News (Updated July 17,
2005)
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China is stepping up efforts to combat the spread of AIDS in Chinese women as they face an upward trend in infections, the country's top health official said Monday.
The proportion of AIDS sufferers who are women jumped from 19.4 percent in 2000 to 27.8 percent last year, Health Minister Gao Qiang said at a Beijing conference about AIDS. "In March this year, the proportion of women rose to 28.1 percent," he said.
Gao blamed the ballooning numbers on a lack of knowledge about the disease, especially among women in poor rural areas. He said fewer than 40 percent of women in the countryside knew how to prevent AIDS.
"Women on the whole know less about the disease than men," Gao said.
Health workers are talking to youths and women and distributing posters at schools in the countryside to raise awareness about AIDS prevention, he said.
China says it has 840,000 people who are infected with HIV and 80,000 with full-blown AIDS. But the United Nations' AIDS agency says the true figure is likely higher and that up to 10 million could be infected by 2010 without more aggressive prevention measures.
While the disease has mainly spread in China through prostitution and intravenous drug use, tens of thousands of people, especially in the hard-hit province of Henan, were infected by an unsanitary blood-buying industry in the 1990s. Dealers bought blood from villagers and pooled it, mixing healthy blood with HIV-infected blood, and often re-used needles.
A 47-year-old female farmer from the central province of Anhui, told the conference she contracted the disease after selling her blood for four years.
"My family was in a difficult situation, so to make money to support my family, I sold blood," Zheng Xiufang said.
Xu Shuqin, an anti-AIDS volunteer from Henan, said she had visited a village where 90 percent of the population had sold their blood and where several had caught AIDS.
Minister Gao said sexual transmission was catching up rapidly as a source of infection for women in China.
More than half of the AIDS patients infected through sexual transmission _ 55 percent _ are now women, Gao said, up from 44 percent in 2001.
Houston Rockets star center Yao Ming, wipes away tears from Zhang Yun, who cried as other children relate their stories during a HIV/AIDS Awareness Day at the Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, Sunday, July 17, 2005. Yao and three other NBA players met with 30 Chinese children, some HIV positive and others orphaned by AIDS. The activity was part of Basketball Without Borders. The NBA's international basketball and community relations outreach program, which is also holding a basketball camp in Beijing for 51 young basketball players from across Asia. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Thailand has announced it will offer anti-retroviral drugs at almost no cost to the nation's 500,000 people with the AIDS virus.
"We will be the first country in the world to give every person living with AIDS access to anti-retroviral drugs," the Ministry of Public Health said in a statement Wednesday.
The Thai-produced drugs _ which slow the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS _ will be added to a government health care initiative that provides basic care to all Thais for only 30 baht (US$0.72; €0.59) per hospital visit, including services, tests and medications.
The 30-baht initiative was one of the populist policies instituted by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra when he took office for his first term in 2001. Critics says it has strained the public health system almost to the breaking point because local hospitals do not get properly reimbursed.
Since Thailand discovered its first AIDS patient in 1984, 1 million people are believed to have been infected, and about half have died.
The country has been a trailblazer in developing cheap drug treatments.
The Government Pharmaceutical Organization in March 2002 started producing a one-pill generic drug, called GPO-VIR, forcing down the cost of monthly treatment for one person from US$500-750 (euro412-618) to US$30 (euro25).
GPO-VIR contains the drugs stavudine, lamivudine and nevirapine _ a combination recommended by the World Health Organization.
Thailand expanded its free anti-retroviral program from 3,000 people to 10,000 in 2002, and last year to 50,000 people.
It has also exported the medicine to neighboring countries, and the technology for it as far as Africa.
Thailand woke up to a catastrophic AIDS epidemic in 1991 when a record 142,819 infections were reported. In response, the government launched a nationwide program to raise awareness and to promote condom use.
Now there are about 20,000 new infections each year _ 30 percent of them teenagers and young people _ the health ministry statement said.
The health ministry said it was the first time official sanction was being given to breach patient confidentiality, but the measure was necessary to protect the health of the spouses.
"Doctors have a duty to their patient to maintain confidentiality. They also have a duty to protect the spouse from getting infected," junior health minister Balaji Sadasivan said in a speech released to local media late on Thursday evening.
The new regulation follows reports earlier this year that a local woman discovered she had contracted HIV when she did blood tests during her pregnancy. Her husband had been diagnosed with AIDS in 2001 but she was unaware he had contracted the disease.
Although Singapore has one of the lowest levels of HIV infection in Asia, the number of new infections hit a record high with 311 cases last year, more than the 242 new cases reported in 2003.
The ministry has since considered introducing a series of legislative measures to halt the spread of the disease, including making it compulsory for pregnant women to be screened for HIV/AIDS, having HIV testing for couples about to marry and criminalising the act of spreading the HIV virus -- with or without intent.
It
is late on Friday afternoon when we arrive in Richard’s Bay in Durban, South
Africa. The purpose of our mission is to visit Red Cross projects in KwaZulu
Natal. In the early evening, we are taken around to familiarize ourselves with
the area before visits begin in the morning.
As we pass through Slovo village, an informal settlement which has been in existence for the past decade, we cannot miss the sight of young children carrying out household chores; carrying firewood and buckets of water on their heads, cleaning plates, etc. It looks as if these children have no time to play. We decide to visit one of the families.
Mrs. Busisiwe Ngwekizi, 70 years old, opens the door. “I am staying with my two granddaughters, Phindile, 8, and Thandeka, 13. Their mothers died four years ago,” she explains. Sadly, this story is typical of the situation in the region. Not only are children living in difficult circumstances because their parents died of AIDS, but grandparents are being denied their retirement and care from their own children in their old age.
“They all passed away the same month in 2001, and I was looking after both of them on my own during the time they were sick,” she says, as tears start to flow down her wrinkled cheeks. “It was a difficult period for me, looking after my sick daughters and their children as well. I had many sleepless nights as their conditions were deteriorating everyday,” she adds.
“We experienced a severe drought that year and food was not available. Both my daughters were on medication and they were required to eat before taking pills, but food was not available.”
Busisiwe, like other elderly people, receives a monthly pension of about 720 South African Rand (about 88 Euros or 105 US$), but given the added responsibilities, the money was just not enough. “I only bought a tin of maize which I took for milling so that we could have some food in the house.”
Despite all her efforts, Busisiwe’s daughters bade farewell to their loving mother, leaving her with the huge responsibility of two young children. It’s been almost four years now since they passed on; there are no chances of the situation improving as age is taking its toll on her, while her grandchildren’s needs increase as they grow.
Her small pension forces her to make difficult decisions. “From the same pension, I am supposed to pay school fees for the children, buy them food, clothing, and other requirements,” she says. She had not been able to pay school fees because the money was used to buy medicine for her diabetic condition. She hopes to pay the fees next month, which means she will not have enough left to buy food.
“I am getting old and tired. I do not know what will happen to these children when I die but I do want them to grow,” Busisiwe sighs. A few meters away from her home lie the graves of her daughters. When things get too difficult, she prays there, hoping that her daughters may answer her prayers from their deep sleep.
By this time it is dark and yet there’s no fire started for supper as there is nothing to cook. “I’ve just come home from a piece job in someone’s field, but I have not been paid yet because I have to finish the task. Tonight we will eat a piece of bread that was left three days ago,” says Busisiwe.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has removed a whole generation. For the elderly, the situation is critical. Instead of being looked after by their children, they are now taking care of their grandchildren. Busisiwe’s situation is typical of many in KwaZulu Natal where grandparents have to look after young children.
“It is so difficult for elderly people to look after young children,” says Anne-Marie Kazungu, HIV/AIDS coordinator for the Richard’s Bay branch of the South Africa Red Cross Society. “Many children have withdrawn from school for several reasons. In some cases, it’s because of a lack of funds to pay school fees, not having good clothes or having to help their grandparents work in the fields,” explains Anne-Marie, adding that some children are hired as cheap labour or even prostitute themselves to support their young siblings.
“We are currently giving out food packs and sometimes blankets and other items to some families but we do not have enough resources to help all the vulnerable families. And this is a drop in the ocean considering that the number of orphans is increasing,” she notes.
“We are concerned about the future of these children. At least if they complete their education, they will be able to look after themselves and other young siblings,” says Anne-Marie, appealing to other partners to come on board to help orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.
The International Federation in southern Africa recently launched an advocacy campaign, under the theme Our Children, Our Future, to scale up support to these children.
“We are concerned about the future viability of some states in Southern Africa, if all stakeholders do not rally to protect and support orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS,” stresses Françoise Le Goff, head of the Federation’s regional delegation in Harare.
She underscores the need for all partners, especially the private sector, governments and other humanitarian organizations, to play a more active role in ensuring that orphans and children made vulnerable by the HIV/AIDS pandemic have access to basic services such as food, health, education, shelter, clothing and protection, to give the entire region a brighter future.
"A silent tsunami is wiping away an entire generation, leaving millions of children at risk. It is imperative for all partners to come together in support of this cause. If we do not do something today, we will lose the administrators, business leaders, workers and customers of tomorrow. We have to start investing in these children now," she adds.
It is estimated that there are more than 4,132,000 children orphaned by AIDS
in the ten countries in which the Red Cross Societies of southern Africa
operate, one quarter of whom are in South Africa. This figure is expected to
double by 2010.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of
Reuters. ]
By Terry FrielFri Jul 15, 8:10 AM ET
Niram Sharma is 28, jobless and dying. He says he is lucky.
For, unlike Niram, most of the new friends he has made at HIV/AIDS support groups in this bustling Indian trading town can't afford the medicine that could give them 10 to 15 more years of life.
The cost? Just 1,300 rupees ($29.85) a month -- less than one cup of coffee every two days in London or New York.
"I come from a good family, so I can afford this medicine, but my heart cries for the other people," he says, speaking rapidly in his passion. "Many are dying because they are too poor. Poverty is a big problem up here."
With India's 5-million-plus HIV/AIDS patients rivaling the world's AIDS capital, South Africa, its cheap drug industry has pioneered low-cost treatment, bringing the price down from $200-$300 a month a decade ago.
But it is still too much for many sufferers here, some living on less than $1 a day -- if they are lucky and their employer has not found out they are infected and thrown them out.
The official infection rate in the world's second most populous country is less than 0.1 percent, compared with 30 percent in some African countries.
VICTIMS BLACKMAILED
But India's poor healthcare and rampant disease mean many die of other causes without them, or anyone else, ever knowing they are infected.
Many shy away from government hospitals, where reporting new infections is compulsory. But then that leaves them prey to blackmail, with many clinics faking results or demanding money not to mention real positive results.
It has been two years since Niram found out he was HIV-positive -- most likely from homosexual sex a decade ago -- at a routine physical for a job at a hotel in Dubai.
"I had gone with a dream to make my fortune," he says. "When I found out, I felt I would die the next day."
Now he spends his time supporting other sufferers and trying to make people listen to their plight.
"We have been asking for help from the government, but our voice does not carry," he says. "We are doing a lot of the work ourselves."
Two of those he helps are "Rupak" and "Rupa" who don't want their real names used because they don't want neighbors in their small rice-growing village to find out what is really wrong with them.
Even their four children, aged 11 to 22, don't know.
"It's a very social thing," says Rupak. "You never know how they would react, what they would think of us.
"The disease is there, but the problem is when someone knows, then their behavior is quite bad. What have we done? Don't we deserve a normal life as well?"
Indian officials say the government's awareness campaign is paying off with a big drop in the number of new infections. But AIDS activists say numbers are actually increasing. And rapidly.
In Siliguri's Khalpara red light district, a squalid slum where excrement floats thickly in the open drains, most customers still refuse to use a condom.
On top of the dollar or two for the sex, they throw in 10-15 rupees (23-34 cents) to go without. A condom costs just two rupees.
WAITING TO DIE
This is a place where the handful of near-empty laneway stalls do not sell food or lollies, just some basic beauty essentials, such as hairbands and shampoo.
Workers from the local group Durbar hand out 10,000 free condoms a month and sell another 11,000 at subsidized prices.
Still, the girls boost their income by selling many of the free ones at the local market rather than using them.
Doctor D. Rudra, who has been working with HIV/AIDS patients in this narrow part of India between Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh for more than a decade, says the most common form of transmission is still unprotected sex.
He is pessimistic and says parts of India will soon lose an entire generation, leaving only grandparents and orphans. He believes AIDS will one day destroy the country's economic boom.
"If this continues, then in one decade India's economy will be nowhere," he says. "The hospitals will be full of AIDS patients.
"The youth are being infected. Once they are infected the country is doomed. And this is going to happen." ($1 = 43.5 rupees)
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press WriterTue Jul 12, 4:34 PM ET
Laura
Bush praised HIV-positive mothers for working to wipe away the stigma
attached to their disease and urged African women to take control of
their sexual lives, talking candidly of sensitive topics Tuesday on her
visit to Africa.
Mrs. Bush's day took her from her luxury hotel in glittering downtown Cape Town a short distance into the extremely poor Khayelitsha township, with its dusty streets and tin-and-tar paper shacks — the site of protests over housing conditions the day before with roads blocked by burning tires.
Her motorcade appeared a curiosity but not a major attraction as it sped through Khayelitsha with screaming police escort. She was greeted exuberantly inside the health complex she was visiting.
Dozens of AIDS-infected mothers — some wearing T-shirts with huge "HIV Positive" logos, many with babies strapped to their backs — danced and ululated as the first lady entered the room, belting out a song of praise for her and America in their native Xhosa.
Mrs. Bush came to the facility to showcase the work done there through The Mothers' Programmes, a private organization that receives some assistance through President Bush's five-year, $15 billion anti-AIDS effort. Mothers who have kept from transmitting AIDS to their own babies are enlisted to coach expectant mothers to the same success.
"This has been very, very moving for me, and very inspirational," Mrs. Bush said, appearing to choke up, "to meet all the different people here, the different mothers who are helping other mothers, who are stripping away the stigma that goes with HIV/AIDS and living positive lives that are an inspiration to everyone."
Of the 400 women who deliver babies at the complex's Khayelitsha Maternity Obstetrics Unit each month, 28 percent of them have the virus that causes AIDS. But treatment at the facility has reduced transmission to their newborns to under 5 percent, said Dr. Keith Cloete, health director for the Western Cape province.
Mrs. Bush's stop in the country with the world's highest number of AIDS cases did not bring all good news. She woke to a report in the local Cape Times newspaper that the number of AIDS sufferers in South Africa has grown. By the end of 2004, there were 6.2 million HIV-positive people out of a population of 47 million, up from 5.3 million a year earlier, according to a new report from the South African health ministry.
Back in Cape Town later in the day, Mrs. Bush spoke with women from several South African groups fighting against rape and domestic violence, a discussion that took several frank turns.
The women described the difficulty of providing effective education about how sexual equality intersects with the AIDS crisis in a country in which men leave their wives to find work in cities where they also find girlfriends, where men often view condom use as too much trouble, where women are treated as second-class citizens when it comes to sex, and where even longtime married couples may never have seen one another naked.
Mrs. Bush, here to advertise a new three-year, $55 million proposal by her husband to provide legal protections for African women victimized by violence and sexual abuse, didn't shy away from the difficult topic.
Saying that reducing sexual abuse and raising women's profile is key to battling AIDS, she urged the women on in their efforts to help women "negotiate their sexual life in a way that protects them and protects their family."
She added: "I like it that you're not leaving the men out. They're a very important part of it."
Wednesday July 13, 04:28 AM
Ira Magaziner, who heads up the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, said Tuesday that the visit to Mozambique, Lesotho, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda would seek to "reinvigorate political will" in those countries for scaling up AIDS treatment programmes.
Clinton will partly be following in the footsteps of US First Lady Laura Bush, who kicked off her own AIDS-related African tour -- taking in South Africa, Tanzania and Rwanda -- in Cape Town on Wednesday.
The Clinton Foundation's work in Africa has concentrated on helping governments design and implement AIDS treatment programmes, with a special focus on children, rural areas and widening access to affordable AIDS drugs.
"The really big challenge is the human resource challenge," Magaziner told reporters in a conference call.
"There is money available, but there needs to be a tremendous development in human resource capability," he said, citing an acute lack of medical staff, including nurses, in countries like Mozambique and Lesotho.
Mozambique, where as many as 1.8 million people are estimated to be HIV positive, will be Clinton's first stop. Magaziner said the foundation had managed to increase the number of people under treatment from just several hundred two years ago to around 12,000 now.
Clinton is expected to meet with political and religious leaders throughout his tour in an effort to break down remaining resistance to expanding AIDS initiatives.
"Most governments now realize that it a very serious problem that needs to be addressed," Magaziner said.
"But the systems and human infrastructure are not in place to respond to a crisis like this. So any resistance is more about competency, organisation and human capacity, rather than political opposition," he added.
While in Tanzania, Clinton will visit the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar where Muslims comprise 95 percent of the population and AIDS sufferers are often stigmatized.
AIDS will be a secondary issue during the South African leg, the main purpose of which is former president Nelson Mandela's birthday, with Clinton scheduled to give a speech at the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
In Kenya, Clinton will meet with President Mwai Kibaki and launch a major pediatric initiative to counter the prevalence of HIV infections among children.
His final stop will be Rwanda, where the number of known infections spiked in 2003, particularly among women -- a result, experts believe, of the multiple rapes that accompanied the 1994 genocide.
According to the United Nations AIDS programme, sub-Saharan Africa is home to more than 60 percent of people around the world living with HIV. In 2004, an estimated 3.1 million people in the region became newly infected.
In the countries where it has direct involvement, the Clinton Foundation aims to get 300,000 people on treatment by the end of this year, with the goal of raising that figure to between one and two million by 2008.