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From: "Africa Action" <[log in to unmask]>
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Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2002 12:11:47 -0500
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Subject: Africa: AIDS Updates, 2
Africa: AIDS Updates, 2
Date distributed (ymd): 020706
Document reposted by Africa Action
Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List: an information
service provided by AFRICA ACTION (incorporating the Africa
Policy Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the American
Committee on Africa). Find more information for action for
Africa at http://www.africaaction.org
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +gender/women+ +health+ +economy/development+
SUMMARY CONTENTS:
The XIV International AIDS Conference begins in Barcelona, Spain,
on July 7. Today's two postings include several related articles.
The official conference web site is: http://www.aids2002.com. Daily
coverage of the week-long conference is available at
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/aids2002
This posting contains excerpts from a speech by Zwelinzima Vavi,
General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions,
and from a UNICEF press release. A related posting today contains.
a speech by Stephen Lewis at a UN Press conference last week, and
selections from the Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report summarizing other
recent developments.
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Address by COSATU General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, in
Durban National Treatment Conference on HIV/Aids
27 June, 2002
[excerpts: full text at:
http://www.cosatu.org.za/speeches/2002/zv020627.htm]
Chairperson, President Willy Madisha Comrades and Friends, Ladies
and Gentlemen
The conference takes place at an opportune moment in our history -
a time when the dark clouds that have surrounded debates on
HIV/AIDS are receding. We must all congratulate the government for
its 17 April pronouncements on HIV/AIDS. This closes a chapter of
ugly time consuming and counterproductive debate and ushers a new
era of a genuine partnership and unity in action between the
government and the civil society formations. The time is now to
stop acting from different sides of the fence - it's a luxury we
cannot afford while the pandemic disease decimates our people.
We stand at a crucial period in our history - we either move
forward together or perish. The time for action is now - we have to
act to fight the pandemic before it consumes all of us. As workers,
students, youth, doctors, nurses, hospital staff and professional,
government leaders, as well as every citizen of the Southern
Hemisphere - Africa, we are presented with the most daunting
challenge in our lifetime. ...
We all know why we have to unite to stop the AIDS epidemic. Even if
you are not yourself living with HIV, you surely have a friend or
relative who has the virus. All of us have been to too many
funerals in recent years. All of us know children who have been
orphaned by AIDS; many of us are looking after them. No one can
deny any longer that, unless we act together, AIDS will have a
devastating impact on our society, our communities and our
families. ...
For COSATU, the central strategy for stopping AIDS is solidarity -
solidarity with people with HIV and AIDS, solidarity to exert
pressure on pharmaceutical companies to reduce the price of the
drugs that can help us treat the diseases, solidarity to exert
pressure on the private sector to play its role, develop workplace
policies and release resource for prevention and treatment,
solidarity where necessary to exert pressure on government to
release more resources to fight the epidemic, and solidarity to
stop the virus from spreading in our societies. That is why we
support the slogan: AIDS - A New Struggle! Against this oppressor,
as against the apartheid regime before 1994, solidarity is our only
hope. Divided we will surely fail.
Solidarity forms the basis for ensuring openness about AIDS, which
is the only way to make education and prevention a reality on a
broad scale. Only if people know they will not be discriminated
against and treated as polecats, only when they will not be
subjected to inhumane treatment by their own families, friends and
colleagues in the unions and workplaces can they be open about
their HIV status. Only if we can talk openly about this threat can
we ensure the widespread use of preventive measures. And only if
people can be open about HIV can we develop broad-based and
explicit education campaigns.
Solidarity is also critical for caring for people with HIV and
AIDS. This is not about charity, but about maintaining the
integrity and cohesion of our society. We need consciously to
develop support systems for our people, at work, in our communities
and in our families. It should no longer be possible for parents to
let their children die in silence, without even seeking treatment,
because of their fear of this disease and the neighbours' reaction.
It should no longer be possible for husbands to throw their wives
out of the house when they find out they have HIV. As workers, as
members of families and communities, we have to stand fast against
this kind of barbaric behaviour. Only when we turn the tide so that
those who discriminate end being the ones facing the wrath of the
communities.
The state has a key role to play in building solidarity. So is the
trade union movement, the churches and the rest of the civil
society.
Government has the resources for mass-based educational programmes.
We at COSATU can help through our own media; other organisations in
civil society also do their best. But the government has far more
resources and expertise, as well as access to the schools.
Unemployment and poverty contributes immensely in killing those
infected faster than it would on the rich. Government and a more
socially responsible private sector have a unique role to play in
this regard. The state can provide treatment and ensure that
through its programmes poverty and unemployment is eliminated. The
provision of the basic services such as clean running water, access
to health care, education and electricity are important ingredients
in a fight against HIV/AIDS. ...
Most of our people are already poor, and AIDS pushes them into
destitution. They end up dying because they cannot afford the
medication they need - and their children can end up as orphans,
with no means of support. The government has already made progress
in improving its treatment and strengthening the welfare system to
address these problems; we need here to discuss how to improve on
the existing measures. We need to participate in the campaign to
ensure we register as many children to receive child grants as
possible
This conference must help us express our solidarity with people
with HIV in practical ways. It must help us find ways to end
discrimination against people with HIV, including in employment. We
need a campaign to ensure that every union member, every student,
every activist and public servant supports people with HIV in their
workplaces, their communities and their families. More: we need to
develop strategies to ensure that the Press stops sensationalising
HIV and reports openly, accurately and soberly on ways to cope with
it.
Together with government, we need to establish pro-active campaigns
to help people with HIV and AIDS and their families through
home-based care, support and counselling. We need to improve the
welfare net for people with AIDS, and ensure that our retirement
funds make provision for people with AIDS and for AIDS orphans. We
must develop a campaign against discriminatory practices of the
insurance industry and ensure equal access to insurance for all
South Africans including those living with HIV/AIDS.
We need to develop mass education and prevention campaigns.
Education on HIV must be integrated in all life skills programmes,
from the schools to ABET to sectoral and workplace plans. It must
be integrated into our media and cultural productions, which today
do more to replicate stereotypes than to ensure rational responses
to the epidemic.
Our education programmes must emphasise that safe sex is the only
real protection. It must teach our children how to negotiate safe
sex. It must be linked to respect for women's rights, including the
ability to refuse sex and demand that their partners wear condom.
Quite clearly as long we still have a patriarchal society that
undermines gender equality we are far from defeating HIV/AIDS.
Statistics bears testimony to this unequal relationship between men
and women. ...
In addition to a massive general education campaign, we need
special training programmes for public servants who work with
people with HIV, especially teachers, nurses, correctional officers
and police. This critical layer of workers, which is the arms and
legs of the RDP must in particular ensure that it is a crying
shoulder for those affected and infected instead of treating our
people in an inhumane manner. Of course we recognise and pay
tribute to the unequalled contribution made by many in the public
service who go beyond the call of duty to provide counselling and
support to our people.
In terms of prevention, it is critical that all our people,
including the poor and those in rural areas and prisons, have easy
access to condoms. Effective prevention also requires much more
rapid roll out of Nevirapine, to stop the transmission to newborn
babies; and a vast improvement in access to treatment for women who
have been raped. ...
And of course we need to improve treatment. This conference will
look at options for ensuring that all our people have access to
affordable and effective treatment, including anti-retrovirals,
treatment for opportunistic diseases and treatment for STDs. But we
also need to look at how we can empower people to understand the
treatment options and demand the care they need. Studies show that
when people with AIDS have family and community support and know
the possibilities, they will live longer and healthier lives.
We recognise that the pharmaceutical companies have mostly set
exorbitant prices on the most effective AIDS treatments. This
conference has to develop two kinds of strategies to deal with this
problem.
First, we need to take into account the cost of not providing
treatment, not just at the cost of the medicines themselves. That
cost appears in human suffering, but also in the loss of
productivity, the need to continuously replace trained people, and
to look after millions of AIDS orphans. Given these costs,
government should give AIDS treatment a higher prioritisation, even
if it means relaxing some of our very tight fiscal targets or
cutting back the military expenditure.
Second, we need to find ways to reduce the costs of medicines
through use of generics as well as a worldwide campaign directed at
the pharmaceutical companies. The WTO must legalise the import of
generics, and not just production of them; and the South African
government must move rapidly to begin to produce generic
medications here, to supply all of the African continent if
necessary. We should also look into the possibilities of improving
community and home based care, which would relieve the burden on
our hospitals. In short government must find a political
willingness to utilise fully the weapons at its disposal that it
acquired through the Medicines and Related Substances Amendment
Act.
For far too long, we have focused on the role the government has to
play and did not give enough tension to the private sector. Capital
in this country in particular the mining industry and agriculture
benefited directly from apartheid social engineering. The migrant
labour system, the single sex hostel system, the pass laws and
other influx control measures were policies designed by the
apartheid masters to prop up the industries of South Africa. The
migrant labour system and single sex contributes to the spread of
HIV. Whist the situation has slightly changed in the recent years,
for far too long the employers ignored the spread of the disease.
Far too few companies have HIV/AIDS workplace policy that responds
to the epidemic. Far too few companies contribute to the national
effort to fight the scourge of the HIV/AIDS. The unions have so far
not put enough pressure on the private sector to contribute the
campaign. We cannot claim to have a comprehensive HIV/AIDS campaign
if the private sector is left untouched.
This conference must also find ways to transform the health care
system in South Africa. The current health care system is skewed
toward private health care, which cares, only for a few. The public
health system is under-funded, faces chronic shortage of essential
staff and care for far too many people without adequate resources.
Yet, it is the only hope for the working people, the aged, and the
sick. An effective public health system is a key pillar of the
strategy to combat HIV/ AIDS including opportunistic diseases.
It is for this reason that COSATU believe this conference should
also focus on a broader treatment strategy to combat many curable
diseases that are killing our people. We should take note of the
resolutions of the government convened Health Conference and build
on them as we continue to lay a foundation for a social consensus
on health care delivery. Comrades, we have set high expectations
for this conference. But we have no other choice. We cannot stand
idly by and let our people suffer and die, when the remedy lies
within our hands. We must unite in this new struggle to liberate
our people from this new oppressor.
************************************************************
UNICEF, UNAIDS, WHO Press Release
Major UN study finds alarming lack of knowledge about
HIV/AIDS among young people
As They Begin Sexual Activity Most Don't Know How to Protect
Themselves; Surveys Underscore Why Youth Are Central to Stemming
Pandemic's Spread
[Excerpts: for full press release and full report see
http://www.unicef.org/newsline/02pr42opportunity.htm]
NEW YORK / GENEVA, 2 July 2002 - In an alarming new finding, a
United Nations report released today says the vast majority of
the world's young people have no idea how HIV/AIDS is transmitted
or how to protect themselves from the disease. Yet the study also
shows that adolescence is the time when the majority of people
become sexually active.
These trends, which highlight why HIV/AIDS continues to spread so
rapidly, are part of a landmark report, Young People and
HIV/AIDS: Opportunity in Crisis. Produced by UNICEF, UNAIDS and
the World Health Organisation, it is the first comprehensive look
at the behaviour and knowledge relating to HIV/AIDS of young
people aged 15 to 24. It also includes the latest
country-by-country HIV prevalence rates for the age group.
"We have two dovetailing trends here that are, in large part,
driving the HIV/AIDS crisis. One is that young people have sex,
something the world must acknowledge as a pre-condition to
mounting effective prevention programmes," said Carol Bellamy,
Executive Director of UNICEF. "The other is that young people
actually don't have the proper knowledge to protect themselves.
The tragic consequence is that they are disproportionately
falling prey to HIV."
The report stresses that young people are at the centre of the
HIV/AIDS epidemic: they are both the hardest hit by the disease
and also the key to overcoming it. Yet despite this, strategies
for responding to the epidemic generally disregard young people.
The UN organisations that published the report called for
unparalleled political commitment to raise the financial and
human resources necessary for the fight against HIV/AIDS. This is
an effort that must centre on working with young people to
provide them with knowledge about HIV and how to avoid infection.
Overall, surveys from 60 countries indicate that more than 50 per
cent of young people aged 15 to 24 harbour serious misconceptions
about how HIV/AIDS is transmitted -- a strong indicator that
young people are not getting access to the right information. In
some of the countries most at risk from the virus, the proportion
of young people who have correct knowledge to protect themselves
is as low as 20 percent. The result: half of all new infections
today are in people between the ages of 15 and 24.
"It is clear that young people do not have the information and
means to protect themselves from HIV," said Peter Piot, Executive
Director of UNAIDS. "Every day 6000 young people get infected
with HIV. Each one of these infections can be prevented.
Prevention is both cost-effective and feasible: It costs as
little as US $8 annually to protect a young person out of school.
In every country where HIV transmission has been reduced, it has
been among young people that the most spectacular reductions have
occurred."
Key findings contained in the report include:
* Young people lack information about HIV/AIDS. In countries with
generalised HIV epidemics, such as Cameroon, Central African
Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho and Sierra Leone, more than
80 per cent of young women aged 15 to 24 do not have sufficient
knowledge about HIV. In Ukraine, although 99 per cent of girls
had heard of AIDS, only 9 per cent could name three ways to avoid
infection.
* In many countries with high HIV prevalence rates, unmarried
boys and girls are sexually active before age 15. Recent surveys
of boys aged 15 to 19 in Gabon, Haiti and Malawi found that more
than a quarter reported having sex before 15.
* Proper condom use and other preventive behaviours, like
abstinence, need to be taught early. In Burkina Faso, only 45 per
cent of boys age 15 to 19 reported using a condom with a
non-marital partner, compared to 64 per cent of young men aged 20
to 24. In Malawi, the rates were 29 per cent and 47 per cent. A
1999 survey in the Ukraine found that just 28 per cent of young
women aged 15 to 24 had used a condom at first sexual
intercourse.
* Adolescent girls are at a very high risk of getting infected,
especially in sub-Saharan Africa. It is estimated that more than
two-thirds of newly-infected 15 to 19-year-olds in this region
are female. In Ethiopia, Malawi, United Republic of Tanzania,
Zambia and Zimbabwe, for every 15 to 19-year-old boy who is
infected, there are five to six girls infected in the same age
group.
Young People Key to Overcoming Pandemic
The report highlights that in countries where the spread of
HIV/AIDS is subsiding or declining, such as Thailand and Uganda,
it is primarily because young men and women are being given the
knowledge, tools and services to adopt safe behaviours. It says
there is a strong linkage between what young people know and how
they act, and that a safe and protective environment is crucial
for them to develop the skills necessary to avoid infection. In
addition, it says special efforts are needed to reach especially
vulnerable young people, such as injecting drug users and
commercial sex workers.
"Young people have unquestionably demonstrated that they are
capable of making responsible choices to protect themselves when
provided support, and they can educate and motivate others to
make safe choices," said Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General
of WHO. ...
************************************************************
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