Kaisernetwork.org (Washington, DC)
2 October 2008
(Page 2 of 3)
The study is available online.
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Global Challenges
Ukraine Parliament Introduces Bill To Increase HIV Prevention, Treatment Efforts
[Oct 02, 2008]
Ukraine's Parliament recently approved a bill that would establish a national program to increase HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment efforts in the country, Ukrainian News reports. The bill -- titled "On Approving a National Program for Ensuring Prevention of HIV Infections, Treatment, Care and Support of HIV Carriers and AIDS Patients during the 2009-2013 Period" -- aims to curb the impact that the disease is having on the country's population by introducing a government policy that would increase both HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.
Under the national program, preventive measures would include increasing the safety of blood products; providing access to large-scale primary prophylactics, especially among at-risk groups; and increasing efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission. Improved treatment efforts would include no-cost counseling and HIV tests, access to antiretroviral and support therapy, and psychological support to those living with HIV/AIDS. The program will require about 3.7 billion Ukrainian hryvnia, or about $730 million, according to Ukrainian News.
Ukraine's adult HIV/AIDS prevalence is estimated at 1.63%, according to Ukrainian News. The bill states that more than 122,000 HIV cases were registered in Ukraine as of Jan. 1 of this year. The program attributes issues with current HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment efforts, as well as the increase in the number of new cases, to socioeconomic problems -- such as inadequate medical and social-assistance infrastructures and insufficient funding for prevention and treatment efforts -- Ukrainian News reports (Sokolovska, Ukrainian News, 9/30).
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Spiritual Healing Threatening Adherence to Antiretrovirals in Uganda, Official Says
[Oct 02, 2008]
Unverified spiritual healing promoted by some churches throughout Uganda is threatening HIV-positive patients' adherence to antiretroviral drugs, Robert Ochai, executive director of The AIDS Support Organisation, said recently during the organization's 17th annual general meeting, Uganda's Monitor reports. According to the Monitor, several Pentecostal churches in the country invite the ill, including those living with HIV/AIDS, to participate in spiritual healing. Some churches promise miracles, sometimes in exchange for the patients' valuables, according to the Monitor.
"Some clients have been misled into prematurely stopping their medication, which is extremely harmful to their health," Ochai said, adding, "While we believe in God and his ability to perform miracles, we also encourage our clients to adhere to their medications." Ochai did not provide statistics on the number of HIV-positive people abandoning their antiretroviral regimens for faith healing but said that the problem is growing and requires urgent intervention.
Robert Nakibumba, TASO public relations officer, stressed the importance of antiretroviral adherence and said that although TASO clients have a more than 95% antiretroviral adherence rate, patients under different health care providers must remain on the drugs.
Speaker of Parliament Edward Ssekandi said the government would allocate funding in the Ministry of Health's budget during the next fiscal year to address the increasing needs of HIV-positive people (Kirunda, Monitor, 9/30).
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Kenya Signs $15 Million Grant Agreement To Fight HIV/AIDS
[Oct 02, 2008]
The Kenyan government recently signed an agreement for a grant worth 1.1 billion shillings, or about $15 million, for the fight against HIV/AIDS, Kenya's Nation reports. According to the Nation, the funding will be shared among member countries of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, including Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya.
Acting Finance Minister John Michuki said the grant will complement contributions made by Kenya and other bilateral donors to fight the disease. In addition, IGAD Executive Mahboub Maalim said that IGAD governments will not cease in their efforts to curb HIV/AIDS, adding that the disease can be controlled through collaborative efforts.
According to the Nation, Michuki told IGAD members of Kenya's National AIDS Control Council that it will continue to support human resources, which will assist in the provision of HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care, as well as support and other services to internal refugees. Michuki said, "NACC will make available the necessary human resources to implement the regional activities and sub-projects in accordance with stipulated agreement," adding, "This is besides assisting in cross border collaboration on the health sector response to HIV and AIDS. The responsibility to coordinate and manage the project will be NACC, which is the key institution leading in the fight against the AIDS pandemic in the country."
The Nation also reports that the program, which will be implemented during the next four years, is expected to contribute to a decline in new HIV/AIDS cases. "It will be keenly monitored to ensure that targeted objectives are achieved," Michuki said (Kumba, Nation, 9/30).
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Public Health & Education
Canadian Program Provides Care to HIV-Positive Pregnant Women, Aims To Reduce Mother-to-Child Transmission
[Oct 02, 2008]
The CP/Yahoo! News on Tuesday examined the Positive Pregnancy Programme, a Canadian initiative created to provide HIV-positive pregnant women with care, resources and support. Jay MacGillivray, a midwife with Sages-Femmes Rouge Valley Midwives, started the program in 2005 with Mark Yudin, an ob-gyn with additional training in reproductive infectious diseases. Under the program, pregnant women living with HIV/AIDS are provided with care during pregnancy, labor and after. The women are guaranteed that they will be attended by specialists and clinicians who are used to working with HIV-positive patients.
MacGillivray said, "There are people who are up-to-speed and compassionate and wonderful and clinically terrific who are nurses, but not everybody is comfortable with HIV." She added that she arranges for the pregnant women to receive future health care for their children and additional support from HIV/AIDS service organizations. "I become the string that draws it all together. I will see her prenatally, try and normalize her pregnancy for her -- because she's thrilled to be pregnant, but she's going to find people all the way through who, if they knew she was positive, would be horrified," MacGillivray said.
According to the CP/Yahoo! News, the program does not receive any special funding and has gained international attention. Requests from places such as London, Paris, Scotland, Cameroon and Botswana have been made to MacGillivray to help launch similar initiatives. "Our hope is that eventually we can use it as a transferable model" and that organizers "can boost enough reality and enough clinical competence in enough places that we can use it as a template elsewhere."
According to the CP/Yahoo! News, pregnant women living with HIV/AIDS who receive the proper medical treatment throughout their pregnancies have a less than 1% risk of passing the virus to their infants. A lack of medical treatment can lead to a 30% risk of mother-to-child transmission. According to the Canadian Pediatric AIDS Research Group, approximately 150 to 175 infants are born to HIV-positive women annually in Canada. MacGillivray said that concerns about how they will be treated prevent many HIV-positive women from seeking medical attention, making them instead turn to high-risk home births.
Yudin, who is conducting research into physicians' attitudes toward HIV-positive people having children, said that there is a stigma associated with HIV-positive pregnant women and that more than 75% of the women he sees are immigrants from Africa. He said many of them are "middle class or better, are working, have a stable relationship, have a stable job. I think the general public might not get that" (Burgmann, CP/Yahoo! News, 9/30).
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