AFRO-NETS> Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report-: Fri, 5 Oct 2001

[Cecilia Snyder <csnyder@ccmc.org>]

Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report-: Fri, 5 Oct 2001 
-----------------------------------------------

*LoveLife and South Africa's Independent Newspapers Join to Fight
  HIV/AIDS 
* Annan Discusses AIDS Drug Discounts with Seven Major Drug Companies


LoveLife and South Africa's Independent Newspapers Join to Fight 
HIV/AIDS

South Africa's Independent Newspapers and loveLife, a national HIV 
prevention program aimed at youth, on Tuesday announced a five-year 
partnership to facilitate the groups' fight against the nation's 
HIV/AIDS epidemic, Xinhua News Agency reports. A biweekly newsletter 
for teenagers, titled Thetha Nathi (Speak to Us), will be the center-
piece of the partnership. The newsletter will debut in the Western 
Cape province on Nov. 5, in Gauteng province the following day and in 
KwaZulu-Natal province on Nov. 8. The partnership will assist 
loveLife in expanding its "media reach" and educational efforts, 
loveLife advisory board spokesperson Mandla Sibeko said. Independent 
Newspapers CEO Ivan Fallon said the organization believes that the 
"key to reducing the impact of the HIV epidemic in South Africa is to 
slow the rate of HIV infection among young people".  According to In-
dependent Newspapers spokesperson Amanda Marais, the organization 
will also seek to prevent the spread of HIV among its workforce (Xin-
hua News Agency, 10/3).         

Annan Discusses AIDS Drug Discounts with Seven Major Drug Companies

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday in New York City met with 
"top officials" from seven major drug companies in his continuing ef-
fort to gain price reductions for drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS, the 
Wall Street Journal reports. According to a U.N. spokesperson, Annan 
discussed lowering drug costs, improving access to HIV/AIDS medica-
tions, expanding treatment capabilities and involving private compa-
nies in the fight against AIDS. Representatives of Abbott Laborato-
ries, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, 
Merck & Co., Pfizer and Roche Holding attended the meeting. The gath-
ering was a follow-up to an April meeting during which Annan brokered 
an agreement from six drug companies to cut HIV/AIDS medication 
prices to developing countries (Wall Street Journal, 10/5).

The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, 
a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, by National 
Journal Group Inc. c 2001 by National Journal Group Inc. and Kaiser 
Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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