News (Updated
December 13, 2009)
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Katharine Houreld And
Godfrey Olukya, Associated Press Writers Tue Dec 8, 2009
KAMPALA,
Uganda – Proposed legislation would impose the death penalty for some gay
Ugandans, and their family and friends could face up to seven years in jail if
they fail to report them to authorities. Even landlords could be imprisoned for
renting to homosexuals.
Gay rights activists say
the bill, which has prompted growing international opposition, promotes hatred
and could set back efforts to combat HIV/AIDS. They believe the bill is part of
a continentwide backlash because
"It's a question of
visibility," said David Cato, who became an activist after he was beaten up
four times, arrested twice, fired from his teaching job and outed in the press
because he is gay. "When we come out and ask for our rights, they pass laws
against us."
The legislation has drawn
global attention from activists across the spectrum of views on gay issues. The
measure was proposed in
Gay rights activists say
the legislation is likely to pass. But the bill is still being debated and could
undergo changes before a vote, which has not yet been set.
The Ugandan legislation in
its current form would mandate a death sentence for active homosexuals living
with HIV or in cases of same-sex rape. "Serial offenders" also could
face capital punishment, but the legislation does not define the term. Anyone
convicted of a homosexual act faces life imprisonment.
Anyone who "aids,
abets, counsels or procures another to engage of acts of homosexuality"
faces seven years in prison if convicted. Landlords who rent rooms or homes to
homosexuals also could get seven years and anyone with "religious,
political, economic or social authority" who fails to report anyone
violating the act faces three years.
Gay rights activists
abroad are focusing on the legislation. A protest against the bill is planned
for Thursday in
David Bahati, the
legislator sponsoring the bill, said he was encouraging "constructive
criticism" to improve the law, but insisted strict measures were necessary
to stop homosexuals from "recruiting" schoolchildren.
"The youths in
secondary schools copy everything from the Western world and
"I feel that the bill
is good and necessary, but I don't think gays should be killed. They should be
imprisoned for about a year and warned never to do it again. The family is in
danger in
Homophobia is rife even in
more tolerant African countries.
In
In
Debate over the Ugandan
bill follows a conference in
A third American who took
part in the conference in
"I agree with the
general goal but this law is far too harsh," said Lively, a
California-based preacher and author of "The Pink Swastika" and other
books that advise parents how to "recruit-proof" their children from
gays.
"Society should
actively discourage all sex outside of marriage and that includes homosexuality
... The family is under threat," he said. Gay people "should not be
parading around the streets," he added.
Frank Mugisha, a gay
Ugandan human rights activist, said the bill was so poorly worded that someone
could be imprisoned for giving a hug.
"This bill is
promoting hatred," he said. "We're turning
Buturo played down the
influence of foreign evangelicals, saying the proposed legislation was an
expression of popular outrage against "repugnant" practices. But
activists like Cato argue anti-gay attitudes are a foreign import.
"In the beginning,
when the missionaries brought religion, they said they were bringing love,"
he said. "Instead they brought hate, through homophobia."
Susan Timberlake, a senior
adviser on human rights and law from UNAIDS, said such laws could hinder the
fight against HIV/AIDS by driving people further underground. And activists also
worry that the legislation could be used to blackmail or silence government
critics.
Cato said he thinks the
Ugandan bill will pass, perhaps in an altered form.
"It's such a setback.
But I hope we can overcome it," he said. "I cannot believe this is
happening in the 21st century."
___
Associated Press Writer
Katharine Houreld reported from
Dec 8, 2009
LONDON
The 62-year-old pop star
met 14-month-old Lev at a home for HIV-positive children in September. But he
was refused permission to adopt the boy because he was too old and not married.
John's partner David
Furnish said Tuesday the couple was "massively gutted" by the
rejection.
Furnish told BBC radio
they were working to ensure Lev and his brother "have the best health care,
education and family options available to them."
John and Furnish tied the
knot in 2005 in a civil union in
Furnish said the couple
would campaign for a change in Ukrainian law.
By DONNA
BRYSON,Associated Press Writer - December 8, 2009
PRETORIA,
South Africa – South Africa announced ambitious new plans Tuesday for earlier
and expanded treatment for HIV-positive babies and pregnant women, a change that
could save hundreds of thousands of lives in the nation hardest hit by the virus
that causes AIDS.
President
Jacob Zuma _ once ridiculed for saying a shower could prevent AIDS _ was cheered
as he outlined the measures on World AIDS Day. The new policy marks a dramatic
shift from former President Thabo Mbeki, whose health minister distrusted drugs
developed to keep AIDS patients alive and instead promoted garlic and beet
treatments. Those policies led to more than 300,000 premature deaths, a Harvard
study concluded.
The changes
are in line with new guidelines issued a day earlier by the World Health
Organization that call for HIV-infected pregnant women to be given drugs earlier
and while breast-feeding. By treating all HIV-infected babies, survival rates
should also improve for the youngest citizens in South Africa, one of only 12
countries where child mortality has worsened since 1990, in part due to AIDS.
Zuma compared
the fight against HIV, which infects one in 10 South Africans, to the
decades-long struggle his party led against the apartheid government, which
ended in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela in the country's first
multiracial vote.
"At
another moment in our history, in another context, the liberation movement
observed that the time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only
two choices: submit or fight," Zuma said. "That time has now come in
our struggle to overcome AIDS. Let us declare now, as we declared then, that we
shall not submit."
In New York,
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that new infections are outpacing the
gains from treating people with the HIV virus. He said that more must be done
urgently to reach the U.N. goal of providing universal access to HIV prevention,
treatment, care and support by 2010.
"That
means countering any form of HIV-related stigma and discrimination," Ban
said in a statement. "It means eliminating violence against women and
girls. It means ensuring access to HIV information and services."
Zuma was
greeted with a standing ovation when he entered a Pretoria exhibition hall
filled with several thousand people.
In some ways,
Zuma is an unlikely AIDS hero. As his Zulu tradition allows, he has three wives
_ experts say having multiple, concurrent partners heightens the risk of AIDS.
And in 2006, while being tried on charges of raping an HIV-positive family
friend, he testified he took a shower after extramarital sex to lower the risk
of AIDS. He was acquitted of rape.
The one-time
chairman of the country's national AIDS council may never live down the shower
comment. But Zuma has won praise for appointing Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi as his
health minister. AIDS activists say Motsoaledi trusts science and is willing to
learn from past mistakes.
South Africa,
a nation of about 50 million, has an estimated 5.7 million people infected with
HIV, more than any other country.
UNAIDS
executive director Michel Sidibe, who took the podium shortly before Zuma, told
the president: "What you do from this day forward will write, or rewrite,
the story of AIDS across Africa."
Zuma said in
his speech broadcast across South Africa on state radio and television that the
policy changes would take effect in April. They include treatment for all
children under 1 year old, regardless of their level of CD4 cells, a measure of
immune system health.
Patients with
both tuberculosis and HIV will get treatment if their CD4 count is 350 or less,
compared to 200 now, which means treatment would start earlier. Pregnant women
who are HIV-positive also would start treatment earlier. That is in line with
the new WHO recommendations that doctors start HIV patients on drugs when their
level of CD4 cells is about 350.
The expanded
treatment was expected to be free, as it is now, although Zuma did not confirm
that. He said all health institutions, not just specialist centers, would
provide counseling, testing and treatment.
He also
called on South Africans to get tested for HIV. But, contrary to speculation in
recent days, he did not take an HIV test Tuesday.
"I have
taken HIV tests before and I know my status," he said. "I will do
another test soon as part of this new campaign. I urge you to start planning for
your own tests."
Kurt
Firnhaber, who runs Right to Care, one of the largest private providers of AIDS
treatment, counseling and testing in South Africa, said Zuma outlined
"steps that aren't rhetoric _ if they're implemented."
He said the
burden would now be on the government and foreign donors to find the money to
meet Zuma's ambitious goals.
On Tuesday,
in response to a plea from Zuma, the United States announced it was giving South
Africa $120 million over the next two years for AIDS treatment drugs. That is in
addition to $560 million the U.S. has already pledged to give South Africa in
2010 for fighting AIDS.
Mark Heywood,
executive member of the Treatment Action Campaign, an independent group that has
challenged the South African government on AIDS, said the Zuma speech marked a
departure in thinking that would have a global impact. Heywood shared the stage
with Zuma on Tuesday.
"It was
a very good speech in all its aspects _ the empathy he showed, what he said
about prevention and the need to test for HIV was all very positive,"
Heywood said.
Zuma's
government had earlier set a target of getting 80 percent of those who need AIDS
drugs on them by 2011.
Setjhaba
Ranthako brought his 4-year-old daughter Tshegofatso to hear Zuma's speech,
saying education should start early.
"I've
seen in President Zuma a person who's willing to listen, and say, `Here I am,
come with your views, and let's turn your views into an effective campaign to
combat the spread" of AIDS, said Ranthako, who works with a group that
raises awareness about AIDS among men.
The crowd
rose to their feet when Zuma finished his speech. Then he danced along with a
choir that sang: "Zuma, you are blessed."
____
Associated
Press Writer Celean Jacobson in Johannesburg contributed to this report.
Dec 6, 2009
JOHANNESBURG
A number of studies have
shown that circumcising men can halve their chances of contracting the HIV virus
and the WHO has recommended including circumcision among anti-AIDS strategies
since 2007.
"In the context of
the fight against HIV and AIDS I should announce my intention to revive the
practice of circumcision amongst young men," King Goodwill Zwelithini said
on Saturday during a traditional festival.
Zulus practised ritual
circumcision until the start of the 19th century, when the legendary king Shaka
put a stop to it because it deprived him of young warriors for months at a time.
The authorities in
"Circumcision will
assist in the fight against the pandemic, although on its own does not prevent
the spread of sexual transmitted diseases," the head of KwaZulu-Natal's
regional government, Zweli Mkhize, said.
Trong, who made the call at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) regional seminar
on HIV/AIDS here, highly praised IPU for organising the seminar, which, he said,
provided a good chance for members of parliament (MPs) to share experiences and
increase cooperation in making law and policy in HIV/AIDS prevention and
eradication.
He added that combating HIV/AIDS takes a long time, requiring close cooperation
and mutual support between countries in order to prevent the pandemic.
Over the last three decades, about 60 million people worldwide have been tested
HIV positive, which caused losses for not only their families but also for
humankind, Trong said.
Deputy Minister of Public Works of South Africa Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, who is
also head of IPU advisory group on HIV/AIDS, said it is necessary to break down
discrimination towards HIV carriers and increase their participation in
law-making process.
Delegates at the seminar agreed upon proposed recommendations, including
increasing transnational cooperation and creating conditions for people living
with HIV/AIDS to approach available drugs.
The two-day seminar, where participants stressed the necessity of increased
inter-parliamentary cooperation in combating HIV/AIDS, wrapped up on Friday.
BBC 27 November 2009
More people than ever
before are living with HIV in the
The number of estimated
cases rose by 8% between 2007 and 2008, says the Health Protection Agency.
But it is thought 22,000
of the 83,000 people with HIV do not know they are infected.
The Terrence Higgins Trust
said the high levels of undiagnosed HIV were "completely
unacceptable".
“ HIV is a serious
infection but if diagnosed early, there are very good treatment options ”
Dr Valerie Delpech Health Protection Agency
In its annual HIV report,
the HPA said they expected the number of people living with the infection to
continue to rise as people live longer on effective therapy.
There has also been an
increase in testing with 100,000 more tests done at sexual health clinics in
2008 than the previous year.
Late diagnosis is also a
problem with 32% of adults in 2008 diagnosed past the point at which treatment
should already have begun.
Guidelines from the
British HIV Association introduced last year, suggest even stronger targets,
recommending patients are considered for treatment when their CD4 immune cell
count reaches less than 350 per mm3 rather than waiting until it falls further
to less than 200 per mm3.
Under these rules, more
than half of new cases last year would have been diagnosed late.
In 2008, 7,300 people were
diagnosed with HIV and gay and bisexual men are still one of the highest risk
groups for infection, although new infections in this group has fallen from the
previous year.
The figures also show that
58% of new diagnoses were among heterosexuals, two-thirds of whom were Black
Africans who are likely to have acquired the infection abroad.
But the proportion all new
heterosexual diagnoses acquired in the
Testing
In 43 local authorities in
Dr Valerie Delpech, an
expert in HIV from the Health Protection Agency said: "HIV is a serious
infection but if diagnosed early, there are very good treatment options.
"Of concern is that
over 22,000 people remain unaware of their infection in the
"We need to
continually reinforce the safe sex message - using a condom with all new or
casual sexual partners is the surest way to ensure you do not become infected
with a serious sexually transmitted infection such as HIV."
Sir Nick Partridge, chief
executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust said: "The level of undiagnosed HIV
in the country is completely unacceptable.
"With early diagnosis
and effective treatment, most people with HIV can live to old age.
"If left undiagnosed,
they will die earlier, be significantly more ill and more likely to infect
others."
He called for more testing
in more settings with the introduction of a national targeted screening
programme to halve undiagnosed HIV in the
Deborah Jack, chief
executive, at the National AIDS Trust said the
"Instead we continue
to see high numbers of gay men being diagnosed and a growing number of
heterosexuals infected within the
"Preventing just one
HIV infection could save over a quarter of a million pounds, yet over the past
ten years HIV has been politically sidelined in the
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/8382787.stm