Kaisernetwork.org (Washington, DC)
3 October 2007
Politics and Policy
Malaysia Expected To Achieve Millennium Development Goals on HIV/AIDS, Deputy PM Says
[Oct 03, 2007]
Malaysia is on track to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goals on curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS by the end of the decade, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said Monday in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Malaysia's New Straits Times reports. According to Razak, based on the country's plan to expand "harm reduction" programs to 25,000 injection drug users, it is "projected that either by 2009 or 2010" the country should see "positive results" and achieve the MDGs. The government's harm reduction program includes methadone treatment, needle-exchange programs and access to antiretroviral treatment in prisons, Razak said (New Straits Times, 10/2).
There are about 75,000 HIV-positive people living in Malaysia, 70% of whom are IDUs. The government has said that transmission through heterosexual sex is increasing and has noted a trend of increasing HIV incidence among women in the country. Current efforts to combat the spread of the disease have targeted IDUs, commercial sex workers and men who have sex with men (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/22).
According to the Times, the government this year has allocated 14.4 million Malaysian ringgit, or about $4.2 million, for methadone treatment programs and seven million ringgit, or about $2 million, for needle-exchange programs (New Straits Times, 10/2). The government plans to increase the number of people receiving methadone treatment under the program from 5,000 to 25,000 by 2010, Razak said. He added that the program has enabled 66% of HIV-positive IDUs to maintain permanent jobs and about 25% to do general work after one year of treatment (Xinhua/People's Daily, 10/2).
Health Minister Chua Soi Lek recently said that the government has set aside 300 million ringgit, or about $88 million, to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in the next three years (New Straits Times, 10/2).
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Global Challenges
UNICEF HIV/AIDS Office Head Kolker Expresses Concern Over Ugandan President Museveni's Comments on AIDS-Related Deaths, Treason
[Oct 03, 2007]
Jimmy Kolker, head of UNICEF's HIV/AIDS office, on Friday said that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's comments earlier in the week comparing AIDS-related deaths to treason could lead to stigma and discrimination against people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS, Uganda's Monitor/AllAfrica.com reports.
Museveni on Sept. 24 during a speech to officials from 12 Ugandan universities said of a person who contracts HIV, "Instead of being an asset, you become a burden. ... And afterwards, they announce that [the person] has died after a very long illness ... is that not treason?" According to the Monitor, treason is a capital offense punishable by death in Uganda.
Kolker, who previously has served as assistant U.S. global AIDS coordinator and U.S. ambassador to Uganda, in a Sept. 28 e-mail to the Monitor said it is important to ensure Museveni's comments "do not contribute to stigma, misunderstanding and divisions." Kolker recognized Museveni's earlier efforts to fight HIV/AIDS in the country but added, "We need him (Museveni) to remain a spokesman for the positive messages needed to prevent AIDS and mobilize people to continue the fight for the affected."
According to the Monitor/AllAfrica.com, under Museveni's leadership, HIV prevalence in Uganda has decreased from a double-digit percentage in the early 1990s to 6.4% currently because the government instituted the ABC HIV prevention model -- which stands for abstinence, be faithful and use condoms -- and other measures. HIV/AIDS advocates in the country have not publicly responded to Museveni's comments (Butagira, Monitor/AllAfrica.com, 10/1).
Related Opinion Piece
Will Museveni's comments cause "all the time spent raising awareness around HIV/AIDS and fight stigma" to go "down the drain?" the Rev. Amos Kasibante, coordinating chaplain at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, asks in a Monitor opinion piece. Kasibante writes that there are other "medical and nonmedical conditions" that could cause people to become a "burden" -- such as high blood pressure, cancer, stroke and a "whole host of things." He adds, "If we can stretch treason without limit, should we also not accuse other groups of treason?" (Kasibante, Monitor, 10/1).
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Media & Society
Nelson Mandela To Host Fifth International Concert To Raise Awareness About HIV/AIDS on World AIDS Day in Johannesburg
[Oct 03, 2007]
Former South African President Nelson Mandela on Monday announced that the fifth international concert of his "46664" HIV/AIDS awareness campaign will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Dec. 1, to mark World AIDS Day, AFP/Google.com reports (AFP/Google.com, 10/1).The 46664 campaign -- named for Mandela's prison number during his nearly 20-year incarceration -- has staged several rock concerts to benefit the campaign. The first 46664 concert was held in Cape Town, South Africa, in December 2003 (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/19/05).
Tim Massey, international director for the campaign, said about $3 million has been raised through the concerts. About 30 to 35 international and local artists are scheduled to perform at the Johannesburg concert, and it is expected to attract a crowd of more than 50,000 people, the AP/Google.com reports. The performers will be announced later this month. The concerts' funds go toward raising awareness about HIV/AIDS among youth (Jacobson, AP/Google.com, 10/1).
"I am very delighted that we are engaging the youth in schools, communities and through the media breaking the silence and stigmas around HIV and AIDS and making them realize that the power to beat the pandemic lies in their own hands," Mandela said (BBC News, 10/1). He added, "The 46664 campaign has done great work in putting the global spotlight" on HIV/AIDS, and it "will continue to use celebrities from the world of music, sports and entertainment to speak to the youth about the disease." Massey said, "We are trying to make this concert something very different. This is going to be the greatest concert yet"(AP/Google.com, 10/1).
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Across The Nation
Black AIDS Institute Executive Director Discusses HIV Prevalence Among Blacks at Town Hall Meeting
[Oct 03, 2007]
"When nearly half of the estimated 1.2 million Americans living with HIV/AIDS are black, AIDS in America today is a black disease," Phil Wilson, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Black AIDS Institute, said last week at a town hall meeting at Meharry Medical College, Tennessean columnist Dwight Lewis writes. The town hall meeting was part of a two-day event, "Bringing Ethics to Life in Human Subjects Research: A Case Approach," sponsored by Meharry, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and FDA.
According to Wilson, "Black people make up 12% of the nation's population, but they represent 54% of the new HIV/AIDS cases in America." He added, "Sixty-seven percent of the new HIV/AIDS [cases] among American women are black, 42% of the new cases among men are black, and nearly 70% of the new cases among American youth [ages 13 to 21] are black."
He said young people are "being infected because they're sexually active," adding, "No one is taking the time to provide the tools and information they need to protect themselves." Wilson called for every "black institution, from the faith to the educational to businesses to medical institutions to entertainment to fraternal to civil rights" and "anybody who presumably cares about black people" to talk about HIV/AIDS. He said there is a "whole generation of young people who don't know a world without AIDS, and we're the ones who need to do whatever we can to help eliminate this disease" (Lewis, Tennessean, 9/30).
A report from the Black AIDS Institute on the state of HIV/AIDS in the black community is available online (.pdf).
Multimedia Coverage
NPR's "Tell Me More" on Monday included an excerpt of a panel discussion from the event that was moderated by "Tell Me More" host Michel Martin. Panelists included Pamela-Stefanie Brown, director of the NAACP College & Youth Division; Justin Smith, a Congressional Black Caucus project coordinator; Kurt Thomas, an HIV/AIDS advocate; Quentin James, president of the South Carolina NAACP College & Youth Division; and Hill Harper, an HIV/AIDS activist and actor. The segment also has comments from Wilson and Rodney McCoy, a counselor at the Whitman-Walker Clinic (Martin, "Tell Me More," NPR, 10/1).
Audio of the segment and an expanded broadcast of the panel discussion are available online.
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Opinion
U.S. Faces 'Ocean of Need' in Combating HIV/AIDS in Africa, Opinion Piece Says
[Oct 03, 2007]
Global efforts to treat HIV-positive people in Africa have increased "massively," but there is still "an ocean of need," Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson writes in an opinion piece. According to Gerson, the U.S. has taken an "undeniable ... leadership" role in providing funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, but even countries that have reduced new infections remain "overwhelmed by the demand for treatment." About 25% of people who need antiretroviral drugs in sub-Saharan Africa are receiving them, Gerson notes.
According to Gerson, there is "no doubt" that, "short of an effective" HIV/AIDS vaccine, prevention is the long-term solution to the HIV/AIDS pandemic; however, HIV prevention "depends largely on changed sexual behavior, which is much more complicated than an operation or a pill." Increasing HIV testing "is difficult to promote if AIDS is a death sentence," Gerson writes, adding, "Treatment and prevention, in the end, cannot be separated." The "goal" of universal access to treatment seems "morally unavoidable," Gerson writes, adding that defeating HIV/AIDS will require "major new efforts in prevention" and "moving toward universal treatment" (Gerson, Washington Post, 10/3).
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