IRIN HIV/AIDS Weekly - 54
Africa
23 November 2001


NEWS:

AFRICA: Global Fund "betrays people with AIDS"
KENYA: HIV/AIDS patients fight for healthcare
ETHIOPIA: New radio show encourages HIV/AIDS prevention
SOUTH AFRICA: Activists call for AIDS drugs
BOTSWANA: Home-based care hailed as a success
RWANDA: UNFPA proposes US $7 million for reproductive health

LINKS:

1. CORE - Communities Responding to the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
2. World AIDS Day webcasts

CONFERENCES/RESEARCH:

1. Update on HIV-related opportunistic infections
2. Bank of Ghana HIV/AIDS Preventive Education Programme
3. Study - HIV/AIDS Virus Seeks Cholesterol

JOB OPPORTUNITIES:

1. Contract Award
2. AMREF - Country Director (Uganda)

AFRICA: Global Fund "betrays people with AIDS"

Activists from 10 countries gathered in Brussels to meet with Global Fund
board members to demand funding for AIDS drugs, including antiretrovirals,
a joint NGO statement on Friday said.

The activists said that Global Fund decision-makers have already made
clear that funding HIV treatment in poor countries will not be a priority
for the Fund, despite the desperate worldwide need for AIDS drugs, and the
tremendous gap in access to AIDS treatment that spurred the creation of
the Global Fund by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in April, 2001.

"The Global AIDS TB and Malaria Fund is turning into a slow, under-funded
bureaucracy that will not be able to produce results.
Twenty-seven-thousand people will die today because they lack access to
affordable treatment for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria," Zackie Achmat of
the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa was quoted as saying.

"What we're seeing here is a betrayal of what the Fund was invented for in
the first place. Rich countries cannot be allowed to simply sentence 30
million people with HIV to death because they prefer to focus on cheaper
diseases," said Evan Ruderman of the Health GAP Coalition. "There is no
reason for the Fund to wait to deliver vital medicines and start turning
the tide while global comprehensive plans guidelines are developed over
the next year."

The proposals being debated by the Global Fund board members fail to
address proposals for treatment programs, or for the procurement or
distribution of medicines. A concrete proposal that NGOs are making is for
the Fund to start saving lives now, by putting vital HIV drugs into the
hands of qualified field organisations through procurement and delivery
systems already housed within UN agencies, the statement added.

"Hospitals, clinics and workplaces in the field can immediately scale up
effective treatment and care if they are given the HIV/AIDS drugs they can
not afford," said Joseph Essombo, an AIDS doctor with the Ivory Coast
Bouake Health Network.

"The fund must prioritise programs that quickly put critical medicines
into the hands of the suffering," said Pearl Nwashili of Stop AIDS in
Nigeria. "But the donor countries seem perfectly content that the Global
Fund will not finance programmes to start saving lives now, when 10,000
people with AIDS die each day."

KENYA: HIV/AIDS patients fight for healthcare

When Gladys Wainaina [not her real name], pregnant with her second child,
returned home from a routine visit to her doctor in 1999 she found her
husband had left home. Knowing her doctor and husband were friends, she
returned to the surgery to ask if the doctor knew her husband's
whereabouts. "He's left for good, don't you know what's wrong with you?"
he said.

Gladys's is just one of the many cases Asunta Wagura, Executive Director
of the Kenya Network of Women with AIDS (KENWA), has dealt with since the
organisation's inception in 1993. Wagura told PlusNews that she had often
had to help HIV-positive women overcome resistance from health workers to
be treated for health problems, both related and unrelated to HIV/AIDS.

For the full story:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=1136&SelectRegion=East_Afr
ica&SelectCountry=KENYA

ETHIOPIA: New radio show encourages HIV/AIDS prevention

A new radio serial drama designed to encourage the youth to protect
themselves from HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies was due to begin airing
in Ethiopia this week, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center
for Communication Programmes (JHU/CCP).

In a statement released this week, the JHU/CCP said that HIV/AIDS had
orphaned more than 700,000 Ethiopian children and more than a million
people had died from the disease.

According to the statement, Journey Through Life is a 26-episode series
that uses the principles of "entertainment-education" to promote healthy
behaviour among the listeners. The programme was designed to appeal to
young married couples and unmarried adolescents in urban and semi-urban
areas of the country, the statement added.

"We are hoping Journey Through Life will help Ethiopians understand just
how easy it is to become infected with the HIV/AIDS virus," Araya
Demissie, country representative in Ethiopia for JHU/CCP, was quoted as
saying. "But we also hope the programme will convey just how easy it is to
protect yourself," she added.

In Journey Through Life, one of the sub-plots involves a husband and wife
becoming ill after the husband has an affair with a prostitute. They soon
discover that the husband contracted HIV/AIDS from the prostitute and they
are both infected. The story also examines the plight of orphans in
Ethiopia, including those orphaned when their parents died of AIDS and
children that are abandoned as a result of unwanted pregnancies.

To find out more about JHU/CCP http://www.jhuccp.org.

SOUTH AFRICA: Activists call for AIDS drugs ahead of court battle

Activists are pushing for AIDS drugs to be made available in the South
African public health sector as soon as possible, ahead of their court
battle with the state next week.

Releasing a statement on Monday calling for the expansion of
antiretroviral use, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) chairman Zackie Achmat
said more than 70 percent of patients at the Red Cross Children's Hospital
in Cape Town had HIV-related illnesses. The statement was endorsed by
scientists, religious bodies, trade unions and AIDS organisations.

According to the statement, the benefits of using anti-retrovirals far
outweigh the risks. Already 20,000 South Africans in the private health
sector have access to antiretrovirals. As prices came down further, it
would become more cost-effective to provide the drugs to all living with
HIV/AIDS, the statement added.

Pilot studies conducted in Johannesburg have shown that the drugs can be
used productively by poor South Africans, with low levels of toxicity.
Last month President Thabo Mbeki said it had been found that
antiretroviral drugs were as dangerous as AIDS. He said the government
refused to provide antiretrovirals in the public health sector because the
drugs were too toxic.

For the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=1135&SelectRegion=Southern
_Africa&SelectCountry=SOUTH_AFRICA

BOTSWANA: Home-based care hailed as a success

The Botswana government's home-based care programme has become an
essential tool in the country's response towards HIV/AIDS, local activists
told PlusNews.

The rapid rate at which AIDS cases have been growing in Botswana has put
pressure on hospitals and other facilities in the health system. The care
of terminally ill patients has created a demand for health care beyond
what the existing facilities can provide. Now there are home-based care
programmes in every district of the country and the initiative has been
hailed as a success by communities and people living with HIV/AIDS.

For the full report:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=1129&SelectRegion=Southern
_Africa&SelectCountry=BOTSWANA


LINKS:

1. (CORE) Initiative - provides assistance to community and faith-based
groups in developing countries. The initiative focuses on awareness
raising and information, education and communication efforts; reducing
stigma and discrimination with respect to persons living with HIV/AIDS;
and enhancing care and support for people infected and affected by
HIV/AIDS.  http://www.corevaluesinitiative.org/

2. Kaisernetwork.org, a free service of the Kaiser Family Foundation, will
webcast World AIDS Day events, Friday, November 30, at
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/worldaidsday/2001: UNAIDS Town Hall Meeting
on the World AIDS Day Campaign theme, "I Care ... Do You?" will focus on
how individuals, particularly young men, can make a difference in the
fight against AIDS (LIVE from 10:00am ET to 1:00pm ET); and AIDS Alliance
for Children, Youth and Families and the Academy for Educational
Development conference, "Youth and HIV/AIDS Prevention Policy:  New
Directions" (Available 5:00pm ET, Friday, November 30)


CONFERENCES/RESEARCH:

1. Update: incidence, diagnosis, and clinical manifestations of
HIV-related opportunistic infections Opportunistic infections continue to
receive attention in terms of their incidence, diagnosis, and clinical
manifestations, writes Henry Masur,MD.
http://hiv.medscape.com/44990.rhtml

2. Bank of Ghana HIV/AIDS Preventive Education Programme launched in May
2001 and planned for a period of 24 months, aims at increasing the
personal risk perception among the staff and their families towards
acquisition of HIV infection and thereby promoting behavioural change.
Various activities have been organised - Lectures / Discussions; Focus
Group Meetings; Posters; Hand Bills; Newsletter; Audio Visuals; One-on-one
or Group Counselling; Hotline Telephone Service; and Drama.
http://www.comminit.com/pds11-2001/sld-3351.html  Contact:
boghivaids@bog.gov.gh

3. Study - AIDS Virus Seeks Cholesterol. When the AIDS virus invades a
cell, it picks a place on the cell's membrane that is rich in cholesterol,
according to a new study at the National Institute of Health.
http://ww2.aegis.org/news/ap/2001/AP011121.html A report on the study
appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
http://www.eurekalert.org


JOB OPPORTUNITIES:

1. Contract Award - The Global AIDS Program of the United States Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) requests proposals for a contract
for the production, management and broadcast of a radio serial drama
promoting HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in Zimbabwe.
http://www.comminit.com/vacancy603.html
Contact Ms. Jamie Legier - JLegier@cdc.gov

2. The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) seeks a Country
Director for Uganda. The candidate Will be primarily responsible for
leading and managing a multi-disciplinary team of professionals in
developing and managing programmes in response to Uganda's national health
priority needs and in line with AMREF's mission.
http://www.comminit.com/vacancy597.html  Contact: Human Resources
Manager - jobs@amrefhq.org
(ref: CD-UG/ HQHR/11.01)


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

[This Item is Delivered to the "PlusNews" HIV/AIDS Service of the UN's
IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the
views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions,
or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001


distributed by
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International Disaster Information
Volunteers in Technical Assistance
                                          web: www.cidi.org
                                     listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
HIV-AIDS Weekly Issue                 www.cidi.org/humanitarian/hivaids