BEIJINGNews (Updated
December 27, 2009)
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BEIJING
The bar opened Saturday in
a low-key fashion in the tourist town of Dali in the southwestern province of
Yunnan, Zhang Jianbo, founder of the Dali HIV/AIDS prevention and health
association, the organisation behind the initiative, told AFP.
The venue aims to provide
a place where homosexuals can meet in a relaxed atmosphere and get information
about HIV/AIDS prevention.
It was due to open on
World AIDS Day on December 1 with the support of the local government, which
invested 120,000 yuan (17,600 dollars) in Zhang's charity, but volunteers were
put off by the intense media attention sparked by the news.
"Our volunteers
decided that the media was not paying so much attention, so they finally decided
to open the bar," Zhang said.
Homosexuality in
Gay men and women find it
difficult to come out to their friends and family. One of the reasons lies in
the nation's one-child policy, which makes parents rely on their only child to
marry and produce grandchildren.
Zhang, a doctor at a
hospital in Dali, told AFP in an earlier interview that raising awareness of the
disease among the gay community was "extremely important".
The official China Daily
newspaper said in 2005 that the number of homosexuals in
Statements from government
departments and academic reports have put the figure at approximately 15
million, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
By MICHAEL ASTOR,
Associated Press Writer Dec 21, 2009
NEW YORK – Dwindling
funding for HIV/AIDS threatens to leave an estimated 10 million infected people
without treatment in the developing world, making it one of 2009's Top 10
humanitarian crises, according to Doctors Without Borders.
Other crises that made the
list released by the medical humanitarian group Monday were: governments
blocking access to lifesaving assistance in
The executive director of
Doctors Without Borders'
"When there are
concerning signs of a retreat for access to treatment, it's important to state
that HIV/AIDS is an emergency," Delaunay said.
Her international
humanitarian organization, also known as MSF for its French name, Medecins Sans
Frontieres, began issuing its annual list in 1998 after a devastating famine in
southern
The list, which does not
rank the crises by order of importance, seeks to foster greater awareness of
crises that may not receive adequate attention in the press.
Since pledging to support
universal AIDS treatment coverage by 2010 at the G8 Summit in
"In some countries
doctors are turning patients away, advised to wait until other patients
die," she warned. "What's going to happen is that patients are going
to show up at the door of our clinics and there is a high possibility of us
getting overwhelmed."
In
In
In
And in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, civilians gathered with their children at an MSF vaccination
site in the Kivu province were attacked by government forces — a move the
group says severely undermined the trust necessary to carry out independent
medical humanitarian work.
In
The group also flagged the
international community's continued neglect of diseases such as Chagas,
leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness and the Buruli ulcer that mostly affect the
poor in developing nations.
Malnutrition, which causes
the deaths of between 3.5 million to 5 million children a year, also was called
a crisis. The group said that while the international community spends $350
million each year to fight malnutrition, an estimated $11.5 billion was needed.
"Our teams on the
ground are witnessing the very tangible human consequences of these crises
directly, either in war zones or in the AIDS and nutrition clinics in which they
work," MSF International Council President Dr. Christophe Fournier said in
a statement. "We're therefore compelled and obligated to speak out."
MSF provides emergency
medical assistance to populations in danger in 70 countries.
* Four grants were suspended
in September 2009
* Shifted from control of
Tropical Disease Foundation
GENEVA, Dec 21, 2009
In a statement, the
Geneva-based health financier said it had put malaria grants worth $31.4 million
under the control of the Pilipinas Shell Foundation and $1.9 million in HIV/AIDS
grants to the Philippine Department of Health.
"These grants were
previously administered by the Tropical Disease Foundation and were suspended by
the Global Fund in September 2009 after evidence emerged of unauthorized
expenditure," it said.
The Global Fund takes in
aid from governments and private donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation and gives out grants to countries which make proposals on how to
confront the three targeted diseases.
It has previously
suspended funds to
On Monday it said it has
not finalised a deal to transfer one last tranche of aid -- a tuberculosis grant
worth up to $95 million -- which had also gone to the Philippine-based Tropical
Disease Foundation before the suspension.
"Permanent
arrangements for the transfer of this grant to new principal recipients are
currently being negotiated," the organisation said. (Reporting by Laura
MacInnis; editing by David Stamp)
JAKARTA
"Rather than curbing
AIDS, promoting condoms will only further spread the disease," Ismail
Yusanto, a spokesman for Hizbut Tahrir, a conservative Islamic political party,
told IRIN/PlusNews. "AIDS is spread through injecting drug users and
promiscuous sexual behaviour; these things must be stopped."
With the message "Use
Condoms, Celebrate Life",
The recent appointment of
Julia Perez, a local actress and singer known for her skimpy outfits, as a
condom ambassador by the National AIDS Commission has also proved controversial
in the world's most populous Muslim nation, where more than 80 percent of its
230 million people follow Islam. Perez caused a stir in 2008 when she gave away
a pack of condoms with every purchase of her album, Kama Sutra.
Hizbut Tahrir members
staged street rallies across the country in November ahead of World AIDS Day,
urging the government to impose strict Islamic law to prevent the spread of the
disease.
Targeting risky behaviour
The secretary of the
National AIDS Commission, Nafsiah Mboi, defended the campaign to encourage the
use of condoms, saying it targeted those most at risk of HIV. "We are
targeting people whose sexual behaviour leads to unwanted pregnancies and
disease transmission," she told IRIN/PlusNews.
"We can't stop them
from doing what they do but we must do something to prevent them from spreading
diseases," she added.
According to the National
AIDS Commission, about 298,000 people are infected with HIV; the commission
estimates that without effective prevention programmes, the number could rise to
two million by 2015.
About 54 percent of HIV
transmission occurs through sex, both heterosexual and homosexual, while
injecting drug use accounts for 41 percent.
Condoms are widely
available in convenience stores and pharmacies in
DKT International, a
social marketing group that promotes condom use, puts condom sales in