Kaisernetwork.org (Washington, DC)
7 October 2008
Global Challenges
Musician Annie Lennox, Irish Prime Minister Speak at Conference About HIV/AIDS, Children Worldwide
[Oct 07, 2008]
Musician Annie Lennox on Monday in Dublin, Ireland, at a two-day forum on HIV/AIDS and children worldwide said that governments should meet aid pledges to support developing countries over the long-term, the Irish Times reports. Lennox said that governments are "notoriously bad at keeping their promises" but that "we must not walk away from the issues. Governments come and go, but poverty remains." She also said that the Irish government is doing a "fantastic" job addressing such issues and that citizens should do more to help people in need and development workers. "Anybody who has a laptop has a tool to connect," Lennox said, adding, "It's so powerful and it's international. We can really use the facilities that we have. We use them for social networking and really we can use them for advocacy and change" (O'Brien, Irish Times, 10/7). She also said that she would like to see "really long lasting social and political change" (Irish Examiner, 10/7).
The event at which Lennox spoke, called Together for Children, was part of the Fourth Global Partners Forum on Children Affected by HIV and AIDS. The forum aims to secure government commitments to promote health, education and welfare standards for children living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, the PA/Virgin Media reports. More than 1,000 children contract HIV daily, and 15 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS-related causes. Lennox said that her personal commitment to the cause is not "going to go away," adding that she has witnessed poverty and that "[w]e, on one side of the globe, have so much benefit and, on the other hand, when you actually witness [poverty] and look at the circumstances that people live in, it's almost beyond comprehension" (PA/Virgin Media, 10/6).
Also speaking at the conference, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said the country's commitment to the "poorest and most vulnerable" people worldwide will continue, despite the current global economy, the Times reports. Cowen called Ireland's record on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals "impressive," adding that 900 million Euros -- or about $1.2 billion -- will be spent this year on international aid. UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman at the forum said, "Even though there has been progress in the global fight against HIV and AIDS, last year some 370,000 children were newly diagnosed with HIV. The rate of HIV infection among children is unacceptable and needs to be addressed by the global community as a matter of urgency." The forum is organized by Irish Aid and UNICEF. About 200 people from 42 countries are attending the forum and likely will issue a joint declaration on HIV/AIDS (Irish Times, 10/7).
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Increasing Number of STIs Put Fiji Youth at Risk of HIV/AIDS, Health Official Says
[Oct 07, 2008]
Recent statistics from Fiji's Health Ministry on Sexually Transmitted Infections are a cause for concern, and the high rate of STIs among people ages 20 to 29 put them at an increased risk for contracting HIV/AIDS, Fiji's Director of Public Health Josaia Samuela said recently, the Fiji Times reports. Statistics gathered over the past eight years by the ministry show that gonorrhea and syphilis are the most frequently reported STIs in the country, which Samuela said "highlights the underlying concern of unsafe sexual behavior among young people" and the "same high-risk behavior for the transmission of HIV." He also said that "sex is serious business" and that "[a]nyone, especially young people, who participates does so at their risk, in view of the sad consequences of infection from so many STIs including HIV, pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility."
According to the Times, the 1,024 treated gonorrhea cases in 2007 were the highest Fiji had seen in five years and an increase compared with the 416 treated cases in 2006. Statistics also show an increase in the number of treated syphilis cases from 2006 to 2007, with 567 and 940 cases, respectively. Last year, the ministry recorded 1,338 gonorrhea and 1,123 syphilis cases, rates that Samuela called "very high" for Fiji. "The most affected are in the productive times of their lives, could be studying in tertiary institutions or earning money through employment," Samuela said, adding that the issue of sexual behavior is "very complex." Sexual behavior becomes an economic and social issue "in terms of treatment, follow-up of partners or contacts for treatment and care," all of which "involve costs, resources, testing equipment and facilities, drugs for treatment," Samuela said (Sakiasi, Fiji Times, 10/6).
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Bali Foundation Calls for Increased Testing To Curb HIV Among Male Sex Workers
[Oct 07, 2008]
The Gaya Dewata Foundation -- a group focused on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infection education, support and treatment in Bali -- recently called for increased STI testing among male sex workers who have sex with both men and women, the Jakarta Post/Asia News Network reports. Although an HIV/AIDS and STI outreach program launched in 2006 by the foundation has reached as many as 360 male sex workers, foundation representatives said the increasing number of men in this particular group could contribute to the spread of HIV and other STIs. The group said that the high risk of HIV among this particular group of sex workers largely is because they switch between male and female partners and are very mobile, the Post/Asia News Network reports.
The number of male sex workers who switch between male and female partners is increasing, and the foundation has focused its support services on serving this particular group. According to the foundation's director Vivi, the decrease in the number of STIs recorded among male sex workers visiting foundation clinics is a result of "intensive support, such as education and free medication." Bali has recorded 2,208 HIV/AIDS cases, 133 of which occur among men who have sex with men, according to the Bali Commission for AIDS Handling (De Suryani, Jakarta Post/Asia News Network, 10/4).
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Opinion
Opinion Piece Examines Public Health Issues in Russia, Including HIV/AIDS, TB
[Oct 07, 2008]
Despite a recent economic and military resurgence in Russia, the country is "facing a public health crisis that verges on the catastrophic," including high rates of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, Murray Feshbach, a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a research professor emeritus at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, writes in a Washington Post opinion piece.
According to the World Health Organization, about one million people in Russia have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and, using mid-year figures, it is estimated that 25% more new HIV/AIDS cases will be recorded this year than in 2007. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, told a press conference earlier this year that he is "very pessimistic about what is going on in Russia and Eastern Europe ... where there is the least progress." Feshbach reports that young people are most at risk of contracting HIV in Russia and that although injection drug use accounts for 65% of Russia's HIV/AIDS cases, the country officially has rejected methadone as a substitution therapy.
In addition, Russia records about 50 new smear-positive TB cases per 100,000 people each year, Feshbach reports. While 650 people out of a total population of about 300 million died of TB in the U.S. in 2007, about 24,000 of Russia's total 142 million people died of the disease in the same year, according to Feshbach. "Can it possibly be coincidental that, according to Gennady Onishchenko, the country's chief public health physician, only 9% of Russian TB hospitals meet current hygienic standards, 21% lack either hot or cold running water, 11% lack a sewer system and 20% have a shortage of TB drugs?" Feshbach asks, adding, "Hardly."
Feshbach writes that Piot last summer said that "bringing Russia's HIV/AIDS epidemic under control was 'a matter of political leadership and of changing the policy.' He might just as well have been talking about the much larger public health crisis that threatens this vast country. But the policies seem unlikely to change as the bear lumbers along, driven by disastrously misplaced priorities and the blindingly unrealistic expectations of a resentment-driven political leadership. Moscow remains bent on ignoring the devastating truth: The nation is not just sick but dying" (Feshbach, Washington Post, 10/5).
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