Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report - Wed, 5 Dec 2001
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* Ethiopian Opposition Parties Criticize Government's HIV/AIDS Pro-
gram
* South African Finance Minister Says AIDS Drugs Do Nothing to Limit
Spread of Virus; Activists Denounce Remarks
* United States Joins French Program Pairing Hospitals in Developed
and Developing Nations to Improve Access to AIDS Treatment
* 'Scary Statistics' Help Companies Benefit From AIDS, Op-Ed Says
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Ethiopian Opposition Parties Criticize Government's HIV/AIDS Program
Leaders of three of Ethiopia's opposition parties yesterday called
the government's HIV/AIDS program "ineffective" and urged government
officials to declare a state of emergency to aid in the fight against
the virus, Reuters reports. Leaders from All Amhara People's Organi-
zation, the Council of Alternative Forces for Peace and Democracy in
Ethiopia and the Oromo National Congress called the government's
anti-AIDS efforts -- which have included the formation of a National
AIDS Council and a public awareness campaign -- "not satisfactory."
CAFPDE President Beyene Petros said, "The government has to declare a
state of emergency, and take serious steps to arrest the alarming
spread of the killer disease ravaging the country." He added that
"posturing and reading fancy reports by government officials at
HIV/AIDS meetings" is not effective, adding that the government had
not yet implemented an antiretroviral treatment program. He also sug-
gested closing down businesses that profit from the sex trade and
mandating HIV tests for prostitutes as ways to slow HIV transmission.
An estimated three million Ethiopians are thought to be HIV-positive.
According to national HIV/AIDS statistics published last year, as
many as 460 people between the ages of 15 and 49 will die from AIDS-
related complications each day by 2004 if measures are not taken to
stop the spread of the virus (Reuters, 12/4).
--
South African Finance Minister Says AIDS Drugs Do Nothing to Limit
Spread of Virus; Activists Denounce Remarks
Speaking at the unveiling of a 1996 South African census report on
youth, South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said antiretrovi-
ral drugs have not limited the spread of HIV "in any way" and could
actually be causing several other diseases, the South African Press
Association reports. "What antiretrovirals don't do is to change the
status of somebody. Nor do the antiretrovirals on their own change
the conduct of an individual who may be exceedingly promiscuous,"
Manuel said, adding that the country needs an "educated population"
more than anything. His remarks came in response to a question about
whether the census data revealed anything about the effect of
HIV/AIDS on South Africa's youth. He replied that there was "no way"
to ascertain accurate information on that question from the survey
(South African Press Association, 12/3).
Reaction From the Opposition
Mark Heywood, national secretary of the Treatment Action Campaign, an
AIDS advocacy group that has taken the South African government to
court in an attempt to force the public health system to provide an-
tiretrovirals to pregnant women to prevent vertical HIV transmission,
responded "angrily" to Manuel's comments yesterday. "A discussion of
antiretrovirals in a country with 200,000 people dying a year is
hardly misplaced unless you attach no worth to those lives," Heywood
said, adding that the drugs were the "best medicine" for people with
HIV/AIDS. "Just as [Manuel] would expect people to familiarize them-
selves with economics before they make interventions in that sphere,
he ought to familiarize himself with the science of antiretrovirals,
because there is a strong body of evidence that the reduction of vi-
ral load does reduce transmissibility and therefore has prevention
benefits," Heywood explained, saying that by not providing treatment,
the government was taking away a major incentive for people to get
tested. Without the hope of treatment, people will continue "behaving
in a way that put[s] themselves and others at risk," he said. Sandy
Kalyan, social development spokesperson for the opposition Democratic
Alliance, called Manuel's remarks "highly misleading" but conceded
that greater "educational intervention" is needed. "Mr. Manuel's com-
ments do nothing to contact the atmosphere of fear and denial of AIDS
that is so pervasive in South Africa. Like most other members of gov-
ernment, he seems more intent on throwing out problems than solu-
tions," she added (South African Press Association, 12/4).
--
United States Joins French Program Pairing Hospitals in Developed and
Developing Nations to Improve Access to AIDS Treatment
The United States will join a European project that pairs hospitals
in developed nations with those in poorer countries to improve access
to AIDS treatment in developing nations, especially those in Africa,
Agence France-Presse reports (Agence France-Presse, 12/4). The pro-
ject, which French Health Minister Bernard Kouchner first proposed in
May, creates networks between European and American hospitals and fa-
cilities in the developing world. The 40 French hospitals participat-
ing in the program have so far formed partnerships in 20 countries
(Kouchner speech, 11/28). Ten European countries also participate in
the program. "This hospital partnership is a French project that be-
came a European project and now, with this announcement, an American
project," Kouchner said, adding that U.S. participation "will really
make a difference" (Agence France-Presse, 12/4).
--
'Scary Statistics' Help Companies Benefit From AIDS, Op-Ed Says
"Saturday was World AIDS Day, which again makes me wonder what the
big deal is," John Shiber, a biology, zoology and human ecology in-
structor at Prestonburg Community College in Kentucky, writes in a
Lexington Herald-Leader op-ed. Most of the "scary statistics" on AIDS
are "very misleading," as "they are merely projections based on rela-
tively small numbers of people tested," Shiber writes, adding that
the "majority" of Africans, as well as Americans, have never had an
HIV test. While "unprecedented amounts of money" are being spent on
AIDS-related research in the United States, corporations, drug compa-
nies and condom manufacturers are "making a mint, especially in de-
veloping countries, where people are being terrorized by the threat
of a true epidemic," he states. Although the number of reported AIDS
cases in the United States has steadily declined to a "measly" num-
ber, AIDS research is "booming," providing "well-paying jobs" for
many Americans, Shiber writes. "AIDS certainly is good for the econ-
omy, isn't it?" he asks. He says that "numbers are manipulated to get
a desired reaction," writing that an increase from one AIDS case to
two AIDS cases is an increase of 100%, a percentage that would "loom
higher in your listener's mind than the actual numbers, thus star-
tling, even scaring, him or her." Shiber concludes, "Remember this
when you hear numbers, percentages and sweeping statements about
AIDS" (Shiber, Lexington Herald-Leader, 12/3).
--
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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