Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report - Wed 31 Oct 2001
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* South African Finance Minister Announces Increase in HIV/AIDS
Spending After Mbeki Says Government Will Not Boost Funding
* Laws Protecting Human Rights of Those With HIV/AIDS Lacking in Most
of World
* New Kenyan Show to Raise AIDS Awareness Themes
* After Cipro Patent Debate, Americans Should Understand Developing
Countries' Need for Cheaper AIDS Drugs, New York Times Editorial
States
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South African Finance Minister Announces Increase in HIV/AIDS Spend-
ing After Mbeki Says Government Will Not Boost Funding
South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel told Parliament yester-
day, while unveiling the nation's overall budget plan for the next
three years, that he will increase the nation's spending to fight
HIV/AIDS, the Associated Press reports (Associated Press, 10/30). Ac-
knowledging that the disease was "taking an increasing toll of the
living standards of the poor and vulnerable," he said he will in-
crease funding "fourfold," including a $2.26 million allotment to
provinces testing the use of nevirapine to prevent vertical HIV
transmission. The Treatment Action Campaign, a South African AIDS ad-
vocacy group, is suing the government to expand the nevirapine pilot
program to the entire national health system. Manuel also said he
will increase funding for the Health Ministry's integrated strategy
on AIDS, which addresses education and home care programs, from about
$13 million to a little more than $58 million (Boyle, Reuters,
10/30). Manuel's move comes just a week after President Thabo Mbeki,
who has publicly questioned the causal link between HIV and AIDS,
told Parliament that the government had no plans to increase HIV/AIDS
funding. "I do not believe that at this particular moment, the gov-
ernment is going to do anything to change the policy positions that
it has announced in this regard," Mbeki said in response to question-
ing by members of Parliament. He went on to question the toxicity of
antiretroviral drugs such as nevirapine and refuted reports that AIDS
has become South Africa's leading cause of death (Kaiser Daily
HIV/AIDS Report, 10/25).
Opposition Democratic Alliance Party Splits
In other South African news, the Democratic Alliance -- the main
party opposing Mbeki's African National Congress and a vocal critic
of his AIDS policies -- split on Friday in a "surprise" move, the
Baltimore Sun reports. The New National Party, the party that grew
out of the group responsible for apartheid, announced that it was
leaving the Democratic Alliance -- previously composed of the NNP,
the Democratic Party and the Federal Alliance. The split could "sig-
nificantly alter regional politics" by giving more seats to the ANC
in the "longtime opposition stronghold" of Western Cape Province and
give the ANC control over all nine South African provinces, the Sun
reports. The split is expected to "trigger a flurry of special elec-
tions" across the country as NNP members elected as members of the
Democratic Alliance resign their posts (Simmons, Baltimore Sun,
10/31).
--
Laws Protecting Human Rights of Those With HIV/AIDS Lacking in Most
of World
There is a "nearly total absence" of laws protecting the human rights
of those with HIV/AIDS in developing countries, and such legislation
remains a "low priority" for many lawmakers worldwide, according to a
study appearing in the Oct. 1 issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndromes. Reuters Health reports that 21 of the 121 coun-
tries surveyed -- which represent only 16% of the world's population
-- have "specific" laws to protect those with HIV from social dis-
crimination (Veazey, Reuters Health, 10/29). Researchers led by Dr.
Raffaele D'Amelio of the University of Rome consulted the World
Health Organization Directory of Legal Instruments Dealing with HIV
Infection and AIDS and two worldwide surveys that examined HIV test-
ing in the military to conduct their analysis. The survey covered 121
of the 191 WHO member nations. Other study findings are listed below:
* AIDS is a notifiable disease in 60% of the countries surveyed and
HIV is notifiable in "no more than" 26%; names are kept confidential
by law in 20% of the countries surveyed;
* 17% of the countries surveyed have "HIV-specific" legislation out-
lawing social discrimination against those with the virus, while 10%
have laws that set up a system for reimbursing those who acquired HIV
from contaminated blood products;
* 27% of the 121 countries have legislative measures that address
"vulnerable groups" such as sex workers, men who have sex with men
and injection drug users;
* 7% of countries surveyed have legislation regarding HIV testing of
pregnant women, 11% have legal measures supporting condom promotion
and 10% impose legal penalties for those who knowingly expose others
to HIV;
* People with HIV/AIDS can be legally quarantined or "coercive[ly]"
hospitalized in 9% of the 121 countries studied;
* 27 of the 121 countries require military personnel to be tested for
HIV;
* Only 42% of the 121 countries mandate that donated blood be
screened for HIV;
* 39% of the countries studied have established national AIDS commit-
tees responsible for addressing HIV/AIDS-related issues.
The findings "represent a useful tool to make governments aware of
the problem of underreporting of legal instruments to the WHO and of
the need to promote legislation in line with the idea that public
health and human rights are complementary, not conflicting, goals,"
the authors conclude (D'Amelio et al., Journal of Acquired Immune De-
ficiency Syndromes, 10/1). They encourage voluntary testing and early
treatment as a means of preventing further spread of the disease,
stating that mandatory testing -- which both WHO and UNAIDS are
against -- "infringes on human rights." Dr. Anne-Valerie Kaninda, a
medical adviser for Medecins Sans Frontieres in New York, said that
the findings are important because there is "so much social stigma
associated with the disease that [people with HIV/AIDS] need protec-
tion." She added that in her organization's experience, offering
treatment encourages people to voluntarily get tested (Reuters
Health, 10/29).
--
New Kenyan Show to Raise AIDS Awareness Themes
The new Kenyan soap opera "Heart and Soul" will address HIV/AIDS in
Africa and contain "edutainment" themes to raise awareness of the
disease, Agence France-Presse reports. The show, filmed by the Kenya
Broadcasting Corporation with assistance from the BBC and featuring
Kenyan actors, has the support of 24 U.N. agencies with offices in
Nairobi, as well as the British Council, the World Bank, the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund, the Ford Foundation and Kenya's National AIDS
Control Council. "Heart and Soul" will portray an aging husband being
seduced by a younger woman who has also seduced his son, as the show
seeks to reduce promiscuity as "one of the cornerstones of campaigns"
against HIV/AIDS. The series is scheduled to begin radio and televi-
sion broadcasts in Kenya early next year, and producers are hoping it
will become a "regular weekly fixture" aired across Africa. U.N.
spokesperson Tore Brevik said, "The United Nations is looking for
more partners, especially in the private sector, to make sure the
project goes on for three to five years" (Vandenberghe, Agence
France-Presse, 10/27).
--
After Cipro Patent Debate, Americans Should Understand Developing
Countries' Need for Cheaper AIDS Drugs, New York Times Editorial
States
The Bush administration is "derailing efforts by poor countries rav-
aged by AIDS" to increase access to AIDS drugs by removing patent
barriers and allowing generic competition in times of public health
emergencies, yet the administration has taken steps similar to the
ones it opposes to obtain price concessions from Bayer for its pat-
ented anthrax drug Cipro, a New York Times editorial notes. The
United States, "echoing drug makers," opposes a proposal, to be voted
on at the Nov. 9 meeting of the World Trade Organization in Doha,
Qatar, that says "nothing" in WTO patent rules would prevent govern-
ments from issuing compulsory licenses or using parallel importing to
obtain cheaper medications in times of national health emergencies.
The United States and Switzerland -- two countries that house several
multinational drug makers -- maintain that patents are "not a sig-
nificant barrier to AIDS treatment" and have proposed a "weaker ver-
sion" that "puts less weight on public health needs and does not fix
some important barriers to cheaper drugs, especially one that will
prohibit countries that can make generics from exporting them to na-
tions that lack the capacity," the editorial states. Although "[i]t
is true that other problems, including lack of trained people to de-
liver the medicines," hinder AIDS treatment, "patents that keep drug
prices high are a major reason" that AIDS drugs are "out of reach"
for much of the developing world, the editorial continues. In light
of the recent anthrax scare in the United States, "Americans today
can surely understand the need to give poor countries every possible
weapon to fight back" against AIDS, the editorial concludes (New York
Times, 10/31).
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The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report is published for kaisernetwork.org,
a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, by National
Journal Group Inc. c 2001 by National Journal Group Inc. and Kaiser
Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
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