News (Updated September 20,
2004)
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BEIJING, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The Chinese province hardest hit by AIDS and the
scene of botched blood-selling schemes in the 1990s has launched a mass survey
to determine the extent of the epidemic, with 25,000 AIDS/HIV sufferers found so
far.
More than 500,000 officials and specialists launched the survey in the
central province of Henan in late July, the official Health News said.
China says it has 840,000 HIV/AIDS cases, but experts say at least one
million poor farmers were infected in Henan alone as a result of blood sales.
The United Nations says the number of AIDS sufferers nationwide could rise to
10 million if the epidemic is not treated seriously.
"In a bid to make money, people in the central China province, mostly
farmers, sold their blood to illegal blood stations and individuals," the
China Daily said on Monday.
"Tragically, many got more than they bargained for, contracting the
deadly HIV virus. The equipment used to take blood was not sterilised."
China passed a law last month banning the blood trade, in a bid to halt the
spread of AIDS.
The China Daily said the survey had so far documented 21,703 HIV carriers in
Henan who became infected "after selling blood at illegal and unsanitary
blood stations" in the 1990s.
Total HIV/AIDS cases in Henan have reached 25,036, more than 97 percent of
them from rural areas.
| Wednesday September 15, 03:23 PM |
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DELHI (AFP) - India is sitting on top of a "grave, ticking HIV/AIDS
timebomb," an international funding agency warned, labelling
official estimates of 5.1 million infections as
"conservative."
"The HIV/AIDS epidemic in India is extremely grave," Richard
Feacham, executive director of Geneva-based Global Fund to fight AIDS,
TB and Malaria, told reporters in New Delhi.
"It is a grave, ticking timebomb ... the Indian epidemic will be
huge if the response is not accelerated," he warned.
Commenting on official figures which put the number of infected in
India at 5.1 million last year, Feacham said these were
"conservative estimates based on limited data."
According to India's National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), India
ranks second behind South Africa which has 5.3 million people living
with HIV or AIDS.
India recorded 520,000 new HIV cases in 2003, down from 610,000 in
2002, NACO said in its report released July, adding that the drop in new
infections in 2003 was proof that its anti-AIDS approach was working.
But Feacham, whose Global Fund has so far approved 265 million
dollars since 2002 to combat AIDS in India, said the country still
lacked effective AIDS detection and surveillance mechanisms.
"There are large gaps in AIDS surveillance in India. So how can
you say there are only 5.1 million infections ?" he asked, adding:
"The India epidemic is on the African trajectory ... it is only 10
or 15 years behind.
"The full recognition of the challenge is not there,"
Feacham said adding he would take up the issue with Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and others during his
three-day visit here.
He also urged Indian industry and civil society to add their efforts
to supplement government action to halt the march of the disease.
"Civil society organisations bring in additional and innovative
support to the work that is already being done by the national AIDS
control program," he said.
"We would also like to see speedy utilisation of the resources
committed to India," Feacham said adding: "Delayed utilisation
means putting many more lives at risk, many more lives lost." |
| Thursday September 16, 02:29 PM |
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SHANGHAI (AFP) - AIDS in Asia could spread from high-risk groups to
the general public and trigger a worsening crisis unless immediate
measures are taken, the World Health Organization warned
"The epidemic is still increasing in many countries," Shigeru
Omi, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, told a WHO
conference on Thursday.
"Most countries in the region have low HIV prevalence but
increasing HIV infections in sex workers and injecting drug users,
coupled with high prevalence of sexually transmitted infections and
high-risk sexual behaviour, implies a great potential of HIV spread to
the general populations."
The WHO estimates at least 1.5 million people in the Western Pacific
region are living with HIV/AIDS, with China accounting for two thirds of
the number.
Data also indicates HIV infections in sex workers and intravenous
drug users were increasing in several countries.
In China, rates of HIV prevalence in intravenous drug users range
from 20 percent in southern Guangdong province to as high as 89 percent
in the western autonomous region of Xinjiang.
Omi urged WHO member countries quickly to set up monitoring programs
in areas where HIV transmission was clearly taking place.
"Prevention strategies need to be actively promoted," Omi
said. "The ideal time for action is now to avoid a major
epidemic."
The WHO warned that if immediate action was not taken many countries
risked collapsing their national health systems and undermining the
economic, social and political gains they have made.
On a global scale, as of July 2004, six million people with AIDS were
in need of anti-retroviral therapy, but only 440,000 had access to such
treatment, according to WHO figures.
In the Western Pacific region only 15,000, or fewer than 10 percent
of the estimated 170,000 AIDS patients in need, were receiving the
drugs.
At the same time, social stigma surrounding the disease remained a
major stumbling block to reducing further infection.
"Drug use and sex work are often regarded as social evils,"
Omi said.
"Such stigmas inhibit effective HIV prevention and care, and as
long as they remain, the epidemic will continue to grow and push the
crisis further."
Transmission of HIV/AIDS and other infections such as hepatitis B and
C through blood transfusion remains a serious threat, Omi said.
"High priority should be given to the elimination of paid blood
donor systems, which are often associated with significantly higher
prevalence of transfusion-transmissible infections than voluntary
systems.
"Although some progress has been made in some countries, we
still have a long way to go to reach the goal of blood safety,"
said Omi.
|
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - California health
authorities have slapped heavy fines on two pornography studios accused of
allowing actors to perform unsafe sex, in the first such crackdown on the
industry, officials said.
The fines were imposed six months after an outbreak of HIV, the virus that
leads to AIDS, among four porn actors that prompted a temporary shutdown of
adult film production in the world's biggest adult film hub.
The California Occupation Safety and Health Administration said it had
imposed penalties of 30,560 dollars each on two San Fernando Valley producers
that allegedly exposed actors to the risk of HIV.
"We received a complaint which stated that at least three employees
working for these companies had been exposed to HIV on production," said
the organisation's Susan Gard.
"(Our fines) are based on a safety regulation that states that law
requires employers to protect workers who are exposed to blood or bodily fluids
on the job," she said.
"Any bodily fluid could be infectious, this means employers have to
protect employees."
The two companies targeted were Evasive Angles and TTB Productions, which
have 15 days to appeal the eight citations.
The citations also accuse the companies of failing to notify authorities
about actors who contracted HIV on the job, as the law requires.
Health officials have been urging adult film producers to force actors to
practice safe sex during filming by wearing condoms, but most of the 200 or so
adult film companies in southern California have been loath to comply.
"We started an investigation then and we will go on investigating,"
Gard warned the porn industry.
| Monday September 13, 07:56 PM
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JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - A South African AIDS lobby group is taking President
Thabo Mbeki's government to court to force it to make public its targets and
timetable for rolling out free anti-retrovirals, a lawyer said.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which won a landmark ruling ordering the
government to offer free anti-AIDS drugs to pregnant women in mid-2002, is to
present its case to the Pretoria High Court on November 2, lawyer Fatima Hassan
said.
"We are basically going to court to demand the release of an (annexed
document) to the government's ARV national rollout plan which details timelines
and patient targets," said Hassan.
"It's a public document and since February we have been trying to get
the government to release it," she told AFP.
South Africa has one of the highest AIDS rates in the world with UNAIDS
estimating that 5.3 million people, or one in every nine, are infected.
Mbeki's government started the year with the continent's biggest and most
ambitious AIDS treatment programmes.
But a few months later, only around 10,000 AIDS sufferers were getting free
drugs.
Cabinet announced in November 2003 that it had approved a national treatment
plan for AIDS sufferers that would be accessible to 53,000 people by March of
this year.
But the government only started the rollout in April.
Mbeki said earlier government hoped to reach the target by March next year
although AIDS activists are skeptical that it will be reached.
The programme was also hampered by a shortage of drugs as the pharmaceutical
industry battled to keep up with demands.
Hospitals participating in the national ARV roll-out programme were told by
the health ministry to make sure they had enough supplies before enrolling new
patients.
The looming legal clash is the latest in a long line of showdowns between
government and the TAC.
In mid-2002 South Africa's Constitutional Court forced government to give
ARV's to all HIV-positive pregnant women, following a case brought by the TAC in
2001. |
Europe's social and economic stability is being seriously threatened by
the Aids epidemic, warn experts.
Some 1.8 million people in Europe and Central Asia have HIV, according to
the Joint UN Programme on HIV/Aids and the World Health Organization.
Both say the epidemic continues to spread unchecked and that European
governments need to act now.
The European Union has a "prime opportunity" to work together
to save thousands of people, the experts say.
Crippling Europe
Dr Jack Chow, WHO's assistant director-general, HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis
and Malaria, said: "Building effective partnerships is key to make a
significant and sustainable contribution towards proactively addressing the
HIV/Aids epidemic in Europe.
"Countries of the newly enlarged European Union now have a prime
opportunity to convert their commitment into concrete action and programmes
against Aids."
He and colleagues will outline the scale of the problem at the European
Ministerial conference on Aids, hosted by the Government of Lithuania and
the European Commission, taking place on 16-17 September in Vilnius.
In Western Europe, deaths from Aids have declined due to the availability
of HIV treatment.
But infection rates have continued to rise from 540,000 people living
with HIV in Western Europe in 2001 to 580,000 by end 2003.
WHO and UNAIDS blame waning government commitments to prevention efforts
and "complacency" linked to the availability of treatment.
In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, it is estimated about 15,000 people
currently receive antiretroviral therapy out of 120,000 who need it.
The high cost of the drugs is a persistent barrier, say WHO and UNAIDS.
Lars O Kallings, special envoy of the UN Secretary-General for HIV/AIDS
in Eastern Europe, said: "Given that 80% of those infected in Eastern
Europe are young people, there is an urgent need for a massive and
comprehensive response to reduce the vulnerability of young people and
empower them to become active partners in the fight against Aids.
"If no action is taken, we will be faced with a larger Aids epidemic
that risks crippling the region's social and economic development and
undermining national security," he said.
Thomas Yocum from the Terrence Higgins Trust said: "The speed with
which the HIV epidemic is growing in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is
alarming, and it is essential that governments across the world continue to
provide leadership and support in the fight against HIV.
"With the information and experience which already exists in helping
to prevent HIV transmission, it would be a tragedy if we did not incorporate
the things that we have already learned in other parts of the world which
have been heavily impacted by the virus.
"Experience has shown us what we need to do - what we need now is
the leadership to make it happen."
A Kenyan woman, who says she was sacked for being HIV-positive, has won
the right to sue for alleged discrimination - the first such case in Kenya.
A high court judge ruled on Thursday that there was a "reasonable
cause of action" and the case could go ahead.
The waitress worked for a catering firm for eight years, before allegedly
being dismissed due to her HIV status.
She also wants compensation from the doctor and the hospital which
allegedly revealed her test result without her consent.
'Mould attitudes'
The woman, known as JAO, says her constitutional right to privacy has
been violated, Kenya's Daily Nations newspaper reports.
Defence lawyers say the waitress was sacked not because of her HIV
status, but because of prolonged absence from work.
The woman's employers say they were not informed about her medical
report.
But Justice Murugi Mugo said the case should proceed given the
"universality of the HIV/Aids pandemic".
Its outcome may mould attitudes and public policy and avoid
"discriminatory tendencies", she said.
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