Hot Items
Roche to Suspend H.I.V. Research
How the United States Senate Can Fix Global HIV/Aids Funding
Number Of New HIV Cases Reported In Afghanistan Increasing, Health Ministry Says
West Papua: Cholera Outbreak
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Roche to Suspend H.I.V. ResearchJuly 12, 2008
By REUTERS
The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding will suspend its H.I.V. research because none of its pending medicines represent significant improvement over existing drugs, a company spokeswoman said on Friday.
"Research scientists currently working in H.I.V. will be reassigned to other activities," Linda Dyson, a spokeswoman in Roche's United States office in New Jersey, said in an e-mail message. She declined to specify how much Roche has been investing in HIV research.
Posted 14/07/2008
How the United States Senate Can Fix Global HIV/Aids Funding
International Women's Health Coalition (New York)
PRESS RELEASE
10 July 2008
Posted to the web 10 July 2008
The Senate is poised to consider reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a five-year, $50 billion initiative to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria globally. But policymakers must address critical shortfalls in the draft bill to ensure effective use of scarce public funds and adopt a sustainable and effective response to the pandemic.
The failure to stem the tide of new infections is due in part to restrictions contained in the original PEPFAR legislation. Much has been learned since PEPFAR was enacted in 2003. Yet rather than heeding the evidence collected by our own government agencies, the bill now before the Senate continues to compromise sound public health practice for ideology and political expediency. Under pressure to act quickly to reauthorize PEPFAR, Congress is poised to pass a bill that will lock these restrictions into law for five more years. Doing so threatens scarce public resources, leaves more lives at risk, and impedes the development of a comprehensive approach that would make a difference in the lives of millions. The following changes must be made to the bill before final passage:
Abolish arbitrary funding guidelines. In a 2007 report, The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended removing the current PEPFAR requirement that one-third of prevention funds be spent on abstinence-until-marriage programs. The Senate bill ignores the findings of this congressionally-mandated study and findings from the government's own Accountability Office (GAO) about the ineffectiveness of this approach. The current bill calls for spending at least fifty percent of prevention funds designed to halt the sexual transmission of HIV, in countries with generalized epidemics, only on abstinence and faithfulness programs. PEPFAR recipients that do not meet this requirement must justify their programmatic decisions through an onerous reporting requirement to Congress, potentially facing defunding.
Every individual needs a range of information and services to protect him or herself against HIV, and public health experts on the ground must be able to determine the best mix of prevention programming for their own communities. As it stands, their hands are tied by policies from Washington. Support prevention strategies that reach the largest number of people. In most regions, the number of new infections is growing most rapidly among women and adolescents, primarily through sexual transmission. These two groups are more likely to use family planning and other reproductive health services than any other segment of the population, and would be better equipped to protect themselves from HIV if their access to reproductive health services and education was expanded.
The U.S. government concluded that integrating family planning with HIV prevention and treatment services could double the effectiveness of programs to prevent transmission of HIV from mother to infants by expanding women's choices about pregnancy and childbearing. Recent studies suggest that upwards of 90 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women in countries such as Uganda and South Africa have unmet need for integrated family planning and HIV services. However, the current bill before the Senate fails to call for or even acknowledge the need to strengthen critical linkages between family planning and reproductive health services and HIV prevention efforts.
Posted 14/07/2008
Number Of New HIV Cases Reported In Afghanistan Increasing, Health Ministry Says
1 Jul 2008Afghanistan's Ministry of Public Health on Wednesday reported that more than 400 new HIV cases have been recorded in the country, Xinhuanet reports. Although the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is relatively low in Afghanistan, the ministry said there are many potential risk factors that could spread the virus.
In a statement, the ministry said, "So far, 435 HIV-positive cases have been reported from different sources," adding that there are an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 cases nationwide. The ministry said that the potential risk factors for the spread of HIV include 30 years of war, high levels of poverty and illiteracy, displacement, poppy
cultivation, drug trafficking and use, commercial and unsafe sex, and unsafe injection and blood transfusion practices, Xinhuanet reports.
The ministry noted that the World Bank has granted $10 million to the health ministry to raise public awareness about HIV/AIDS in the country (Xinhuanet, 7/9).
Posted 14/07/2008
West Papua: Cholera OutbreakMonday, 30 June 2008
After Cholera has taken 85 lives in West Papua over three months, Human Rights workers criticize Indonesian response as negligent. Below is a press release from the Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights: New reports from Human Rights and Church sources in West Papua state that 85 people have died in a Cholera outbreak over the past 3 months [April-June 2008] in the adjacent Nabire and Paniai regencies of West Papua. Previous reports by Indonesian authorities in early June [2008] stated 17 people had died. At that time Health authorities disputed figures from West Papuan Human Rights workers that there had actually been 34 fatalities if cases in the villages were counted.
"This latest Cholera outbreak started in April and has continued through to June 2008. Based on information supplied from the ground the Institute of Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights believes that the Indonesian Health Department and Provincial government response has been grossly inadequate. It appears that people were treated in the community health centers when people were able to physically carried there but the government response in those affected villages was very limited." "Indeed for the Government personnel the response was a matter of mutual blaming and a refusal to take responsibility. Everybody in the Government has avoided taking responsibility and has blamed each other for what went wrong."
The Papua Health Office was reported in the Jakarta Post (June 4th, 2008,) as identifying an 'Ogawa-type vibrio cholera viral infection' following tests in Jayapura. Cholera, which is a bacterial disease, attacks the gut lining with infected people quickly developing symptoms of severe diarrhea & massive fluid loss. The disease can be fatal within 18 hours if re-hydration & therapy does not occur.
This Cholera epidemic was first reported in Paniai in early April 2008 at Ekemanida village. It has spread to nearby villages at Kamuu and North Kamuu Districts. The villages where the disease was reported are Ekemanida, Idakotu, Dogimani/Idadagi, Makidimi/Egebutu, Ekimani/Nuwa, Denemani/Apagogi, Kimupugi, Dikiyouwo, Duntek, Boduda, Deiyai, Goodide, Idakebo, Mogou and Dogimani. In March, April 2006, in the highland regencies of Jayawijaya and Yahukimo 178 and 33 indigenous West Papuans respectively died reportedly from Cholera epidemics.
Paula Makabory representing the Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights said, "Cases of fatal diarrhea, which include undiagnosed Cholera, have been increasingly reported in Nabire and Highland areas of West Papua in the past few years."Posted 14/07/2008
