It is still not clear whether people living with HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal will ever see any of the $72-million granted to the province in April by the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM). The Global Fund has indicated that from this week it will start to disburse money to projects approved in its first round of applications – but unless procedural problems surrounding the KZN grant are cleared up, this province’s money will not come through. Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala- Msimang wants the $72-million to be distributed to all nine provinces and says the Global Fund violated its own rules by awarding the money directly to the KZN consortium, the Enhancing Care Initiative, when the application should have gone through the SA National AIDS Council (SANAC).
Equity in Health
Life-saving medicines are not available to one-third of the world's population despite a long international campaign for wider access to essential drugs, the World Health Organization have said. In the 25 years since WHO drew up its essential drugs and medicines list, the number of people able to obtain those medicines has doubled, but there remains "a huge unfinished agenda," said Jonathan Quick, the head of the U.N. agency's project.
The Bush administration, embroiling itself in a new fight at the United Nations, has threatened to withdraw its sup- port for a landmark family planning agreement that the United States helped write eight years ago. The reason for the threat is contained in two terms that the administration contends can be construed as promoting abortion. The terms - reproductive health services and reproductive rights - figure in the final declaration of the United Nations population conference in 1994 in Cairo, which embraced a new concept of population policy based on improving the legal rights and economic status of women. The declara- tion has since been endorsed by 179 nations. But during a population and development conference in Bangkok this week, the American delega- tion announced that Washington would not reaffirm its support for the Cairo "program of action" unless the disputed words were changed or removed, United States and United Nations officials said.
Unsafe sex is the second-largest health risk worldwide, according to a World Health Organization report released recently. The report, titled "Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life," lists the top 10 major health risks worldwide that together account for approximately 40% of all deaths. The number one international health risk is being underweight, which results from a lack of food and can contribute to low birthweight infants and other health problems. According to the report, both underweight and unsafe sex are "far more prevalent" in developing nations than in developed nations.
The World Health Report 2002, officially launched on 30 October, represents one of the largest research projects ever undertaken by the World Health Organization. The report, subtitled Reducing risks, promoting healthy life, measures the amount of disease, disability and death in the world today that can be attributed to some of the most important risks to human health. It then goes on to calculate how much of this present burden could be avoided in the next 20 years, opening the door to a healthier future for people in all countries.
Treatment activists from 21 African countries have formed a movement to promote quality care and support for all Africans living with HIV/AIDS. At a meeting in Cape Town, South Africa recently over 70 activists gathered to inaugurate the Pan-African HIV/AIDS Treatment Access Movement (PHATAM). The organisation was founded by two of the world's leading activists, Zackie Achmat of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), South Africa and Milly Katana of the Health Rights Action Group in Uganda. PHATAM is dedicated to mobilising African communities, political leaders and all sectors of society to ensure that access to antiretroviral treatment is a fundamental part of comprehensive care for all peopie with HIV/AIDS.
One in four new HIV infections in the UK may be resistant to current drug treatments, say experts. The annual conference of the Public Health Laboratory Service heard that the growing problem of resistance made measures to prevent initial HIV infection ever more important.
Richard Feachem, director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said that the fund will run out of money by the middle of next year unless it receives new donations, the Boston Globe reports. The fund has received $2.1 billion in pledges but has collected only $500 million.
Two more southern African countries, Malawi and Mozambique, have followed Zimbabwe's example and have accepted genetically modified (GM) food as starvation takes its toll in the region. President Mugabe, who earlier this year had said he would not allow "his people" to consume GM food, as it was feared to cause negative reactions in human beings, made a U-turn last month by announcing that the country would begin consuming GMs because of the prevalent food crisis.
The Dutch government is to recall a large batch of AIDS drugs which were sold at cut-price rates in Africa and illegally re-exported to the lucrative European market. Dutch officials said that more than 35,000 packets of pills with a market value of close to 15m Euros had been re-sold in the Netherlands and Germany, where a similar investigation is being conducted. Two types of Aids drugs were involved, both made byGlaxoSmithKline.