Kaisernetwork.org (Washington, DC)
6 June 2008
Bush Calls on G8 Countries To Deliver on Promise To Increase HIV/AIDS Funding at Ground Breaking of U.S. Institute of Peace
[Jun 06, 2008]
President Bush on Thursday called on the Group of Eight industrialized nations to deliver on pledges to increase funding for HIV/AIDS and other disease efforts in Africa during a ground breaking ceremony for the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., the Washington Post reports.
Bush said he plans to challenge G8 countries to follow through on their commitments to increase funding for efforts to fight HIV/AIDS and malaria in July at the G8 summit in Japan. Bush at the ceremony said the U.S. and other wealthy countries should "strengthen the institutions of freedom" by funding health efforts in developing countries, providing security and helping to end conflict (Abramowitz, Washington Post, 6/6).
According to AFP/Google.com, the G8 ended its June 2007 summit in Germany by pledging $60 billion to combat HIV, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa, $30 billion of which already had been pledged by the U.S. (AFP/Google.com, 6/5). The countries did not set a time line for disbursing the funds, which raised questions about the seriousness of the commitment, Reuters reports. According to a White House spokesperson, the U.S. is up-to-date on its share of the funding pledged at the 2007 summit.
"At the last G8 [summit], our partners stood up and made strong commitments to help Africa deal with malaria and HIV/AIDS. They have yet to make good on their commitments," Bush said. He added that it is "one thing to make a promise; it's another thing to write the check. The American government expects our partners to live up to their obligations" (Pelofsky, Reuters, 6/5).
Link to this story.
HIV/AIDS Major Security Threat to Military Forces, Ugandan General Says at Implementers' Conference
[Jun 06, 2008]
HIV/AIDS is a major security threat to the military, Ugandan Gen. Katumba Wamala, commander of the country's Land Forces, said recently at the 2008 HIV/AIDS Implementers' Meeting in Kampala, Uganda, the New Vision/AllAfrica.com reports. "A combat enemy is easy to deal with," Wamala said, adding, "You can know what kind of weapon he is using; you can even know the capabilities that he has. But with AIDS, it is a different cup of tea." According to Wamala, HIV/AIDS "affects the most important military resource: the personnel."
Although the United Nations Security Council in 2002 passed a resolution that declared HIV/AIDS a security threat and called for immediate action, Wamala said that the security implications of the disease has not received much attention worldwide. According to several soldiers who spoke at the meeting, a primary cause for the spread of HIV among armed forces is their involvement in peacekeeping missions. "When you are in a war, it becomes difficult to appreciate the real threat" of HIV/AIDS, Lt. Col. Stephen Kusasira, HIV/AIDS program director for the Uganda's People Defense Force, said. He added, "If you tell a man on the battle field to wear a condom, he will ask you how long you expect him to live." Several rights advocates also expressed concern about the policy of some militaries to screen recruits for HIV before admission. Some soldiers said that such policies are necessary because of the demanding nature of training and combat (Among, New Vision/AllAfrica.com, 6/6).
Link to this story.
Global Business Coalition To Award Nine Companies for Efforts To Fight HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria
[Jun 06, 2008]
The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Monday will award nine companies for their efforts to fight the three diseases among employees, South Africa's Business Day reports. The coalition is a group of 220 companies worldwide that aim to address HIV, TB and malaria in the workplace.
The South African company Xstrata Coal will receive an award for its work in developing a public-private partnership with the health and social services department in Mpumalanga, South Africa, to improve HIV services at clinics in communities where the company operates. The Standard Bank will be awarded for its HIV/AIDS program, which uses a storytelling technique to reduce HIV-associated stigma and to encourage employees to be tested for the virus. The company also provides HIV-positive employees with treatment and care. In addition, Telkom will be awarded for its efforts to promote HIV testing and counseling among employees and their families. Two-thirds of Telkom employees and their partners have been tested for HIV since the program was implemented, Business Day reports (Kahn, Business Day, 6/4).
GBC also plans to recognize Becton, Dickinson and Company for its efforts to improve access to TB diagnostic equipment in developing countries. Exxon Mobil also will be recognized for committing $45 million to malaria research, and community disease control and advocacy. Other GBC award recipients include Viacom for HIV/AIDS leadership, Johnson & Johnson for its work with the mothers2mothers program, BBC World Service Trust for its HIV/AIDS media campaign in India and the Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo for its community project in Malawi.
The awards will be presented during a ceremony in New York City. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to speak at the event. UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot, U.N. Special Envoy for Tuberculosis Jorge Sampaio, U.N. Special Envoy for Malaria Ray Chambers and Michel Kazatchkine -- executive director of the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria -- also are expected to attend the ceremony. The ceremony is scheduled ahead of the U.N. 2008 High-Level Meeting on AIDS, scheduled for June 10 to June 11.
"Business action is making a critical difference," GBC President and CEO Richard Holbrooke said, adding, "If we get it right -- and our partners are depending on us to do just that -- business has the power to reach millions of people in a way that no other organization can. It possesses the skills, resources and influence to achieve otherwise inconceivable outcomes. We need many, many more to make their own contribution" (GBC release, 6/4).
An archived Webcast of the event will be available online at kaisernetwork.org.
Link to this story.
Across The Nation
Palm Beach County, Fla., Commissioners Approve Plan To Reduce HIV/AIDS Services by $600,000 in 2009
[Jun 06, 2008]
The Palm Beach County, Fla., commissioners have approved a plan to reduce funding for food and medical case management services for people living with HIV/AIDS by $600,000 in 2009, Larry Leed of the Palm Beach County HIV CARE Council announced on Tuesday, the Palm Beach Post reports. According to the Post, the decision is in response to the continued decrease in Ryan White Program funding.
The county is receiving $7.7 million in Ryan White money this year, which is $68,000 more than in 2007. However, it remains short of what the county received five years ago, before funding was reduced by 13%. According to county officials, there were 7,130 HIV cases reported in the county in 2006 -- the most recent year for which data are available.
The HIV CARE Council -- which assesses the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS in the county and recommends to county officials how to allocate the funding -- recommended that the money for all services be reduced by 9%. However, the county decided to take the largest reduction from medical case management, which will leave 500 people without services, according to Leed. County Community Services Director Ed Rich said the county is following federal guidelines to spend most of the funds on direct medical services. "We just don't have the money for all the services, so we try to follow the mandates as closely as possible," Rich said (Barton, Palm Beach Post, 6/3).
Link to this story.
Science & Medicine
Longer Treatment With Antiretroviral Nevirapine Reduces Risk of HIV Among Infants, Study Finds
[Jun 06, 2008]
Extended treatment with the antiretroviral drug nevirapine in conjunction with the standard therapy might reduce the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Reuters reports (Emery, Reuters, 6/4).
For the study, Taha Taha, co-director of the infectious disease program at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues tested three drug regimens designed to prevent HIV transmission through breastmilk among 3,016 infants in Malawi. One regimen included the traditional treatment of a single dose of nevirapine plus one week of treatment with the antiretroviral zidovudine. The other regimens added daily doses of nevirapine or nevirapine plus zidovudine for 14 weeks after birth. The study found that infants who were administered the traditional regimen had the highest rate of HIV from ages six weeks to 18 months. At nine months, 10.6% of the infants in the traditional treatment group were HIV-positive, compared with 5.2% and 6.4% among the nevirapine-only and nevirapine-plus-zidovudine groups, respectively, according to the study (Taha et al., NEJM, 6/4).
In a related NEJM study, researchers examined whether weaning infants sooner reduced the risk of HIV, Reuters reports. The researchers examined 481 infants in Zambia whose mothers were encouraged to abruptly wean them at four months and 477 infants whose mothers were encouraged to breastfeed as long as they wanted. The study found that about 68% of infants in the first group were HIV-negative at two years after birth, compared with 64% among the infants breastfed for longer. Although the difference was not significantly different, the study found that among infants who were HIV-positive by age four months, the risk of death was increased among those whose mothers were encouraged to stop breastfeeding. According to the study, about 74% of HIV-positive infants whose mothers had been told to stop breastfeeding died of AIDS-related illnesses, compared to 55% of HIV-positive infants whose mothers were not told to stop breastfeeding. According to Reuters, preliminary results from the Zambia study prompted the World Health Organization to change its breast-feeding recommendations for women in developing countries.
Lynn Mofenson, project officer for both studies, said the "Zambia study showed that there was really no benefit to stopping breastfeeding early at four months. So breastfeeding is better than not breastfeeding." She added, "But breastfeeding brings along with it the problem of HIV transmission, and what the Malawi study is showing for the first time is if you give the [infant] small amounts of [antiretroviral] drugs for the first 14 weeks of life, you can reduce the risk of HIV infection at nine months by 50% or more." She noted, "Those two things say you should exclusively breastfeed the [infant] and you should give the [infant] antiretroviral drugs for at least 14 weeks" (Reuters, 6/4).
The Malawi study is available online. The Zambia study also available online. An editorial related to both studies also is available online.
Link to this story.
Opinion
Editorial 'Wrongly Criticized' Sen. Coburn's 'Due Diligence' in Reauthorizing PEPFAR, Letter to Editor Says
[Jun 06, 2008]
A recent Washington Post editorial "wrongly criticized" Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and "his colleagues for conducting due diligence" regarding legislation to reauthorize the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee's Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, writes in a Post letter to the editor (Gregg, Washington Post, 6/5).
The Post editorial said that although PEPFAR "risks mutating into all-purpose development aid or taking on goals" that are "not only culturally sensitive but hard to measure in terms of progress" as it grows, the legislation "expands and modernizes America's signature global health initiative" and "could add to PEPFAR's proud record." The editorial added that Coburn and "six other Republicans" who have "exercised their prerogative to keep [the bill] off the Senate floor" should "get out of the way" (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 6/2).
According to Gregg, any "dramatic increase in HIV/AIDS spending would be offset by a funding decrease for other international programs that are important to America's security interests." He adds that the editorial "regrettably stopped short of suggesting that the State Department negotiate sustainability strategies and cost-sharing agreements" with PEPFAR focus countries to "better define America's role in the global fight against" HIV/AIDS. Gregg writes that if the Post "knows the costs of PEPFAR over the life of the program or its impact on other foreign aid accounts, it should share that information," concluding, "Until then, the Senate is doing its job in considering all consequences of a $50 billion reauthorization of PEPFAR" (Washington Post, 6/5).
Link to this story.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Kaisernetwork.org. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
