10 November, 2010
In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on HIV/AIDS work in southern African countries, on the success of VCT campaigns in Ghana and on the inaugural session of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law.
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ICEM affiliates are engaged in a wide range of HIV/AIDS activities. To spread the information on new agreements, awareness, and prevention campaigns, and educational activities, affiliates, and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to [email protected]. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome.
HIV/AIDS Sub-regional Workshop in Gaborone
Some 20 participants, half of them women, from southern African countries met in Gaborone, Botswana, from 27- 29 October for an HIV/AIDS workshop.
Presentations and working groups focussed on workplace policies and to what extent affiliates have succeeded in incorporating ILO principles. Also, a key focus was on mainstreaming HIV/AIDS into union work in negotiations and as an organising tool.
The ICEM and its affiliates have also taken up the challenge to promote and domesticate the new ILO Recommendation No. 200 on HIV and AIDS and the world of work. The recommendation was presented by an ILO representative and it was extensively discussed by participants.
On behalf of SASK, the international Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland, its sub-regional coordinator, Simião Simbine, based in Maputo, participated. The Finnish partner union TEAM was represented by Nina Laine-Tuominen.
Boehringer Ingelheim Extends Grant for HIV/AIDS Work in India
The German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim agreed to continue the collaboration with the ICEM by extending its grant for HIV and AIDS work in India. We thank German affiliate IGBCE for their assistance in assuring this.
During the first phase, more than 600 peer educators were trained and hundreds of grass-root awareness and prevention campaigns were organised. The second phase will see collaboration with new coal mining companies and an expansion of grass-root level activities. Training for negotiations of workplace policies will also be included in this phase.
World AIDS Day 2010: Universal Access and Human Rights
(Parts of this article appeared already in the October e-bulletin)
First observed in 1988, World AIDS Day (WAD) on 1 December annually has served to raise awareness about the epidemic, focus attention on issues that are key to a successful response, and to inspire positive action. The WAD theme for 2009-2010 is “Universal Access and Human Rights.”
In cooperation with the World AIDS Campaign (WAC) and other organisations, this year UNAIDS is organising a global “Lights for Rights Commemoration” in 100 cities. The “Lights for Rights” campaign began on 1 December 2009 in the US, when the lights were turned off and later turned back on, illuminating New York City landmarks. The darkness represents how stigma, discrimination, and criminalization forces people to die alone in fear and shame, while switching the lights on symbolizes the human rights of all people, which allows one to walk in the light of information, treatment, care, and health.
The World AIDS Campaign has produced a host of online tools that can be downloaded at www.worldaidscampaign.org and adapted for World AIDS Day campaigns. Among these are “I am living my rights” posters and postcards in more than 10 languages.
The ICEM calls on its affiliates to join campaigners and organisations in their country to highlight universal access and human rights.
(Source: UNAIDS website www.unaidstoday.org and WAC circular of 20 October. UNAIDS has produced a toolkit which can be accessed on this site)
Ghana: VCT Campaign by GMWU Makes Headlines
The Ghana Mine Workers’ Union (GMWU) organised two Voluntary Counselling and Testing activities at AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) in Obuasi and at the Ghana Manganese Company (GMC) in Tarkwa in October.
The first campaign in Obuasi targeted wives of mineworkers. It was financed by the union and the company. The second campaign in Tarkwa was for mineworkers and community members. It was sponsored by the ICEM HIV/AIDS project with logistical support from GMC.
Some 1,500 people benefited from the exercise which was organised as part of efforts to sensitize workers, their families, and community members on the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which continues to claim thousands of lives.
In the words of the senior nurse at the Tarkwa Hospital, Agnes Gertrude Cudjoe, “The surest way to contain the pandemic, is to know one’s status.” According to Vida Brewu, GMWU Training and Development Coordinator, the collaboration between GMWU, ICEM, as well as the two companies, brought to the fore the value all parties place on workers.
(Sources: www.ghanaweb.com and Accra Daily Mail, 20 October)
Global Commission on HIV and the Law
Distinguished leaders and prominent public figures from diverse backgrounds and regions assembled in São Paulo, Brazil, in October for the inaugural meeting of The Global Commission on HIV and the Law.
The Global Commission on HIV and the Law, launched in June 2010 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on behalf of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), is an independent commission created to interrogate and analyse the key legal and human rights dimensions of the global HIV response. The Commission will clarify the ways in which the law and its enforcement shape and continue to influence the HIV epidemic and how legal protections can improve access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support.
The first meeting of the Commissioners marked an important milestone for the process. The aim of the meeting was to discuss the priority of HIV-related legal and human rights issues on which the Commission’s work will focus over the next 18 months.
During her introductory remarks to Commissioners at the meeting, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark noted that “the HIV response is now at a crossroads. We are challenged with achieving more progress at a time of fiscal constraint in many countries, and in times of multiple crises. We should not therefore turn a blind eye to the moral, social, and legal complexities which continue to impede our efforts to halt and reverse the spread of HIV”.
(Source: UNDP Press Release, 7 October)
Early HIV Treatment May be Cheaper than Thought
Research by South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand and Boston University in the US, has found that starting HIV-positive people on anti-retrovirals (ARVs) earlier, and at a higher CD4 count (a measure of immune system strength), may be cheaper than previously thought.
After years of debating the financial feasibility of starting those in need of ARVs at a CD4 count of 350 instead of the current threshold of 200, research has shown that it would only add 13 percent to the cost of South Africa's national ARV programme if improved drug purchasing systems and task-shifting strategies were implemented.
South Africa issued its first revised treatment guidelines in six years in April 2010. The new guidelines feature less toxic ARVs, but access to treatment at a CD4 count of 350 was only extended to a selected group of high-risk patients, such as pregnant women, infants, and tuberculosis patients.
Starting patients on ARVs at lower CD4 counts has been linked to a greater likelihood of opportunistic infections and poorer patient outcomes, but government argued that it could not afford to extend earlier treatment more broadly.
(Source: PlusNews, 13 September)
Mozambique: HIV Patients Team up for Cheaper Treatment
For HIV patients in Africa, monthly trips to refill antiretroviral (ARV) prescriptions cost time and money, resources that may be in short supply. But a new strategy being pioneered in Mozambique is easing the burden of monthly refills for patients and the health system.
Developed by health workers with the international medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the strategy centres on self-formed, community-based groups of ARV patients who work as a team to collect their drugs and monitor each other for treatment adherence and general health. The approach addresses the needs of over-burdened health workers and cash-strapped HIV patients and has had the added benefit of increasing community awareness around HIV and tuberculosis.
Every month, the patient groups pool their money to send a rotating "delegate" member to collect ARVs for the rest of the group. At the clinic, which can sometimes be more than 50 kilometres away, the delegate collects the drugs, is examined by a nurse, and submits the group’s paperwork, which includes signed receipts for previous refills, members’ remaining pill counts to track adherence, and notes on any opportunistic infections.
(Sources: PlusNews, 11 October)
Swaziland: ABC Approach not Effective
In a country with the highest HIV infection rate in the world at 26.1%, and the lowest life expectancy, which has dropped to 43 years, experts are still at a loss as to why Swazis have resisted all attempts to change the behaviours that put them at risk from the virus.
The ABC (Abstain, Be Faithful, Condomise) approach has guided Swaziland's HIV prevention efforts for years, but has dismally failed to slow the spread of the virus.
Only about 30% of sexually active men aged 15 to 49 are in committed relationships. The remaining 70% of men are "free agents," to whom the Be Faithful component of the ABC approach does not apply.
Abstinence – the A in the ABC approach – is still valued in Swazi society, but only up to a point. Girls still talk of preserving virginity, but pressures are put on them to engage in sex. Below 15 years of age, HIV prevalence is very low. But as girls become sexually active – in the 20 to 24 age group – HIV prevalence is 38%.
Condoms – the C in ABC – are the ideal prevention method, but are not being used consistently.
Meanwhile, remarks disparaging programmes to reduce HIV infections, made by Swaziland's second top-ranking traditional leader, have sparked disbelief and anger among AIDS activists.
The threat of HIV and AIDS was being "exaggerated" by profit-hungry pharmaceutical companies and condom makers, and male circumcision was no more effective at preventing HIV infection than a post-coital bath, said Prince Mangaliso, who chairs the Liqoqo, a powerful body of royal councillors that advises King Mswati.
(Source: PlusNews, 16 August)
Five Years Ago: From the November 2005 Issue
The first issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin was published in October 2005. In future issues, we will refer to an article from the same month five years ago and reflect on developments.
In the November 2005 issue, we drew the attention of affiliates to the ICEM website www.icem.org. The website has been further developed and contains more valuable information than ever before. Especially useful are models for an HIV/AIDS policy for a union and an HIV/AIDS workplace policy. Affiliates can adapt these for their own use.
We also reported on the ICEM-JAF Asia and Pacific HIV/AIDS seminar which laid the foundation for further work in that region.
One highlight in the November 2005 issue was the signing of a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) by the ICEM jointly with the IFBWW (now BWI) with the French-based cement and building materials multinational, Lafarge. The agreement contains a clause on HIV/AIDS committing the signatories to raise awareness and initiate prevention programmes in compliance with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work.
In the view of the editor, such clauses hold an immense opportunity for our affiliates to advance HIV/AIDS work in cooperation with companies and with their financial contributions. More can be done to make the potential of HIV/AIDS clauses in GFAs better known among affiliates.
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