STRASBOURG,
France – Chinese dissident Hu Jia won the European
Union's top human rights
prize Thursday despite a warning from Beijing
that his selection would seriously harm relations with the 27-nation bloc.News (Updated October 26,
2008)
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Published: October 15, 2008
BEIJING: A new survey of China's first generation born under the one-child policy has found they are more open but still conflicted about sex, and don't approve of one-night stands, a state newspaper said on Wednesday.
With the world's biggest population straining scarce land, water and energy, China has enforced rules limiting family size since the 1970s, generally limiting couples to having just one child, though there are exceptions.
The survey, carried out by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on people born between 1976 and 1986, found that their average age for first sexual experience was 22.8 years, the China Youth Daily said.
But more than 96 percent of the surveyed first had sex with their partner, rather than just a one-night stand. Nearly 20 percent first had sex before the age of 20.
"The survey found that on the one hand they had sex earlier but on the other it was in a stable relationship," the newspaper said. "This shows the contradictions felt in the first generation of single children towards sex."
Most did not approve of one-night stands, and almost three-quarters said they would never try homosexuality, the report added.
Premarital sex and cohabitation were not generally felt to be problems, the survey found.
Still, more than 97 percent wanted children of their own, and 61 percent said that in an ideal world they would like to have two children. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie and Valerie Lee)
BEIJING, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- An over 50-million-U.S. dollar pilot project to improve public health in rural areas was announced here Monday.
The pilot program is designed to seek ways for the improvement of rural health services and sustained improvement of health level of local people, according to the Ministry of Health.
"The medical service and health care system in rural areas is facing severe challenges and needs to be improved," said Chen Xiaohong, Vice-Ministry of Health, citing week medical service capability, shabby medical facilities and lack of medical instrument and professionals.
He added that China's investment in rural health care was inadequate and unbalanced compared with urban areas.
The World Bank loaned China 50 million U.S. dollars for the Chinese Rural Health Development program. Another five million pounds was offered by the United Kingdom.
The country's Ministry of Finance is responsible for paying off80 percent of the loan. Provincial departments of finance would undertake the remaining 20 percent.
The Ministry of Health did not say when it will begin the program but once it starts it will be carried out in 40 counties in five years.
Those counties are in eight provinces and municipalities, including Shanxi Province, Shaanxi Province, Qinghai Province, Heilongjiang Province, Gansu Province, Jiangsu Province, Henan Province and Chongqing Municipality.
The Supreme People's Court and the Supreme
People's Procuratorate of China recently released details of a new law
regarding illegal blood sales, which state that any agent collecting or
supplying blood that causes at least five people to become infected with
HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C or syphilis could face a sentence of 10
years to life in prison, the AP/Yahoo! News reports (AP/Yahoo!
News, 9/23). According to Ni Shouming, spokesperson for the Supreme
People's Procuratorate, blood suppliers who do not comply with national
standards also could face a prison sentence of less than 10 years (Xie, China
Daily, 9/23).
Many of the 40,000 HIV-positive people living in China's Henan province were
infected with the virus through unsanitary blood collection drives approved by
the local government (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 9/19). The
Ministry of Health in 2006 created regulations on laboratory testing, storage
and transportation of blood plasma, as well as reporting adverse reactions,
after the discovery of a contaminated blood operation in Bei'an that led to 19
people contracting HIV (China Daily, 9/23). It is now illegal to
sell blood in China without approval by officials (AP/Yahoo! News,
9/23).
The proportion of female HIV infectors on the Chinese mainland has increased by a factor of five, from just over 7 percent in 1998 to 35 percent in 2008, of whom 90 percent were of child-bearing age, the Tsinghua AIDS Conference announced on October 19, 2008.
The conclusion was based on results of 3.2 million blood samples analyzed by the Comprehensive AIDS Research Center of Tsinghua University and the Yunnan Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The investigation showed that in Yunnan Province, HIV patients infected through using drugs decreased to 40 percent from 100 percent in 1989. However, those infected through sexual transmission rose to 37.5 percent.
Experts said that as well as drug addicts and blood sellers, more ordinary people became HIV infectors, which resulted in a sharp increase of infection. Taking Yunnan as an example, the infection rate rose slowly from 1989 to 2003, but it went up rapidly in 2004 with 13,486 new infectors, a number close to the total over the previous 16 years.
Professor Gui Xi'en from Wuhan University said that if a pregnant woman was infected with HIV during her delivery period, her baby ran a greater risk of infection. Among 106 babies in the investigation, 38 were infected, which indicated a rate of 36 percent. Babies who were not born infected ran a 9 to 16 percent risk of becoming infected in the future.
Professor He Dayi of Tsinghua University carried out a course of medical treatment in Yunnan. 250 HIV-infected pregnant women received the treatment and their spreading rate was reduced to only 1 to 2 percent, while those not treated transmitted the infection at a rate of 33 percent.
He announced that the Comprehensive AIDS Research Center of Tsinghua University and Yunnan Provincial Health Department will soon start a joint clinical research project with more experts participating. They will focus on preventing mother-to-baby HIV transmission by training local principals and doctors, and helping local hospitals and patients.
(China.org.cn by Zhou Jing, October 20, 2008)
KAMPALA, 23 October 2008 -
Developing countries like Uganda, which is seeking funds for its HIV/AIDS
programmes, could find themselves even more cash-strapped as donors caught up in
the global economic crisis become more conservative in their spending.
Last week, Uganda launched a five-year national strategic plan worth an
estimated US$2 billion, aimed at decreasing the rate of new infections by 40
percent increasing access to HIV/AIDS services.
It remains to be seen whether the country's AIDS programme, heavily
supported by donors in the past, will be able to raise the money. Governments in
the
"I would be surprised if they got all the funds. Where is ... [the
money] going to come from, especially now that the budget has been quadrupled?
Under PEPFAR,
"This is the last window of opportunity and we ought to get things
right, and to get them done. Countries like
Focus on prevention
None of the donors have so far indicated that they would be unable to
meet their pledges as a result of the financial crisis, said James Kigozi,
information officer at the Uganda AIDS Commission. "Unless they give us
notification, we expect to get the $2 billion over five years as planned."
He told IRIN/PlusNews that the country has been considering the formation
of a national fund to create sustainable support for HIV/AIDS programmes, which
the parliamentary committee on HIV/AIDS was viewing favourably because donor
funding was sometimes unpredictable.
Jim Arinaitwe, the Global Fund coordinator at the Uganda AIDS Commission,
commented that there was no indication yet from donors that they would cut
funding, but there was mounting pressure on governments to become more
sustainable and he expected a global shift in interest away from HIV/AIDS to
other areas.
Harper suggested that the current financial climate was an opportunity
for
Arinaitwe agreed that the country would now have to pay more attention to
its prevention programme, because "When we prevent infection we have less
people to treat."
Dr Alex Coutinho, executive director of the Infectious Disease Institute
(IDI) an NGO in the capital,
The government has been criticised for shifting the emphasis of its fight
against the pandemic from condom use to abstinence and fidelity, under the
perceived influence of the
"We should keep morality out of HIV programming. People around do
not want to critique marriages, and they say men having sex with men (MSM) does
not exist. We should give condoms to prisoners, we should kick morality out of
public health programmes. Leave public health as public health," said
Coutinho.
The infection rate was particularly high among prisoners, the military,
MSM, new-born babies and migrant populations like fishermen, according to
Coutinho. The HIV prevalence rate among fishermen is one of the highest at 28
percent.
Dr David Kihumuro Apuuli, director general of the Uganda AIDS Commission
(UAC), said the five-year plan would also reduce mother-to-child transmission of
HIV by 50 percent by 2012, as an estimated 42 percent of all new infections were
caused by children being born with the virus.
Uganda's HIV prevalence of 5.4 percent declined from over 20 percent in
the 1990s to about six percent in 2000, but has recently crept up again.
22 Oct
2008 15:23:26 GMT
Source: IRIN
Reuters
and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any
external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
SUBA, 22 October 2008 - On both
occasions when Mary Atieno* gave birth in her home district of Suba, western
Kenya, she knew that going to one of the health centres would be safer, but she
was too afraid that the routine HIV test might reveal that she was HIV-positive.
"I
normally just deliver at home with the help of traditional birth attendants,
because when you go to these modern government hospitals they put you through
certain tests which reveal even your HIV status," Atieno told IRIN/PlusNews.
"I
fear this, because I have seen other women chased away by their husbands after
testing positive to HIV." She still does not know her status.
HIV
testing is routine in programmes for the prevention of mother-to-child
transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, and most hospitals offer it as part of antenatal
care. But many women in
"During
my last pregnancy ... I was referred to the laboratory for tests after
counselling. I was initially told to bring my husband for the test but he
declined. After much prodding, he agreed to accompany me but refused to be
tested; after the test, it turned out that I was positive," Jane Awino*,
also from Suba, told IRIN/PlusNews.
"When
my husband heard about it, he just turned violent and beat me senseless, and
chased me from home together with the children, claiming I am a
prostitute," she said. "But inside I knew I had never cheated on
him."
Mediation
attempts by community elders to salvage the marriage were fruitless, and Awino
and her five children are now living with her mother.
Suba
District medical officer Dr Aggrey Ouko said despite campaigns to bring more
women to hospital for PMTCT services, the fear of an HIV diagnosis and its
repercussions were keeping women away from antenatal care programmes.
"Men
still believe that it is only women who can be a source of HIV in the family,
and most of them turn very violent on realising their HIV status," he said.
"It is interesting that even those men who are known to be in the business
of inheriting widows still turn around to blame their wives for their
predicament."
According
to a 2005 study of PMTCT in
Need for
women to be empowered
"Numerous
organisations have carried out campaigns to empower women here, but the
responses have not been very impressive because of the low level of education,
and the importance women put on marriage," Ouko said.
Bretta
Masinde, a social worker at a Suba-based NGO, said there was a need to involve
men in PMTCT. "Most of these programmes alienate men, and this makes them
see us, the social workers and the women, as enemies out to finish them,"
she said.
The
issues of women's low self-esteem, dependence on men and the institution of
marriage, needed to be addressed while girls were still young. "Women
believe in it [the importance of marriage] so much that they would sacrifice
their health to keep the marriages," Masinde said.
Nyanza
has some of the country's highest school-dropout rates, and girls in the
province start having sex earlier than those in the rest of the country.
HIV-prevalence
in Nyanza is 15.3 percent, according to the 2007 Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey,
more than twice the national average of 7.8 percent.
STRASBOURG,
France – Chinese dissident Hu Jia won the European
Union's top human rights
prize Thursday despite a warning from Beijing
that his selection would seriously harm relations with the 27-nation bloc.
"Hu Jia is one of the real defenders of human rights in the People's Republic of China," said European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering. "The European Parliament is sending out a signal of clear support to all those who support human rights in China."
Hu was selected by members of the European Parliament from a shortlist of three that also included candidates from Belarus and Congo for the Sakharov Prize. Lawmakers said Chinese pressure had been counterproductive.
"Beijing was lobbying heavily for Hu Jia to be passed over but the award of this richly deserved accolade to him shows that MEPs (members of the European Parliament) will not be silenced like so many Chinese dissidents have been, said Charles Tannock, foreign affairs spokesman for the British Conservatives in the EU assembly.
China's ambassador to the EU had warned the bloc's elected assembly not to pick Hu.
"If the European Parliament should award this prize to Hu Jia, that would inevitably hurt the Chinese people once again and bring serious damage to China-EU relations," Song Zhe wrote, in a letter to the assembly's president.
The announcement of the prize was made as EU leaders gathered in Beijing for a summit with Asian counterparts Friday and Saturday seeking to build a global response to the financial crisis.
Hu is a brash dissident who chronicled the arrests and harassment of other activists before he was sentenced in April to 3 1/2 years in jail in China. The authorities in Beijing say he planned to work with foreigners to disturb the Beijing Olympics.
He started out fighting for the rights of HIV/AIDS patients, but his scope expanded after the government gave little ground and he began to see China's problems as rooted in authorities' lack of respect for human rights.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden – A Swedish health agency revealed in an article published Wednesday that it had refused to help police track down people who knowingly infect others with HIV.
The revelation triggered harsh criticism and the government agency, the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, agreed later in the day to resume helping police.
Officials for the agency were quoted in a medical newspaper as saying they had declined to cooperate with police because they disagreed with current legislation that criminalizes the willful spread of the AIDS virus.
The report in the Dagens Medicin weekly sparked anger among prosecutors, police and government officials, who accused the institute of placing itself above the law.
The institute backtracked and its officials also clarified their position, saying they had no problem with the law itself, but believed the penalties for spreading HIV were too severe. The willful transmission of the virus is punishable by a maximum 10 years in prison.
Jan Albert, an expert at the agency, said the threat of imprisonment harms prevention efforts because some people who suspect they may have the virus refrain from getting tested for fear of prosecution.
Albert said the agency had declined to help police on many occasions, "but we've come to the understanding that we'll resume work with the police."
LONDON
– He took an AIDS test
publicly despite a deep stigma in Africa against the disease. He pressed to cut
the prevalence of mothers passing the HIV virus onto their babies. He fought to
make more anti-retroviral drugs available. Festus
Gontebanye Mogae, the former president of Botswana,
was honored Monday with a multimillion-dollar leadership prize for his campaign
to tackle one of the world's highest HIV
infection rates.
Mogae, who led the diamond-rich south African nation from 1998 until resigning this year, won the 2008 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. The prize, in its second year, is aimed at recognizing and promoting good governance in Africa.
He has already has received widespread praise for tackling Botswana's high HIV/AIDS infection rate — at an estimated 23.9 percent of the adult population, it's the world's second-highest behind Swaziland.
In sharp contrast to other African leaders, Mogae addressed the issue of AIDS in almost every one of his speeches.
Today, the number of children being infected with HIV by their mothers in Botswana has dropped from as high as about 40 percent to 4 percent and anti-AIDS drugs are reaching most of those who need it. Lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs are known locally as "Mogae's tablets."
Mogae will receive $5 million over 10 years and $200,000 annually for life thereafter. The foundation giving the prize will consider granting a further $200,000 annually for 10 years to causes that Mogae supports.
The foundation was created by Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born billionaire who founded the African telecommunications company Celtel International.
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who chairs the prize committee, praised Mogae for his leadership on health and economic issues.
"Botswana demonstrates how a country with natural resources can promote sustainable development with good governance, in a continent where too often mineral wealth has become a curse," Annan said.
While Africans may know Botswana as one of the continent's most politically and economically stable countries, it might be best known in the West as the setting of Alexander McCall Smith's "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" novels.
An Oxford-educated economist, Mogae presided over a decade of economic growth and political stability as he privatized parts of the economy, notably the airlines and the telecommunications industry.
Botswana is the world's largest producer of diamonds, and Mogae was instrumental in making sure the country benefited from its mineral wealth by venturing into cutting and polishing diamonds instead of just exporting uncut stones and missing most of the profit.
The prize is awarded to democratically elected former heads of state from sub-Saharan African countries who have left office within the last three years.
Mozambique's former president, Joaquim Chissano, won the prize last year. He ruled Mozambique for 18 years, leading that country out of a devastating civil war and overseeing its transition from Marxism to a free economy.
"(The prize causes) people to speak more about governance, to think more about governance," Chissano said Monday in a telephone interview from Geneva, where he was speaking about aid and development at an international forum.
"People are speaking about good governance now more in Africa than in the past," he said.