News (Updated December 7, 2008)

[Home]  [Previous news]

World leaders urged to keep promises to fight AIDS

Governments tackle HIV stigma on World AIDS Day

Mon Dec 1, 2008

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – Governments across the globe pledged Monday to step up the fight against HIV, promising to bankroll treatment programmes on the 20th annual World AIDS Day.

Outgoing US President George W. Bush marked the occasion by highlighting his efforts to battle the deadly disease, particularly in Africa .

He announced that his President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or "PEPFAR," had already met its goal of helping to treat two million people living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2008.

"PEPFAR is bringing hope and healing to people around the world. On our trips to Africa , Laura and I have witnessed first hand the gratitude of the African people," Bush said.

The White House says that just 50,000 people in all of sub-Saharan Africa were receiving life-saving anti-retroviral treatment when the program was born in 2003.

In South Africa , the country with the highest number of sufferers in the world, the government was mapping out its AIDS strategy under a new health minister as part of a sea-change in attitudes.

South Africans held a moment of silence at midday as a mark of respect for victims of the virus which has affected some 5.5 million people.

Newly appointed Health Minister Barbara Hogan Monday promised to "urgently scale up" mother-to-child prevention programmes and urged men to test for HIV, the virus that can lead to full-blown AIDS.

"We encourage all men, I repeat all men, to test themselves for HIV to protect themselves and the people they love," Hogan said. "We all know that together we shall overcome."

Celebrities also used their media-drawing power to raise AIDS awareness with France 's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy announcing that she had accepted a new mission as ambassador for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Through field trips, advocacy and by mobilising other celebrities to add their voice to the struggle against AIDS, Bruni-Sarkozy hopes to bring renewed focus to a cause that appears to be suffering from donor fatigue.

In Beijing , Hu's visit to a hospital was also designed to strip away some of the stigma attached to the virus and the Chinese leader praised volunteers as an "indispensable force" in the battle against the disease.

"One of the important tasks of volunteers is to spread knowledge about AIDS prevention so that every citizen can have that knowledge," Hu said in a state television report.

"This way, all of society can work together to prevent AIDS."

China along with the United Nations launched a campaign Sunday to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. The world's most populous country has about 700,000 people who are HIV-positive, according to a previously released estimate by the Chinese government and UN health organisations.

However, only about 260,000 have been officially identified as having AIDS.

Other countries also released their AIDS statistics, including Iran which estimated that the Islamic republic has 80,000 HIV cases, four times more than the number of people registered, the state news agency IRNA reported.

In Mynamar, UNICEF said there are approximately 240,000 people living with HIV, of which almost two thirds are under the age of 24.

Britain 's Prime Minister Gordon Brown noted that while significant progress has been made in fighting the spread of AIDS, the impact of the disease "remains immense," especially in the poorest corners of the globe.

African nations have expressed concern that the world's richest countries grappling with the global economic crisis may cut back on AIDS funding.

But Brown urged world leaders "to hold firm to their promises to improve the health of the poorest, even in the midst of the current economic challenge."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon marked the event by announcing the appointment of Mali 's Michel Sidibe of Mali as the head of the world body's AIDS-fighting agency.

Sidibe, 56, will start his new job as executive director of the UN AIDS program based in Geneva , Switzerland . He has served as UNAIDS deputy executive director since 2007 and replaces Belgian Peter Piot.

Police remove Chinese AIDS activist from Beijing

By Lucy Hornby

BEIJING, Dec 3 (Reuters) - A Chinese woman with HIV was forced back to her home province after ceremonies in Beijing marking World AIDS Day, the second incident in a week in which local officials sought to quiet unflattering exposure about AIDS.

Li Xige, who had taken part in AIDS awareness activities in the capital since late November, said she was escorted to her home in central Henan province on Tuesday, a day after World AIDS Day, and warned to stop talking or she would end up in jail.

Henan was at the centre of Chinese AIDS infections in the 1990s, when reckless blood-buying schemes and a lack of testing allowed the virus to spread to recipients of blood transfusions.

Five officials from her home Ningling county were now preventing her from leaving her home, she said by telephone from her home.

Li contracted HIV from a blood transfusion in 1995 and passed it to her daughters, one of whom has died of AIDS. She had previously been under house arrest for over two years because of her outspoken search for redress.

She said she went to Beijing to seek compensation and judicial action.

"I want them to take responsibility for not having told me for so many years that I had this... I've been from government offices to court to government offices again, bounced about like a ball," she told Reuters.

Discontented HIV sufferers have embarrassed the Henan government, which has often sought to block media coverage of the issue.

Last week, a crew from Belgian television channel VRT was attacked when attempting to report on AIDS villages in Henan , Tom Van de Weghe told the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China.

The crew members were questioned by police and their vehicle was later pulled over by people identified as local officials from Shuangmiao village and Shangqiu county.

The journalists' tapes were damaged, equipment and money stolen and Van de Weghe was hit on the head, he told the FCCC.

Henan foreign affairs information officer Wang Yuejin told Chinese media that Van de Weghe was followed by AIDS patients and local officials, who feared the influence of his interviews of AIDS patients and asked for the footage back.

The two sides struggled after Van de Weghe refused to return the footage, Wang said, according to the Xinhua news agency website. An investigation was under way, it added.

(Additional reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Nick Macfie)

China pledges to fight AIDS discrimination

BEIJING – Chinese health authorities and the U.N. AIDS agency pledged to fight discrimination against people with the disease in China with the unveiling Sunday of a massive red ribbon, the symbol of AIDS awareness, at the Olympic Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing .

Organizers said the fear of being stigmatized at work or in their communities is discouraging many people at risk of HIV infection from being tested. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

After years of denying that AIDS was a problem, Chinese leaders have shifted gears in recent years, confronting the disease more openly and promising anonymous testing, free treatment for the poor and a ban on discrimination against people with the virus.

State television Sunday showed Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visiting a village hit particularly hard by AIDS in eastern China 's Anhui province. Wen, who makes such annual visits to mark World AIDS Day, observed Monday, held hands with children orphaned by AIDS and spoke to patients in beds.

The topic, however, still remains very sensitive and authorities regularly crack down on activists and patients seeking more support and rights.

"About half of all Chinese would not want to share a meal with a person with HIV/AIDS, and a quarter would not want to shake hands," said Dr. Bernhard Schwartlander, country coordinator of UNAIDS in China . "People will not come forward to be tested. They won't benefit from treatment. They won't talk to their partners and colleagues about HIV/AIDS — putting themselves and others potentially at risk for HIV."

Schwartlander was speaking at the Bird's Nest stadium, a main Olympic venue, during the unveiling of a 66-foot by 50-foot (20-meter by 15-meter) banner on which the red AIDS awareness ribbon was printed.

"Stigma and discrimination are major obstacles in an effective response to AIDS. We need to engage all sectors of society in China to combat these issues and work together to stop the disease," said Minister of Health Chen Zhu. He did not specify any steps they would take.

Official estimates put the number of people living with HIV in China at about 700,000, with around 85,000 people with full-blown AIDS, UNAIDS said in a statement. But the number of officially reported HIV cases remains only 264,302 — far lower than the estimated total, in part because of reluctance to seek testing.

China AIDS activists say education fights stigma

By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press Writer Gillian Wong, Associated Press Writer – Mon Dec 1, 1:53 am ET

BEIJING – AIDS activists were skeptical of a pledge by China 's government to fight discrimination against people with the disease, saying Monday the move would mean little without improvements in education to increase awareness and alter mindsets.

Health authorities and the U.N. AIDS agency pledged Sunday to combat the stigmatization of people with the disease by unveiling a massive red ribbon, the symbol of AIDS awareness, at the Olympic Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing .

The Health Ministry said in a statement Monday that the government will strengthen efforts in education on AIDS prevention and to fight discrimination, while also stepping up condom distribution and outreach to high-risk groups such as prostitutes and homosexual men. It did not give specifics.

Activists said they were not optimistic the move would produce results in a country where the topic of AIDS still remains very politically sensitive.

"I support the idea that they are trying to end AIDS discrimination, but unfortunately, that is not the reality," said Li Fangping, a lawyer and AIDS activist. "People with AIDS are constantly denied treatment in hospitals and have died because of this reason."

AIDS activist Li Dan, director of the China Orchid AIDS Project, said community education and involvement were needed to fight the stigma attached to the disease.

"People are still afraid of putting their children into schools with kids who have AIDS and AIDS is still related back to people who do drugs," Li said.

The HIV virus that causes AIDS gained a foothold in China largely due to unsanitary blood plasma-buying schemes and tainted transfusions in hospitals. Last year, health authorities said sex had overtaken drug use as the main cause of HIV infections.

After years of denying that AIDS was a problem, Chinese leaders have shifted gears in recent years, confronting the disease more openly and promising anonymous testing, free treatment for the poor and a ban on discrimination against people with the virus. But the government regularly cracks down on activists and patients seeking more support and rights.

The Health Ministry and UNAIDS unveiled Sunday a 66-foot by 50-foot (20-meter by 15-meter) banner with the red AIDS awareness ribbon printed on it at the Bird's Nest stadium, a main Olympic venue. But in the weeks ahead of the Olympic Games in August, authorities put dozens of AIDS activists under house arrest or surveillance to clear the city of dissent while it played host to the competition.

Official estimates put the number of people living with HIV in China at about 700,000, with around 85,000 people with full-blown AIDS, UNAIDS said. But the number of officially reported HIV cases is far lower at 264,302, in part because of reluctance to seek testing.

___

Associated Press writer Chi-Chi Zhang contributed to this report.

World leaders urged to keep promises to fight AIDS

Tue Dec 2, 2008 2:04pm EST

By Pascal Fletcher

DAKAR (Reuters) - Several hundred African anti-AIDS campaigners paraded giant puppets of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy Tuesday to demand that they deliver promised funds for plans to fight the disease.

Waving some banners reading "African children are watching you" and others supporting AIDS victims, the demonstrators, most of them dressed in white, marched through a central avenue of the Senegalese capital Dakar . They included many children.

Giant puppets, each nearly four meters (yards) high, represented Obama, clad in a blue jacket, red bow tie and red-and-white striped trousers, and Sarkozy, dressed in a black coat with a handkerchief in the French colors spilling from a top pocket.

A big red-and-yellow spiky ball representing the AIDS virus was carried between them by marchers wearing white gloves.

The campaigners, gathering on the eve of an international conference on AIDS in Dakar , said the demonstration aimed to remind the U.S. and French leaders not to forget their multi-million dollar commitments to anti-AIDS programs.

"They have to walk the talk ... the pledges they have made must be fulfilled," said Velephi Riba, a spokesperson for the Save the Children charity which helped organize the march.

Save the Children said that as governments in the rich developed world grappled with the global financial crisis and provided tens of billions of dollars for financial rescue packages, their leaders should not renege on public pledges to help the planet's poorest, including those suffering from AIDS.

"HIV and AIDS-impacted children in Africa -- who have never heard of Wall Street -- should not pay the price for the global economic decline," said Ame David, another spokesperson.

According to Save the Children, U.S. President-elect Obama had recently pledged to provide at least $50 billion by 2013 for the global fight against HIV and AIDS.

France , which holds the rotating European Union presidency, was a leading contributor to HIV-responding initiatives in Africa with funding of 360 million euros ($458 million) yearly.

"Obama and Sarkozy must not drop from these pledges by a single dollar or euro," Riba said.

An estimated 33 million people worldwide were living with the HIV virus, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa , at the end of 2007. AIDS has killed 25 million since being identified in 1981.

An estimated 2.7 million people become infected each year.

Among the Dakar marchers, 11-year-old Abdoulaye Maria carried a banner calling for help for AIDS sufferers.

Asked what AIDS was, he answered shyly: "It's a sickness."

And how should it be avoided? "I don't know."

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/)

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

Bush says U.S. meets HIV treatment goal early

Mon Dec 1, 2008 3:08pm EST

By Jeremy Pelofsky

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has reached the goal of treating 2 million people infected with the virus that causes AIDS months early, President George W. Bush said on Monday, highlighting a bright spot of his tenure before he leaves office next month.

Bush and Congress initiated the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program in 2003, committing $15 billion for treating 2 million within five years at a time when only some 50,000 in sub-Saharan Africa were getting U.S. help.

"PEPFAR is bringing hope and healing to people around the world," Bush said in front of the White House, which was adorned with a giant red ribbon to mark World AIDS Day. The goal was hit in September, according to the White House.

"It's the largest international health initiative dedicated to a single disease," he said, adding that the United States has also helped some 10 million affected by the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, and that more than 237,000 babies had been born HIV-free despite infected mothers.

While Bush's popularity has been low, he has been praised by many, including President-elect Barack Obama, for his initiatives to combat AIDS.

Later at a forum on global health, Bush said that PEPFAR was also in the interest of U.S. national security, saying militants try to seize on hopelessness of disease in an effort to stir up support for their causes.

"There's nothing more hopeless than to be an orphan, for example, whose parents died of HIV/AIDS, wondering whether or not there's a future for them," he said. "So it's in our national security interest to deal with hopelessness where we can find it."

In July, Bush signed a new law expanding PEPFAR, committing up to $48 billion more over five years to treat and prevent AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. Some 33 million people are infected with HIV and 2 million die of AIDS each year.

Obama, in a videotaped message to the same forum, pledged he would continue the PEPFAR program when he takes office on January 20, but that he would also embark on new efforts to address the disease in the United States as well.

"My administration will continue this critical work to address the crisis around the world," Obama said. "But we must also recommit ourselves to addressing the AIDS crisis here in the United States with a strong national strategy of education, prevention and treatment."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that about 1.1 million people in the United States currently are infected with HIV.

The CDC also said more people are becoming infected each year than previously estimated, with 56,300 new HIV infections in the United States in 2006. Previous estimates put the number of new infections at about 40,000 a year.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky)

Obama praises Bush efforts against AIDS

CHICAGO – President-elect Barack Obama praised the Bush administration's effort to combat AIDS and pledged Monday to continue to fight the deadly disease when he takes office in January.

Obama discussed AIDS in videotaped remarks to the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health held in Washington . The remarks were released Monday while Obama was in Chicago to announce members of his national security team.

In the video, Obama noted advancements since the first World AIDS Day 20 years ago. Among the accomplishments was Bush's initiative of giving lifesaving antiretroviral treatment to people in sub-Saharan Africa .

"I salute President Bush for his leadership in crafting a plan for AIDS relief in Africa and backing it up with funding dedicated to saving lives and preventing the spread of the disease," Obama said. "And my administration will continue this critical work to address the crisis around the world."

He also urged people to recommit themselves to addressing AIDS in the United States with a strategy involving prevention, treatment and a focus on at-risk communities. Obama said everyone must help address the disease because "in the end this epidemic can't be stopped by government alone, and money alone is not the answer either."

More than one million people in the United States are living with HIV/AIDS, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

No simple solution for Africa 's AIDS pandemic

Thu Dec 4, 8:02 am ET

DAKAR (AFP) – Peter Piot, who has been at the helm of UNAIDS since its creation in 1995, told an international conference Thursday to stop looking for a magic bullet to fight the AIDS pandemic in Africa .

"There is a normal human tendency to look for the magic bullet, but my friends, it doesn't exist," Piot said in one of his last speeches before he steps down as the head of UNAIDS.

"Can we now just agree for all that we have to come to terms with complexity and rather than to have this absurd search for the magic bullet?"

"Even the day we have a vaccine -- and I hope we will have it -- we will still need many things," he added.

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to two-thirds of the global total of 32.9 million people with the HIV virus. Piot called it "a perfect storm of small differences" that made Africa the continent where AIDS is the number one cause of death, according to the World Health Organisation.

"The agenda for the immediate future is clear: we need more of the same" being access to treatment and access to prevention, Piot stressed.

He acknowledged the difficulties in getting funding with the current financial crisis but insisted more funding was needed to fight AIDS in Africa .

"The need and the capacity to use the money will continue to grow in Africa over the years for a while and it will continue to grow until we are highly successful with HIV prevention," he warned in his overview of 25 years of AIDS in Africa .

The 15th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) runs until Sunday.

South Africa observes silence for World AIDS Day

Mon Dec 1, 9:29 am ET

  JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – South Africa used World AIDS Day on Monday to urge its menfolk to get themselves tested for the HIV virus that leads to the illness.

Health Minister Barbara Hogan issued the appeal after the nation -- which has more HIV-positive cases than any other country -- fell silent at midday (1000 GMT) in memory of AIDS victims.

"We encourage all men, I repeat all men, to test themselves for HIV to protect themselves and the people they love," said Hogan at an AIDS event in KwaZulu-Natal , the province hardest hit by the epidemic.

"All men, stand up and say, we will be tested. Every man in South Africa, as you are taking this moment of silence, stand up and say you will be tested," she said to the applause of the audience.

"We all know that together we shall overcome," she said, vowing that the health ministry will "urgently scale up" programmes to check the spread of AIDS from mother to child.

Some 5.5 million people live with HIV in South Africa , out of an estimated 32.9 million worldwide.

Deputy President Baleka Mbete reiterated the South African government's determination to halve new infections by 2011.

"We must remember that many children are orphans because of this disease. We must be fully aware of the unacceptable trend of child-headed families that result from it," Mbete said.

"Women have the right to ask their partners to have HIV test before they indulge in sexual activities," she added.

"It is time for woman to stand firm in decisions that affect their bodies and the survival of their homes and children."

With about 500,000 people on anti-AIDS treatment in South Africa , UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot said there is "no cause for complacency".

For years South Africa was internationally criticised for its approach to AIDS, as former president Thabo Mbeki openly questioned whether the syndrome was brought on by HIV.

His health minister and loyalist Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was famously dubbed "Dr Beetroot" for championing lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and beetroot over anti-retrovirals as treatments.

But the tone has changed dramatically since Mbeki was ousted by the ruling African National Congress in September, with activists praising Hogan for striving to overhaul AIDS policy.

French first lady in new role as AIDS ambassador

PARIS (AFP) – French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is putting her star power behind the global AIDS campaign to help fight a disease that counts her brother among its millions of victims.

The wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy will mark World AIDS Day on Monday by unveiling her new mission as the first ambassador to the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

"I can put all of the media coverage directed toward me to the service of a useful cause," the 40-year-old supermodel-turned-singer said in an interview to be published in Monday's edition of Elle magazine.

After her brother Virginio, a photographer, died of AIDS in 2006, the Bruni family set up a foundation in his name to promote AIDS education, but the first lady said her work with the fund would be "on a whole other level."

"I will make myself available to all those who are working on the ground with the global fund and who ask for my help. I will be working hand-in-hand with them," she said.

The title of Bruni-Sarkozy's third album "Comme si de rien n'etait" (As If Nothing Happened) is named after one of Virginio's photographs. He died at the age of 46.

"Because of my brother, of course I am very sensitive to the issue of AIDS," she said.

But the Italian-born first lady stressed that with 33 million people infected worldwide with HIV, AIDS had an impact far beyond her family.

"This is a pandemic. We tend to forget, we are used to it. But look at the figures. It's staggering."

As the fund's active ambassador, Bruni-Sarkozy wants world attention to zero in on preventing mother-to-child AIDS transmission -- a condition virtually wiped out in Europe with easily-accessible treatment but which affects 30 percent of newborns in Africa .

"What I would like to do, working with the global fund, is to communicate directly with mothers and their children," said Bruni-Sarkozy. "This is probably complicated... We have to find a way to talk to them and that is why it's important to be on the ground."

The global fund has enjoyed celebrity support through the "Product Red" brand, launched by U2 singer and anti-poverty crusader Bono but this marks the first time that a well-known personality will be acting as its ambassador.

The fund's executive director Michel Kazatchkine said Bruni-Sarkozy could be a powerful "advocate" for stopping mother-to-child transmission, raising awareness on the need for more programmes and information to pregnant women.

"This is a disease that she knows well and that profoundly outrages her," Kazatchkine told Elle. "One thousand children are infected every day by the HIV virus and it would take so little to save them."

Set up in 2002, the fund has invested more than eight billion dollars to support national AIDS treatment programmes, out of the 14 billion dollars spent to combat diseases in 140 countries.

Since her marriage in February to Sarkozy, there has been intense speculation in the press on the first lady's choice of philanthropic work to support.

Bruni-Sarkozy expressed an interest in helping the battle against HIV following a visit this year to South Africa , which has one of the world's largest AIDS caseloads.

The first couple has met with Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid hero and former president whose foundation has been at the forefront of South Africa 's AIDS struggle and who has enlisted many celebrities in the cause.

News of the first lady's decision to add AIDS crusader to her list of accomplishments has been well-received in France , with the anti-AIDS group SIDACTION saying she will train an "extraordinary spotlight on this century's most serious epidemic."

More than 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981 most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to UN AIDS.

[Home]  [Previous news]