INVITATION  AIDS ASIA e FORUM.

Hi,

If you are already a member of this FOURM please forward this message to your
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[AIDS ASIA eFORUM] is an e- forum committed to the development of an Asian
perspective on AIDS prevention and care issues. HIV/AIDS does not recognize
national boundaries. As Asia- pacific countries are increasingly interconnected
through migration and trade, it is imperative to generate a regional perspective
on HIV/AIDS related issues.

A forum for critical analysis of issues, events and programs, which has
implications on, our ability to address HIV/AIDS prevention and care issues
across the region. More than 7,600 subscribers are using this FORUM.

Strategic HIV information and communication support to promote the capacity of
Asian leaders, activists and people living with HIV/AIDS, to facilitate their
engagement and networking, to highlight their experiences and the solutions they
are offering to address HIV/AIDS issues in this region.

A cross cultural discourse on issues and concerns of Asia- Pacific countries
(regions): Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China,
East Timor, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Laos, Malaysia, Marshall
Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, North Korea,
Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon
Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and
Viet Nam will be presented and promoted on this forum.

Please review the archived messages on the following url

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS_ASIA/

Dr. Joe Thomas
Editor
AIDS ASIA e FORUM
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS_ASIA/

Transgenders thank government for setting up welfare board

Special Correspondent , The Hindu, Friday, Jan 25, 2008

CHENNAI: Members of the transgender community on Thursday expressed their
gratitude over the government's move to start a separate welfare board for them,
at the valedictory of the week-long celebration of 'Aravanigal Dhinam.'

Expressing their happiness at the fulfilment of a long-pending demand, the
transgenders put up banners and posters and applauded the move loudly. The
programme was organised by Tamil Nadu AIDS Initiative (TAI), Voluntary Health
Services, in order to exhibit the talents of the transgenders and honour their
involvement in spreading awareness of HIV/AIDS and other disease.

Lakshmi Bai, project director, TAI, said the government had immediately perused
the list of demands presented by trangenders on January 18. She said by ordering
the formation of a Transgender Welfare Board, the government had boosted the
morale of the community.

N.Siva, Rajya Sabha Member, said he had raised the issues of the transgender
community in Parliament. He also promised that he would continue to support
their cause as he believed that they should not be excluded by society.

Kith and kin of the transgenders, anganwadi workers who had worked with them and
the transgenders themselves spoke of their experiences.

Awards were given to three of them, identified as achievers. N.S.Murali,
secretary, VHS, gave away certificates to 12 others who had been nominated for
the awards.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/25/stories/2008012554480500.htm

Wednesday January 30, 06:34 PM

HIV sex worker may have 'infected' 250

A search has begun for about 250 people who may have been infected by
a male prostitute with the potentially deadly AIDS virus.

Hector Scott, 41, of Kingston in Canberra, has been charged with
providing a commercial sexual service while knowing he was infected
with a sexually-transmitted disease, and failing to register as a sex
worker.

He faced the charges in the ACT Magistrates Court earlier this month,
but at the time the specifics of the disease were not known.
ACT Chief Health Officer Charles Guest said Scott was HIV-positive.

"It is a very unusual step to take to mention the diagnosis of this
kind in the interest of privacy," Dr Guest told reporters in Canberra.

"But we will be calling people this afternoon and discussing this
diagnosis with them so we know that it will be in the public domain
today so therefore I'll share that with you."

The ACT health department says it has started calling about 250
people who Scott has allegedly been in contact with in recent weeks.

It is not known if they have all been in sexual contact with the
accused.

"Bear in mind please, 250 is just the number of phone numbers and he
may have been phoning family friends, businesses - there are all
sorts of other reasons," Dr Guest said.

"That may be a very inflated figure of the number of people that he
had sex with or unprotected sex with."

The health department first became aware of Scott's actions on
December 20 last year when notified by another state. The department
alerted police within 24 hours.

But Scott was not issued with a public health order to stop working
as a prostitute until January 4, when he was arrested.

Dr Guest said there was evidence Scott had been HIV-positive for some
years, possibly since 1999.

During 2007 he advertised himself as a prostitute in Canberra media
using the names "Adam" and "Josh" but was unregistered as a sex
worker.

Chief executive of sex workers group Scarlett Alliance, Janelle
Fawkes, said sex workers generally have much lower rates of sexually
transmitted infections than the general population because of safe
sex practices.

"We know in the majority of cases it is the client that doesn't
believe themselves to be at risk and it's the sex worker that has to
negotiate and implement safe sex practices," she told AAP.

"In Australia really it's got to be understood that safe sex really
is a shared responsibility ... if unsafe sex has occurred it
certainly is the responsibility of both parties."

General Manager of AIDS Action Council of the ACT, Andrew Burry, said
instances like the Scott case were almost unheard of in Australia.

"It needs to be remembered that Australia has one of the lowest rates
of HIV transmission and continues to because events such as this are
so incredibly rare," Mr Burry told AAP.

According to the 2007 Annual Surveillance Report on HIV/AIDS
infection in Australia, there were 998 cases of HIV in 2006, up from
763 cases in 2000.

Ms Fawkes said it was hard to keep a register on all sex workers as
every Australian jurisdiction had different sex industry legislation.

Scott is due to reappear in the ACT Magistrates Court for a mention
on February 7.

He was released on strict bail conditions and Dr Guest said it is
understood Scott is no longer working in the sex trade.

Anyone who believes they have been in contact with Scott has been
urged to contact their general practitioner, the Canberra Sexual
Health Centre or call ACT Health on 1800 000 974.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/080130/2/15ois.html

HIV/AIDS Consultation to Call for Urgent Action on Asian Drug-Related
Epidemic

Goa, India (28 January 2008) � For the first time in Asia, AIDS
experts, parliamentarians, civil society and drug user organizations
will gather for a consultation on HIV prevention and treatment for
drug users.

Organized by the Asian Consortium on Drug Use, HIV, AIDS and Poverty,
the consultation will draw more than four hundred delegates from 27
countries to address political, legal and social barriers to HIV
interventions for IDU communities and to advocate for expanded harm
reduction programs promoting drug substitution treatment, access to
needle and syringe exchange and peer education that has proven
effective in stemming the spread of HIV.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates
thirty percent of all new infections worldwide, excluding Africa, are
associated with injecting drug use.

Nearly half of the world's estimated 13 million drug users live in
Asia where injecting drug use is a major factor fuelling HIV
transmission. Most of the global supply of opium and heroin is
produced in Asia where vulnerable groups who inject drugs form a
significant population engaged in high risk behavior such as sharing
contaminated injecting equipment and unprotected sex leading to HIV
infection.

Some Asian countries report HIV prevalence among injecting drug users
(IDUs) as high as 85% while others that previously reported little or
no HIV transmission relating to IDUs have now detected the virus
among this population.

"We will address the vulnerability related to drug use and HIV/AIDS
affecting millions of people in Asia and the related social hazards
including criminalization, incarceration and their linkages to
poverty," said Luke Samson, Co-Chair of the consultation and
Executive Director of the New Delhi based advocacy group SHARAN.

Across the region, criminalization of drug use, severe stigma and
discrimination and law enforcement that marginalizes and penalizes
drug users have driven them underground and deterred their access to
life-saving HIV prevention and treatment services.

Gary Lewis, Representative United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime
(UNODC) stressed successful models of community-based HIV prevention
through outreach and counseling need to be adopted to address AIDS as
a social as well as public health issue. "In Asia, the need of the
hour is to scale-up interventions to reach out to populations at risk
and to save lives. We know what to do, but we need to do more of it."

The consultation will review the alarming spread of HIV in prison and
custodial settings and advocate for reformed legislation, engagement
with law enforcement and narcotics agencies and national AIDS
policies that include services for incarcerated people and those in
compulsory rehabilitation programs.

"We must ensure access to prevention and treatment services and
protect the rights of most at risk populations such as people who
inject drugs by involving them and their communities in every stage
of the AIDS response," said UNAIDS Asia Pacific Regional Director,
Prasada Rao.

The consultation aims to engage key players from the government,
corporate and civil society sectors to define an Asian specific
strategy towards effective HIV and AIDS policies in order to achieve
universal access for people injecting drugs.

"Regional collaboration for HIV preventions is the most effective
mechanism to combat the growing pandemic. This consultation is a
unique opportunity to generate enduring solutions to HIV and AIDS
issues affecting drug users across Asia," said Shri Oscar Fernandes,
Minister of State for Labour and Employment and Convener
Parliamentary Forum on HIV/AIDS.

For media enquiries:

Ishdeep Kohli
Media Representative
Email:  ishdeep@...
Mobile:  +91 98201 57348
www.responsebeyondborders.com

The Asian Consortium on Drug Use, HIV, AIDS and Poverty is a
voluntary network of prominent NGOs, INGOs and service providers
working together on collective issues of HIV prevention, access to
health, food, harm minimization and mainstreaming towards poverty
alleviation among drug using populations in Asia.

The current members of the consortium are
Sharan, India,
Nai Zindagi, Pakistan
Recovering Nepal
Care Bangladesh
International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD)
Centre for Harm Reduction (CHR)
Asian Harm Reduction Network (AHRN)
AIDS Heath Care Foundation (AHF)
Indian Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (INP+)
Indian Harm Reduction Network (IHRN)
International HIV/AIDS Alliance & India HIV/AIDS Alliance
Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (APN+)

Review of Women's Leadership and Participation in the HIV and AIDS Response

Experience shows that AIDS policies and programmes do not work for women until
women's organizations - particularly those of HIV positive women and people with
gender expertise - help shape their content and direction.

Currently, there is insufficient data from a gender equality perspective on
country-level decision-making related to HIV and AIDS policies.

To respond to this, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), with
support from UNDP, is conducting a review of the composition of national-level
decision-making bodies, such as the national AIDS coordinating authorities,
country coordinating mechanisms of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB, and
Malaria, as well as local-level coordinating bodies tasked with addressing HIV
and AIDS.

The review will identify the number and position of women in decision-making
positions within these mechanisms, with an emphasis on  exploring the role and
space accorded to HIV positive women, as well as women affected directly by the
epidemic, such as care-givers within households and communities.

The review will also examine the presence of gender experts or gender expertise
within these mechanisms.  The review and analysis will produce recommendations
for policy-makers and programme implementers to ensure the promotion of women's
participation within the national HIV and AIDS response, as well as provide
guidance for ensuring gender expertise as a critical aspect of the planning and 
mplementing of national strategies for HIV and AIDS.

UNIFEM and UNDP will disseminate findings in the form of a joint UNIFEM-UNDP
report and will develop advocacy strategies to promote the inclusion of women
infected and affected by HIV and AIDS and other women's rights advocates and
experts as decision-makers at local and national levels in the response to the
epidemic.

We look to you, as stakeholders in the AIDS response, to contribute to this
effort.  Please share your answers to a few of the questions below for us to
include as a direct quote and/or as a basis for analysis in the report.

We also welcome any other relevant insights, analysis, or materials you wish to
share with us as we continue to develop this review.  In particular, we wish to
receive references to model practices or programs that you see as representing
best practice.

1) Are there particular challenges or opportunities that women face
when participating in or leading the response to HIV and AIDS?  And how does
this vary between the local, national, and global levels?

2) What lessons have you learned and recommendations would you share
about strategies to increase women's participation and strengthen their 
leadership, particularly of HIV positive women?

3) What is the role of civil society leadership on women and AIDS,
including networks of HIV positive women?

4) Where does gender expertise exist and what effect does it have on
the success or efficacy of programs for women and girls?  Can you share
examples?

5) What are the capacity needs to strengthen women's leadership and
participation in the AIDS response?

We would appreciate receiving your responses and inputs by 4 February 2008.

Thank you in advance for your participation in this review.  Please submit all
answers via email to Nazneen Damji, Programme Specialist, Gender and HIV/AIDS,
UNIFEM  <nazneen.damji@...> and Project Consultant Tyler Crone
<tyler.crone@...>

E. Tyler Crone
e-mail: <tyler.crone@...>

High Level Meeting on AIDS how to get involved.

PDF version: www.icaso.org/publications/aa_jan08_1.pdf

Deadline for accreditation of non-ECOSOC civil society organizations  February
22, 2008

This AIDS ADVOCACY ALERT aims to inform civil society organizations on how to
get involved in the High Level Meeting on AIDS to be held during the UN General
Assembly in New York in June 10-11, 2008.

High Level Meeting on AIDS

The Resolution

In December 2007 the General Assembly approved a Resolution
<http://data.unaids.org/pub/BaseDocument/2007/a-62-l40_en.pdf>  [1] (A/62/L.40)
that sets out the process for the 2008 comprehensive review of the progress in
implementing the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Political
Declaration on HIV/AIDS. The Resolution:

* agrees to a High Level Meeting to be held on June 10-11, 2008.  It also agrees
to an opening plenary that includes a speaker who is openly living with HIV,
five thematic panel discussions, and an “informal interactive hearing with
civil society”.  The outcome document will be a comprehensive summary of the
discussions, drafted by the President of the General Assembly.

* calls on governments to submit national reports by January 31, 2008[2] [see
AIDS Advocacy Alert Reviewing national AIDS responses - How to get Involved
<http://www.icaso.org/publications/aa_aug07_FINAL.pdf> ][3] and for the UN
Secretary General to submit a report on progress and challenges six weeks before
the High Level Meeting.

* encourages Member States to include civil society in their national
delegations. As in previous years, civil society organizations are invited to
apply for accreditation to attend the meeting. The President of the General
Assembly will submit a list, no later than March 31, for approval by member
states.

Accreditation and Registration

The process for accreditation of civil society organizations and registration of
participants is now open. You can apply and register online at
http://www.un-ngls.org/unaids/en .The deadline for non-ECOSOC NGOs to submit
applications for accreditation is February 22, 2008.


The President of the General Assembly will prepare a list of the organizations
that have applied for accreditation and will submit it, no later than March
31st, to Member States for consideration on a no-objection basis for a final
decision by the General Assembly.

Accredited NGOs will be allowed to attend the High Level Meeting and to
participate in the side events (e.g., panel discussion and civil society
hearings) depending on space constraints.

NGOs will be able to participate in the meeting if they:

* already have consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the
UN (ECOSOC status). They still need to register participants to attend the High
Level Meeting.

*  are delegates to the Programme Coordination Board of UNAIDS (PCB); or

*  apply for accreditation by February 22 through UNAIDS and the Office of the
President of the General Assembly and are accorded special authorization by the
General Assembly to attend the review meeting.

Please note: accreditation does not involve resources to participate; you will
need to identify your own funding.  Contact your national AIDS
Commission/Programme, local UNAIDS office, or donor agencies to ask for support
if required.

Advice on how to apply

* Accreditation is for organizations (not individuals) so this needs to be done
once only by someone in your organization.

* Organizations will need to register individual participants to attend the
meeting. Due to space constraints, non-ECOSOC NGOs can initially only register
two participants.  This may be increased or decreased later depending on overall
number of applicants.

* Make sure you read the instructions carefully and fill out all mandatory
fields (marked with an asterisk *).

* Other, non-mandatory, information is requested, but will not affect your
accreditation.  This information mainly aims to assist in identifying possible
speakers and participants in the civil society hearing and panel discussions.
Provide as much or as little information as you feel comfortable in sharing.

ICASO plans to develop a more detailed ‘How to” guide on applying for
accreditation. Please check www.icaso.org/ungass or www.ungasshiv.org
<http://www.ungasshiv.org/>  for updated information and new documents.

If you have any questions or concerns about the information that is being
requested, please email universalaccess2010@.... We encourage all
organizations that register to let us know by email.

This way we will know if any organization has been excluded from the final list.

The Civil Society Task Force

The President of the General Assembly in partnership with UNAIDS is establishing
a Civil Society Task Force (CSTF) comprised of representatives from civil
society. The Task Force will report to the Office of the President of General
Assembly and provide advice on key decisions relating to attendance and
participation of CSOs in the High Level Meeting, including helping to identify
participants for the civil society hearing and deciding on the format, themes,
speakers, and programme of the panel discussions.

An International Civil Society Support Group made up of different constituencies
(PLHIV, Sex Workers, IDU/Harm Reduction, Faith, Labor, Youth, Women) and
regional representatives, set up to provide support to civil society
involvement, will select individual nominations for each of the nine categories
of members:

* Two representatives of networks of people living with HIV
* Three representatives from marginalized communities (drug users, sex workers,
and men who have sex with men)
* A representative of the UNAIDS PCB NGO delegates
* A representative from the Civil Society Support Mechanism
* A representative of the labour sector
* A representative of the private/business sector
* A representative from a women’s organization
* A representative from a youth organization
* A representative from a faith-based organization

The selected nominations will then be sent as recommendations to the UNAIDS
Secretariat and the President of the UN General Assembly President who will be
responsible for the final decision.

The Civil Society Support Mechanism

A Civil Society Support Mechanism was set up at the end of 2007 by a coalition
of community organizations[4], with support from UNAIDS.   International and
Regional Support Groups, made up of diverse organizations and representatives,
will provide communication, consultation, and coordination support for civil
society to be meaningfully involved in the national and global reviews of the
implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS (2001) and the
Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS (2006).

The Mechanism is facilitated and supported by the Coalition members, with
communication also supported by Health and Development Network (HDNet) and the
World AIDS Campaign (WAC).

If you would like further information on the Mechanism or how to get involved in
the 2008 AIDS Review, please write to universalaccess2010@..., or go to
www.icaso.org/ungass or www.ungasshiv.org <http://www.ungasshiv.org/> .


] http://data.unaids.org/pub/BaseDocument/2007/a-62-l40_en.pdf

2 Country reports are available on the UNAIDS website at:
http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/CountryProgress/2007CountryProg\
ress.asp

3 http://www.icaso.org/publications/aa_aug07_FINAL.pdf

4 The International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO), the
International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), the African Council of AIDS
Service Organizations (AfriCASO), AIDS Action Europe  (AAE), Asia-Pacific
Council of AIDS Service Organizations (APCASO), Latin America and the Caribbean
Council of AIDS Service Organizations (LACCASO) and the North American Council
of AIDS Service Organizations (NACASO)

_________

Mary Ann Torres
Senior Policy Advisor
International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO)
65 Wellesley St. E., Suite 403
Toronto, ON
Canada M4Y 1G7
Tel: +1 416 921 0018 ext. x 16
Fax: +1 416 921 9979
Work cell: +1 416 419 6338
Email: maryannt@...
Website: www.icaso.org

Dear Forum,

Re: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS_ASIA/message/1143

We do need to question and discuss these views.

Of course planning a rational response to AIDS requires correct
figures � for prevalence, costs, and capacity (as far as this is
measurable). How these figures are interpreted and used is another
matter. It is regrettable that some experts writing in the Lancet (as
reported by AP on 18 January 2008) seem to believe that using them to
promote competition between different health needs will serve the
greater good. Health is not a game for shifting funds from disease to
disease like pawns on a chess board.

What is the evidence that funding for AIDS has reduced funding for
other diseases or weakened health systems generally? On the contrary,
much of the attention that is now being given to health concerns
across the board stems from the fact that AIDS has illuminated our
understanding of the critical contribution of health to economic
development and social wellbeing.

Where were these experts when structural adjustment policies were undermining
health systems in the 1980s and 90s? Have they spoken out in defence of health
workers, on whom the systems depend, arguing for the need to support their
rights, pay and working conditions to make sure they don't leave the profession?

The HIV epidemic has offered the opportunity to refocus attention on the
personal and communal impacts of poor health and to use AIDS funding to
strengthen health systems and responses generally.

The Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria is one example, and
there are also many at country level - such as labs built to test for
HIV which are used for other diseases as well.

At the same time, it's important to recognize why many of us are so
particularly concerned about AIDS. The 'exceptionality' of AIDS has
many aspects � rights, gender, the long incubation period and 'hidden'
nature of HIV, its fatality if untreated, close links with other STIs
and TB � but I just want to mention one. Almost every person with HIV
is an adult in their prime productive years, the working people who
children, communities and economies depend on.

This means that its consequences are greater and more wide-ranging than for any
other single disease. The health workers who are in the front line of the
response to AIDS, the teachers preparing the next generation, the lorry drivers
carrying people and goods, the farmers growing food, the government officials
responsible for development plans � few of them suffer from malnutrition or
pneumonia, but significant numbers have HIV.

Nevertheless, the right to health will only be achieved if we apply
joined-up thinking to the problem, carry out comprehensive programmes,
and work collaboratively.

Trade unions, for example, far from tackling AIDS as a single issue, are working
on the connections between climate change, poverty, AIDS and sustainable
development.

In all regions, workers are collaborating with employers and their organizations
to make the workplace a vital part of AIDS efforts. These approaches have been
actively supported by the UN's joint programme on AIDS (UNAIDS).

Medical experts have the capacity to help ensure that AIDS funding
benefits broad public health goals - we urge them to work with the
AIDS activists (often the same people) to achieve this end.

Alan Leather
Chairperson
Global Unions AIDS Programme
e-mail: <alan.leather@...>

Selling sex

Jan 17th 2008, From The Economist print edition

Economists let some light in on the shady market for paid sex
IT IS all too easy to become a lost soul in New Orleans. The annual
meeting of the American Economic Association this month was part of a
huge gathering of social scientists sprawled across the city. Each
venue itself was a warren of meeting rooms. Take a wrong turning and
a delegate seeking an earnest symposium on minimum wages might
innocently end up in the conference session devoted to the market for
paid sex.

The star attraction there was Steven Levitt, an economics professor
at the University of Chicago and co-author of "Freakonomics", a best-
selling book. Mr Levitt presented preliminary findings* from a study
conducted with Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociologist at Columbia
University. Their research on the economics of street prostitution
combines official arrest records with data on 2,200 "tricks"
(transactions), collected by Mr Venkatesh in co-operation with sex
workers in three Chicago districts.

The results are fascinating. Almost half of the city's arrests for
prostitution take place in just 0.3% of its street corners. The
industry is concentrated in so few locations because prostitutes and
their clients need to be able to find each other. Earnings are high
compared with other jobs. Sex workers receive $25-30 per hour,
roughly four times what they could expect outside prostitution. Yet
this wage premium seems paltry considering the stigma and inherent
risks. Sex without a condom is the norm, so the possibility of
contracting a sexually transmitted infection (STI) is high. Mr Levitt
reckons that sex workers can expect to be violently assaulted once a
month. The risk of legal action is low. Prostitutes are more likely
to have sex with a police officer than to be arrested by one.

Pricing strategies are much like any other business. Fees vary with
the service provided and prostitutes maximise returns by segmenting
the market. Clients are charged according to their perceived ability
to pay, with white customers paying more than black ones. When
negotiating prices, prostitutes will usually make an offer to black
clients, but will solicit a bid from a white client. There are some
anomalies. Although prices increase with the riskiness of an act, the
premium charged for forgoing a condom is much smaller than found in
other studies. And attractive prostitutes were unable to command
higher fees.

By chance, the authors were able to study the effects of a demand
shock. As people gathered for the July 4th festivities around
Washington Park (one of the neighbourhoods studied), business picked
up by around 60%, though prices rose by just 30%. The market was able
to absorb this rise in demand partly because of flexible supply.
Regular prostitutes worked more hours and those from other locations
were drawn in. So were other recruits�women who were not regular
prostitutes but were prepared to work for the higher wages
temporarily on offer.

One controversial finding is that prostitutes do better with pimps�
they work fewer hours and are less likely to be arrested by the
police or preyed on by gang members. The paper's discussant at the
conference, Evelyn Korn of Germany's University of Marburg, said that
her favourite result from the study was that pimps pay "efficiency
wages". In other words, pimps pay above the minimum rate required by
sex workers in order to attract, retain and motivate the best staff.
Mr Levitt said that a few prostitutes asked the researchers to
introduce them to pimps.

A separate paper** on sex workers in Ecuador echoed some of these
findings. As in Chicago, the paid-sex market in Ecuador is tiered,
with licensed brothel workers earning more per hour than unlicensed
street prostitutes. These gradations might reflect different tastes:
brothel workers tend to be younger, more attractive and better
educated. They are also slightly less likely to have an STI. Condom
use is the norm: 61% of street prostitutes surveyed used a condom in
the previous three transactions. In Chicago, condoms were used in
only a quarter of tricks.

What about the johns?

These studies contribute to our understanding of the suppliers of
paid sex, but tell us little about their customers. The session's
organiser, Taggert Brooks of the University of Wisconsin, attempted
to fill this gap in knowledge. He shed light on the sex industry's
demand side in his analysis� of men who attend strip clubs. He argued
that habitu�s of strip clubs featuring nude or semi-nude dancers are
in search of "near-sex"�an experience of intimacy rather than sexual
release. They are aware that paid sex is on offer elsewhere, should
they desire it.

Strip-club patrons are more likely to be college-educated (cue some
uneasy seat shifting from conference delegates), to have had an STI,
and to have altered their sexual behaviour because of AIDS, than non-
patrons are. They are typically unmarried, relatively young (against
the stereotype of old married men) and are characterised as "high-
sensation seekers".

Although all speakers at the session were careful not to draw very
strong conclusions from preliminary findings, a few broad themes
nevertheless emerged. In many respects, the paid-sex industry is much
like any other business. Pricing strategies are familiar from other
settings. Despite evidence of a myopic attitude towards risk, there
have been plenty of recent examples of that in the finance industry
too. Illegality and lack of regulation are likely to heighten public-
health risks. The Ecuador study concluded that rigorous policing of
street prostitution might limit the spread of STIs by directing sex
workers into the safer environs of licensed brothels. For an audience
facing an evening away from home in the Big Easy, there was much to
ponder.

"An Empirical Analysis of Street-Level Prostitution"

** "Sex Work and Infection: What's Law Enforcement Got to Do with
it?" by Paul Gertler (University of California, Berkley) and Manisha
Shah (University of Melbourne)

� "In Da Club: An Econometric Analysis of Strip Club Patrons"
________________________________

An Empirical Analysis of Street-Level Prostitution. Steven D. Levitt
and Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh* September 2007.

Extremely Preliminary and Incomplete. Comments Greatly Appreciated

Abstract
Combining transaction-level data on street prostitutes with
ethnographic observation and official police force data, we analyze
the economics of prostitution in Chicago.

Prostitution, because it is a market, is much more geographically
concentrated than other criminal activity. Street prostitutes earn
roughly $25-$30 per hour, roughly four times their hourly wage in
other activities, but this higher wage represents relatively meager
compensation for the significant risk they bear. Prostitution
activities are organized very differently across neighborhoods. Where
pimps are active, prostitutes appear to do better, with pimps both
providing protection and paying efficiency wages. Condoms are
used only one-fourth of the time and the price premium for
unprotected sex is small.

The supply of prostitutes is relatively elastic, as evidenced by the
supply response to a 4th of July demand shock. Although technically
illegal, punishments are minimal for prostitutes and johns. A
prostitute is more likely to have sex with a police officer than to
get officially arrested by one. We estimate that there are 4,400
street prostitutes active in Chicago in an average week.

http://economics.uchicago.edu/pdf/Prostitution%205.pdf

http://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/brooks/prof/working/indaclub.htm

Experts call for rethinking AIDS money

By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer, Fri Jan 18, 12:38 PM ET

LONDON - In the two decades since AIDS began sweeping the globe, it
has often been labeled as the biggest threat to international
health.

But with revised numbers downsizing the pandemic � along with an
admission that AIDS peaked in the late 1990s � some AIDS experts are
now wondering if it might be wise to shift some of the billions of
dollars of AIDS money to basic health problems like clean water,
family planning or diarrhea.

"If we look at the data objectively, we are spending too much on
AIDS," said Dr. Malcolm Potts, an AIDS expert at the University of
California, Berkeley, who once worked with prostitutes on the front
lines of the epidemic in Ghana.

Problems like malnutrition, pneumonia and malaria kill more children
in Africa than AIDS.

"We are programmed to react quickly to small children with AIDS in
distress," Potts said. "Unfortunately, we don't have that same
reaction when looking at statistics that tell us what we should be
spending on."

The world invests about $8 billion to $10 billion in AIDS every
year, more than 100 times what it spends on water projects in
developing countries. Yet more than 2 billion people do not have
access to adequate sanitation, and about 1 billion lack clean water.

In a recent series in the journal Lancet, experts wrote that more
than one-third of child deaths and 11 percent of the total disease
burden worldwide are due to mothers and children not getting enough
to eat � or not getting enough nutritional food.

"We have a system in public health where the loudest voice gets the
most money," said Dr. Richard Horton, editor of Lancet. "AIDS has
grossly distorted our limited budget."

But some AIDS experts argue that cutting back on fighting HIV would
be dangerous.

"We cannot let the pendulum swing back to a time when we didn't
spend a lot on AIDS," said Dr. Kevin De Cock, director of the AIDS
department at the World Health Organization. "We now have millions
of people on treatment and we can't just stop that."

Still, De Cock once worked on AIDS projects in Kenya, his office
just above a large slum.

"It did feel a bit peculiar to be investing so much money into anti-
retrovirals while the people there were dealing with huge problems
like water and sanitation," De Cock said.

Part of the issue is advocacy, from celebrity ambassadors to red
ribbons.

"No one is beating the drum for basic health problems," said Daniel
Halperin, an AIDS expert at Harvard University's School of Public
Health.

Aside from southern Africa, most of the continent has relatively low
rates of HIV, and much higher rates of easily treatable diseases
like diarrhea and respiratory illnesses. Yet much of the money from
the West, especially from the United States, goes into AIDS.

Halperin recently wrote a commentary in The New York Times on the
imbalance and said he was astounded by the response. Most were
positive, he said, with many AIDS experts agreeing it was time to re-
examine spending.

Most AIDS officials say the solution is to boost the budget for all
of public health.

"Why does the public health budget have to be so limited?" asked Tom
Coates, a professor of global AIDS research at the University of
California, Los Angeles. "Let's not drag AIDS care and prevention
down to the level of every other disease, but let's bring everything
else up to the level of AIDS."

That may be wishful thinking.

"At the end of the day, there are limits to how big the public
health pie can be," Halperin said.

Since the discovery of anti-retrovirals to fight HIV in the 1990s,
AIDS has virtually become a chronic, treatable disease in the West.
But the disease has not been conquered so easily in Africa. Not only
are the AIDS drugs too expensive for most patients, but major
problems in the health system need to be fixed first.

"It's hard to get Western donors to listen," said Dr. Richard Wamai,
a Kenyan doctor at Harvard's School of Public Health.

Wamai said that some African health systems are so weak they cannot
absorb the donations, and AIDS drugs are sometimes left in
warehouses because governments cannot distribute them.

Still, "trying to redirect AIDS money will take a long time," Wamai
said. "It's a bit like trying to stop an ocean liner."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080118/ap_on_he_me/rethinking_aids_1;_yl
t=Aq_JqA9I6eOO15D0OdxsU5NkMfQI

Experts working on vaccine to fight AIDS in China

Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:55am EST, By Tan Ee Lyn

HONG KONG, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Scientists in Hong Kong and China are
working on an AIDS vaccine to protect against three variants of HIV
sweeping across south and west China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Chen Zhiwei, director of the new AIDS Institute in Hong Kong, said
scientists have been using gene sequencing to track how HIV viruses
in China are evolving, and their geographical spread.

Two closely-related HIV variants had spread through intravenous drug
users (IDUs) from southwestern Yunnan province; one to as far as
Xinjiang in the northwest, and the second to Guangdong in the south.

The third variant is in Yunnan and southern Guangxi province, which
Chen said is passed mainly through heterosexual sex.

Chen, who worked alongside famous HIV/AIDS scientist David Ho in the
U.S. before heading the Hong Kong institute, said collaborating
scientists in the U.S. and China have designed a vaccine based on the
two HIV variants spreading among IDUs and they hope to test it in
animals by the end of this year.

"If you want to make a vaccine, it is better to have a local strain
as a target to work on," Chen said in an interview with Reuters.

Asked if the experimental vaccine may confer protection against the
third variant that is transmitted chiefly through sex, Chen
said: "That's what we want to know. There is about 60-70 percent
identity between the subtypes. If viruses are very closely related,
chances of cross protection are better."

The HIV variants circulating in south and west China are very similar
to those found in Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and India, as
well as in Taiwan and Hong Kong, he said.

"The epidemic in China has evolved over time. Previously, the major
risk factors were IDUs and the tragic story of blood donation in
central China. But after these people got infected, they passed it to
their spouses, friends and these are in the general population," Chen
said.

"After 2006, heterosexual sex has been playing the major role in
transmission of the virus. Infections have gone up in the general
population and from mother to child."

The presence of these variants in Taiwan and Hong Kong also could be
a tell-tale sign of the travelling routes of drug users in the
region, Chen said.

BLOOD DONATIONS

The AIDS Institute hopes to help set up HIV screening centres in
China, which is estimated to have about 700,000 people living with
HIV/AIDS, up from an earlier estimate of 650,000.

Chen also spoke about hundreds of thousands of HIV/AIDS patients in
central China, who contracted the virus in the 1990s from unsanitary
blood donations.

Despite free antiretroviral drugs provided by the government, some 30
percent of these patients have developed full-blown AIDS - which Chen
attributed to drug resistance.

Antiretroviral drugs help keep the HIV virus in check and can prevent
the progression to AIDS. But regimens can be complicated and
sufferers can easily develop drug resistance if they miss doses -
meaning they will then have to resort to stronger, more expensive,
and in China, often unavailable drugs. (Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUST23635

Dear AIDS ASIA

Ref George's posting
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS_ASIA/message/1139

Am I missing something? When I go to the website and type "condom" in the Search
FHI box there are 1249 pages that register as hits.

If you are just using the Edit/Find on this page option, it is true that the
word condom does not come up, but that does not mean that the word is missing
from the papers that are listed there.

The conference was full of discussions of condoms, same sex sexual activity,
gay, lesbian and transsexual reproductive health issues.

Representatives of those groups were prominent in presenting papers and
participating fully in the program. Asian youth not only have sex, they are
active in advocacy to make their communities more aware of the sexual and
reproductive health needs of their age mates.

You are right to point out that the American government has a very misguided
policy on these issues, but that does not mean that the activists of Asia have
bowed to that idiocy. They are leading the move to improvement, not waiting for
any leadership from the US.

Terry Hull
e-mail: <terry.hull@...>

Migrant health: what are doctors' leaders doing?

Last week, UK immigration officials removed a terminally ill
Ghanaian woman from a hospital in Wales and escorted her back to
Ghana, where she is unable to afford the treatment she needs to
prolong her life.

39-year-old Ama Sumani came to the UK 5 years ago and was diagnosed
with multiple myeloma in January, 2006. Until last week, she had
been receiving dialysis at the University Hospital of Wales in
Cardiff. Sumani was in the UK on a student visa but was unable to
enrol on the banking course she wanted to take because of her lack
of English. She started working. Although her visa had expired by
the time she was taken ill and she had contravened its conditions by
seeking employment, her solicitor made representations for her to
stay in the UK on compassionate grounds because she could not afford
life-saving treatment in Ghana. But the Home Office rejected her
appeals. As soon as her doctors deemed her fit to travel,
immigration officials removed her from the country. According to
news reports, Sumani, now in Ghana, has been refused treatment at
the main hospital in Accra because she has no source of funding.

Sumani's case has shocked many people in the UK. Her solicitor has
been inundated with calls from members of the UK public offering
money and even their bone marrow for a transplant. Ghana's High
Commissioner in London has appealed to Britain to reverse its
decision.

What about doctors' leaders? Have they expressed their outrage? Have
they called for compassionate treatment of Sumani? Unfortunately
not. There has been a disappointing and deafening silence about the
case from those who are supposed to represent doctors' voices in the
UK. Sumani is not the only migrant who has fallen seriously ill in
the UK, begun treatment, and then been removed or deported to a
country where treatment is unaffordable or inaccessible. Individual
doctors who work with these patient groups have been campaigning on
their behalf (see Online/Correspondence).

To stop treating patients in the knowledge that they are being sent
home to die is an unacceptable breach of the duties of any health
professional.

The UK has committed an atrocious barbarism. It is time for doctors'
leaders to say so�forcefully and uncompromisingly.

The Lancet 2008; 371:178
DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(08)60111-7. Editorial

Nothing personal, but it is rather amazing that one can go to the URL:

http://www.fhi.org/en/Youth/YouthNet/Publications/YouthInfoNet/41.htm>
and type in a search for "condom" and get no results whatsoever. Nor
for homosexual, gay, lesbian.

It's so wonderful to know that Asian youth don't have sex. I guess.

Or is this still the Bush legacy of horror on abstinence and
avoidance of discussing sexuality in favor of expanding the pandemic
so they can stuff pharma's coffers with more money from international
aid (instead of buying generics) and assure that monies "earmarked"
for humanitarian aid go back to American corporations or their
proxies in Asia?

Gosh. Perhaps I'm cynical. I guess I shouldn't have read Confessions
of An Economic Hit Man.

George M. Carter
e-mail: <fiar@...>

Greetings,

The Interagency Youth Working Group (IYWG) is pleased to announce Youth InfoNet
41
<http://www.fhi.org/en/Youth/YouthNet/Publications/YouthInfoNet/41.htm>

This issue of the monthly e-newsletter on youth reproductive health
and HIV prevention features summaries of presentations on youth from the 4th
Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and
Rights, held 29-31 October 2007 in Hyderabad, India. The projects
summarized are from more than 20 countries, nearly all in Asia and the
Pacific region. You can read the issue at:

http://www.fhi.org/en/Youth/YouthNet/Publications/YouthInfoNet/41.htm or
http://www.youthwg.org/pubs/YouthInfoNet/YIN41.shtml

For copies or questions about resources mentioned in Youth InfoNet,
please use the contact information supplied with each item. Back issues of Youth
InfoNet can be accessed at:
http://www.fhi.org/en/Youth/YouthNet/Publications/YouthInfoNet/ or
http://www.youthwg.org/pubs/YouthInfoNet/index.shtml

To receive the full version of future issues via email, please send a
request to youthwg@...
<mailto:youthwg@...?subject=Please%20subscribe%20me%20to%20Youth%20InfoNet>
.

Inclusion of publications and resources in Youth InfoNet does not imply
endorsement. The IYWG was formed in 2006 as part of the Global
Leadership Priority (GLP) on Youth supported by the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID).

David Hock
Family Health International
e-mail: dhock@...

This is a reminder about impending deadlines for the International AIDS
Conference to be held in Mexico City, August 3-8, 2008 (AIDS2008).  Applications
for most Conference programmes will close in February:

Closing date February 19, 2008

-          Abstract Sessions
-          Global Village Booths
-          Cultural Activities
-          Global Village Networking Zones
-          Skills Building Sessions
-          Youth Activities

Closing date February 26, 2008

-          Scholarships
-          Media Scholarships

For more information on how to get involved with AIDS2008, visit the
Guide to Community Involvement in AIDS2008 site at
www.aids2008community.org  or go
directly to the official website www.aids2008.org.


International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO)
65 Wellesley St. E., Suite 403
Toronto, ON
Canada M4Y 1G7
Tel: +1 416 921 0018
Fax: +1 416 921 9979
Email: icaso@...
Websites: www.icaso.org

Dear all,

you may be interested in China's HIV/AIDS response. China's government and UN
Theme Group launched the latest joint assessment report, and shared.

the weblink to download its English report is
http://www.chain.net.cn/english//GovernmentLeadership/Statistics/15847.htm, if
you are interested in reading.


best,

Li Qi
China HIV&AIDS Information Network (CHAIN)

Website: www.chain.net.cn
Email: liqi.chain@...
Tel No: 86-10-83133252 exe 8012
Postal Address: Room 101, Unit 7, Building1, NO.68 Fuchang Street, Xuanwu
District, Beijing, P.R.China
Postal Code: 100050

INVITATION  AIDS ASIA e FORUM.

Hi,

If you are already a member of this FOURM please forward this message to your
colleagues who may find this FORUM useful.

[AIDS ASIA eFORUM] is an e- forum committed to the development of an Asian
perspective on AIDS prevention and care issues. HIV/AIDS does not recognize
national boundaries. As Asia- pacific countries are increasingly interconnected
through migration and trade, it is imperative to generate a regional perspective
on HIV/AIDS related issues.

A forum for critical analysis of issues, events and programs, which has
implications on, our ability to address HIV/AIDS prevention and care issues
across the region. More than 7,600 subscribers are using this FORUM.

Strategic HIV information and communication support to promote the capacity of
Asian leaders, activists and people living with HIV/AIDS, to facilitate their
engagement and networking, to highlight their experiences and the solutions they
are offering to address HIV/AIDS issues in this region.

A cross cultural discourse on issues and concerns of Asia- Pacific countries
(regions): Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China,
East Timor, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Laos, Malaysia, Marshall
Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, North Korea,
Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon
Islands, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and
Viet Nam will be presented and promoted on this forum.

Please review the archived messages on the following url

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS_ASIA/

Dr. Joe Thomas
Editor
AIDS ASIA e FORUM
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS_ASIA/

Judge's Fact Sheet - Court Ordered HIV Testing of Defendants

As of November 1, 2007, New York State Criminal Procedure Law �
210.16 will require testing of criminal defendants, indicted for
certain sex offenses, for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), upon
the request of the victim/survivor.

This law also amends New York State Public Health Law (subdivision 1
of section 2805-i) by adding a new paragraph that specifies that
health care facilities providing treatment to victims/survivors of a
sexual offense must:

1. offer and make available "appropriate HIV post-exposure treatment
therapies in cases where it has been determined, in accordance with
guidelines issued by the commissioner, that a significant exposure to
HIV has occurred," and

2. inform the victim/survivor that "payment assistance for such
therapies may be available from the New York State Crime Victims
Board pursuant to the provisions of article twenty-two of the
executive law."

The New York State Department of Health has been requested to provide
guidance for the following scenarios.

1. The court must order HIV-related testing of the defendant when the
result would provide medical or psychological benefit to the
victim/survivor.

Medical and Psychological Benefit Guidance for Defendant Testing, NYS
DOH AIDS Institute, (10/07) may be found at www.hivguidelines.org.

This guidance also addresses what type of test should be ordered and
whether follow-up testing would be medically appropriate.

2. The court must designate a state or county public health officer
to conduct the test.

For test site locations:

State contact number for testing site locations: (518) 473-8815

County Health Departments: listed by county at www.nysacho.org (go
to "Directory")

The public health officials will be responsible for the following:

Responsibilities to the Defendant - Provide pre-test counseling,
obtain appropriate HIV test/s, and provide post-test counseling.

Responsibilities to the Victim/Survivor - Notify victim/survivor of
defendant test results. Tell victim/survivor to call healthcare
provider, share results of testing, and determine how to proceed with
post-exposure prophylaxis.

Responsibilities to the Court - Notify court in writing that the test
was performed and that the results were shared with the
victim/survivor. The note to the court shall not disclose the results
of HIV testing.

3. The court's order shall direct compliance with and conform to
Public Health Law Article 27-F for disclosure and re-disclosure of
defendant's HIV test results.

Criminal Procedure Law � 210.16(7)(a)(ii) states the test results
shall be disclosed to the person making the application and further
disclosure shall be permitted only to the victim/survivor, the
victim/survivor's immediate family, guardian, physicians, attorneys,
medical or mental health providers, and to his or her past and future
contacts to whom there was or is a reasonable risk of HIV
transmission and shall not be permitted to any other person or the
court.

Consistent with the provisions of Public Health Law Article 27-F, the
court order should specifically prohibit redisclosure by such persons
to any other persons.

Please contact Lyn Stevens, MP, MS, ACRN, Associate Director, Office
of the Medical Director, NYS DOH AIDS Institute at (518) 473-8815 or
lcs02@... for any questions regarding medical guidance.

http://www.health.state.ny.us/diseases/aids/testing/defendant/docs/chapter_571_-\
_laws_of_2007.pdf

http://www.health.state.ny.us/diseases/aids/testing/defendant/judges_fact_sheet.\
htm

Japan addresses tainted blood victims

By CHISAKI WATANABE, Associated Press Writer Sun Dec 23, 4:37 AM ET

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Sunday his ruling
bloc will submit legislation providing aid to about 1,000 people
exposed to hepatitis C through defective blood-clotting products sold
by pharmaceutical companies.

"I hope the bill will be passed quickly and want everyone to feel
relieved soon," Fukuda said at the Prime Minister's Office, as he
seeks to resolve the scandal that has prompted public anger.

Fukuda did not give any details about the legislation.

About 200 patients have filed lawsuits in five courts across Japan,
demanding compensation from the government and drug makers Nihon
Pharmaceutical Co., Mitsubishi Pharma Corp. and the latter's
subsidiary Benesis Corp. Japanese media say about 800 others are
expected to file suit.

The plaintiffs say they contracted hepatitis C while using defective
blood-clotting medicines, mostly in the 1980s, and claim the
government and the drug-makers continued to use the medicines,
despite their knowledge that they were potentially contaminated.

Four of the five courts have ordered the defendants � the government
and drug makers � to compensate dozens of patients and the Osaka High
Court issued a settlement proposal in November. The two sides have
since attempted to reach an out-of-court settlement, although
negotiations have bogged down over how the plaintiffs would be
compensated.

"We have always wanted uniform compensation after they acknowledge
their responsibility so I am very glad that the prime minister and
the government accept our wish," said Satoko Kuwata, one of the
plaintiffs.

Hepatitis C is a viral disease that affects the liver and is often
transmitted through contact with infected blood.

An estimated 2 million Japanese have contracted the disease, many
through tainted blood products, media reports say.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071223/ap_on_he_me/japan_tainted_blood;_y
lt=AoEqCYvDX8sdfR9L7G4uVr9a24cA

Dear Moderator,

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS_ASIA/message/1130

This is a serious issue raised by Mr. Siddharth Dube, needs critical thought on
the following issues:

1. The existence of these bodies and its relevance in the changing political
economy of the state

2. Striving to achieve identity and neutrality throughout the mission

3. Maintaining highest standards of professionalism as mandated in UN charter to
mitigate the burden of national importance

4. Immunity to these bodies in terms of accountability should be reviewed

Nevertheless, we ought to realize the mammoth success that these bodies have
achieved in different parts of the world with enthusiasm and committed staffs in
missions are invincible.


Thanks and regards,

Dr. Ganesan Mahesh
Coalition for AIDS Treatment Access
e-mail: cata.india@...

Condoms proposed for Vic prisoners

In a major policy reform, the Victorian government is considering
giving the state's prisoners access to condoms.

The move comes after studies showed more than half of male prisoners
in Victoria had hepatitis C, the Herald Sun reported, and would end
an eight-year ban on condoms in jails.

Mr Brumby would not confirm the initiative, but a spokesman for
Corrections Minister Bob Cameron said the government was exploring
ways to introduce condoms to prisons.

"There are a number of practical and security issues that would need
to be resolved before condoms could be introduced into the prisons,"
spokesman Alex Twomey said.

A working group led by Corrections Victoria and the Human Services
Department was examining the spread of communicable diseases in
prisons, he said.

"The government will consider any recommendations," he said.
Issues to be considered include how to provide condoms - vending
machines failed in NSW when prison guards refused to stock them - and
whether prisoners would have to pay for condoms.

Former premier Steve Bracks was opposed to providing condoms to
prisoners, despite an election promise from the opposition and
pressure from ombudsman George Brouwer to do so.

A 2002 study of Victorian prisoners found 55 per cent of male
prisoners and 67 per cent of females tested positive for hepatitis C,
compared to 1 per cent in the general population

http://au.news.yahoo.com/071211/2/158du.html

Bringing UNAIDS to Book

(The UNAIDS governing board meeting next week is a good place to start).

Siddharth Dube, December 17, 2007 5:30 PM

Some months ago, I interviewed an HIV-positive sex worker in a ratty
part of Goa, a world away from the tiny nation's golden sands and
resorts. Despite the anti-retroviral drugs that were keeping her
alive, Baby was so emaciated that her cheekbones stuck out corpse-
like. I thought Baby must be in her 50s - she turned out to be in her
early 30s.

She had never had a lucky break in her short life: pulled out of
primary school to labour in the fields, and then married off to a
philandering alcoholic who eventually deserted her and their three
young children. Baby turned to sex work at that desperate point. It's
not clear whether she contracted HIV from her clients or had already
been infected by her husband (who returned to her when he was dying
from Aids). She told her heartbreaking story without the slightest
self-pity. In fact, she exuded such unbroken capacity to care for
others that what caused me the greatest anguish was that this
resolute person simply no longer had the physical strength to earn
just the 700 rupees (about $17) per month needed to survive for her
children and herself.

With Baby's tragedy fresh in my mind, I find it particularly
inexcusable to see that UNAIDS, the special United Nations programme
set up a decade ago to fight the Aids pandemic, has spent well in
excess of half a million dollars on a book chronicling its work.
While it is obviously important to learn from the past, the basic
reportage in this book should not have cost more than a fraction of
what has been spent. Half a million dollars may be just pocket change
for a programme with a billion-dollar annual budget, but if this sum
had reached the grassroots in India or elsewhere, as it should have,
it would have given Baby and another 2,000 impoverished, HIV-positive
sex workers a decent standard of living for an entire year.

The governing board of UNAIDS meets today, at the progamme's
secretariat in Geneva. These government and NGO representatives
should seriously discuss what institutionalized flaws are being
spotlighted when a young UN body, charged with tackling a continuing
global emergency and staffed by many committed people, wastes public
funds on an appalling scale.

To my understanding, having consulted and worked at the UNAIDS
secretariat and at several of the programme's constituent
organizations - which include Unicef, the World Health Organization,
and the World Bank - the weaknesses being exposed are mismanagement
within its top ranks and, even worse, a systemic lack of
accountability to the populations that have been worst hit by the HIV-
Aids pandemic, such as sex workers, men having sex with men, and
injection drug users.

The second and graver of these failures is epitomized by the fact
that it has taken 10 years for the UNAIDS secretariat and the UN
Population Fund to frame policy guidelines on how to address the high
HIV risks faced by sex workers, long years in which cohort after
cohort of sex workers has been devastated by Aids. And the guidelines
eventually tabled at the summer 2007 meeting of UNAIDS governing
board so thoroughly disregarded the key recommendations made by sex
worker and human rights groups that a storm of angry protests forced
the secretariat to take the document off its public website. The
secretariat and UNFPA have since ineptly argued that the guidelines
were nothing more than an internal discussion paper.

To its credit, the governing board instructed UNAIDS to consult
closely with sex workers in revising the guidelines - these are yet
to be agreed on.

Similarly, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, (UNODC)
another UNAIDS co-sponsor, and the UNAIDS secretariat itself, have
done far too little to keep the pandemic from further decimating
people who inject drugs. There has been barely any challenge posed by
them to the repressive policies and legal regimes followed by too
many countries, including the US, which gut HIV prevention programmes
for this vulnerable population. The past decade has seen precious
little progress even in terms of ensuring that drug users living with
HIV have access to both HIV medicines and humane treatment for their
drug dependence.

All in all, a UN programme - whose raison d'etre should have been to
be a watchdog holding all actors to the highest standards of what
works against Aids - has failed to safeguard the interests, or to
demonstrably put forward the felt needs and demands of those
populations being most severely devastated by this pandemic.

Who is to blame for these failures?

Certainly, the top management of these organizations must shoulder
the greatest share of responsibility. By toeing a middle-of-the road
path they have failed to live up to the spirit of the UN Charter,
which explicitly commits the UN system to the advancement of human
rights, irrespective of the objections of particular, regressive
governments.

But the blame must also fall heavily on all of us who are in any way
interested in, or involved with, addressing the Aids pandemic or
other international development problems.

This is so because decade after decade, we have individually and
collectively failed to invest our energies in ensuring that UN
agencies, whether the UNAIDS effort or others, are held accountable
for fulfilling the missions they have been charged with.

By keeping silent because of our misplaced fear that we are arming
the right-wing bashers of the UN, we have perpetuated mismanagement
and a lack of accountability.

And by actively scrutinizing only the international organizations
with the very largest of budgets, such as the World Bank and the
Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, we have
contributed to the sidelining of other bodies that could be advancing
the welfare of millions of people worldwide. As in the case of UNAIDS
and its co-sponsoring agencies, we have created these organizations,
given them clear mandates, and funded them very well; what we have
failed to do so far is to scrutinize their work in ways that would
make them live up to their full potential.

The UNAIDS governing board meeting next week is a good place to
start. Whether it is impoverished Baby in Goa or her counterparts in
Russia or the US, the world's disenfranchised need a UN effort that
has a record of huge successes and only small failures, not the
reverse. We should make this a stepping stone to pushing the UN to
become a system that defends, first and foremost, the interests of
the world's most disadvantaged people.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/siddharth_dube/2007/12/bringing_unaids_to_bo\
ok.html.printer.friendly

An ethnographic study of HIV/AIDS in China

Book review by Jing Jun. The Lancet 2007; 370:1995-1996
DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61847-9

Book Review: Eating Spring Rice: The Cultural Politics of AIDS in
Southwest China. Sandra Teresa Hyde. University of California Press,
2007. Pp 290. US$21�95, �12�95. ISBN 0-520-24715-4.

Sandra Teresa Hyde's Eating Spring Rice is the first major
ethnographic study in the English language of the HIV/AIDS epidemic
in the People's Republic of China. Bridging medical anthropology with
public health, as well as Chinese cultural politics of race,
ethnicity, and sexuality, this is a timely and enjoyable book that
should be recommended to those who are interested in understanding
the interconnections of HIV/AIDS with ideology, discourses,
practices, and cultural imaginations. Hyde has been an observer of
the epidemic's unfolding in China since the mid-1980s. As a college
student, she was involved as early as 1985 in a survey of attitude
and knowledge about AIDS among ordinary Chinese. She has since
continued research on AIDS, focusing on China's Yunnan province that
borders Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Yunnan province has a population of more than 44 million, including
25 of China's 55 officially recognised ethnic minority groups. Within
the Chinese borders, Yunnan province is also ground zero of China's
AIDS epidemic, and 80000 individuals in Yunnan are estimated to have
contracted HIV, mostly from sharing needles in injection drug use.

The total number of individuals currently living with HIV/AIDS in
China is about 650000, according to the Chinese Ministry of Health.

Within Yunnan province, Hyde's field research concentrated on the
city of Jinghong, capital of Xishuangbanna Dai Minority Autonomous
Prefecture. Throughout her fieldwork, she interviewed Chinese
government officials, migrant workers, health workers, as well as a
small group of sex workers and travelling businessmen who were
attracted to Jinghong partly because of its thriving sex industry.

Instead of merely examining government documents and research papers
sponsored by the government, Hyde explores what she calls "state
narratives" by analysing first-hand material collected through
interviews with agents of the Chinese state machinery, including a
senior health official at the provincial level, a middle-ranking anti-
epidemic station official, and a health worker. This analysis is used
to support one of Hyde's key contentions: that Chinese government
officials, health workers, and social scientists view and implement
HIV/AIDS prevention with a heavy cultural bias against people from
ethnic minority groups, imagining them as the main vectors of the
disease. And such an imagination, Hyde suggests, is based on a Han
Chinese belief that minority women are more prone to promiscuity and
that the border regions of China where many ethnic minority groups
live are fraught with various kinds of dangers, including uncommon
infectious diseases.

Hyde also argues that the prefecture of Xishuangbanna became an AIDS
control belt that was tightly watched by Chinese epidemiologists,
although it was, in fact, extremely hard to find AIDS patients there.
Hyde challenges the widely held view among Chinese health workers and
social scientists that the victims of the first wave of the HIV/AIDS
epidemic in China were people from ethnic minorities in the country's
southwestern border regions. What Hyde tells us here is that these
health workers and social scientists projected a Han-Chinese-centred
fear of AIDS upon those from ethnic minority groups, and so found an
easy target for blame and a self-gratifying incentive to take action.

I do not, however, find Hyde's proposition entirely convincing. There
is no doubt that many Han Chinese citizens have a biased view about
ethnic minorities and this prejudice penetrates into the thinking of
some government officials, health workers, and social scientists. But
it does not mean that the attention being paid to people from ethnic
minorities for HIV/AIDS prevention is misplaced. To my knowledge, in
1990 most AIDS victims in Yunnan were among ethnic minority groups.

By 1995, the confirmed cases in Yunnan were predominantly among
Chinese citizens. What I think this means is that HIV/AIDS finds
different victims over time and that China's ethnic minorities were,
indeed, the main victims of the first wave of the epidemic.

Hyde's analysis of the role of ethnicity in the sex trade in Jinghong
is very specific, but is therefore a somewhat unrepresentative view
of this issue. Hyde believes that the city's thriving sex trade had a
lot to do with the Han Chinese male fantasy about ethnic minority
women's sexuality, particularly that of Dai women. Hyde offers not a
single case of Dai prostitution in Jinghong, and suggests that sex
workers in Jinghong were actually Han Chinese who habitually wore Dai
women's dress when they received clients, therefore giving Han men
the impression that they were having sex with exotic Dai women. This
might well be the situation in Jinghong at the time of Hyde's
fieldwork, but one would be wrong to conclude that the sex trade in
Yunnan in particular, and in China in general, does not involve women
from ethnic minorities. The sex trade that has developed with the
growth of a market economy in China cuts across the boundaries of
ethnicity, and there are sex workers from all kinds of ethnic
backgrounds in China.

Apart from these two issues, Eating Spring Rice is a truly remarkable
book in the sense that it reveals the strength of ethnography in
teasing out the nuances of problems that are often presented and
discussed in black-and-white terms. Hyde does not accept easy answers
and is determined to look for sensitive interpretations of the
cultural politics of HIV/AIDS in China.

Hyde finished her final field research trip to Yunnan in 2002. A year
later, the Chinese government tripled the amount of money targeted at
HIV/AIDS and began to allow international and domestic non-government
organisations to work in HIV/AIDS prevention and care. In September,
2003, the Chinese government announced a new policy for comprehensive
HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

The "Four Free and One Care Policy" has the following aims: free
antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients who are rural residents or
people with financial difficulties living in urban areas; free
voluntary counselling and testing; free medicine to HIV-infected
pregnant women to prevent mother-to-child transmission and HIV
testing of newborn babies; free schooling for children orphaned by
AIDS; and economic assistance to the households of people living with
HIV/AIDS. All of these marked a dramatic policy change.

From a time when official denial and blame ruled high-level
discourses on AIDS, China has entered a phase of greater openness and
seriousness in confronting HIV/AIDS. With an HIV prevalence rate
below 1%, Chinese health officials are cautiously confident that
their country will not become a high prevalence country so long as
the nationwide effort to control the epidemic does not lose its
momentum.

The US FDA to revise blood donor criteria. An impetus for Asian countries to
revise blood safety procedures

Joe Thomas

(AAeF) The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposes to revise and update
the regulations applicable to blood and blood components, including Source
Plasma and Source Leukocytes, to add donor requirements that are consistent with
current practices in the blood industry, and to more closely align the
regulations with current FDA recommendations. Perhaps, the blood transfusion
systems in various Asian countries should take the cue from the FDA's move and
take additional steps to ensure blood safety.

In many Asian countries blood transfusion system is inadequate to ensures the
safety of the donors and the recipients. In the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of
Chinese villagers were infected with HIV through state-run blood collection
centers. A blood safety scandal in Japan forced them to enact a blood law and
amendments in the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law were enforced in 2003 for the
purpose of securing a stable supply of blood based on domestic voluntary
donations and promoting the appropriate use.

1,872 haemophiliacs in Japan were infected with HIV, through transfusion of
contaminated blood and blood products.

About 11%of the male respondents from Hong Kong blood donations centres  have
practiced `deferrable risk behaviours' (e.g sharing syringes, commercial sex
networking, or having sex with another man)Lau, Thomas and Lin 2002).

The prevailing severity of stigma and discrimination associated with HIV
infection may be the reason for many to use the blood transfusion centres
discreetly, rather than using HIV testing centres. Studies from Hong Kong and
Japan reported that people visit blood service centers for getting tested on HIV
infection instead of visiting VCT.  (Sugimoto  et al 2002,Lau, Thomas and Lin
2002)

FDA, believes that developing drastic exclusion criteria may  help ensure the
safety of the national blood supply and to help protect donor health by
requiring establishments to evaluate donors for factors that may adversely
affect the safety, purity, and potency of
blood and blood components, or the health of a donor during the donation
process.

The  FDA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking  discusses the recommendations contained
in current guidance that fall under the proposed regulation, including donor
eligibility and screening for HIV and certain other transfusion-transmitted
infections.

According to FDA, the proposed rule will more explicitly describe donor
eligibility standards and will clarify the relationship between the regulations
and the applicable recommendations. The proposed rule, among other things,
provides for the establishment of minimum criteria for the assessment of donor
eligibility, and the suitability of the donation of blood and blood components.

The rule is expected to have a minor net impact on blood establishments because
it is already usual and customary business practice in the blood industry to
assess donors for eligibility, and donations for suitability. FDA believes the
primary impact of the rule will be the one-time review of current SOPs that the
proposed rule would require each blood collecting establishment to conduct.

FDA is suggesting the blood collection establishments to determine whether a
donor has engaged in social behaviors associated with increased risk of
infection with relevant transfusion-transmitted infections. According to the FDA
good guidance practices
participation in social behaviors associated with relevant
transfusion-transmitted infections would cause the donor to be ineligible to
donate and to be deferred.

Some examples of  social behaviors associated with increased risk of exposure to
HIV and  viral hepatitis identified in current guidance are men who have had sex
with another man even one time since 1977; exchanging sex for drugs or money; or
intravenous drug use. FDA included assessment of certain social behaviors
because of the risk that testing alone would not detect infection due to testing
error, the early stage of the donor's infection (the window period), or the
donor's low antibody level or intermittent viremia.

Notes and References:

Written or electronic comments on the proposed rule, may be submitted to the
agency until February 6, 2008
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=link\
log&to=http://www.regulations.gov.

Written submissions  could be send  by FAX: 301-827-6870. Or by mail/Hand
delivery/Courier to  Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, rm. 1061,
Rockville, MD 20852.

U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). http://www.fda.gov/
(http://www.fda.gov/cber/rules/reqbldtrans.htm)

Sugimoto K, Takanishi Y, Nakaishi T, Kimura K, Imai M. Donor select for blood
safety from HIV contamination. Int Conf AIDS. 2002 Jul 7- 12; 14: abstract no.
MoPeD3672.

Lau JT, Thomas J, Lin CK. HIV- related behaviours among voluntary blood donors
in Hong Kong. AIDS Care 2002; 14: 481-49

Dear forum

Please note for your diaries the UNSW Initiative for Health and Human
Rights is planning to organise its second  Intensive Course on Health
Development and Human Rights from Dec. 8th -12th 2008 in Sydney,
Australia, following the great success of our inaugural course.

Note the dates now, pass onto your colleagues and prepare to join us as there
will be limited availability.

WHY HEALTH, DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN RIGHTS?

New opportunities and risks associated with human development, widening gaps
between health needs of particularly vulnerable populations and responses to
these needs, and widespread movements of people through labour and forced
migration as a consequence of economic pressure, climate change, conflicts and
natural disasters, are key issues for the new millennium.  The interactions
between health, development and human rights are becoming increasingly clear:
the growing recognition of their reciprocal relationships can help shape health
and development policies, strategies and programs for the future.  This
evolution calls for reinforced education, training and research efforts.

The learning objectives of this intensive course are to:
Define underlying principles and prominent approaches applied to each of the
fields of health, development and human rights;
Describe the reciprocal interaction between health, development and human rights
and how these linkages can be analysed and applied in practice in one or more
selected areas pertinent to participants interests; Illustrate how international
mechanisms and procedures can be applied to health, development and human rights
and how they can be accessed; Identify key actions and research that is needed
to further the synergy between health, development and human rights.

WHO IS LEADING THE COURSE?

The Course Director is Professor Daniel Tarantola, Professor of Health and 
Human Rights at the University of New South Wales.  Several international guest
speakers and faculty drawn from the UNSW?s Faculties of Law, Medicine and Arts
and Social Sciences will join him to create the course faculty.

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE?

Those working internationally or locally in health, development or human rights
sectors who want to better understand how to apply rights-based approaches to
their fields. The range of participants in our 2007 course included lawyers,
policy makers, public health officers, architects, general practitioners and
post-graduate students.

This course is particularly suited to staff from United Nations and other 
inter-governmental and non-governmental agencies.  Fluency in the English
language is required.

COSTS

The fee structure for this second course is still to be confirmed, however for
professionals full tuition fees will not be above A$2,200.

The tuition fee will cover coursework, printed course materials, morning and
afternoon tea breaks, but does not include travel, accommodation, insurance or
other living costs.

FIND OUT MORE

The Initiative?s website (www.ihhr.unsw.edu.au) will be updated with full 
course details by February 2008.  Our website also contains further information
on the Initiative?s research and education activities, and will include reports
of the inaugural Intensive Course held in July 2007.

Please keep in touch by regularly visiting this website or email us at
ihhr@... to get regular IHHR News Updates regarding this next course.

Jacqueline Davison
e-mail: <j.davison@...>

Dear Forum

INP expresses its profound grief on the demise of Ms. Kathleen Kay. INP+ shares
the anguish of Ms. Kathleens�s family members and FHI staff.

Ms. Kathleen came to assist INP+ at a critical time when Ashok Pillai, former
President, INP+, passed away (2002). Since then she/FHI had been supporting INP+
through various grants. Ms. Kathleen gave special attention to the projects
related to INP+ and provided ongoing guidance for successful implementation. She
was passionate about her work in the HIV field and was always inspiring to work
with. She was the person who encouraged INP to initiate Positive Living Centers
(PLC) at Namakkal (2003) � and PLC model has been implemented successfully in
various parts of India. In spite of her busy schedule, she was accessible to INP
at any time. At every opportunity, she advocated for INP with various
stakeholders. She respected and listened to the voices of people living with HIV
and actively involved people living with HIV in program designing and
implementation.

INP+ has lost one of the strongest supporters of people living with HIV in
India. But Ms. Kathleen continues to live in our heart � forever.

Regards

K. K. Abraham
President-INP+
e-mail: <inp@...>

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched a new publication:

The review aimed to assess the effectiveness of design and implementation features, and the impact of the provisions made for HIV prevention. Key lessons and recommendations have been identified accordingly.

The publication is available online at http://www.adb.org/Documents/Reports/GMS-Case-Studies-HIV/default.asp.


We welcome your inputs/comments with regard to the publication.


Best regards,

Charmaine Cu-Unjieng
Program Coordinator / Consultant
Subproject: HIV/AIDS Prevention and the Infrastructure Sector in the Greater Mekong Subregion
TA REG 6321- Fighting HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific
Asian Development Bank
Email: ccuunjieng@...
            charmaine.cu-unjieng@...

Dear FORUM,

Family Health International is pleased to announce the launching of �Scaling Up
the Continuum of Care for People Living with HIV in Asia and the Pacific: A
Toolkit for Implementers.� The Toolkit provides HIV care service implementers
and providers with step-by-step guidance on how to establish a local or national
Continuum of Care program. It is also a useful tool for advocating for more
strategic and participatory approaches to organizing HIV care services.

The Continuum of Care is a system of linked services in a given locality which
together add up to a comprehensive package of care.  It promotes functional
referral and coordination linkages between services provided in the home,
community and institution improving access of PLHIV and families to the services
they need. This approach to organizing HIV care services has proven very
successful in localities across Asia and the Pacific. Some countries, such as
Cambodia, have taken this approach nation-wide resulting in high service
coverage and low rates of loss to follow-up.

The Toolkit includes three sets of resources:
The Continuum of Care Toolkit,
A companion checklist which can be used to guide the implementation of the
Continuum of Care and
A CD-Rom with resources to aid the implementation of a CoC each step of the way.

The Toolkit is the result of contributions from many organizations, governments
and individuals in the Asia-Pacific region including Family Health
International�s Asia Pacific Regional Office, World Health Organization, Thai
Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS, Constella-Futures Group and local and
national government representatives in Cambodia, China, Nepal, Thailand and Viet
Nam.

Electronic copies of the Toolkit can be found at:
http://www.fhi.org/en/HIVAIDS/country/Asia/index.htm.

A limited number of hard copies are available through the FHI APRO office. To
place an order please contact Ms. Sunee Sarif at: Sunee@....

Kimberly Green
E-MAIL: <Kim@...>

This letter is addressed to Ms. Kathleen Kay, Country Director of Family Health
International in India, who suddenly �passed away� this week and left us in
shock and sorrow�..

Re: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AIDS_ASIA/message/1122

Dear Kathleen,

I know you�re reading my mind as always, but in any case it�s safer to write
everything down for posterity. Human beings are fickle and many of us may forget
you and your incredible work for HIV prevention and for HIV positive people.

Firstly, let me say I really miss your hearty laughter � it came from deep
within your soul and seemed to mock at men�s follies in a rather disinterested
and detached way. It made you feel � come on, this too will pass; get on with
your job!

I remember way back in 2001 when I heard you were taking over FHI India
thinking, �Oh my god! A woman!. I�m sure she�ll be homophobic�. Being a
homosexual myself and having faced enough nastiness, I wasn�t sure you were
secure enough to take us screaming gay queens.

What floored me was your vast knowledge about HIV prevention, your sensitivity
towards issues of gay men and the free hand you gave us at Humsafar to evolve
and grow into your model baby. Of course, you never spared us when we went wrong
either.

When a particular employee deserted and got us in trouble in a vengeful attack
to sabotage our work, you got the best evaluators from all over the world and
ran our whole organization through a fine-toothed comb. We got 6.8 out of 7 in
the evaluation and you said:� Ashok, now just get going and show what stuff
you�re made of�. And just to make sure we stayed to the straight and narrow, you
saw to it that FHI�s tough taskmaster, Sharad Malhotra, stood over us with a
cane. Okay, that�s an exaggeration but he�s a tough one, that Sharad.

Throughout those crucial years, you got us the best as far monitoring and
evaluation was concerned. You gave us Bitra�s support and you sent us Rajat and
Toby, both formidable in their research backgrounds and who refused to treat us
like children. You sent us the gentle Maju and the equally gentle and solid
Sumita who made you feel you were drinking ambrosia when she was really giving
you castor oil.

And when our projects came to an end, I can never forget how you called us all
the way to Delhi, sat us down and explained in detail why and how our project
was now towards the end of the cycle and where we could get the money to keep it
chugging along. Thanks to you, the subsequent BSS� shows remarkable changes for
Mumbai with the HIV prevalence among MSM now plateaued out after nearly a decade
of hard work sustained by not just funding but your mentoring that went way
beyond the call of duty.

More than just mentoring, you were that sort of fairy godmother that every gay
man would like to have; like Judy Garland on call 24 hours to sing you to sleep
despite it raining on your parade.

I�ve known you since 2002 and damn it, I never saw a frown on your face ever.
How did you manage it?. It�s not easy with the traffic in Delhi, was it? And
worse, you even made it to Khan Market regularly to browse in the bookshops and
see what handmade material was making its way into the cloth shops. I never
really knew what you liked because you were quite eclectic in your tastes. But I
know silk was your favorite fabric because I mostly saw you wearing it. Of
course, I never gave you a present and am guilty that I never really showed you
my gratitude. But thanks are in order for teaching me to suffer fools: �They too
contribute who wait and watch�, as you said rather politely and again capped it
with that rasping laugh.

Now as this might get too long and windy, I�m going to say that I just lost
courage the other day when we attended this memorial service to you on the small
lawns at FHI�s Sundar Nagar office. I just couldn�t take some of your colleagues
breaking down and was scared I would too. So I�m going to recite an old, old
prayer from the Rig Veda:

Om Sahanaa Vavatu
Sahanau Bhunaktu,
Saha Viryam Karawawahaya
Tejaswina Widwishawayahi
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

For those who know, it translates as

Om, Let�s sit down together
Let�s break bread together
Let us do brave deeds together
And may the light (from those deeds) spread in every direction.
Peace, Peace,Peace

Kathleen Kay, Bodhisattva, RIP

Ashok Row Kavi
e-mail: asha47@...

FHI Mourns India Country Director Kathleen Kay

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC (Dec. 11, 2007) � Kathleen Kay, MPH, who
guided Family Health International's India program into one of the
largest, most diverse HIV programs in FHI's portfolio, died
unexpectedly last weekend after a short illness. She was 48.

The exact cause of death has not been determined, and an autopsy was
scheduled for Dec. 12. She will be buried in her native Sydney,
Australia, in a Catholic ceremony.

Kathleen, a leader in global HIV work for two decades, had been ill
for about two weeks. She was last seen on Saturday, Dec. 8, when she
spoke with her housekeeper, says Dr. Bitra George, Kathleen's
longtime deputy who is now serving as acting country director. He
says Kathleen looked unwell at the time but declined assistance and
did not want the housekeeper to return on Sunday. The housekeeper
found Kathleen dead in her bed at her New Delhi home on Monday
morning.

"Kathleen had a remarkable ability to win the respect, confidence and
enthusiasm of staff, community and government leaders, implementing
partners and financial sponsors," says FHI Chief Executive Officer Al
Siemens, PhD. "Her ability to bring people together in pursuit of
FHI's mission of improving lives was invaluable."

Indeed, Kathleen guided FHI's India office from its early days in
2001, assembling a talented local staff and helping the office grow
into a technical leader in the region and a strong partner to the
National AIDS Program. Six years later, FHI's small team has grown to
80 people in six offices. Funders of FHI's India activities now
include USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Department
for International Development, and the Children's Investment Fund
Foundation. FHI's work in India is known for the breadth of its
audience � ranging from HIV-positive children to sex workers and
their clients � and for its focus on building the capacity of
organizations such as the Indian Network of People Living with
HIV/AIDS.

Kathleen spent a longer period at FHI � six years � than at any other
employer. But when she joined FHI in December 2001, she brought
considerable HIV experience. Most notably, from 1987 to 1990, she had
been special assistant and confidante to Jonathan Mann, the
pioneering director of the World Health Organization's Global Program
on AIDS. Her work in those early years of the epidemic was central to
her personal and professional identity. Together at WHO, Mann and
Kathleen "helped to build the foundation for a global response to
HIV/AIDS," says FHI Senior Vice President Sheila Mitchell.

Last month, traveling in Geneva with senior FHI staff before she fell
ill, "Kathleen was simply ecstatic when she ran into several of her
colleagues during her work with Jonathan Mann in the early '80s. It
was a reminder of Kathleen's outstanding, critical and pioneering
contribution to the evolution of the global response to the HIV/AIDS
epidemic," says Peter Lamptey, MD, DrPH, president of FHI's Public
Health Programs. Kathleen remained close friends with Mann's first
wife, Marie-Paule Bondat, and was practically a part of the Mann
family.

Kathleen subsequently led the Indonesia HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care
Project (Australia's first bilateral HIV effort in Indonesia) and
also worked at UNAIDS, but she built most of her career on short-term
consultancies in HIV policy. Her clients included the Harvard AIDS
Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the International
HIV/AIDS Alliance, the United Nations Development Program on HIV and
Development, the Pacific Regional HIV/STI/AIDS Program, the
University of New South Wales, the Commonwealth Department of Health
and Housing, and ACIL Australia.

Kathleen received her bachelor's degree in political science and
psychology from Australian National University, her nursing degree
from the University of New South Wales Teaching Hospitals, and her
master's degree in public health from Harvard University.

Again and again, colleagues mention three things about Kathleen
immediately � her infectious laugh, her relentless drive, and her
capacity to care for others.

If Kathleen's laugh is something many will remember most about her,
it is partly because she struggled so hard to regain it in recent
years. About four years ago, an illness caused her to lose her voice;
when it returned, her speech was throaty, raspy and at times
inaudible � an unexpected challenge for someone who valued clear
communication and often spoke in public. Kathleen underwent several
surgical procedures at the Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice
Rehabilitation at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and
gradually regained much of her natural speech, so much so that she
was comfortable speaking on camera for FHI in June 2006. She was
proud of her strong voice on that clip, which she shared with her
family to demonstrate her vocal progress, and even considered
proposing an Oprah segment to feature her surgeon's good work.

Her determination to regain her voice was much like the intensity
that Kathleen brought to her work. "Kathleen's passion and dedication
to public health were the driving forces behind all that she did,"
Mitchell says. "She ended her career leading FHI's programs in India,
a country she truly loved and wanted to protect from AIDS."

"Kathleen was so vital, with endless energy. That's why this is such
a shock," says Leine Stuart, PhD, ACRN, the FHI senior technical
officer who has been on assignment to India three times since
June. "She was one of those staff who had a certain mystique � she
would see a new opportunity and pursue it wholeheartedly."

"Kathleen is an unforgettable person. She was filled with exuberance
for life. Her energy � and capacity for work � was boundless," says
Gail Goodridge, director of FHI's ROADS Project in Nairobi. Goodridge
remembers having dinner at Kathleen's home in about 2002, surrounded
by boxes of unpacked household effects. "I'm going to get this place
in shape," Kathleen had declared, dashing from one room to the other.

But Goodridge says, "I had the feeling that in the trade off of
unpacking boxes versus meeting a deadline to start new HIV
programming somewhere, the boxes would lose. Kathleen had a clear
sense of what was important, and at the top of that list was saving
lives."

Kathleen worked long hours, to the exclusion of other parts of her
life. "Often if you wrote her an email past 10 p.m. her time she
would respond within minutes. I really think she was as disciplined
with herself as she was because she just wanted to help as many
people as she could in the time she had. She was a one-woman tour de
force of effective planning and activity," says Gretchen Bachman, an
FHI senior technical officer. Bachman remembers that when Kathleen
first arrived in Delhi and was setting up house, she met a woman who
was homeless with a very young child. "Without any hesitation,
Kathleen, upon hearing her story, asked the woman to work for her and
live at her place with her child. In about a day the woman had moved
into Kathleen's new place," Bachman says.

Stephen Mills, PhD, MPH, FHI's country director in Vietnam,
says, "Only a couple of weeks before she died, she emphasized that we
should never be satisfied with mediocrity but strive for excellence.
She pushed all of us in that direction and never tired of the fight."

Gina Dallabetta, MD, a senior program officer at the Gates Foundation
in India who was once an FHI colleague, says, "Kathleen was so
engrossed in her work that she taught her maid to make one set of
(meals) that did not contain oil, and her maid made the same food
every day. I have been to Kathleen's a handful of times for dinner
and it was always the same menu � tandoori chicken, boiled
vegetables, rice, roti, and palak paneer [a pureed spinach and cheese
dish]."

FHI's partners, too, appreciated Kathleen's dedication. Dr. Michele
Andina, director of Pathfinder International's Mukta Project in
Maharashtra, recalls Kathleen at the now-famous Mumbai gathering of
15,000 sex workers in January. "She was radiant and smiling as
always, with that wonderful deep laugh of hers. For her everything
was exciting and positive and she was always readily available to
answer any questions or concerns."

"Kathleen had a gigantic heart with a concern for everyone � staff,
Indians, street children � and a real sense of fair play and
justice," says Dallabetta, who remembers Kathleen spending days
helping an FHI staff member who had been denied a visa for India
after a year. "She cried over the unfairness of it."

Jeanine Bardon, who directed FHI's Asia-Pacific office during most of
Kathleen's time in India, said Kathleen "never failed to give 2,000
percent of herself. She was extremely committed to being a mentor, as
she had been so well mentored by Jonathon Mann. She will be
remembered by her staff for all that she did to help them
individually and collectively advance as professionals and to be
better people. Ultimately, we should celebrate her for the size and
kindness in her heart, the joy in her laughter, her friendship, her
dogged and pioneering determination, and her tenacious commitment to
make the world a better place for all of us."

Kathleen never married and had no children. Survivors include her
mother Marjorie Kay of Woy Woy, New South Wales; sister Therese Maree
Lewis and brother-in-law Neal Lewis of Sydney; sister Frances Kay and
brother Michael Kay, both of Central Coast, New South Wales; and
seven nieces and nephews.

Steve Taravella
http://www.fhi.org/en/AboutFHI/Media/Releases/res_KathleenKay.htm