4% of men reported having ten or more partners in the past six
months but this had risen to 17.4% in 2006.
In 2004 36.6% of men said they had just one partner in the past six months
but this had dropped to 17.4% by 2006.
The proportion of men who had ever had an STI rose from 15.1% to 27.9% in
the three years – including a doubling in syphilis infection rates, from
4.5% to 9.9%.
In 2004 just 0.4% of the men were HIV positive in 2004 but this shot up to
4.6% in 2005 and 5.8% in 2006.
Hepatitis C infection rates also rose sharply from 0.4% in 2004 to 5.2% in
2006.
These rises are being fuelled by a low rate of condom use and an
increasingly number of sexual partners, say the researchers.
More than half of men reported having unprotected insertive anal sex in the
past six months and two fifths having unprotected receptive anal sex.
The findings are particularly worrying, they say, in light of recent reports
documenting rapidly increasing HIV rates in other Asian countries like
Thailand, and high HIV prevalence in MSM observed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
(8.9%), Chiang Mai, Thailand (15%) and Andhra Pradesh, India (18%).
But they add that the data need careful scrutiny as such a huge rise from a
small baseline level of HIV prevalence could mean the 2004 figure was an
underestimate.
There were also far more “unofficial” Beijing residents in the later
years and a particularly large rise in HIV status among them. Education
status was also significantly lower in later years.
These factors mean a more detailed analysis of HIV risk behaviour, internal
migration and education level among MSM in China is needed.
Men surveyed said the HIV healthcare resource they would most like to see
would be MSM-friendly HIV testing sites followed by HIV/STI counselling
services.
The authors say provision of these services need to be addressed as a matter
or urgency
By Reuters
Thursday September 6, 12:05 PM
By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's blood supply is still not being properly
monitored for HIV/AIDS a decade after a blood-selling scandal, and it needs
international help to tackle the problem, a report said on Thursday.
The government has tried to clean up the sector after hundreds of
thousands of farmers in central Henan province were infected in the 1990s
through schemes in which people sold blood to unsanitary, often state-run
health clinics.
Then-Health Minister Gao Qiang admitted in a speech earlier this summer
that China's blood donation system was far from perfect and safety worries
remained.
"The demand for blood and blood products is growing in China, and
supply is short," said Sara Davis, co-author of the report and director
of Asia Catalyst, a New York-based group that helps non-government
organisations in Asia.
"This creates an economic incentive for hospitals to rely on
illegal, untested blood donations, and that fuels the spread of AIDS,"
she added in a separate statement.
In June, the food and drug regulator said it had discovered fake plasma
being used in at least 18 hospitals in northeastern China.
"China is not alone," Davis said. "Most developed
countries have dealt with similar AIDS blood scandals, and they should step
forward to offer assistance to China."
An estimated 650,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in China, and health
experts say the disease is moving into the general population with most new
infections now spread sexually, although drug-users follow closely behind.
While other countries such as Japan and France, which have also had
problems with infections through blood transfusions, have taken effective
measures to ensure no repeat of past scandals, that is not the case in
China.
"Today, China's blood supply remains dangerously unsafe. Around the
country, patients who check into hospitals for routine surgery may check out
with HIV/AIDS as a result of hospital blood transfusions," the report
said.
"In China, where the AIDS blood transmission outbreak in some
provinces dwarfs those of Japan and France ..., health officials who acted
negligently or criminally while directly profitting from the causes of the
blood scandal have rarely been held personally accountable," it added.
The government should set up a compensation fund for those infected by
transfusions and order courts to accept all lawsuits from these victims, the
report recommended.
"Haemophiliacs and other patients infected with HIV through blood
and blood products provided by hospitals have suffered physical and
emotional pain and suffering caused directly by those hospitals and
clinics," it said.
"They are entitled to reparations for these violations of their
rights."
by The Associated Press
Posted: September 6, 2007 - 3:00 pm ET
(Beijing) Chinese authorities said two late-night radio shows that
discussed sex - gay and straight, HIV/AIDS and drugs have been banned for
damaging young people and being "extremely pornographic."
The latest order from China's broadcast watchdog follows a ban on
television shows about cosmetic surgery and sex changes, and the shutdown of
a talent show that regulators deemed coarse.
The stations, both in the southwestern province of Sichuan, "aired
programs about sex and drugs for two to three hours after 9 p.m. every
day," the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television said on
its Web site Wednesday.
"The programs contained extremely pornographic material, caused
great harm to the psychological development of young people, fouled the
social air, and damaged the reputation of China's broadcasting
institutions," the administration said.
The two stations were ordered to suspend the shows immediately and punish
the producers.
The broadcast watchdog statement did not include the titles of the shows.
Late-night call-in programs featuring sexually explicit conversations and
ads for enhancement drugs are common.
Most are advice shows that help callers with issues such as sexual
performance or sexually transmitted diseases. They are tame compared to
programs in the U.S. and callers generally do not go into explicit detail.
The administration said its ban covered all programs that "flout the
code of ethics, violate science and civilization or feature sexual
content."
That aimed to create "created a harmonious cultural environment for
the youth," it said.
Calls to the stations, Sichuan People's Broadcasting and Chengdu People's
Broadcasting, went unanswered Thursday.
The administration last month also banned a talent show, "The First
Time I Was Touched," calling it vulgar and lacking in artistic
standards.
HONG KONG, Sept 3 (Reuters) - HIV infections soared to a record high in Hong
Kong in the second quarter of 2007 and government doctors said they found a
worrying cluster of new infections among homosexual men.
The government reported 111 new HIV infections between April and June this
year, up from 91 in the first quarter.
Of the new infections uncovered from April to June, 35 were homosexual men,
underlining the vulnerability of the group which has seen a steady rise in new
infections since 2004.
Experts identified a new cluster of infections involving eight men, meaning
virus samples taken from them were so genetically similar that they probably
passed the HIV virus to one another. The eight tested positive between July
2006 and May 2007.
"The detection of a cluster of HIV infection suggests the presence of
a rapid local HIV transmission among the affected people," the government
said in a statement.
The government has tried to promote safer sex among homosexual men. At
least one help group is trying to promote safe sex via the Internet, which is
used by an increasing numbers of homosexual men to find partners.
At least 3,400 people have tested positive for HIV in Hong Kong since the
first case was discovered there in 1984, with 893 of these cases developing
into full-blown AIDS.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 after more than 150 years as a
British colony.
By Reuters
Thursday September 6, 05:05 PM
By Tan Ee Lyn
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A top U.N. official urged countries in Asia on
Thursday to deal squarely and bravely with HIV/AIDS, which he said was being
driven dangerously underground because of stigma and conservative attitudes.
"In Papua New Guinea, India, Malaysia where it is driven by
injecting drug users, Indonesia, there are pockets of spread but because of
stigma, it's all underground," Peter Piot, head of the U.N. AIDS agency
UNAIDS, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"Religion does not protect against AIDS. It's about sex and drugs.
They have the means and knowledge, so it's a matter of political will and
translating it into more openness about AIDS and having the courage to adopt
education and prevention programmes to reach those who are marginalised."
Piot, who was in China's northeastern city of Dalian for the World
Economic Forum, said rapid economic development in Asia was fuelling the
spread of HIV/AIDS.
According to UNAIDS' 2006 report on the incurable disease, 8.3 million
people were living with HIV in Asia at the end of 2005.
Some 930,000 people were newly infected with HIV in 2005, a year when
AIDS claimed around 600,000 lives. Only 1 in 6 people who need treatment in
Asia are receiving it.
"Rapid economic development, societies in very rapid transition, a
huge population mobility, a lot of new money, mobile men with money, that
increases the risk of HIV in a big way," Piot said.
While governments were beginning to talk seriously about the disease,
action was needed and governments needed to face the very groups that they
normally shy away from, he added.
"The epidemic is growing tremendously all over Asia in groups that
are marginalised in society, among men who have sex with men, injecting drug
users, clients of sex workers," he said.
"These are not groups that governments like to deal with but there
ought to be far more openness. There is an incredibly high level of stigma
around AIDS and that is something governments and leaders in business and
politics can do something about."
Piot said the U.N. was very worried about how the trafficking of girls
and women in the Indian subcontinent, where they were then forced into
prostitution, was fuelling the spread of HIV.
A recent study published by the Harvard School of Public Health found
that 40 percent of Nepalese women and girls rescued after being forced into
prostitution in India were HIV positive.
"In Nepal, when you look at HIV it is concentrated in those areas
where the trafficking is going on, that illustrates that you can't deal with
AIDS in just one country. This is a cross border, political issue," he
said.
"We have brought together people working on this from India and
Nepal to look into this."
Mary Ann Benitez, South China Morning Post, 5 September 2007
Hong Kong's methadone programme will soon be replicated in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh
City in an effort to stem the spread of HIV among intravenous drug users. The
virus in the Vietnamese city is still mostly concentrated among high-risk
groups, including intravenous drug users and prostitutes. The programme will be
the first of its kind in the country.
"At the moment, groups from Vietnam are on study tours in Hong Kong, with
financial support from the WHO [World Health Organisation]," said the
deputy director of Ho Chi Minh City's Health Service, Le Truong Giang, who
visited Hong Kong last year to study the methadone programme as a measure
against HIV.
Methadone can be taken orally, removing the risk of infection through needles.
"The people involved in the programme are very experienced and have many
years' experience in harm reduction. They understand both sides of the
programme, good and bad," Dr Giang said. "So it will be very helpful
for us to study it before we implement the programme."
He said there could be "a lot of problems and complications" among Ho
Chi Minh City's 10,000 drug users who have returned to the community from
detoxification centres. "It is very important for them not to reuse or
share needles."
A needle-exchange programme is already in place.
About 3 per cent of those who have been on the detoxification programme return
to the habit.
"I understand the percentage will increase. So by the end of the year, we
will start the methadone programme," Dr Giang said.
Facilities and funding from the WHO and the US-based President's Emergency Plan
for Aids Relief are in place to start the programme.
Tue Sep 4, 2007 11:26 AM BST
PARIS
(Reuters) - Cecilia Sarkozy, wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has
rejected calls to appear before a parliamentary commission to explain her role
in securing the release of six foreign medics from a Libyan jail.
In her first major interview on the affair, Cecilia Sarkozy told the L'Est
Republicain regional newspaper she had offered only medical aid in exchange for
the freedom of six Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor in July.
The medics' release cleared the way for an official visit to Libya by
President Sarkozy which resulted in an outline agreement on defence cooperation
and a memorandum of understanding for a nuclear energy deal.
French Socialists demanded a parliamentary inquiry into whether a proposed
deal by EADS to supply Tripoli with anti-tank missiles and radio equipment was
linked to the medics' release, and said Cecilia Sarkozy should testify about her
unorthodox diplomatic role before deputies.
France's first lady, who twice visited Libya as her husband's envoy,
dismissed the controversy over her role and told L'Est Republicain she was
shocked by the way some media had sought to exploit her visit and the suffering
of others.
"(The parliamentary probe) has not been set up yet but as has been
explained, I don't think that is my place," Cecilia Sarkozy said.
"The only subject I raised with Libyan leaders was the human
tragedy," she said of the medics who spent eight years in jail after being
convicted of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV.
Presidential chief of staff Claude Gueant twice accompanied her to Libya for
talks, including with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and has indicated he is
willing to meet deputies.
Cecilia Sarkozy said she had offered training for Libyan doctors treating
HIV-infected children at Benghazi Hospital, equipment, anti-AIDS drugs and
fast-track visas so urgent cases could be treated in France.
"Colonel Gaddafi had in front of him a woman devoting herself
exclusively to the children at Benghazi hospital, which I visited, to the
families of the victims, whom I met, to the imprisoned nurses and doctor,"
she said.
She went to Libya to save lives and had not focused too much on the
complexities of international diplomacy, she said, adding: "I won't be
prevented from trying to help or to relieve misery in the world, wherever it may
be."
Mon Sep 3, 2007 12:16 PM BST
SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria donated $56.6 million (28.1 million pounds) in
Soviet-era debt owned by Libya as its contribution to a deal that led to the
release of six medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV.
The European Union newcomer signed on Monday an agreement to donate the debt,
accumulated for arms and technical deliveries, to an international fund set up
to provide medical aid and help the families of more than 400 Libyan HIV/AIDS
victims.
"The agreement once again proves that Bulgaria is a reliable partner
which delivers on its promises," deputy Foreign Minister Feim Chaushev told
reporters upon signing.
Sofia wrote off the debt six weeks after five Bulgarian nurses and a
Palestinian doctor -- convicted to death for infecting Libyan children with HIV
in the 1990s -- were freed.
Chaushev said Tripoli had agreed to the amount of the debt which has not been
served in the past 18 years.
The medics who spent eight years in a Libyan jail have maintained their
innocence and said they were tortured into confessing.
Tripoli returned the medics to Bulgaria in a deal which included medical
help, political ties between the European Union and Tripoli, and compensation
for the families of the victims.
Their death sentences were commuted to life in prison after Libya paid the
victims' families $460 million in a settlement arranged by the International
Benghazi fund. The Balkan country's president pardoned the six upon their
arrival.
The chairman of the fund, Mark Pierini, said the Fund plans to pay back the
funds to Libya, as and when donors make resources available.
He refused to disclose the level of funds raised so far, citing contributors'
requests for anonymity, but noted that besides the Bulgarian contribution, the
EU has donated 11.5 million euros, and Germany 1.5 million.
"We plan to return the funds paid by Libya to the extent we achieve
contributions. It's a voluntary organisation," Pierini told Reuters.
Earlier, the Bulgarian government said 27 donors, including 17 governments,
nine private companies and one non-governmental organisation, had also pledged
to contribute to the fund.
South Africa's government said on
Thursday that those allegedly involved in a recent scam that led to the
recall of 20 million suspected faulty condoms would be brought to justice.
"All those implicated in the scam will face the full force of the
law," government spokesman Themba Maseko said while briefing
journalists on the outcome of the weekly cabinet meeting, held on Wednesday.
"Cabinet expressed disquiet about the corruption and fraud that led
to the distribution of faulty condoms which may have exposed individuals to
the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases," he said,
according to SAPA news agency.
Three South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) employees appeared in
court last month in connection with the scam, after a scandal which saw
safety certificates allegedly issued for the defective contraceptives.
They are currently out on bail and due to appear in court again on
October 10, SAPA said.
The health ministry said that all 20 million of the condoms so far
supplied by Zalatex as part of a government-funded distribution programme
were being recalled "as a precautionary measure to ensure maximum
safety of the public."
Zalatex and the condoms' producers Latex Surgical Products (LSP) had been
hired by the government to supply around 80 million condoms.
South Africa has the second highest number of HIV patients in the world
after India. About five million of the 48 million population live with the
disease.
Wednesday September 5, 5:15 pm ET
More Than 100,000 Free Condoms Rejected in DC Over Complaints
About Easily Damaged Wrappers
WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 100,000 condoms given away in a citywide campaign
to reduce HIV and AIDS have been returned because of complaints that their
paper packaging can be easily damaged and could make the condoms ineffective.
A coalition of nonprofit groups distributing the condoms for the District
of Columbia Health Department returned them after they heard complaints and
noticed less demand for them.
"People were saying, 'These packages aren't any good,' said Franck
DeRose, executive director of a group called the Condom Project.
Volunteers were told that the paper packets ripped in purses or burst open
in pockets and that expiration dates were illegible.
The condoms are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, DeRose said,
but higher-end condoms could have been bought without the city's branding at
the same price. The group returned the condoms June 14.
Dr. Gregg Pane, the city's health director, said Wednesday that the condoms
are safe and effective and denied that the packaging was a problem. The
department will survey the distribution partners to make sure they are storing
and handling the packages properly, he said.
"We purchased these through a vendor who followed FDA standards. We
have no credible reports from the manufacturer, the FDA or anyone else about
performance, safety or quality issues," he told WRC-TV.
Young people involved with the group Metro TeenAIDS said they wondered why
the wrappers weren't plastic or foil, like those sold in stores.
"They doubted the authenticity of the condoms," said Adam Tenner,
the group's executive director. "Distribution of those condoms has been
really difficult."
The health department has given out nearly 650,000 condoms since February
through partnerships with 50 organizations. The free condoms are marked with
the slogan "Coming Together to Stop HIV in D.C."
DeRose said his group is instead buying condoms to give away.
by Katherine HaddonWed Sep 5, 3:47 PM
ET
Prime Minister Gordon Brown launched an international initiative
Wednesday which aims to improve healthcare and sweep away killer diseases in
some of the world's poorest countries.
The International Health Partnership (IHP) is bidding to help developing
countries make better use of foreign aid by cutting bureaucracy and building
stronger national healthcare systems.
"We could be the generation that is able to say that we conquered
these diseases and that, I think, places a moral duty on us to work
together," Brown told a press conference at his Downing Street office.
"There is no greater cause than that every child in the world should
be given the benefit of healthcare -- that a life free from the scourge of
preventable disease, a gift that was perhaps unimaginable even 10 years ago,
is a gift that today can be achieved and would enrich us all."
Brown said that his ultimate goal was to wipe out diseases such as
HIV/AIDS, malaria, polio, tuberculosis and measles.
The IHP brings together bodies including the World Health Organization,
the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with the
governments of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands,
Norway and Portugal.
It is being launched to give new impetus to efforts to meet United
Nations Millennium Development Goals on issues like child mortality and the
number of mothers dying in childhood.
In July, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the international
community was "seriously off-track" on some of the goals, which
were set in 2000 and are due to be met by 2015.
The first wave of developing countries which will hook up with the IHP
includes Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, Cambodia and Nepal.
But Brown said he expected other nations, both donors and developing
countries, will get involved as the IHP evolves.
Officials say that over the next couple of years, the first seven
countries will identify particular problems in their national healthcare
systems before working with international partners to address them.
The developing countries have committed to prioritising healthcare
issues, while the donor countries have pledged to work together more --
freeing up resources to fight diseases by slashing red tape -- as well as
providing more long-term and predictable funding.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who worked with Brown on the
plan, illustrated the need for more coordination between donor countries.
"There are so many different countries, so many different donors, so
many different UN agencies, so many different NGOs working in the same
countries with the same issues but without any co-ordination," he said.
"So it is a big problem that in many developing countries, they have
to do a lot of bureaucratic work."
The project does not involve new funding but the British government
disputes claims that this could limit its impact, saying that global aid for
health has doubled since 2000.
"This is about making what we do more effective, adding up to
greater than the sum of its parts... It's about getting a bigger bang for
your buck," said a senior British government source, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
The Lancet, a respected medical journal, said in a piece published on its
website that there "is much promise in the International Health
Partnership."
"The language of the IHP says all the right things. National
governments are to lead in formulating their own health plans, ending the
reign of doctor dictatorship."
Barbara Stocking, the director of charity Oxfam, welcomed the launch of
the IHP but said it needed extra cash to achieve its goals.
"This initiative will only succeed if enough countries get behind it
and if it mobilises additional aid to provide co-ordinated and expanded
state health provision," she said.
Major economies including the United States and Japan have not signed up
for the IHP.
The senior British government source said, however, that the US has been
involved "in quite close discussions from the start" over its
development and was represented at keynote talks held before Wednesday's
launch.
The risk of becoming infected via blood transfusion with AIDS, hepatitis
and other diseases is up to one thousand times higher in Russian hospitals
than in the West, a leaked report said Thursday.
"The risk of contamination with hepatitis, HIV and other infections
via blood transfusions is 500 to 1,000 times higher than in developed
countries," Russian health watchdog Roszdravnadzor said in a report
seen by daily newspaper Kommersant.
Sixty-five people have been infected in this way with HIV, the virus that
causes AIDS, in the past 10 years, the paper cited the report as saying.
The health ministry department responsible for blood donations carries
out no tests on its donors and has no inventory of its reserves of blood,
the paper said.
On the black market, a litre of blood plasma sells for between 3,000 and
15,000 rubles (90 to 430 euros, 120 to 590 dollars), the paper cites an
unnamed drug company official as saying.
Roszdravnadzor proposes the urgent creation of a database of donors and
of donated blood, as well as a blacklist of people who should not be donors
for medical reasons, Kommersant said.
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