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News (Updated November 20,
2004)
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Sun Nov 14, 2:03 AM ET
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SINGAPORE (AFP) - Despite facing an "alarming AIDS epidemic," Singapore will not go on a publicity blitz to promote condom use out of respect for residents who hold conservative views on sexual behaviour, a minister said.
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"To educate people you don't have to be offensive," Senior Minister of State for Health Balaji Sadasivan was quoted as saying on the website of Channel NewsAsia, a Singapore-based regional broadcaster.
"We must recognise there are conservative people in Singapore and there's no need to say the only way to educate people is to try do it in an in-your-face approach," Balaji said late Saturday.
Balaji warned in an address to medics last week that the number of new AIDS cases in Singapore was doubling every three to four years.
Figures from the World Health Organisation showed an estimated 4,000 Singaporeans had HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, he said. There are about three million Singaporeans living in the city-state and another 1.3 million foreigners.
"If we do not act, by 2010 we may have more than 15,000 HIV persons in Singapore," Balaji said.
"We are facing an alarming AIDS epidemic in Singapore," he said.
He said gay men's unsafe sexual practices were the biggest cause of concern amid the alarming rise in HIV/AIDS infection cases.
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Thu Nov 18,12:10 PM ET
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ARUSHA, Tanzania (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for greater urgency in efforts to provide help for sufferers of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa.
"We must ensure that the resources approved reach the people who need them as soon as possible, and that new resources follow quickly," Annan told the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in a message read out on Wednesday night.
"As a financing instrument, the Fund has to demonstrate, in a decisive fashion, that it can add value to what is already there, that it can attract and disburse new resources rapidly and directly," he said.
The meeting was attended by Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, and Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni.
The Global Fund was set up in 2002 on the basis of an initiative of the G8 group of countries to increase the funds available to fight the diseases and to channel resources towards the regions most in need.
It recently came in for criticism from AIDS activists in Kenya who said the organisation might not launch a new round of funding for poor countries at the end of this year because of financial and organizational troubles.
The Kenya Organisation of People Living with HIV/AIDS (KOPLWA) said that since its inception in 2002, the Fund had been riddled with financing problems and only a fraction of the anticipated funding had actually been disbursed.
In his message to the Global Fund meeting -- read by the head of the UN's programme against AIDS Peter Piot -- Annan said it was "highly appropriate" that the meeting was taking place in Tanzania as Africa was the continent most affected by the diseases.
AIDS is the principal cause of death among Africans while tuberculosis, which has links to AIDS, is on the rise.
Malaria is the main cause of death among Africans under five.
Thursday November 18, 4:18 AM
AIDS and the HIV virus are spreading at an alarming pace in Russia, but the government lacks the political will to combat the epidemic that may claim tens of thousands of lives within the next few years, leading experts warned Wednesday.
"Russia remains among countries with the highest rates of the spread of the AIDS epidemic," Natalia Ladnaya, a senior researcher at the Russian Federal AIDS Center, said at a conference of experts from the United States, Europe and Asia.
Russia has officially registered more than 300,000 HIV-positive people, but experts estimate that the real number is closer to 1.5 million _ about 2 percent of the adult population _ Ladnaya said.
Although the virus used to spread in Russia primarily through intravenous drug use, more than 40 percent of new HIV cases reported this year were young women who were infected through heterosexual intercourse, she said.
Ladnaya warned that the mortality rate from AIDS in Russia is expected to increase significantly, with only 3,000 of the 50,000 HIV-infected people currently receiving the treatment they need.
"In 2005 we won't have the funds to treat more than 10,000 people," Ladnaya said, adding that this estimate included anticipated foreign donations.
But she stressed that even increased funding is not enough to tackle the epidemic, until top Russian officials commit to fighting the spread of the virus. Ladnaya said that state funding for HIV/AIDS research is insufficient and that President Vladimir Putin mentioned AIDS only once in his speeches.
Vadim Pokrovsky, the head of the Federal AIDS Center, had warned earlier as many as 1 million people may die of AIDS in Russia by 2008 if the government fails to take action.
"It is only when high-level officials support the fight (against HIV/AIDS) that it becomes effective," Ladnaya said.
Anneli Uuskula, an AIDS expert at Estonia's University of Tartu, said that society as a whole must address the problem.
"We also need the community and non-governmental organizations to take action in this," Uuskula said.
Experts warned that the spread of HIV/AIDS may also lead to higher rates of tuberculosis. Igor Shemyakin of the State Research Center for Applied Microbiology said HIV-positive patients are 10 to 20 times more likely to develop tuberculosis than those with a healthy immune system.
Researchers should pay special attention to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, when the patient does not react to the most common drugs used to treat the disease, Shemyakin said. In 2003, Russia registered 120,000 new cases of tuberculosis, with another 130,000 people already infected, experts said.
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Fri Nov 19,12:32 PM ET
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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AFP) - More than 400 Ethiopian MPs, almost 80 percent of the country's parliament, have recorded a song in a bid to raise awareness of the problems and dangers of AIDS.
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The song entitled "Find a solution" was recorded in the parliament on Thursday during a session which opened with a talk about AIDS by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
"Out of the 547 members of parliament, some 409 were present to take part in this action to raise awareness of AIDS," said parliament spokeswoman Lamaz Makoneen.
The project was the brainwave of the National Women's Coalition against AIDS, which was set up in June 2003 and includes many of the country's political personalities including Zenawi's wife, Azeb Mesfin.
"It is in our culture to sing at weddings and funerals," said Deputy Information Minister Netsannet Asfaw.
"We thought, if there is a culture of song, why not use it to fight AIDS? And if the highest body in the country has to teach the country about AIDS, then we should sing about it to relay the message."
The deputies all held a candle as they sang along with 10 Ethiopian artists also taking part including Alemayhu Eshete, one of the country's most famous stars.
"Heroism is not just about taking up arms, it is starting the fight against a disease, preparing to die to overcome poverty. Let's live free and independent," says the song written by Ethiopian writer Yelema Gebrehaeb.
Some 2.4 million Ethiopians are affected by AIDS or HIV out of the country's 70 million people, according to the health ministry. International experts have put the figure at closer to three million.
The song is also due to be recorded in English as a CD to mark World AIDS Day on December 1.
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Thu Nov 18, 2:07 PM ET
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ZAGREB (AFP) - An association of Croatian gays demanded the legalisation of prostitution to prevent AIDS and human trafficking.
"It is important to legalize prostitution in order to better fight against the possible spread of AIDS," the Iskorak association said in a statement.
According to official statistics there are some 430 Croatians with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, but the actual number is estimated at some 700 out of a population of 4.4 million.
The association also said human trafficking needed to tackled more forcefully by the authorities.
"Criminal law bans human trafficking but, unfortunately, the law is not applied," Iskorak said.
"Until now only women selling sexual services, who are at the same time victims of violence and human trafficking, have been punished."
The group released its statement after the death of a young Ukrainian prostitute in neighbouring Bosnia who was suffering from AIDS, syphilis, tuberculosis and hepatitis C.
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19 Nov 2004 11:26:31 GMT
Source: Reuters |
A court sentenced Hans-Otto Schiemann, 56-year-old former sailor, to two months in jail for overstaying his visa as Thailand had no law to punish him for having unprotected sex, lawyer Warinporn Hongchumpae said.
"The court ruled that he had to be jailed for 58 days, which he has already completed while awaiting a court verdict," Warinporn, who was appointed by the provincial court, 340 km (210 miles) northeast of Bangkok, to represent him, told Reuters.
Schiemann, a native of Schweinfurt in Bavaria who had been living in the province for 10 years, was arrested in September and would be taken to Bangkok for deportation, she said.
Deliberate transmission of the AIDS virus is a crime in many Western countries and the majority of U.S. states. A Texan who knew he was HIV-positive was sentenced to life in prison in 2003 for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy.
However, in many developing countries, including those in southeast Asia where AIDS and commercial sex are rife, effective legislation to address the problem has not been passed.
Schiemann, who launched a tirade of abuse against Thai women and called them "witches" and "monkeys," refused a prison blood test to confirm his HIV status, but admitted to reporters last month he had HIV.
He said he had done nothing wrong.
