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August 22, 2010)
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(AFP) – 1 day ago
BEIJING — A 23-year-old
Chinese man who contracted the AIDS virus as a boy through a blood transfusion
and who has since campaigned for the rights of AIDS sufferers has been detained,
activists said Saturday.
Tian Xi, who told fellow
activists that his repeated protests had angered authorities, was detained on
Tuesday at a hospital in
Tian was lobbying for
compensation for thousands of Chinese like himself who have contracted HIV, the
virus that causes AIDS, via tainted blood supplies.
He learned recently that
local officials had urged police to detain him to curtail his work, according to
the Chinese group Aizhixing and Meg Davis, the New York-based head of Asia
Catalyst, a group which helps to train activists.
"Tian Xi is a sweet
guy who has suffered a great deal and who cares deeply about the suffering of
others. He is in poor health and we're very concerned about his condition in
detention,"
Police in Gulu, the town
where Tian was living, declined to comment, while calls to officials in Xincai
county went unanswered.
Tian has in the past
worked for Aizhixing, which was instrumental in uncovering a blood-selling
scandal in
The group -- whose leader
Wan Yanhai fled to the
"Thousands of people
have been infected with HIV through blood sales and blood transfusions, and Tian
Xi's case is an emblem of this ongoing disaster," said Davis, who last had
contact with Tian on August 13.
The head of UNAIDS,
Michel Sidibe, warned last year that 50 million people in the country were at
risk of contracting the AIDS virus, mainly through unprotected sex or the
sharing of needles.
Faced with this problem,
the government has started talking more openly about HIV prevention and control
in
But the hassling of some
independent campaigners and organisations has nevertheless continued.
Like Wan, high-profile
AIDS activist Gao Yaojie left
In July, Tian was held
for several hours in a so-called "black jail", or illegal detention
centre, in
There’s a decided lack
of energy on AIDS coming from the gay and lesbian community today
By Tom Sheridan
Posted: August 18, 2010
Tom Sheridan is president
of the Sheridan Group, which serves public interest advocacy efforts and designs
socially responsible public policy initiatives. His client portfolio includes
Bono's ONE Campaign, One Voice Against Cancer, Catholic Charities USA, and the
America Forward coalition, and several AIDS-related charities and causes.
Today marks two major
events in this country's history. Twenty years ago, the Ryan White CARE Act
became law. And one year ago, Sen. Edward Kennedy passed away, having seen the
bill he championed save hundreds of thousands of lives.
In 1990, as I huddled
with the senator and his staff to write the nation's first response to the
HIV/AIDS epidemic, we were interrupted and told that Ryan White—the brave
19-year-old who challenged our presumptions and prejudices—was losing his
battle with AIDS. Kennedy picked up the phone and asked Ryan's mother, Jeanne
White, if it would be appropriate to name the bill for her dying son. I've
always admired the grace and courage that enabled Mrs. White to see beyond her
grief. Her support helped us pass a disaster assistance bill in response to an
urgent national crisis.
We now have fewer deaths,
more available drugs and treatments, more systems able to respond. But the
initial response, repair, and recovery process has come to an end. Today's new
HIV/AIDS challenges require the same kind of innovation and boldness that we, as
a nation, demonstrated two decades ago. So, on this milestone anniversary, I'm
compelled to offer this challenge: Let's honor Senator Kennedy and Ryan White by
writing and passing the Ryan White CARE Act 2.0.
Ryan White was written
when virtually no drug or pharmaceutical interventions were available, but drug
access has nevertheless become the bill's primary focus. It was written for an
epidemic that raged within the gay community, but HIV/AIDS is now a leading
cause of death for African Americans, those with substance abuse issues, and for
men who have sex with men but don't identify as gay. The bill couldn't mention
education—in 1990, that was a political hot button. But half of today's new
infections are among those under age 25 who clearly aren't getting enough
HIV/AIDS education. And Ryan White never mentions preventive medicine, but huge
strides have been made in that area. A new microbicide gel reduces a women's
risk of infection by almost 40 percent. In five or 10 years, we'll probably have
the equivalent of a "morning after pill" for HIV.
Clearly, it's time for an
updated battle plan that is just as innovative as its predecessor. We need a
bill that nationalizes the purchase of AIDS drugs similar to the Veterans
Administration's approach, which could save 74 percent over open-market prices.
With those savings, we could give greater numbers of Americans with HIV access
to life-saving treatments. We need to merge care and prevention strategies so
that the current wave of scientific discoveries has an express lane into the new
at-risk communities. And we need to remove silos in the federal government that
prevent agencies from coordinating care. The Centers for Disease Control, for
example, could work much more closely with the Health Resources and Service
Administration to develop innovative ideas for leveraging resources.
President Barack Obama's
new plan essentially maintains the status quo, but doesn't bring forward any new
ideas or offer much money. Twenty years ago, led by Senator Kennedy, our
thinking was bolder and demanded more. Why not now?
Is part of the reason
that we're just not holding the president's feet to the fire? There's a decided
lack of energy on AIDS coming from the gay and lesbian community today, raising
uncomfortable questions about who cares (and doesn't) about the new face of this
disease. Why have no other groups stepped forward to address the new risks to
their communities?
In 20 years things go
stale, stakeholders become complacent; for-profit interests embed; innovation
stops; creativity becomes lethargic. Edward Kennedy and Ryan White would demand
that we honor the 20th anniversary of this bill and, indeed, their memory by
committing ourselves to the Ryan White CARE Act 2.0. Let's get to it!
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday
17 August 2010
Nadja Benaissa. Photograph: Boris Roessler
The
trial of Nadja Benaissa, the German singer accused of knowingly infecting a
partner with HIV, has taught us many things – that
The law is rather
different here – there is no law that explicitly spells out anything to do
with HIV, and despite common misconception, no law that compels anyone to
announce their status.
Instead, the judiciary
relies on the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which, as Lisa Power, policy
director of the Terence Higgins Trust, derisively puts it, "was designed
for people hitting each other over the head with a piece of two-by-four. It has
now been stretched, like knicker-elastic, to cover stalking, psychological harm
and disease transmission." Under this act there are two possible offences:
"intentional transmission" – which, sex generally being a private
act, is near-impossible to prove; and "reckless transmission", under
which rubric 20 cases have so far been successfully prosecuted. (A number that
pales in comparison with the
The first person to be
convicted in
Call for a national
strategy to tackle stigma and raise awareness
THE HIV prevention needs
of black Caribbean communities are being ignored in the
In a recently released
report, the National AIDS Trust (NAT) said there is no strategy despite figures
which show that black Caribbean people make up one percent of the
"HIV prevalence is
over four times higher than in the white population. Despite this, a national
HIV prevention strategy for the black
The charity’s report,
entitled HIV and black Caribbean communities in the
Deborah Jack, NAT’s
chief executive, said in a statement: ‘In the
She said a strategy was
necessary because of issues affecting black
She added: ‘A national
prevention strategy for the black Caribbean population is needed, not just to
ensure this group get information they need to protect their health but also to
address the specific cultural issues that affect HIV rates. Addressing
homophobia, working with faith organisations and specific peer support services
would all have an impact on HIV rates among black Caribbean people.’
NAT recommended that
officials set up regional and local Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI)
prevention campaigns targeting the black