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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published by the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC) from 1995 to 2001 and by Africa Action from 2001 to 2003. APIC was merged into Africa Action in 2001. Please note that many outdated links in this archived document may not work.


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. ...


This material is being reposted for wider distribution by Africa Action (incorporating the Africa Policy Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the American Committee on Africa). Africa Action's information services provide accessible information and analysis in order to promote U.S. and international policies toward Africa that advance economic, political and social justice and the full spectrum of human rights.

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