KAISER DAILY HIV/AIDS REPORT
A service of kaisernetwork.org
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/hiv
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Wednesday, April 2, 2003

POLITICS AND POLICY
========================================
1. House International Relations Committee To Debate Hyde International
AIDS Bill, Package of Amendments


ACROSS THE NATION
========================================
2. AIDS Educators Must Develop New, More Effective Safe-Sex Messages,
Speaker Says at National HIV/AIDS Update Conference

3. World Vision Launches National Campaign To Raise Funds for Global
HIV/AIDS


DRUG ACCESS
========================================
4. 'Major' Emory Law School Conference To Address Access to Generic
Antiretroviral Drugs in Developing Countries

5. South African Mining Company Gold Fields To Provide HIV-Positive Workers
With Antiretroviral Drugs


GLOBAL CHALLENGES
========================================
6. South African Health Minister Launches Faith-Based AIDS Initiative, Says
AIDS Is 'God's Way of Challenging' South Africa

7. HIV-Positive African Families Create Memory Books To Help Orphans
Connect to Past, Cultural Tradition

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POLITICS AND POLICY

1. House International Relations Committee To Debate Hyde International
AIDS Bill, Package of Amendments

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http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=16935

The House International Relations Committee today is scheduled to consider
a bill (HR 1298), sponsored by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), that would provide
$15 billion over five years to fight global AIDS, as well as a package of
amendments that address Republican concerns with the measure, the
Washington Times reports (Fagan, Washington Times, 4/2). President Bush in
his State of the Union address on Jan. 28 proposed spending $15 billion
over five years to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. The plan
includes $10 billion in new money. Under the initiative, new funds
averaging an additional $2 billion per year would be phased in gradually to
supplement the $1 billion per year the government now spends on AIDS; only
$1 billion total would go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria. Hyde's bill would allocate $3 billion a year for HIV/AIDS,
with up to $1 billion in fiscal year 2004 going to the Global Fund (Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/1). Many panel conservatives say that Hyde's bill
does not encompass Bush's "vision" of the AIDS initiative because it does
not prescribe the ABC prevention method -- abstinence, be faithful, use
condoms -- and lacks a strong emphasis on abstinence over condom use, the
Times reports. "It's unacceptable and I will vote against it," Rep. Joe
Pitts (R-Pa.) said. Pitts and other panel conservatives want the bill to
take a stronger stance on the eradication of prostitution and offer
religious groups the opportunity to opt out of condom distribution
programs. In addition, many conservatives want to reduce the amount of
money alloted for the Global Fund in the Hyde bill, saying that there would
be no way to control how the money is spent. House conservatives have
worked with Hyde to draft a package of amendments designed to address their
concerns, but Republican aides said that Hyde plans to offer a "different,
Democrat-approved" set of amendments. Details of the amendments have not
been released, and Hyde's office yesterday did not return phone calls,
according to the Times. Conservatives plan to offer a number of their own
amendments, but aides said that the measures were not likely to pass
because they lacked the support of Reps. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) and Amo
Houghton (R-N.Y.), the panel's "more liberal" Republicans, according to the
Times. Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), chair of the Energy and Commerce
Committee, is writing an alternative global AIDS bill, which "some
conservatives hope will be a better alternative," according to the Times
(Washington Times, 4/2).


ACROSS THE NATION

2. AIDS Educators Must Develop New, More Effective Safe-Sex Messages,
Speaker Says at National HIV/AIDS Update Conference

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=16936

AIDS advocates and health care officers must develop new safe-sex
education messages, Mervyn Silverman, chair of the American Foundation for
AIDS Research, said yesterday at the opening of the 15th National HIV/AIDS
Update Conference, the Miami Herald reports. The campaigns of the 1980s,
which targeted a primarily gay, white male audience, are no longer
effective, Silverman said, adding that new programs must be specific to the
races, genders, sexual orientations, ages and ethnicities that need to be
addressed. "We have to tailor the message to the group, whether it's
street kids or people over 50. We have to crawl into the heads of people
to find out how we can get the message out, get it heard and internalized,"
he said (Robinson, Miami Herald, 4/1). Cristina Saralegui, of the
Spanish-language talk show The Cristina Show, which has more than 100
million viewers worldwide, and Carl Folta, Viacom's senior vice president
for philanthropic activities, also spoke at the opening session. Saralegui
said that Hispanic parents do not talk to their children about sex,
something that she has sought to change after learning that many of her
friends are HIV-positive. Folta spoke about Viacom's $120 million AIDS
education advertising campaign, which has targeted all segments of the
population, especially those under the age 25, women and young blacks
(McVicar, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 4/1). The Viacom campaign, KNOW
HIV/AIDS, which was launched in January with the Kaiser Family Foundation,
has already created 49 television, radio and outdoor ads that will appear
on Viacom's television networks CBS and UPN and 200 affiliates; cable
outlets MTV, BET, VH1, CMT, MTV2, TV Land, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite,
Showtime, TNN and Comedy Central; more than 180 Infinity radio stations;
and on billboards, buses and bus shelters. Viacom and the Kaiser Family
Foundation on Friday announced that they were considering expanding the
campaign internationally, possibly targeting developing countries (Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 3/28). The conference, which continues through
today, includes more than 60 speakers and workshops on a variety of AIDS
prevention and treatment topics (Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 4/1).

Selected sessions of the conference will be available online after April 3,
2003, through kaisernetwork.org's HealthCast service.

3. World Vision Launches National Campaign To Raise Funds for Global
HIV/AIDS

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http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=16937

World Vision International, a Washington state-based Christian
humanitarian organization, yesterday announced the launch of a national
campaign to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, the Tacoma News Tribune
reports. The group's efforts will include Christian concerts, a
Washington, D.C., summit and an advertising campaign. World Vision will
work with other organizations, including national health offices and local
churches to raise money for the organization's HIV/AIDS education and
treatment efforts, according to the News Tribune. The agency "stresses
abstinence" among five- to 15-year-olds to "protect the next generation
from the scourge of AIDS." In addition, World Vision provides care to AIDS
orphans and children whose parents are chronically ill due to the disease.
The group works to reduce the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission,
stresses "faithfulness in marriage" to stop the spread of the disease and,
to a "lesser" extent, distributes condoms to individuals who are at high
risk of becoming HIV-positive. Rev. John Penton, a pastor of Roosevelt
Heights Church of God in Tacoma, Wash., who works with World Vision, said
that he is trying to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS in African-American
churches. "The stigma, especially in the Christian community, is that
[HIV/AIDS] is contracted by one's own choices," Penton said, adding, "As a
Christian, my job is to have compassion and not judge those for having it."
World Vision's national campaign will include:

* A 15-city "Hope Tour" featuring educational events with World Vision
workers, AIDS experts and Christian musicians;
* A 30-city concert tour featuring the Christian group 4Him;
* A radio and television advertising campaign; and
* A summit June 11-12 to bring together Christian leaders, congressional
leaders and Bush administration officials in support of the president's
five-year, $15 billion global AIDS initiative (Maynard, Tacoma News
Tribune, 4/1).


DRUG ACCESS

4. 'Major' Emory Law School Conference To Address Access to Generic
Antiretroviral Drugs in Developing Countries

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=16938

Emory University School of Law beginning tomorrow will host a "major"
conference bringing together experts from the law, public health, medicine,
development and global business sectors to discuss patent law and access to
antiretroviral drugs in developing countries, the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution reports (Wahlberg, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 4/2).
The two-day conference, titled The NEXUS Symposium: An Interdisciplinary
Forum on the Impact of International Patent Trade Agreements in the Global
Fight Against HIV & AIDS, is sponsored by the Emory International Law
Review and the humanitarian organization CARE and will address recent
international efforts to reach agreements about expanding access to generic
antiretroviral drugs (Conference Web site, 4/2). World Trade Organization
talks in Geneva over generic drug access have been stalled since members
missed a Dec. 31, 2002, deadline to reach an agreement. U.S. negotiators
in February refused to sign a deal under the Doha declaration to allow
developing nations to override patent protections to produce generic
versions of drugs to combat public health epidemics unless wording was
included to specify which diseases constitute a public health epidemic. The
United States said that without such a list, developing nations could use
patent overrides to produce generic versions of any patented drug -- such
as Viagra -- that is not used to fight public health epidemics (Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 2/20). The conference will feature panel
discussions on the WTO talks including sessions on "Development
Perspectives," "The Law of Intellectual Property, Health and Trade,"
"Health and Human Rights" and "Strategies for Moving Ahead," as well as
talks from leading AIDS advocates, lawyers and government representatives.
The conference will conclude on Friday with a discussion with U.N. Special
Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis (Conference agenda, 4/2). A Web
cast of the proceedings will be available online during the conference.

5. South African Mining Company Gold Fields To Provide HIV-Positive Workers
With Antiretroviral Drugs

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http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=16939

South African mining company Gold Fields yesterday announced that it will
offer antiretroviral drugs to all of its HIV-positive South African workers
through a pilot program, Dow Jones International News reports. Although
one-third of Gold Fields' 48,000 South African employees are HIV-positive,
only approximately 1,000 will initially qualify for antiretroviral therapy,
according to Gold Fields spokesperson Willie Jacobz (Aljewicz, Dow Jones
International News, 4/1). Jacobsz said that AIDS currently costs the
company $3.22 per ounce of gold mined due to health care costs, lost
production and funeral benefits, according to Reuters (Reuters, 4/1). The
antiretroviral drugs are expected to cost Gold Fields $150 to $190 per
month per person (Dow Jones International News, 4/1). "The overall cost
impact [of providing antiretrovirals] will not be particularly significant
in the short term," Jacobsz said, adding, "Addition of HAART will take [the
company's AIDS-related costs] from $3.22 per ounce to $3.25 per ounce in
the first year." The cost of the drugs will lead to a "peak" in production
costs in 2009 at $5 per ounce of gold mined, Jacobsz said, according to
Reuters. South Africa is the country "worst affected" by HIV/AIDS
worldwide, but the government so far has not agreed to provide
antiretrovirals to HIV-positive individuals in the country, Reuters reports
(Reuters, 4/1). Gold Fields already provides antiretrovirals on "a limited
basis" to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission and for "post-exposure
protection" for rape survivors and people who may have been exposed to the
virus at the mines, according to Dow Jones International News (Dow Jones
International News, 4/1). Gold Fields in August 2002 launched the
"Wellness Management Program," under which employees could receive
voluntary HIV testing and counseling and HIV-positive employees could have
access to "close and regular monitoring, counseling and treatment" (Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 8/14/02).


GLOBAL CHALLENGES

6. South African Health Minister Launches Faith-Based AIDS Initiative, Says
AIDS Is 'God's Way of Challenging' South Africa

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=16940

South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Monday told
religious leaders at the launch of a new faith-based AIDS initiative in
Johannesburg that AIDS could be an "opportunity provided by God for South
Africa to care for its people," London's Guardian reports (Guardian, 4/1).
The new initiative, "Faith in Action -- a United Response to HIV/AIDS,"
seeks to stop the spread of the disease through "counseling and
dissemination of information," the South African Press Association reports
(South African Press Association, 3/31). "Perhaps HIV and AIDS is God's
way of challenging us to care for our people, to support the dying and to
appreciate the gift of life," Tshabalala-Msimang said, adding that the
crisis "could also be a God-given opportunity for moral and spiritual
growth, a time to review our assumptions about sin and morality" (Golan,
Associated Press, 3/31). Tshabalala-Msimang said that religious leaders
are in an ideal position to disseminate information about the disease,
adding that faith-based organizations "often have extensive networks of
people, institutions and infrastructures, especially in rural areas where
few other institutions exist" (South African Press Association, 3/31).
AIDS advocates have personally blamed Tshabalala-Msimang for failing to
provide antiretroviral drugs for the general public, according to the
Associated Press (Associated Press, 3/31). Members of the HIV/AIDS
treatment advocacy group Treatment Action Campaign last month filed charges
of manslaughter against her for failing to provide AIDS drugs and Trade
Minister Alec Erwin for "blocking" the production of those drugs in South
Africa. The charges were filed in conjunction with a week of nonviolent
civil disobedience in the country organized by TAC to urge the government
to provide free HIV/AIDS drugs in public hospitals and clinics. The protest
marked the first time in Africa that HIV/AIDS patients have broken the law
en masse to demand treatment (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 3/21). The
attorney general's office is expected to rule this week on whether he will
allow the ministers to be charged in court, the Associated Press reports
(Associated Press, 3/31).

TAC Organizes Additional Protests


About 500 AIDS advocates on Monday marched to a police station in Durban,
South Africa, to lodge a complaint over alleged police brutality during a
protest last month, Reuters reports. TAC supporters claim that police
punched and kicked protesters and used tear gas and a water cannon when the
advocates marched to press charges against the health and trade ministers.
The advocates on Monday refused to move until they had lodged a letter of
complaint. Police eventually allowed the group to lodge the complaint, TAC
spokesperson Mark Heywood said (Reuters, 3/31). Around 300 people, many
wearing t-shirts saying "Dying for Treatment," yesterday attended the
burial of Kebareng Moyeketsi, a woman who died last week of an AIDS-related
illness. Moyeketsi, a 32-year-old single mother, was the first of the TAC
advocates participating in the civil disobedience campaign to die. Heywood
said that TAC plans to march to the offices of the Human Rights Commission
and the Commission for Gender Equality to demand an investigation into
Moyeketsi's death. "We believe her death is another example of preventable
deaths. The Human Rights Commission must make a public statement on its
views on peoples' right to treatment," he said (Chege, Reuters, 4/1).
Zackie Achmat, the "outspoken" HIV-positive leader of TAC who is refusing
to take antiretroviral drugs until the government provides them to the
general public, said he is sick of "begging, cajoling, charming and arguing
before goverment" while his friends and colleagues die of AIDS-related
illnesses. "I am taking vitamins, antidepressants, TB prophylactics and
nutrients ... but I need antiretrovirals now," Achmat said, adding that TAC
will "intensify" their fight with the government, according to the AP/Nando
Times (Sylvester, AP/Nando Times, 4/1).

7. HIV-Positive African Families Create Memory Books To Help Orphans
Connect to Past, Cultural Tradition

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=16941

African mothers and fathers who are dying of AIDS-related illnesses are
using "ordinary binders with plastic pages that allow written messages,
photographs or anything else with sentimental value to be stuck inside" to
create memory books for the children that they will leave behind when they
die, the New York Times reports. The memory books are "becoming an
increasingly popular way" for Africans to pass down family history and
cultural traditions that historically are "handed down face-to-face"
through stories, songs and ceremonies. Parents can receive training on how
to make the books, which can be a time-consuming task, especially for
people who are suffering from chronic illness. Advocates of the books, an
idea that was originally started by cancer patients in Britain, said that
the books can help fill the "emotional void" AIDS orphans face after losing
their parents, "even if their own futures are cut short by the virus, as is
often the case." AIDS experts estimate that there are 11 million AIDS
orphans in Africa alone, according to the Times (Lacey, New York Times,
4/2).


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