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Christian Conference of Asia
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SCMP - Friday, June 20, 2003
Women face Aids risk from bisexual husbands: study AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Paris Updated at 11.21am: Chinese women face a significant risk of catching HIV from bisexual husbands, according to a study published this Saturday. The threat has been overlooked in the effort to tackle China's worsening Aids problem, which at present is being driven by intravenous drug use and infected blood transfusion, its authors warn. Chinese and US doctors carried out an extensive inquiry about sexual habits and backgrounds among 481 Beijing men who had sex with other men. The participants were discreetly recruited to the study through bars, parks and bath-houses. Two-thirds of them were married. Fifteen of the 481 men tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), with a higher prevalence of infection among men aged over 39. Half of all the men said they had had unprotected sex with other men during the previous six months, and almost a quarter had had unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse with women during that period. "These findings suggest that men who have sex with men could potentially serve as a sexual bridge between high-risk men and low-risk women," the authors say. "This sexual mixing pattern might contribute to the sexual transmission of HIV-1 to heterosexually active adults. To some extent, this pattern has been seen in other Asian countries, notably India." The study was led by Kyung-Hee Choi of the Centre for Aids Prevention Studies at the University of California in San Francisco. It is published in the British medical weekly The Lancet. Last June, the United Nations warned China that without urgent action, it could face a "catastrophe (involving) unimaginable human suffering." According to UN estimates, between 800,000 and 1.5 million people in China had HIV by December 2001, and the number could reach 10 million by 2010. Shared use of intravenous needles by drug use and infection through contaminated blood donations account for about three-quarters of current cases in China. However, experience in other countries has shown that the virus leaps out of narrow social categories and is quickly spread through sexual transmission. This is especially the case in countries where prostitution and homosexual contacts are common but where repressive attitudes make it difficult to promote safe-sex practices. posted by cbs on Friday, June 20, 2003 Interfaith AIDS Conference: FOR WE ARE NEIGHBORS November 21-25, 2003, Bangkok, Thailand 1. General Situation It is clear that HIV/AIDS is not a single global epidemic but the sum of multiple epidemics with common features but with different characteristics, which need to be understood within each local context. The situation calls for a strong political will, economic support and socio-religious commitment from all Asian governments, non-governmental organizations, business sector and religious community organizations to ensure that HIV/AIDS and its multi faceted problems are recognized and critically addressed. People around the world know HIV/AIDS, but at our time many of them, especially in remote communities, don?¦t know well how to prevent its transmission. The reason for the lack of knowledge concerning AIDS transmission and protection is the lack of proper educational information of HIV/AIDS and how to prevent it. Asia and the Pacific accounts for one in every five new HIV/AIDS infections worldwide. Over 8million people were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2002, of whom 2.6million were young people aged 15to 24. Finally, the people living with HIV/AIDS have to stop daily work and leave their jobs. They have changed from being the family supporter to being a liability for their families, thus adding to the burden on scarce resources. Many have to take their children out of school or have to be taken care in the orphanage home, food consumption goes down, or elderly people are left to take care of themselves and the children. 2. Religious Challenges As HIV/AIDS is an ongoing crisis, cuts across geographical boundaries, class, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicities and age group, requires a sustained and sustainable response at multi-sectoral and multi-faith levels. The 14th International AIDS Conference held in Barcelona midst 2002 called for wider cooperation to combat HIV/AIDS. The faith-based communities have been recognized and invited to work side by side with scientists, health workers, government and secular non-government organizations. Religious communities, institutions, organizations and groups are challenged to transcend religious fundamentalism, overcome our mistrust of other religious groups, and reach out to people living with HIV/AIDS and their families in humility and love. We need to find the common platforms for action, recognizing that each everyone is a member of one family and working together to build caring communities where all are accepted. It is in this working together that we find our common humanity. HIV/AIDS is not merely a health issue, but also a major ?§life crisis?¨ of the spirit, the mind and the environment, due to socio-economic and political pressures. From this perspective, involvement in HIV/AIDS concerns is of ?§rethinking?¨ human relations, social understanding, forgiveness, reconciliation and unity. Recognizing the wide range in fighting against HIV/AIDS, faith-based communities are also challenged to adopt an inter-sectoral and holistic approach to ensure the basic human rights of the people living with HIV/AIDS is protected. Capacity-building initiatives could focus on clergy, lay leaders, women, youth groups, and staff of the church institutions and include training in program management, communication and counseling skills, documentation, monitoring and evaluation, and value-based education. In light with these situations and challenges, the Interfaith Committee initially comprising of people from Christian [Protestant and Catholic], Buddhist and Muslim, is organizing the ?§Interfaith AIDS Conference: For We Are Neighbors?¨ 3. Objective The Conference aims to bring leaders and community workers of faith-based communities and religions together to find a common understanding and cooperation by which an intensive effort against HIV/AIDS crisis could be launched. The program finally brings the HIV/AIDS issues into the mainstream concern for inter-sectoral and inter-faith cooperation. Specific Objectives: 4. Participants About 60 delegates from various religious communities namely Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Bahai, Hindu,etc. in Asia, secular NGOs, related government offices and ecumenical partners are invited. 5. Date and Possible Venue November 21-17, 2003 Royal Benja Hotel 39 Sukhumvit Road, Soi 5, Bangkok, Thailand Tel; +66-2-6552920, Fax: +66-2-6552959, 6557370 E-mail: reserve@royalbenja.th.co 6. Main Agenda The Conference covers the following major agendas: 7. Tentative Agenda and Schedule The Conference is inclusively a 5-day program that includes: Day 1 Arrival and opening session Day 2-4 Conference [details will be given] Day 5 Departure 8. Expected Results At the end of the workshop, it is expected that: It is also expected that the final document, recommendations and resolution of the conference will be share to delegates to the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific [ICAAP], which will be held in Kobe, Japan from November 27 to December 2, 2003]. For more information and sending application, Please contact: Dr. Prawate Khid-arn Christian Conference of Asia 96, 2nd District,PakTin Village Mei Tin Road, Shatin,N.T.,HongKong Tel: +852-26911068, Fax: +852-26923805 E-mail: prawate@cca.org.hk Rev.Sanan Wutti CCT-AIDS Minitry 100/1 Rattanakosin Road [Doi Sakhet Kao] ChinagMai 50000, Thailand Tel: +66-[053]-306310, Fax: +66-[053]-306330 E-mail: cam@chmai2.loxinfo.co.th posted by Prawate on Monday, June 09, 2003 AIDS Protesters Beaten, say villagers A woman with AIDS was allegedly beaten by four policemen when she tried to lodge a complaint with a World Health Organization delegation visiting Henan. Yang Nidan’s hasband said his 41-year-old wife was in a weak condition before the beating, but now her doctor feared she would be dying. “She was hurt badly and lost a lot of blood. She needs a transfusion, which I can’t afford,”said Liu Baoling. Ms.Yang was one of about 100 HIV/AIDS patients who went to a hospital in the village of Wenlou in Henan on May 18 to voice their grievances to a visiting WHO and Health Ministry delegations. The villagers say they are being left to die by a government that is responsible for their illness but has turned its back on them. The patients contracted HIV in the 1990s after donating blood at unhygienic state-run clinics. They claim that doctors at the local hospital will not treat them, staff will not touch them and they are only ever offered basic cough and cold medicines, which are frequently unavailable. But 200 local officials and police officers, many dressed in plain clothes, prevented the patients getting within 100 metres of the hospital while the delegation was visiting last month, several villagers told the South China Morning Post. Ms. Yang protested and was hauled into a police car and beaten, Mr. Liu said. When she asked what law she had broke, the police said: “Do you want us to kick you dead” We are the dogs fed by the government, so we will bite whoever the officials tell us to,” her husband said. He said Ms. Yang was detained for several hours until the delegation had left the village. He also said that officials selected some “obedient” HIV/AIDS patients to give the WHO and Health Ministry visitors a distorted picture of the situation by saying they were all adequately cared for. They also told them there were 306 HIV/AIDS carriers in the village, although the real figure is probably twice that, Mr.Hu Jia, director of the Bejing-based Aizhixing Aids Research and Education Institute said. One of the patients, a 37-year-old mother of young twin girls, contracted AIDS after donating blood in the village in 1997, like many of her neighbors. “The local government was advertising it everywhere at the time, saying it was a good way to earn money,” the woman said. She gave 800cc of blood on three separate occasions, after which medical staff reinjected 400cc of pooled blood from a container. She was paid45 yuan [HK$42] each time. “So I made 135 yuan in total, but I got AIDS,” she said. The woman was one of the many AIDS carriers who were not allowed to meet the WHO experts on their visit last month. “The government just wants to hide us away. They treat us like grass, just ready to be cut down,” she said. [Source: South China Morning Post, Tuesday, June 2, 2003] posted by Prawate on Monday, June 09, 2003 The Independent, London 03 June 2003 Billions for war on Aids will go to drug firms, say activists By John Lichfield Leaders of the world's richest countries have agreed to provide billions of dollars to help fight Aids in Africa at the G8 summit but yesterday campaigners said that under present trade rules much of that cash would go to multinational pharmaceutical companies. To the disappointment of pressure groups monitoring the summit, the leaders failed to make progress on new trade rules to allow poor countries to buy cheap, generic versions of new medicines, including the drugs that can arrest Aids. France, as the summit host, had been pushing for an agreement in principle that existing rules, which forbid Third World countries from buying cheap versions of the drugs from other developing countries, should be relaxed. President Jacques Chirac's spokes-woman, Catherine Colonna, said progress was made on the issue. She explained that there was an "agreement to agree" at the next round of trade talks in Cancun in Mexico in the autumn. The United States, in particular, objects to a dilution of the international law on copyright, which would allow Third World countries, unable to make their own generic drugs, to buy them cheaply from developing nations such as Brazil. President George Bush announced before the Evian summit began that the US would give $15bn (£9.2bn) over five years to help to fight Aids in the world's poorest countries, especially in Africa. European Union countries agreed on Sunday to try to match the pledge. Speaking from Evian yesterday, Nathan Ford, the medical director of Médécins sans Frontières in the UK, said the new money was welcome but a change in copyright law would be even more useful. It would help to make cheap drugs available to Third World countries to fight not only Aids but a host of other diseases. Under present rules, he said, a poor country might have to spend $1,500 (£920) a year to treat one HIV-infected person with brand name antiretroviral drugs. Generic medicines could reduce the cost to £185 a year per person. In other words, Mr Ford explained, without a change in the trade rules, much of the money offered by America and Europe would simply come back to the large American and European pharmaceutical corporations. posted by cbs on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 |
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