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IRIN PlusNews Weekly Issue 286, 2 June 2006
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
NEWS:
AFRICA: UNGASS draft declaration far short of civil society expectations
AFRICA: Politics override the needs of vulnerable people at UNGASS
SOUTHERN AFRICA: UNAIDS highlights poor progress in containing HIV/AIDS
EAST AFRICA: Significant progress as HIV prevalence declines - UNAIDS
BURUNDI: Lack of health facilities, staff shortages impede ARV rollout
NAMIBIA: Curbing HIV/AIDS along a transport corridor
TANZANIA: Church still opposes condoms, sex education
UGANDA: Criminal probe recommended in AIDS fund scam
LINKS:
PlusNews Coverage on UN High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS
JOBS:
AFRICA: UNGASS draft declaration far short of civil society expectations
The UN declaration reviewing global progress on HIV/AIDS released on Friday has failed to win the endorsement of civil society groups, disappointed by the lack of ambition in the text.
Late on Thursday, AIDS activists were still trying to enlist the help of sympathetic country delegations to strengthen language in the draft document on targets, affirmation of the rights of women and girls, "harm reduction" measures for injecting drug users, and recognition of the needs of other vulnerable groups such as sex workers, prisoners and migrants.
In a statement, a coalition of AIDS activists representing more than 100 organisations said a draft of the political declaration "fell far short of expectations at a time when 8,000 people a day die of AIDS globally".
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AFRICA: Politics override the needs of vulnerable people at UNGASS
African AIDS activists at the UN High Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS in New York are furious over what they see as the overturning of agreed commitments on performance targets and the protection of vulnerable groups by a handful of African governments.
Gabon led African negotiators this week in thrashing out the text of a UN review of implementation of the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. However, activists accuse the oil-producing country of ignoring a common African position agreed last month in Abuja, Nigeria, and are scrambling to persuade other countries to join Nigeria in publicly objecting to the new interpretation.
Nigeria is the only African country that has openly spoken out against the undermining of the commitments made by African leaders during the Abuja meeting to review progress in implementing the 2001 Abuja Declaration on AIDS, TB and Malaria.
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SOUTHERN AFRICA: UNAIDS highlights poor progress in containing HIV/AIDS
The HIV/AIDS pandemic may be slowing down globally, but in Southern Africa the outlook is still bleak, says a new UNAIDS report.
One-third of the worldwide 2005 AIDS death-toll occurred in Southern Africa and apart from Angola, HIV prevalence levels in the region were "exceptionally high".
"Globally the rate of increase is starting to flatten, but in this part of the world we don't see that taking place," said Mark Stirling, director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Eastern and Southern Africa, during the launch of the report in Johannesburg, South Africa.
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EAST AFRICA: Significant progress as HIV prevalence declines - UNAIDS
Although sub-Saharan Africa is the region worst affected by HIV/AIDS, a new report by UNAIDS has noted significant declines in prevalence in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
"Surveys have shown that condom use has been rising, women have been delaying their sexual debut and people have been reducing the number of sexual partners," said the agency's 2006 report on the Global AIDS Epidemic.
In Kenya the rate of infection dropped from 10 percent in the 1990s to about six percent at present, while Uganda saw a "steep decline" in the mid- and late-1990s, stabilising at 6.7 percent currently.
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BURUNDI: Lack of health facilities, staff shortages impede ARV rollout
As Burundi's public health system struggles to recover from a 12-year civil war, only a handful of the estimated 250,000 HIV-positive Burundians who need life-prolonging AIDS treatment are accessing it.
Just 6,672 Burundians benefit from free anti-AIDS drugs provided by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, but UNAIDS estimates an HIV prevalence of six percent in a population of around eight million.
But the head of ARV provision at Bujumbura's Kamenge University Hospital, Dr Gaspard Kamamfu, said the free drugs, distributed via a government initiative, had prompted more people to be tested. Since February 2004, when the university's programme began, more than 500 people have been put on ARVs.
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NAMIBIA: Curbing HIV/AIDS along a transport corridor
"That [a condom] is a traveller's companion, just like the passport," said customs officer Joseph Matroos, pointing to a dispenser at the Ngoma border post in the Caprivi region on Namibia's northeastern border with Botswana.
Though not an expert, Matroos is aware that the heavy traffic crossing the border has contributed to spreading HIV/AIDS. Ngoma, 40km east of the Caprivian capital, Katima Mulilo, is one of two border posts on the Trans-Caprivi highway linking landlocked Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe - where HIV infection rates are among the world's highest - with the deepwater port of Walvis Bay in Namibia.
The second border post, Wenela, 5km north of Katima, is at the bridge across the Zambezi River, connecting Caprivi with Zambia. The bridge was opened in 2004 to facilitate trade from as far north as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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TANZANIA: Church still opposes condoms, sex education
Tanzania's Anglican Church is still vehemently opposed to condom use, despite its ambitious HIV/AIDS prevention campaign, and has called for a total ban on condom advertising to protect children from early exposure to sex.
Reverend James Dominic of the Tanga Diocese said the church would continue resisting condom use because it promoted underage sex and immorality. "The advertisements [of condoms] encourage young girls and boys to engage in sex because they are told to use condoms."
The Anglican Church has been at the forefront of efforts to curb the spread of HIV. In an effort to lead by example, it launched an HIV/AIDS control project in 2004 that compels the church leadership to take an HIV test before taking on religious responsibilities. In the Tanga Diocese 45 priests were tested recently, three of whom were found positive.
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UGANDA: Criminal probe recommended in AIDS fund scam
A judicial probe into the mismanagement of grants to Uganda from the Geneva-based Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has recommended that former health ministers and other managers of the funds be investigated for possible criminal prosecution.
Former health minister Jim Muhwezi and his two deputies, Mike Mukula and Alex Kamugisha, have all been implicated in the mismanagement of funds.
Muhwezi, the commission of inquiry said, influenced the recruitment of Tiberius Muhebwa - who headed the unit that managed the funds in the health ministry - against the recommendation of consultants who had identified another candidate. It called for immediate "criminal investigations against Muhebwa over forgery, uttering false documents, cover up and kindred crimes."
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LINKS:
1. The Special Session on Children For additional PlusNews reports on the UN High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in New York and country progress reports on the 2001 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS, visit the special PlusNews portal on UNGASS+5 - How Far Have We Come?
[ENDS]
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| Links |
· AIDS Media Center
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· The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria
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· International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS
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· AEGIS
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· International HIV/AIDS Alliance
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PlusNews does not take responsibility for info in links supplied.
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