KAMPALANews (Updated
December 20, 2009)
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Mon Dec 14, 10:27 AM
KAMPALA
United Nations and Ugandan
health officials announced that the Geneva-based African AIDS Vaccine Programme
(AAVP) will be shifted to
The move is to boost
"Criminalising adult
consensual sex is not only a human rights issue, it goes against a good HIV
strategy," said Catherine Hankins, the chief scientific advisor for UNAIDS,
which alongside the World Health Organisation backs the AAVP.
"If the bill passes,
UNAIDS and WHO would have to decide what happens and to see whether this is an
appropriate place," she told AFP.
But recently Apuuli said
men who have sex with men were not a priority group in
"You go back to
He said that gays were
responsible for less than one percent of new infections in 2008.
Under the draft law, any
individual who promotes homosexuality could be sent to jail.
The bill compels any
person of authority to report known homosexual activity to the police and
imposes the death penalty in cases of rape of a minor by a person of the same
sex, or where one partner is HIV positive.
But senior government
officials have said the death penalty provision will be reviewed in parliament.
Dec 18, 2009
WASHINGTON
(AFP) - The
Johnnie Carson, the
assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told reporters that he has
urged President Yoweri Museveni twice since October "to do everything he
can to stop this particular legislation."
Carson, who earlier
briefed groups representing gays, lesbians and transgender individuals about the
situation, noted that the Ugandan president has the power to veto any
legislation.
The top
He added that it is
premature for
"We won't make any
threats (about withdrawing aid) but we are strongly opposed to this
legislation,"
"And we're looking to
President Museveni to show the same kind of leadership that he's shown in the
fight against AIDS, in the fight to protect the rights of all adults,"
whatever their sexuality, he added.
He also expressed concerns
that passage of the bill could encourage other African countries to take similar
actions.
Under the draft Ugandan
law, any individual who promotes homosexuality could be sent to jail.
The bill compels any
person of authority to report known homosexual activity to the police and
imposes the death penalty in cases of rape of a minor by a person of the same
sex, or where one partner is HIV positive.
But senior government
officials have said the death penalty provision will be reviewed in parliament.
By CELEAN JACOBSON,
Associated Press Dec 16, 2009
JOHANNESBURG
The ruling African
National Congress said Tshabalala-Msimang died in a
Tshabalala-Msimang's
disastrous HIV policies during her nine years in office made her the most
unpopular government minister in post-apartheid
However, she was
responsible for some advances. She improved basic services in rural areas,
forced down the price of medicine, tried to stem the exodus of doctors and
nurses to rich countries, and was one of the driving forces behind a global
anti-tobacco treaty.
A former anti-apartheid
activist, she spent nearly 30 years in exile.
"We pay homage to
this gallant fighter and will forever treasure the contribution she made in the
struggle for liberation and the building of our democracy," the ANC said in
a statement.
Tshabalala-Msimang had a
loyal defender in her close friend, former President Thabo Mbeki, partly because
of his own doubts about the link between HIV and AIDS. She was replaced in 2008
after Mbeki was ousted by the ANC.
Tshabalala-Msimang and
Mbeki have been blamed for not preventing over 300,000 deaths, according to
The country's two
subsequent health ministers have won praise for breaking with
Tshabalala-Msimang's confrontational approach.
Reaction to
Tshabalala-Msimang's death was muted and sympathetic.
"We don't wish ill on
any human being even though we had a very difficult time with her as minister of
health," Vuyiseka Dubula of the Treatment Action Campaign, a group she
often clashed with, told the South African Press Association.
AIDS activists blamed
Tshabalala-Msimang for spreading confusion about AIDS. They won a landmark court
case against the ministry in 2002 to force it to provide pregnant women with
drugs to stop them infecting their unborn child; and in 2003 to give
antiretroviral therapy to people in the more advanced stages of the disease.
Tshabalala-Msimang
repeatedly stressed her mistrust of antiretroviral medicine, saying too little
was known about the side effects.
"All I am bombarded
about is antiretrovirals, antiretrovirals," she said at a 2005 media
conference. "There are other things we can be assisted in doing to respond
to HIV/AIDS in this country."
Tshabalala-Msimang's
recommendation was to use nutritional remedies such as olive oil, the African
potato, beetroot, garlic and lemon.
"Raw garlic and a
skin of the lemon — not only do they give you a beautiful face and skin but
they also protect you from disease," she said.
Her views — which made
her a favorite target for cartoonists — reflected mistrust in traditional
African societies of "Western" remedies and earned her loyal
supporters.
She shrugged off constant
calls for her resignation, which reached a crescendo at the August 2006
international AIDS conference in
In a devastating speech to
the conference, the then-United Nations envoy for AIDS in
Tshabalala-Msimang
continued as a cabinet minister under the caretaker presidency of Kgalema
Motlanthe who replaced Mbeki. But she was not given a post after President Jacob
Zuma was elected earlier this year.
However, she remained on
the ANC's national executive committee.
Tshabalala-Msimang was
born near
When she said she was
leaving for exile, her mother implored: "Please do something for me if I
should never see you again — become a medical doctor," according to the
Department of Health.
Tshabalala-Msimang
graduated from the First Leningrad Medical Institute and then went on to gain a
Masters degree in Public Health from the
She was elected to
parliament at the first democratic multiparty elections in 1994, was named
deputy justice minister in 1996 and health minister in June 1989.
She was married to Mendi
Msimang, a former ANC treasurer, and had two daughters.
Funeral details have not
yet been announced.
Dec 14, 2009
GENEVA
Scheduled to begin
operating in mid-2010, the patent pool is expected to make more and newer
medicines available, and generate savings of over one billion dollars a year,
said UNITAID.
"This is an historic
day," said former French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, chairman
of UNITAID's Executive Board.
"UNITAID has now put
in place a mechanism that will make medical advances work for the poor, while
compensating companies for sharing their technology."
The patent pool will
create a common space for patent holders to license their technology in exchange
for royalties.
This will spur competition
between manufacturers of generics, and will also make it easier to produce
fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) of medicines from different companies.
Combinations of
medications have often proven to be more effective in fighting HIV, and the FDCs
are easier to administer to patients, in particular to children.
UNITAID was established to
increase access for poor people to treatments for AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis.
Around 70 percent of
UNITAID's financial base comes from a tax on airline tickets in eight of the
organisation's 29 members countries, including