News (Updated August 28, 2004)
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| Sunday August 29, 08:31 AM |
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BEIJING (AFP) - China's lawmakers have addressed the AIDS threat
directly for the first time ever in a sign the government hopes to curb
the disease before it becomes an epidemic.
Amendments to the law on infectious diseases urge officials at all
levels to step up the control of AIDS and take measures to prevent the
spread of the disease, the Xinhua news agency reported.
They were signed by President Hu Jintao after being passed by the
national legislature over the weekend, according to the agency.
The amendments also emphasize the need to help areas that are too
poor to fund a healthcare system that effectively prevents diseases and
treats people already infected, the agency reported.
"Lack of adequate funds has undermined contagious disease
prevention and control capabilities of organizations entrusted with the
tasks," Vice Minister of Health Gao Qiang was quoted as saying.
"Due to the lack of money, some patients could not receive
timely, effective and formal treatment and became new sources of
infection," he said, according to the agency.
The amended law also strengthens requirements imposed on blood
donation centers following a series of scandals in recent years in which
people were infected with HIV/AIDS after selling blood under highly
unsanitary conditions.
The official number of HIV carriers in China is 840,000, a figure
that has been left unchanged for nearly a year and has probably grown
steeply since then.
State-run media have warned that unless China takes urgent action it
could end up with 12 million HIV patients by 2010.
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| Wednesday August 25, 08:37 PM |
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BEIJING (AFP) - China's 76,000 AIDS orphans -- children who have lost
one or both of their parents and are suffering from the lethal condition
themselves -- are in dire need of medication, state media said.
No anti-AIDS drugs for children are produced in China, and there are
also no systematic imports of from abroad, the China Youth Daily
reported.
Under the current circumstances, local hospitals have no choice but
to give the children AIDS drugs meant for adults in smaller dosages,
even though the practice is sometimes considered dangerous.
"China has not yet developed a special anti-AIDS drug suited for
pediatric use, and even on a global scale it's a problem," said
Zhao Hongxin, a doctor at Beijing's Ditan Hospital.
This echoes complaints from international aid organizations that have
criticized pharmaceutical companies for devoting too few resources to
the development of AIDS drugs for children, leading to similar problems
in Africa.
Solving the problem is an urgent issue for China, as the health
ministry estimates the number of children suffering from HIV/AIDS will
rise to more than a quarter million by the end of the decade.
But the real number could actually be much higher, since AIDS orphans
live scattered in the vast countryside and there is no reliable way of
knowing exactly how many there are.
The official number of HIV carriers in China, children and adults, is
840,000, a figure that has been left unchanged for nearly a year.
State-run media have warned that unless China takes urgent action it
could end up with 12 million HIV patients by 2010. |
HANOI (AFP) - Vietnamese President Tran Duc
Luong criticized local authorities for lack of awareness about HIV/AIDS and
urged people to consider it as a disease and not a social evil.
"Many people in Vietnam still consider
HIV/AIDS as a social evil, not a disease," Luong said when visiting Hanoi's
Bach Mai hospital, the country's biggest medical center.
"We should improve the awareness of local leaders, people and society on
the danger of this epidemic."
"Social evils" is the term used by the government to describe a
wide group of illegal activities, including gambling, drug addiction and
prostitution.
In the past, non government organizations and the United Nations have
criticized Vietnam for stigmatising those with HIV/AIDS rather than helping
them.
"The fight against HIV/AIDS must be considered our long term and key
task," Luong said. "People living with HIV/AIDS should enjoy equal
opportunities as ordinary citizens. We should not discriminate against
them."
Luong was accompanied by the United Nations Development Program
representative in Vietnam, Jordan Ryan.
"The visit gives a strong and clear message to the nation and it
demonstrates visible commitment of the Vietnamese leadership in the fight
against HIV/AIDS," Ryan said.
The health ministry estimates that more than 215,000 people have contracted
HIV in Vietnam but only around 80,000 have been diagnosed with the virus.
Independent experts say as many as 300,000 could be HIV-positive.
The communist nation has begun to liberalize its attitude towards sexual
education and sexually transmitted diseases.
In July Vietnam unveiled its first ever condom-vending machine as part of a
campaign to cut unwanted pregnancies and prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
In June US President George W. Bush decided to add Vietnam to the list of
countries eligible for funding to help tackle its emerging HIV/AIDS crisis.
| Friday August 27, 03:43 PM |
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CAPE TOWN (AFP) - South African pharmaceutical companies lost a legal
bid to scrap the government's new drug pricing regulations, aimed at
slashing the cost of essential medicines for the poor.
Cheap medicines are a burning issue in South Africa where some 5.3
million out of a population of 44.8 million people are infected with HIV
or AIDS, one of the highest infection rates in the world.
Judges from the Cape Town high court dismissed the challenge to try
to prevent the new pricing regulations from going into effect, saying
"the application ... is dismissed with costs."
"Based on the evidence as a whole, (we) cannot find that the
(government's) pricing committee, in fulfilling its functions, acted
unlawfully on any of the basis suggested by the applicants."
The case was brought by the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa (PSSA),
the New Clicks drug company, private health care operator Netcare and
five others against Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
The regulations set a cap of 26 rand (3.8 dollars, 3.2 euros) as a
pharmacist fee for prescription medicines over 100 rand.
It also calls for a "single exit price" by drug
manufacturers, barring them from offering discounts and incentive
programmes to retailers and pharmacies, a common practice until now.
The PSSA and pharmaceuticals argued the regulations would make the
industry unprofitable as they were only making a three percent profit on
medicine.
Health department representative Diane McIntyre said she believed
Friday's ruling was "a great victory for the public."
"There has been a lot of confusion and also a lot of
exploitation in the last couple of months," she told SABC public
radio.
"What this judgment means is that with immediate effect, anybody
who goes into a pharmacy will just pay the price that the manufacturer
charges and the maximum amount that they should pay on top of that is 26
rand," she said.
Early this year, South African pharmacists shut their doors for three
hours in protest against the new law forcing them to cut their profit
margins for medicines, something they say will result in the closure of
more than 1,000 chemists.
Ivan Kotze, executive director of the PSSA said it would have to
consider whether to take the matter on appeal after studying the
judgment.
"We haven't seen the details of the split judgment," Kotze
told AFP.
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NAIROBI (AFP) - The Kenyan government hopes to
put some 181,000 AIDS patients in anti-retroviral (ARVs) treatment by next year
if a healthcare bill currently in parliament is passed, an official statement
said.
If the National Social Health Insurance Scheme
is passed, then the country will have 181,000 people and 250,000 others in ARV
treatment by 2005 and 2010, respectively, Health Minister Charity Ngilu said.
"The number of people need of urgent anti-retroviral treatment or else
they will die is estimated at 200,000 people," the statement quoted Ngilu
as saying.
Ngilu said the number of people receiving ARV therapy is around 19,000, which
is about 10 percent, while the remaining 90 percent will die.
"Teachers, civil servants and other public employees will not be
required to contribute their medical allowances into the scheme," except
for a small subscription fee, she explained.
"The ministry of health will utilize the resources allocated to it
through the regular budget to intensify disease prevention activities and
improve quality of health services in public health facilities," she added.
Ngilu urged donors to support Kenya in its efforts to fight the disease that
has killed about 1.5 million people since 1984.
Kenya insists that the HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country has reduced from 14
percent in 2000 to seven percent this year, (from 2.5 million AIDS patients to
about 1.4 million), a figure vehemently disputed by UNAIDS.
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