8 July, 2011
In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on the UN General Assembly Declaration on HIV and AIDS, on a call by unions for more funding for HIV and AIDS, and more workplace activities and on efforts to find a vaccine or a cure to the disease.
UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS
On 10 June, the High Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly adopted its outcome document, the new United Nations General Assembly Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS.
The Declaration reaffirms the commitment of governments to fight the pandemic with time-bound targets laid down in the Millennium Development Goals, such as halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV by 2015. It commits governments to work toward the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015. Efforts must be accelerated to achieve the goal of universal access to antiretroviral treatment for those eligible based on WHO treatment guidelines by 2015.
Governments also pledge to eliminate gender inequalities, gender-based abuse and violence, and increase the capacity of women and adolescent girls to protect them from the risk of HIV infection. The Declaration calls on young people to help lead global HIV awareness.
Of particular importance to unions and the world of work is Article 85 of the Declaration which says: “Commit to mitigate the impact of the epidemic on workers, their families, their dependants, workplaces and economies, including by taking into account all relevant ILO conventions, as well as the guidance provided by the relevant ILO recommendations, including ILO Recommendation No 200, and call on employers, trade and labour unions, employees and volunteers to eliminate stigma and discrimination, protect human rights and facilitate access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.”
While the Declaration recognises that funding has increased in the period from 2001 to 2010 over eight-fold to US$16 billion, it expresses concern that the global financial and economic crises have a negative impact on the HIV and AIDS response.
(Source: UNAIDS and ILO/AIDS press releases)
Unions Call for Closing Funding Gap; More Workplace Action
Trade unions told a key meeting of UNAIDS, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS that, along with real commitments from governments to fill the US$8 billion funding gap, the potential impact of workplace-based activities in tackling the pandemic is still not being realised.
Unions called on the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board, the organisation’s governing body, to add its weight to the UN call (see article above) and ensure that work-related activities are a full part of the overall response to HIV and AIDS.
The action plan by the ITUC and its Global Union partners stresses reduction of stigma and discrimination, increase in access to prevention services, scaling up of social protection services and access to treatment, care and support.
(Source: ITUC press release, 24 June)
Toward an HIV Cure?
On the 30th anniversary of the first medical reports of a new illness, articles appeared on new efforts to find a cure for the AIDS virus.
The new head of the International AIDS Society (IAS), Bertrand Audoin, said that a cure is the only way to keep ahead of the HIV epidemic in the long term during tough financial times. He admitted, however, that it may take as long as 25 years to find a cure.
IAS has convened a working group of international researchers to develop a strategy that might lead to a cure. The group is co-chaired by Professor Françoise Barre-Sinoussi, who won the Nobel Prize in 2008 for discovering HIV together with Luc Montagnier.
Barre-Sinoussi writes in the International Herald Tribune that there is now robust evidence that early and highly active antiretroviral therapy can have a major impact on HIV transmission, demonstrating the “treatment as prevention” concept. AIDS is no longer the death sentence it was, but there now remains extreme uncertainty concerning the long-term sustainability of treatment access, especially in resource-limited settings, she writes.
The Economist devotes its 4 June cover to the epidemic: “The end of AIDS? How 5 million lives have been saved, and a plague could be defeated.” The lead article gives this stark statistic: since the discovery of AIDS, 25 million people have died and another 34 million are infected. But the death rate is dropping. In 2005 the disease killed 2.1 million; in 2009 the number was down to 1.8 million. Inside, an article gives a detailed account of the present state of research. If a few people’s immune system controls the disease naturally, it suggests that a vaccine might be possible. And if antibodies have been discovered that neutralise the virus, that might form the basis of AIDS-clearing drugs.
(Sources: BBC News, 1 June; International Herald Tribune, 4/5 June; and the Economist, 4 June.)
South Africa: New Policy Saves Thousands of Babies from HIV
The South African government has slashed the HIV transmission rate from pregnant mothers to their babies to merely 3.5%, potentially sparing some 67 000 babies from HIV infection. The success is due mainly to the Health Department vastly improving its programme for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV infection (PMTCT) from April last year.
“It is possible to prevent all HIV-positive mothers from passing the virus on to their babies, but we now have to concentrate on the care of babies after birth,” said Precious Robinson, deputy director of government’s PMTCT programme, at the release of the new figures at the SA AIDS conference.
Under the old treatment programme, mothers and their newborns were given one dose of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine. At best, this reduced the HIV transmission rate to 8.8%, according to small local surveys. But in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal, one in five HIV-positive mothers were still infecting their babies despite getting nevirapine.
In order to save babies, the PMTCT treatment programme was prioritised. From last April, the Health Department advised that all pregnant women with HIV are given the ARV called AZT from 14 weeks of pregnancy and three ARVs during labour (nevirapine, tenofovir, and 3TC). If a pregnant woman has a CD4 count of less than 350, she should be put onto triple therapy (three ARVs) within two weeks of getting her CD4 test results. Newborn babies are now given nevirapine syrup for as long as their mothers are breastfeeding them, or for six weeks if not they are not breast-fed.
(Source: www.health-e.org.za, 9 June)
‘Red Card’ to Keep Children Free from HIV
Captains of national football teams competing in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011 soccer championship in Germany are signing up to the Give AIDS the Red Card appeal in support of a global plan to eliminate new HIV infections among children by 2015. The Give AIDS the Red Card appeal, which was launched by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) one year ago at the FIFA 2010 Men’s World Cup in South Africa, uses the power and outreach of football to unite the world around stopping new HIV infections in children.
Every day more than 1,000 babies are born with HIV. However, with access to HIV counselling and testing for pregnant women and their partners, and treatment when needed, the risk of transmission can be brought down to less than 5%.
On signing the pledge, team captains appeal to football players and fans across the world to “celebrate life and support the global campaign to prevent mothers from dying and babies from becoming infected with HIV.”
(Source: UNAIDS press release, Geneva, 24 June)
Websites of Global Fund County Coordinating Mechanisms (CCM)
According to research conducted by Aidspan, at least 20 CCMs have established their own websites. Countries with CCM websites where the ICEM cooperates on HIV/AIDS include:
India (Language: English)
Mauritius (Language: English)
Nigeria (Language: English)
Tanzania (Language: English)
The information available varies considerably from one website to another, with the India site being by far the most comprehensive.
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 149 of 8 June. GFO is a free service of Aidspan www.aidspan.org; to receive GFO send an email to [email protected])
News from Global Unions
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF – www.itfglobal.org) published the fifth issue of Agenda, its yearly magazine dedicated to HIV and AIDS. Agenda features, among other articles, case studies from ITF affiliates, strategies to fight HIV and AIDS at the workplace, and a new study on the civil aviation sector which reveals workers’ exposure to HIV infection, as well as stigma and discrimination.
In the ITF HIV/AIDS updates 108 and 109 of 1 June and 15 June, respectively, articles can be found on peer education for civil aviation workers in Ecuador, a life skill education programme on HIV and AIDS in Indonesia organised by the Indonesia Seafarers’ Union, and the critical role the Transport and Dock Workers’ Union at Mumbai Port is playing in the implementation of a workplace policy on HIV and AIDS.
The June Newsletter of the Swedish Workplace HIV and AIDS Programme (SWHAP), jointly run by the International Council of Swedish Industry (NIR) and the Swedish Industrial and Metalworkers’ Union (IF Metall), reports on a range of peer educators and other HIV and AIDS programmes in East and Southern Africa. SWHAP focuses on the response to HIV and AIDS at Swedish related workplaces.
Five Years Ago: From the July 2006 Issue (No. 10)
The first issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin was published in October 2005. In current issues, we refer to an article from the same month five years ago and reflect on developments.
In the July 2006 issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin, we reported on the first seminar on HIV and AIDS and the workplace organised by ICEM affiliates in Colombia in cooperation with UNAIDS and the Ministry of Social Protection.
We also reported on the concern the ICEM affiliate in Mongolia expressed about the increase in HIV infections. In a report to the ICEM Asia and Pacific Regional Committee, the Mongolia Mining and Energy Union gave an account of the recent increase in HIV prevalence in the country. Despite the still very low prevalence rate, the potential for a further increase due to unsafe sex, high infection rates among migrant workers and mobile traders, and lack of education among young people is high. It will be recalled that, with the help of the Japanese affiliates, the ICEM later initiated an HIV/AIDS programme in Mongolia.
The article devoted to the United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS stated that unlike the 2001 UN General Assembly Session on HIV/AIDS, relatively few world leaders attended this meeting which took place in New York from 29 May to 2 June, 2006. Civil society organisations criticised the final declaration. Difference over prevention strategies, such as abstinence and condom use, intellectual property rights and the naming of vulnerable groups have resulted in a weaker declaration and in serious omissions. In deference to Muslim and conservative Latin and Vatican opposition, the Declaration refers only to “vulnerable groups” at risk for infection without naming sex workers, homosexuals, or intravenous drug users as in need of particular attention. Civil society also noted an insufficient commitment to women’s rights. Most of these deficiencies seem to have been removed from the new Political Declaration (see first article in this issue).
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