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3 August, 2010
In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report, among other items, the HIV/AIDS programmes that ICEM affiliates have been implementing, on the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, and on the UNAIDS Outlook Report 2010.
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In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report, among other items, the HIV/AIDS programmes that ICEM affiliates have been implementing, on the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, and on the UNAIDS Outlook Report 2010.
ICEM Affiliates: Implementation of 2010 Programmes in Full Swing
Midterm reports from ICEM affiliates in sub-Saharan Africa show that the implementation of activities through the ICEM HIV/AIDS project, which is sponsored by the solidarity support organisations SASK of Finland and the Dutch FNV Mondiaal, is according to plan.
In Côte d’Ivoire, workplace activities on awareness and prevention and advocacy for early testing reached 170 workers in three different companies. In Mauritius, initial training of women delegates and workers provided the basis for awareness campaigns at worksites through which, so far, 375 workers have been reached. A locally produced DVD multiplied the effect of these campaigns. Twenty-one women unionists were trained as peer educators in Nigeria. Some 1,450 workers and community members were mobilised in one VCT campaign alone. Affiliates in Tanzania organised two workshops in preparation for a massive VCT campaign in the mining area around Mwasa in August, which is sponsored by the women’s structure of the German ICEM affiliate, IGBCE. In Ghana and Uganda training workshops were organised for shop stewards and negotiators on building capacity for bargaining on HIV/AIDS issues.
Labour’s Role at the International AIDS Conference
Trade unions and the ILO played an important role at the 18th International AIDS Conference (IAC), which was held in Vienna, Austria, in July. Some 25,000 scientists, health professionals, representatives of governments, and AIDS activists met for this Conference which takes place every two years.
During the Labour Forum, organised by the Global Union AIDS Programme (GUAP) and the ÖGB, the Austrian trade union centre, labour’s participants were prepared for their different roles and interventions during the Conference.
ILO/AIDS organised a tripartite Workplace Forum during which Jan Eastman, GUAP Chairperson also spoke. The ILO launched the implementation phase of the newly adopted Recommendation concerning HIV and AIDS and the world of work. Numerous other events included trade union speakers and displays gave examples of union HIV/AIDS materials.
Medical advances in treatment have made great progress since the HI virus was discovered almost 30 years ago. Early treatment can effectively reduce the viral load (see also article below). A precondition for this is early testing.
Behaviour change has also contributed to a reduction in new infections. South African Vice President Kgalema Motlanthe underlined that a change of policies has led to a decline in infections. He, like many others, pleaded that world leaders renew their commitment to universal access for HIV/AIDS treatment, especially in view of the fact that funds have fallen flat during the economic recession.
The ICEM was represented at the IAC by Charlotte Nguessan, HIV/AIDS Coordinator for Francophone countries based in Abidjan.
UNAIDS: 10 Million Death, 1 Million New Infections Could be averted
The UNAIDS Outlook Report 2010 outlines a radically simplified HIV treatment platform called Treatment 2.0 that could decrease the number of AIDS-related deaths drastically and could also greatly reduce the number of new HIV infections.
Treatment 2.0 is a new approach to simplify the way HIV treatment is currently provided and to scale up access to life saving medicines. Using a combination of efforts it could bring down treatment costs, make treatment regimens simpler and smarter, reduce the burden on health systems, and improve the quality of life for people living with HIV and their families. Modelling suggests that compared with current treatment approaches, Treatment 2.0 could avert an additional ten million deaths by 2025.
In addition, the new approach could also reduce new HIV infections by up to one million annually if countries provide antiretroviral therapy to all people in need, following revised WHO treatment guidelines. Today, only five million of the 15 million people in need are accessing these life-saving medicines.
A supplement to the report also shows that young people are leading the HIV prevention revolution. HIV prevalence among young people has declined by more than 25% in 15 of the 25 countries most affected by AIDS. In eight countries—Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe—significant HIV prevalence declines have been accompanied by positive changes in sexual behaviour among young people.
For example, in Kenya there was a 60% decline in HIV prevalence between 2000 and 2005. HIV prevalence dropped from 14.2% to 5.4% in urban areas and from 9.2% to 3.6% in rural areas in the same period. Similarly in Ethiopia, there was a 47% reduction in HIV prevalence among pregnant young women in urban areas and a 29% change in rural areas.
The report was launched in Geneva ahead of the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna. It is available on the UNAIDS website www.unaids.org.
(Sources: UNAIDS Press Statement, Geneva, 13 July)
Knowing Your HIV Status through Workplace Initiative
A Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) Centre opened at the Primary Health Clinic at Jikwoy in Abuja, Nigeria, on 5 July 2010 under the Building Workplace Capacity to Combat HIV/AIDS in Nigeria Project, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The new Clinic will cater to the needs of workers willing to know their HIV/AIDS status in the area and is part of the Project launched in July 2009 by the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) in partnership with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
The workplace initiative in Nigeria implemented by TUC Aid is designed to contribute to a reduction in the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, better protection and promotion of employment and human rights of workers infected with or affected by HIV and AIDS, and to the elimination of stigma and discrimination against them. Six affiliates of the NLC in the Education and Health Sectors are taking part in it. It is hoped that the establishment of the VCT Centre will enable workers and their families to know their status and seek counselling, treatment, and care at an early stage.
In many parts of the world, trade unions combating HIV/AIDS through workplace action have played a decisive role in overcoming the initial reluctance of workers to come forward for testing. The current VCT initiative in Abuja follows the successful completion of a pilot project in 2009 funded by TUC Aid in the Ashanti Region, Ghana, in collaboration with the Timber and Woodworkers' Union (TWU).
(Source: TUC Briefing Document issued 12 July)
Glaxo, Pfizer Joint Venture Opens HIV Pipeline to Generic Companies
ViiV Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer's joint venture company for AIDS drugs, is opening its entire product line-up to generic drug makers working in the world's poorest countries.
The announcement, on the eve of the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, means generic companies will be able to obtain royalty-free voluntary licences for all current ViiV products, as well as products still in development.
The move would help drive down the cost of second-line treatments for HIV, which will be needed increasingly as more people in poor countries develop resistance to cheaper first-line drugs.
The ViiV offer is open to 69 countries, including all least-developed countries, all low-income countries and the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. ViiV, which was launched last November, pools the two drug makers' HIV/AIDS businesses into a new company, owned 85% by Glaxo and 15% by Pfizer.
(Sources: Reuters, 16 July as reported in Pambazuka News 490)
South Africa: Counsellors to Give ‘The Prick’
Lay counsellors in South Africa can now legally perform HIV tests, but delays in paying them and shortages of test kits are threatening a national campaign to scale up voluntary HIV testing and counselling (VCT).
Before new regulations came into effect in May 2010, only nurses were allowed to administer finger-prick HIV tests, but AIDS activists had long argued that this not only added to an already heavy work load and could also hamstring the VCT campaign aiming to test 15 million South Africans by 2011.
South Africa's public health system is struggling to cope with one of the world's worst HIV epidemics, as well as a shortage of doctors and nurses. The South African Nursing Council estimates that the country has about one registered nurse for every 440 patients.
South Africa's new legislation requires counsellors to undergo three hours of training before being added to a database of healthcare providers allowed to perform "the prick".
Malawi and Zambia, faced with even worse health worker shortages, have put HIV testing in the hands of trained lay counsellors, a strategy known as "task-shifting."
(Source: IRIN PlusNews, Johannesburg, 9 July)
Global Fund: OIG Identifies Shortcomings in Rounds-Based Grant Application Process
The Global Fund's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a wide-ranging, 107-page audit report in April 2010, "The OIG Review of the Global Fund Grant Application Process."
The report made six key observations: 1. The way that calls for proposals in the rounds-based channel are structured is inconsistent with the Global Fund principle of supporting country-driven programmes; 2. While a good proposal may be fitted into the Global Fund's proposal form, it is by no means clear that a proposal would be significantly shaped and improved by following the form; 3. There is little scope for the Board to provide assurance on the financial soundness of proposals; 4. After seven years of activity, the Global Fund's relationship with its partners remains poorly defined and even, in some ways, uncomfortable; 5. The present obscurity of the deliberations of the Technical Review Panel (TRP) represents something of a contrast to the rest of the Global Fund's business model; and 6. The current grant application process impairs the ability of the Global Fund Board to set policy and strategy.
The report further comments on the high rejection rate of proposals; the lack of Global Fund presence in-country; the limitations of the screening process; the timing of principal recipient assessments; and the lack of investment in forging and maintaining more effective relations with partners as well as the roles of the Fund's Country Programs staff and the TRP.
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 127 of 24 June. GFO is a free service of Aidspan www.aidspan.org; to receive GFO send an email to [email protected])
Not the Universal Access We Are Campaigning For
Authorities in the Arusha region of Tanzania are investigating the case of a hospital which is alleged to distribute expired medicines to HIV patients. Apparently the anti-retroviral drugs at the faith-based hospital were imported as donations not going through the Medical Supplies Department of the Tanzanian government.
One of the patients who were given expired antiretroviral drugs has started suffering contraindicative complications including rashes, blisters, and periodical fever. There is fear that the expired drugs could be harmful to other patients in the region without them knowing, and officials suspect that other private hospitals could be still issuing them.
The ARVs had an expiry date of December 2009 and were still given out in the first half of 2010.
(Source: Daily News, Dar Es Salaam, 8 July)
News from Global Unions
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF – www.itfglobal.org) reports in its latest HIV/AIDS update No. 90 of 15 July on its HIV/AIDS work with civil aviation workers in Ecuador. It also gives a preview of HIV/AIDS workshops to be held at the ITF Congress in Mexico City in August.
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