News (Updated August 6, 2006)
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Thu Aug 3, 2006 06:25 PM ET
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese city-dwellers are ignorant about their risk of contracting AIDS and may be primed to spread the fatal and incurable virus, according to an Internet poll scheduled for release on Friday.
The Zogby poll shows more than a third of Chinese men who answered admitted they go to prostitutes and found that men and women alike rarely discussed AIDS with their sex partners.
"The survey reveals some cause for concern, as respondents present a dangerous mixture of complacency and ignorance about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS," Zogby International said in a statement.
"Too many Chinese lack the information and life skills that they need to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS."
The Zogby International/MFC Insight pollsters surveyed 3,753 adults aged 18 to 54 in March. About two-thirds were male and 45 percent were married.
Zogby is a U.S.-based polling company while MFC Insight is a Chinese company specializing in Internet surveys.
The survey "found a widespread lack of knowledge about behaviors that can lead to sexually transmitted disease transmission while 37 percent of men surveyed say that they patronize commercial sex workers," Zogby said in a statement.
"Only one-third of those surveyed 'always' discuss HIV/AIDS and other STDs with potential sexual partners."
More than 40 million people are infected with the incurable and fatal human immunodeficiency virus. HIV killed more than 3 million people in 2005, according to the United Nations.
Populous China reports only 650,000 cases, half of them among intravenous drug users, but in other places the epidemic has moved from drug users into the general population through sex.
"Observers point to a dangerous intersection of intravenous drug use and paid sex in China that increases the risk of a more generalized epidemic," Zogby said.
"Overall, survey respondents are more urban, wealthy, educated, and male than China's total population, but their responses provide some interesting insights into sexual behavior in the world's most populous nation."
The researchers said their findings show an urgent need for better sex education in China.
Wed Aug 2, 2006 08:26 AM ET
By Tan Ee Lyn
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's former health director, who is running for the top post at the World Health Organization, said on Wednesday that she would focus on chronic diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis.
Margaret Chan, who joined the WHO in 2003 and is now its assistant director-general for communicable diseases, said it would do well to remember that chronic diseases were responsible for 60 percent of the world's mortality.
"Infectious diseases have the drama effect, the media effect ... the concentration is always on communicable diseases and this is something I would like to change a bit," Chan said.
She added that she would tackle chronic diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health issues, and environmental problems such as water and sanitation.
The Geneva-based United Nations health agency will elect a new chief in November, following the death of WHO director-general Lee Jong-wook on May 22.
So far, Chan and Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific who is from Japan, have declared their candidacy.
Beijing, which took back Hong Kong from Britain in 1997, has hailed Chan's candidacy as an honor to China. It has also promised to bankroll her election campaign, which will take her to over 20 countries in the months ahead.
But Chan made clear that China cannot expect any favors from her if she clinches the job.
"If elected, I'm not serving Hong Kong's interests and I'm not serving China's interests," Chan told a news conference in Hong Kong after meeting senior Chinese officials in Beijing over the weekend. "I will not be partial toward China ... I am serving the world's interests."
While she is lauded around the world for helping fight bird flu and SARS in Hong Kong, the former Hong Kong health chief is not fondly remembered here.
In Hong Kong, newspapers ridiculed her for giving assurances that eating chicken was safe, just days before the government ordered a mass cull of poultry to get rid of the H5N1 bird flu virus at the end of 1997.
And in 2003, lawmakers criticized Chan and other senior Hong Kong officials for failing to act quickly to tackle the SARS epidemic, which ended up killing nearly 300 people here.
Outside the legislative council building on Wednesday, a relative of a Hong Kong person who died in 2003 of SARS held up a placard calling on Chan to apologize and admit her blunders.
But Chan said it was important to look forward.
"SARS was important in the sense that it was a wake up call. It highlighted the importance of having a very robust surveillance system to help us pick up early problems with new and emerging (diseases)," Chan said, adding that there were many "blind spots in the world."
Fri Aug 4, 2006 04:31 PM ET
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Marie Stopes International, which is hosting the event with HIV/AIDS charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, said it expected up to 200 people to attend the sponsored masturbation session in Clerkenwell, central London, on Saturday.
"It is a bit of a publicity stunt but we hope it will raise awareness," a Marie Stopes spokeswoman told Reuters.
"We want to get people talking about safer sex, masturbation and to lift taboos."
Participants, who have to be over 18, can bring any aids they need and can take part in four different rooms -- a comfort area, a mixed area, along with men and women only areas.
However, the rules on the event's Web site states there can be no touching of other participants nor are people allowed to fake orgasms.
"The amount you raise will be determined by how many minutes you masturbate and/or how many orgasms you achieve," the Web site said.
The Marie Stopes spokeswoman said local religious groups had been initially outraged, but after people had heard what the event was about, most had approved it.
Police had also given it their approval.
Similar events have been staged in San Francisco for the last six years raising $25,000 (13,000 pounds) for women's health initiatives and HIV prevention. If successful, Marie Stopes said it could take place elsewhere in mainland Europe next year.
Meas My, a 40-year-old sailor, was arrested in January last year after his wife complained to police about his refusal to use a condom during sex, even though he had been confirmed as having HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
When his wife refused to have sex with him, he beat her and then raped her, prosecutors said.
"Her husband did not respect her love toward him. We cannot tolerate his acts," said prosecutor Ngeth Sarath, commenting on the ruling handed down late on Thursday.
He did not reveal whether the wife had contracted HIV.
Meas My's conviction was the first in the Southeast Asian nation under laws passed in 2003 allowing courts to jail anybody for 10 to 15 years for infecting, or trying to infect, another person with HIV.
Deliberately transmitting the AIDS virus is a crime in the majority of U.S. states and many other wealthy countries, although such legislation is rare in the developing world.
Cambodia has one of the highest HIV and AIDS infection rates in the Asia-Pacific region, although public education and condom use campaigns have caused levels to drop to 1.9 percent of the population in 2004 from 3.3 percent in 1998.
After concerted efforts to increase condom use in the sex industry, campaigners are now pushing for the same between married partners to try to prevent transmission of the virus in the home.
At least 70,000 Cambodian children have been orphaned by AIDS, according to the National AIDS Authority.
Wed Aug 2, 2006 07:24 PM ET
By Radu Marinas
BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Thousands of HIV-positive children face discrimination in Romania, where vast, filthy orphanages were a breeding ground for AIDS before the 1989 fall of communism, a human rights group said on Wednesday.
A report by U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said Romania's failure to promote the integration of more than 7,200 sick children aged 15 to 19, the largest such group in any European state, has kept many from attending school, getting healthcare or jobs.
"There are thousands of infected children who will turn 18 in a year or two. Romania urgently needs to plan their future," Clarisa Bencomo, the author of the study, told a news conference.
"Unless authorities take urgent measures now, unchecked discrimination will push far too many of these children to the margins of society ... This is not an issue of resources, this is an issue related to political will."
Tens of thousands of children were abandoned in communist Romania following dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's ban on birth control as he dreamed of creating a worker society, modeled on the example of North Korea.
AIDS spread in orphanages because of unsafe medical practices, badly screened blood, routine blood transfusions for underweight babies and antibiotics administered by injection.
Fewer than 60 percent of children living with HIV attend school and those who do risk ostracism and abuse by teachers and expulsion if their status becomes known, the report said. Since 1990, Romania has attracted repeated criticism from pro-democracy groups over cases of breaching the rights of HIV-positive people, police violence and discrimination against homosexuals and ethnic minorities.
Romanian society has been slow to accept rights for its minorities and ignorance about AIDS remains widespread.
Bencomo said authorities must remove legislative barriers that have led to widespread discrimination such as mandatory HIV testing as a condition for employment.
"Children who are refused medical care get sicker ... children who are denied the right to education and work will not be able to support themselves and their families," Bencomo said.
She said Romania must also provide appropriate sanctions against civil servants, medical and social personnel for discrimination against sick people.
"We have to make a step forward and tell people we are normal human beings. We don't need mercy, we only need people to understand us," said Adrian, an HIV-infected teenager, who did not give his last name.
Fri Aug 4, 10:29 AM ET
South Africa's HIV/AIDS pandemic has led to a major rise in the rate of tuberculosis infection, with 300,000 new cases recorded last year, the government has said.
"We recorded about 300,000 new cases of TB last year, and most of the affected are people in the most productive age groups," said Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang at a meeting with business representatives.
"A TB patient can lose an average of three to four months of work time, which translates to between 20 and 30 percent of the patient's annual income lost due to lost earnings. And about 15 years of income is lost due to premature death."
The minister said in a report there had been a "significant increase in the number of cases (of tuberculosis) reported over the past eight years", and cited the country's HIV/AIDS pandemic as one of the main factors.
The South African Business Coalition on HIV and AIDS said in a statement it would be "logical" for the government to address the tuberculosis problem as part of its strategy to fight AIDS, stressing the "close link" between the diseases.
"TB is also the business of business. TB is the biggest threat in our country today," said Peter Mehlape, general manager of medical technology company BD Medical South Africa.
The government says 5.54 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS, which destroys the body's resistance to disease, in South Africa.
By RAPHAEL TENTHANI, Associated Press WriterFri Aug 4, 3:05 PM ET
The village headman here has never heard of Madonna, the pop star. But he knows Madonna the philanthropist.
Madonna has announced plans to raise at least $3 million for programs to support the nearly 1 million children in Malawi who have lost parents to AIDS. Mphandula's headman, who bears the same name as his village, said Thursday he had been contacted last month by organizers and told some of the money will build a feeding and education center for orphans in this village, 30 miles from the capital.
"The orphanage project is about serving humanity. It will mean so much to us. We can only ask God to bless this person for her kindness," he said.
Malawi is among the poorest countries in the world, hit by years of drought and an AIDS epidemic. According to the National AIDS Commission, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has left close to 1 million orphans in this southern African country. AIDS mainly affects the economically active age group of 15-49.
In most villages, many orphaned children are cared for by their slightly older siblings or grandparents.
"We have too many child-headed households here. We also have very old people looking after very young orphans. In both scenarios, food becomes a nightmare since the young ones cannot find enough to feed themselves and their siblings while the old ones do not have the power to look for food," Mphandula said.
A piece of land for the project has been identified but work has yet to begin.
Madonna joins a growing list of entertainer-activists who have focused their attention on Africa, including Bono, Angelina Jolie and George Clooney. The 47-year-old singer outlined her plans in an interview with Time magazine to be published next week.
She was quoted as saying she plans to raise at least $3 million for programs to support orphans in Malawi, and is giving $1 million to fund a documentary about the plight of children here. She is expected to visit in October.
Madonna has also teamed up with developing-world economic expert Jeffrey Sachs on programs to improve the health, agriculture and economy of a village in Malawi, and she's met with former President Clinton about bringing low-cost medicines to the area.
Sachs has launched a series of comprehensive projects to transform villages in Africa, and Clinton last month announced a campaign against rural poverty in Malawi that will focus in part on combating AIDS.
Most of the farmers of Mphandula, where Madonna's orphan center is planned, live in mud-and-thatch huts, wear shoes only on special occasions and rarely can afford to eat meat.
The village has no electricity and only a few households have radios. No wonder few had heard of Madonna.
"I hear Madonna is coming here," said Michael Soko. The excited 24-year-old was the only one among 30 people interviewed in Mphandula who had heard of the Material Girl as an entertainer.
"I know her song `Holiday,'" he said. "We used to dance to it in school."
Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo said LUTH's chief medical director and chief medical laboratory scientist and an official in haematology department of the hospital had all be sacked over the incident.
Other officials at the hospital were also sanctioned, the minister told journalists at a news conference.
Baby Eniola was infected earlier this year with HIV-AIDS "in the course of an exchange blood transfusion at LUTH", the minister said.
The minister said the government had uncovered "administrative and managerial lapses" in the handling of the case and would cover the full cost of the baby's treatment.
LUTH was established in 1962 and it is the top medical establishment in Lagos.
Nigeria has an HIV-AIDS rate of 4.4 percent of the 130 million population and around 3.5 million Nigerians live with the disease, officials said.
The government made HIV-AIDS treatment free from the beginning of this year in an effort to give more people access to drugs.