AFRO-NETS> Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report - Wed, 28 Nov 2001

[Cecilia Snyder <csnyder@ccmc.org>]

Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report - Wed, 28 Nov 2001
-----------------------------------------------

* World Bank to Consider Granting No-Interest Loans to Aid African
  Nations Fighting HIV/AIDS 
* Stop AIDS Campaign Calls on United Kingdom to Take International
  Lead in Fight Against HIV/AIDS at Organization's Launch
* Doctor Faces 'Skepticism' in Fight Against AIDS in South Africa's
  Hlabisa Region, New York Times Series Reports
* Surgeon General David Satcher Notes Progress, Future Challenges in
  Global Fight Against AIDS


--
World Bank to Consider Granting No-Interest Loans to Aid African Na-
tions Fighting HIV/AIDS

The World Bank announced yesterday that it will consider granting 
$500 million in no-interest loans to help developing countries in Af-
rica fight HIV/AIDS, the AP/Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports 
(AP/Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 11/28). The possible new funding 
was announced as the World Bank appointed Debrework Zewdie as its 
first global HIV/AIDS adviser (Agence France-Presse, 11/28). The 
World Bank's International Development Association last year approved 
$500 million in funding for its Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program for 
Africa (MAP) (IDA Web site, 11/28). Under the first stage of that 
program, $500 million over three years was allocated to 10 African 
countries (World Bank release, 11/27). However, Zewdie said that af-
ter the approval of that program, many more African countries sought 
financial aid for fighting HIV/AIDS. She said that the World Bank in 
January will consider a request for an additional $500 million in no-
interest loans (Agence France-Presse, 11/28). Twenty African nations 
have asked to be included in the project in addition to the original 
10 (World Bank release, 11/27). Zewdie said that the focus of new 
anti-AIDS efforts would first be prevention, and then treatment. The 
World Bank also wants to expand its existing program from the medical 
field to other areas such as education and social programs (Agence 
France-Presse, 11/28).


--
Stop AIDS Campaign Calls on United Kingdom to Take International Lead 
in Fight Against HIV/AIDS at Organization's Launch

The Stop AIDS Campaign, a new initiative backed by 15 U.K. charities, 
is calling on the British government to "show ever-stronger political 
commitment and take an international lead in fighting the [HIV/AIDS] 
epidemic," according to a group press release. The campaign, which is 
supported by ACORD, Action Aid, the African HIV Policy Forum, the 
Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, Christian Aid, the Diana 
Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, 
HelpAge International, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, the Na-
tional AIDS Trust, Oxfam, Save the Children U.K., Tearfund, UNICEF 
U.K. and VSO, will be formally launched today in London in prepara-
tion for World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. The group will ask British leaders 
to make a "five-fold increase" in the amount of resources dedicated 
to HIV/AIDS efforts and will also work to reduce developing nations' 
debt burden, which "continues to divert vital resources away from 
health care, health systems and education," and improve access to af-
fordable medications for HIV/AIDS and opportunistic infections asso-
ciated with the disease (Stop AIDS Campaign release, 11/27). The Stop 
AIDS Campaign says in its launch statement, "Recent events have shown 
that political leaders can rapidly mobilize when they see fit. The 
same level of political will must be brought to bear to fight the 
millions of lives lost as a result of global indifference to the AIDS 
emergency ... Together we will work to increase public awareness and 
demand ever-stronger political support and resources to urgently meet 
the challenges of this epidemic which threatens the lives and future 
well-being of millions around the world" (Stop AIDS Campaign launch 
statement, 11/28).


--
Doctor Faces 'Skepticism' in Fight Against AIDS in South Africa's 
Hlabisa Region, New York Times Series Reports

The New York Times' ongoing series "Death and Denial" today profiles 
Dr. Neil E. Jorgensen, "a white, Zulu-speaking" physician who oper-
ates a "busy clinic" in Mtubatuba, South Africa, in the Hlabisa 
Health District. In 1990, after seeing his first AIDS patient in Dur-
ban, the closest city to Mtubatuba, Jorgensen returned to the town 
and found that about 40% of workers at the local sugar mill had been 
treated for a sexually transmitted disease in the previous year. He 
then tested those who had signs of infection such as swollen glands. 
At a time when the estimated infection rate in the surrounding 
KwaZulu-Natal Province was 2%, Jorgensen found that 6% of the workers 
he tested were HIV-positive. In the following years, Jorgensen "met 
lots of skepticism" as he tried to educate the workers about condom 
use and monogamy and even hired AIDS counselors to conduct outreach 
education in the sugar cane fields and in bars. Eighty percent of the 
workers were tested in the last annual HIV screening, "a remarkable 
level of compliance," the Times reports. Today, 28% of the workers in 
Mtubatuba are HIV-positive, a "victory" for this "crusading doctor," 
as the overall rate for rural KwaZulu-Natal is at least 36% (McNeil, 
New York Times, 11/28).

A 'Crucial' Mission

In an accompanying article, the Times profiles Guitor Mthembu, one of 
eight HIV-positive individuals in the Hlabisa region to publicly ad-
mit he is infected. Mthembu said that his mission is "to put myself 
as a human face on HIV/AIDS." The Times, noting that 95% of KwaZulu-
Natal residents have never been tested for HIV, reports that in a re-
gion where "denial and shame are routine," terror of the disease is 
endemic and "[m]yths ... are rife," witnesses like Mthembu are "cru-
cial" (McNeil, New York Times, 11/28). Both of the Times articles are 
available online at nytimes.com/international.


--
Surgeon General David Satcher Notes Progress, Future Challenges in 
Global Fight Against AIDS

The newest and "most promising" public-private partnership focused on 
fighting HIV/AIDS is the U.N. Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis 
and Malaria, U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher writes in a commen-
tary in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Associa-
tion. In his final column as surgeon general, Satcher praises the 
progress made in fighting HIV/AIDS around the world in the past two 
years. "[T]hrough increasing political commitment, the international 
community has 'broken the silence,' and it has begun to 'bridge the 
gap' by moving beyond words to deeds," Satcher writes. Public-private 
partnerships between governments, international organizations, non-
governmental organizations and businesses will be crucial to mobiliz-
ing the global anti-AIDS effort, he adds. Satcher notes that framing 
AIDS efforts as "a 'choice' between prevention and treatment repre-
sent[s] a false dichotomy" because prevention and treatment are "mu-
tually reinforcing." Health officials, governments and organizations 
must focus on prevention efforts such as education, voluntary testing 
and counseling while also emphasizing treatment issues such as pal-
liative care, antiretroviral therapy and treatment for opportunistic 
infections, Satcher concludes (Satcher, Journal of the American Medi-
cal Association, 11/28).

--
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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