AFRO-NETS> Three stories from today's UN Foundation News

[Leela McCullough <leela@usa.healthnet.org>]

Three stories from today's UN Foundation News 
---------------------------------------------


Health

*HIV/AIDS: Ministers Wrap Up Melbourne Conference With Pledges 
*AFRICA-GAVI Introduces Multi-Purpose Vaccine For Deadly Diseases 
*ANTHRAX: 5,000 Cases Occur Annually, WHO Expert Says


HIV/AIDS: Ministers Wrap Up Melbourne Conference With Pledges

As part of the 6th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pa-
cific, which concluded today, ministers from more than 30 countries 
in the Asia-Pacific region pledged their commitment to combating the 
HIV/AIDS pandemic by encouraging further development of national ac-
tion plans to address prevention, care and treatment among their 
populations. 

The five-day congress involved 3,500 lawmakers, health professionals 
and AIDS workers. "We all have a common goal: to address the threat 
of HIV/AIDS, the shadow of which is lengthening over our region," 
said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. "No country can 
claim to be safe from the reach of this epidemic. Every single day of 
last year saw about 3,000 (people) newly infected with HIV in our re-
gion." Downer said Australia will pledge about $25 million to a $100 
million initiative on HIV/AIDS announced last year directly targeting 
the Asia-Pacific region. Australia would also, if asked, "provide 
support to Asia-Pacific governments to draft legislation to facili-
tate cost-effective access to essential HIV/AIDS drugs," Downer said. 

Downer said, however, that the country remains steadfast that inter-
national trade agreements be adhered to on patents for HIV/AIDS medi-
cines. "Obviously we would like to feel these (HIV/AIDS) drugs can be 
made available at the lowest possible price, but that has to be done 
in a way that is consistent with international law and it has to be 
an appropriate regime to make it possible," Downer said. In a mani-
festo issued today, the congress called on drug companies to put peo-
ple's rights before "patent rights and private profits" and for com-
munities to oppose all forms of discrimination against HIV-infected 
people (Associated Press/Times of India, Oct. 10).

Conference Examines Impact Of Gender Bias During discussions yester-
day, the delegates focused on gender and sexuality in regards to 
HIV/AIDS, in particular the issue of empowering women as part of an 
effort to curb high HIV infection rates. Women in the Asia-Pacific 
are among the most vulnerable to infection because of their lack of 
control over their own sexuality. "HIV in India has not only reaf-
firmed, but compounded the existing gender biases," said Lalitha Ku-
maramangalam of southern India. "This is true not only in India, but 
in much of the Asia-Pacific region. Women are expected to be good 
mothers, raise families and not be sexual unless they are sex work-
ers" (Devika Sahdev, Earth Times, Oct. 10).

AFRICA: GAVI Introduces Multi-Purpose Vaccine For Deadly Diseases

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) has intro-
duced a breakthrough vaccine treatment for infants younger than 12 
months in several African countries, the World Health Organization 
announced yesterday at a three-day meeting in Entebbe, Uganda. WHO 
Country Representative Walker Oladapo said the multi-immunization 
Pentavalent Vaccine represents a significant scientific development 
in the fight against five killer diseases -- hepatitis B, hemophilic 
influenza, diphtheria, tuberculosis and tetanus.
 It will be distributed as a donation in kind to countries with a per 
capita gross national product of less than $1,000. Countries expected 
to benefit include Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic 
Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Malawi, 
Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia and Angola. 
Nations with a per capita GNP greater than $1,000, such as South Af-
rica and Botswana, will not benefit from the program, Oladapo said. 

The Pentavalent Vaccines program will replace existing vaccines, 
which immunize against a single disease at a time, and will be made 
available as of next month, he said. GAVI is a coalition of govern-
ments, the Bill and Melinda Gates Children's Vaccine Program, the In-
ternational Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations, 
UNICEF, the WHO and the World Bank Group. Founded in 1999, it aims to 
reduce disparities in vaccine access between industrialized and de-
veloping nations and seeks to address the problem of stagnating 
global immunization rates (Xinhua News Agency, Oct. 9).

ANTHRAX: 5,000 Cases Occur Annually, WHO Expert Says the specific 
type of anthrax cases reported in Florida are rare but 5,000 people a 
year suffer other types of anthrax infections worldwide, according to 
Martin Hugh-Jones, a member of the World Health Organization's An-
thrax Research and Control Working Group. About 95 percent of the 
cases involve infection through the skin after a person handles an 
infected animal or animal product, according to Hugh-Jones. A small 
number of cases involve eating infected meat. Inhaling the spores, 
almost always fatal and believed to be the means by which the two 
Florida men were exposed, is very rare, according to Hugh-Jones. The 
last reported U.S. case of pulmonary anthrax was over 25 years ago, 
according to the Wall Street Journal. Between 700 and 1,000 people 
die each year from anthrax (Gautam Naik, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 
10).


Posted by:
Dr. Leela McCullough
Director of Information Services
SATELLIFE
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