IRIN HIV/AIDS Weekly - 52
Africa
09 November 2001


NEWS

BOTSWANA: PlusNews Interview with Dipuo Bogatsu - Ambassador of Positive
Living
AFRICA: Shortfall in US contribution to Global AIDS Fund
AFRICA: Bracing for WTO summit
AFRICA: New strain of HIV resistant to main drug
UGANDA: CDC donates US $200,000 to Muslim body for MTCT prevention
BOTSWANA: Bridging the HIV/AIDS information/communication gap
ANGOLA: Angolan basic indicators among the worst in the world - SCF

LINKS:
1. Human rights and HIV: A kit of ideas for youth organisers
2. Advocacy guide for HIV/AIDS
3. African Americans' Views of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic

CONFERENCES/RESEARCH:
1. XIV International AIDS Conference - Barcelona, Spain
2. New Zidovudine-Resistant HIV Subtype in Treatment-Naive Patients
3. Confronting AIDS: Public Priorities in a Global Epidemic
4. Information required on AIDS orphans studies and projects

BOTSWANA: PlusNews Interview with Dipuo Bogatsu - Ambassador of Positive
Living

In 1992, Dipuo Bogatsu was diagnosed as being HIV positive. In a country
where more than 35 percent of the population has HIV/AIDS, few people have
publicly disclosed their status and many Batswana believe that HIV/AIDS is
a foreign disease which does not exist in Botswana or is only found in
urban areas. Bogatsu went public with her HIV status in 1993 and since
then, she has attended many conferences locally and internationally
sharing her experiences and encouraging others that there is hope for
people living with HIV/AIDS. She spoke to PlusNews about living positively
with HIV/AIDS in Botswana.

For the interview:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=1114&SelectRegion=Southern
_Africa&SelectCountry=BOTSWANA

AFRICA: Bracing for WTO summit

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has
called on governments participating in next week's World Trade
Organisation (WTO) summit to remember that "humanitarian concerns should
prevail over commercial concerns" in discussions on how to improve access
for the poor to life-saving drugs.

"The time is short but we have to do what we can to ensure that government
representatives discussing the launch of new global trade negotiations are
aware that millions of lives are lost every year because of lack of
affordable access to life-saving medicines," president of the
International Federation, Astrid Heiberg, said in a statement on Monday.

The International Federation said the issue of affordable access to
life-saving drugs was not one for HIV/AIDS patients only. The response to
the anthrax threat has clearly illustrated this with negotiations taking
place from positions of strength to drive down the price of patented
medicine, and open debate about the suspension of patent rights in the
face of a public health emergency.

US health secretary Tommy Thompson won a 50 percent price cut on Bayer's
Anthrax antibiotic Cipro after he threatened last month to break the
company's patent on the drug if it did not drop the price. The debate over
patent rights is expected to reach a peak at the 9-13 November WTO meeting
in Doha, Qatar.

The Federation's statement noted that there is an existing provision in
the TRIPS agreement (WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights) which, in theory, allows countries to
suspend patents when they face national security or public health
emergencies. But, it added, there needs to be greater clarity about how
this can be applied in a way which supports efforts by governments in the
developing world to reduce the death toll from infectious disease. Red
Cross together constitute the International Red Cross and Red Crescent

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported this week that a new debate on
whether poverty or patent laws are the impediments to effective anti-AIDS
action in Africa has emerged. An article published in the Journal of the
American Medical Association (JAMA) has been seized on by both the drug
companies and their opponents to argue their positions.

The JAMA article is co-authored by Dr Amir Attaran, director of
international health research at Harvard University's Center for
International Development and Lee Gillespie-White, the director of the
International Intellectual Property Institute. It reports a study
addressing the 15 recognised antiretroviral drugs for the treatment of
AIDS and the patents by their makers in Africa's 53 countries. Noting that
since only 22 percent of the 795 patents available have been awarded, the
authors conclude that patents cannot be a barrier to the treatment of AIDS
in Africa. If the barrier is not patents, the authors maintain, then it
must be poverty that stands in the way.

AFRICA: Shortfall in US contribution to Global AIDS Fund

The US Senate is expected to contribute $10 million less to the Global
Fund for AIDS than the amount proposed by President George Bush, despite
appeals for much deeper funding, news reports said last week.

The Senate passed a foreign appropriations bill for FY 2002 that includes
US $415 million in international aid for the prevention and treatment of
HIV/AIDS. The aid package earmarks $40 million for the Global Fund for
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria introduced by UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan in June. This amount is in addition to $50 million appropriated to
the fund earlier this fall, and the upcoming Senate Labour appropriations
bill is expected to earmark $100 million for the fund. Altogether, the
Senate is expected to contribute $190 million to the fund next year, $10
million less than the $200 million proposed by Bush in July.

Senators Joseph Biden (Democrat) and Bill Frist (Republican) sought to
increase the fund's allotment to $750 million over the next two years, but
their efforts "have been largely sidelined" by the prioritisation of
security and terrorism issues, Reuters reported. Annan has called for
countries to donate $7 billion to $10 billion to the fund anually.

"If the scale of funding is not greatly increased to approach the $10
billion a year estimated as necessary, the fund will fall far short. And
there is the danger that it could entirely exclude funding for treatment
necessary to save as many as possible of the almost 7,000 Africans dying
every day from AIDS," Salih Boker of the Washington-based Africa Policy
Information Cente said in a statement.

"When lawmakers can quickly find tens of billions of dollars to subsidize
airlines (though not yet workers) and to finance war activities, the
modest $3 billion a year that would be an appropriate US contribution to
the global fund must remain the goal," Boker wrote.

AFRICA: New strain of HIV resistant to main drug

A new type of HIV/AIDS virus can quickly turn resistant to one of the most
effective drugs used to treat the disease. Scientists discovered the new
strain among 603 HIV-positive patients who were infected so recently, they
had not yet even been given drugs.

According to the International Planned Parenthood Federation news service,
the findings of the study suggested that the increase in drug-resistant
forms of HIV was beginning to take root with a strain that had an in-built
capacity to resist treatment with AZT, the principal anti-AIDS treatment.

Although drug-resistant strains of HIV were discovered in 1992 they were
almost invariably found in patients having treatment with one or more AIDS
drugs. While drug resistance has been seen in HIV-infected patients
before, it has seldom been seen in untreated patients, the report said.

UGANDA: CDC donates US $200,000 to Muslim body for MTCT prevention

The US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has donated $200,000 to the
Islamic Medical Association of Uganda (IMAU) for the prevention of mother
to child transmission of HIV/AIDS in communities, the New Vision newspaper
reported.

The US ambassador, Martin Brennan, announced the donation during the
International Muslim Leader' Consultation Conference on AIDS which opened
in Kampala last week. The five-day conference, co-sponsored by the US
government, brought together Muslim leaders from 20 countries across the
globe, the report said. The conference, code named 'jihad on AIDS' ended
on Sunday.

"The consultation will provide the international Muslim community with an
opportunity to share best practices in preventing HIV/AIDS," the CDC said
in a statement. Brennan revealed that the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) was working on a programme to give out
seed grants of between $5,000 to $8,000 for faith-based activities focused
on the care for people affected by HIV/AIDS, the report said.

BOTSWANA: Bridging the HIV/AIDS information/communication gap

The Harare-based regional AIDS awareness organisation SAfAIDS conducted a
"strategic communications workshop" for NGO information officers and media
practitioners in Botswana last month. The initiative arose out of
recommendations by media partners on the need for improved NGO-media
relationships to "promote accurate, sustained communication and coverage
of HIV/AIDS", SAfAIDS said in a statement.

For the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=1112&SelectRegion=Africa&S
electCountry=BOTSWANA

ANGOLA: Angolan basic indicators among the worst in the world - SCF

The impact of Angola's long war and a lack of investment in social
services have had a devastating impact on the country's children, with
basic indicators continuing to be "among the worst in the world", Save the
Children Fund says in its latest emergency update. Quoting UN statistics,
the Fund said one in every three Angolan children died before the age of
five, one mother in every 50 died while giving birth, 42 percent of all
Angolan children were underweight for their age and less than half ever
went to school.

In the next year, SCF plans to invest additional resources to establish a
response to HIV/AIDS. The national HIV sero-prevalence is estimated to be
between 3 and 5 percent in the adult population. "This information leaves
many important questions unanswered, such as whether a difference exists
between urban and rural settings. Studies reveal relatively high levels of
knowledge about HIV in Luanda but little corresponding behaviour changes.
Outside of Luanda, levels of knowledge are poor," the report noted.

For the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=1113&SelectRegion=Southern
_Africa&SelectCountry=ANGOLA

LINKS:

1. Human rights and HIV: A kit of ideas for youth organisers The kit from
UNAIDS presents ideas for youth organisations on human rights and
HIV/AIDS. It was prepared in consultation with various youth
organisations.
http://www.unaids.org/publications/documents/human/JC651-HumRights-Linked-
E.pdf

2. Advocacy guide for HIV/AIDS from IPPF (International Planned Parenthood
Association Federation) outlines what advocacy can do, often at little
cost, in the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Produced for any NGO working in
HIV/AIDS, the guide is aimed at helping groups to influence governments to
change policy and law as well as reaching the private sector and community
leaders who have a critical role in prevention and care efforts.
http://www.ippf.org/hivaids/advocacyguide/index.htm

3. African Americans' Views of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic at 20 Years: Findings
from a National Survey
http://www.kff.org/content/2001/3183/

CONFERENCES/RESEARCH:

1. Conference registration and abstract submission for the XIV
International Conference on AIDS is now available online.  The theme of
this year's conference, scheduled to take place in Barcelona, Spain July
7-12, 2001, is "Knowledge and Commitment for Action."  The theme is
intended to reinforce the need for all involved sectors at all levels,
including scientists, the community, people working in the field, and the
public and private sectors, to work together to review the knowledge
gained through science and experience and use this knowledge to commit to
action. For more information visit http://www.aids2002.com

2. CDC Researchers Identify New Zidovudine-Resistant HIV Subtype in
Treatment-Naive Patients - CDC researchers have identified a new strain of
HIV that is zidovudine-resistant and may "compromise the efficacy of
antiretroviral therapy," according to a study published in the Nov. 6
issue of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.
http://report.kff.org/hivaids/#5

3. Confronting AIDS: Public Priorities in a Global Epidemic - a World Bank
report which concludes that with approximately 90 percent of all HIV
infections occurring in developing countries, more intensive government
prevention efforts, especially among people who have many sex partners or
inject drugs, could save millions of lives and reduce the severe economic
and social costs of the epidemic.
http://www.worldbank.org/aids-econ/confront/index.htm

4. Veronique Goblet, a medical anthropologist working as freelance
consultant in Africa, is compiling a literature review on AIDS orphans
projects and qualitative and/or quantitative studies. She would be
grateful for any help in identifying any Nigerian projects or studies
involved in this area. Email: verogoblet@yahoo.com

Veronique Goblet
Email: verogoblet@yahoo.com[ENDS]

PlusNews is produced under the banner of RHAIN, the Southern African
Regional HIV/AIDS Information Service. RHAIN's members currently include:
UNAIDS-ICT/ESA, IRIN, SAfAIDS, PANOS, Health Systems Trust, Health &
Development Networks, GTZ/Afronets

IRIN-AIDS
Tel: +27-11 880 4633
Fax: +27-11 447 5472
Email: AIDS@irin.org.za


IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za

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