Dear members of AIDS ASIA e FORUM

It appears that time has come to think about a Carbon Neutral HIV Response! Glad
to see that Prof Daniel Tarantola, Professor of Health and Human Rights also
feels the same way. According to him Climate change may increase vulnerability
to HIV. This discussion also indicates to the need to incorporate a wide range
of social determinants and social consequences of HIV infection, rather than
traditional analysis of HIV infection from a limited, minimalist perspective of
“HIV and High Risk Groups”.

We will be interested to receive further contributions from the readers of this
form of empirical analysis, conceptual issues and other anecdotal evidences on
the linkages between environmental degradation and HIV vulnerability and its
policy and program implications.

Please review, our earlier discussion on this issue on this FORUM at the
following web page.

Re: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS_ASIA/message/1195

Thank you.

Joe Thomas
Editor
AIDS ASIA: AIDS Analysis Asia Pacific e_Newsletter
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Climate change threats to HIV rates

30th April 2008. Social factors, including economic pressures caused
by climate change, could lead to an increase in HIV infection rates
world-wide, a leading researcher from UNSW has warned.

Daniel Tarantola, Professor of Health and Human Rights at the School
of Public Health and Community Medicine, told the audience at a
public lecture that disadvantage in developing countries must be
addressed if the world is to prevent a dramatic escalation of the HIV
epidemic as well as other health problems.

Professor Tarantola joined a panel of top HIV researchers to address
the topic "A Future Free of HIV" at UNSW. The event was moderated by
Justice of the High Court, Michael Kirby.

"It was clear soon after the emergence of the HIV epidemic that
discrimination, gender inequality and lack of access to essential
services have made some populations more vulnerable than others.
These problems have not gone away," Professor Tarantola said.

"Today, additional threats are lurking on the horizon as the global
economic situation deteriorates, food scarcity worsens and climate
change begins to affect those who were already dependent on survival
economies.

"Climate change will trigger a chain of events which is likely to
increase the stress on society and result in higher vulnerability to
diseases including HIV," he said.

Professor David Cooper, Director of UNSW's National Centre in HIV
Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR) said: "Science has
achieved great strides towards shaping a more effective response to
HIV. Yet research has not succeeded in producing the hoped-for `magic
bullets' of either a cure or a vaccine.

"We need to escalate our research efforts while sustaining and
expanding what we know works: good prevention and access to life-
saving antiretroviral therapy and integrated care."

Topics covered at the forum included:

• The social and human rights implications of HIV, presented by
Professor Tarantola
• The latest scientific perspectives on HIV, presented by Professor
Cooper, one of the world's best-known HIV researchers.
• Social and behavioural aspects of the epidemic, including condom
use and sexual practices, and people's fear of talking explicitly
about sex, addressed by UNSW Associate Professor Juliet Richters.

http://www.unsw.edu.au/news/pad/articles/2008/apr/HIV_forum.htm