KAISER DAILY HIV/AIDS REPORT
A service of kaisernetwork.org
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/hiv
________________________________________



Tuesday, May 6, 2003

POLITICS AND POLICY
========================================
1. Chicago City Council Members Call for Additional $1 Million in AIDS
Funding


ACROSS THE NATION
========================================
2. Number of Syphilis Cases Among New Jersey Men Triples; Could Signal More
Risky Behavior Leading to More HIV Cases


PUBLIC HEALTH & EDUCATION
========================================
3. Public Health Agencies' Quick Response To SARS Due To Lessons Learned
From Emergence of AIDS


GLOBAL CHALLENGES
========================================
4. U.N. Special Envoy Stephen Lewis 'Hopeful, Optimistic' About Kenya's New
Administration's Commitment To Fighting AIDS

5. Gates Foundation Grants $28M to Collaborative Effort To Test Latex
Diaphragm as HIV, STD Prevention Method

6. Iraqi AIDS Patients, Relatives Detained in 'Secret Locations' During
Hussein Regime


MEDIA & SOCIETY
========================================
7. Children Help Gather Food, Toys for Children Affected by AIDS at South
African Foundation, PRI's 'The World' Reports


OPINION
========================================
8. Norfolk, Va., Government Has 'Botched AIDS Care,' Virginian-Pilot
Editorial Says

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POLITICS AND POLICY

1. Chicago City Council Members Call for Additional $1 Million in AIDS
Funding

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=17539

Twenty-six Chicago City Council members yesterday called on Mayor Richard
Daley (D) to allocate an additional $1 million for AIDS prevention services
in the proposed 2004 budget, according to an AIDS Foundation of Chicago
release (AFC release, 5/5). "Although the AIDS epidemic has been steadily
increasing in Chicago, city support for AIDS services has not kept pace
with the need," the members wrote in a letter to Daley, adding that while
AIDS cases in the city have increased by 21%, corporate funds devoted to
prevention efforts have declined by 8%. In addition, the disease has
disproportionately impacted blacks and Puerto Ricans, according to the
letter. For example, blacks account for 66% of recently diagnosed adult
AIDS cases and 64% of recently diagnosed HIV cases but only represent 36%
of the city's total population, and the AIDS rate among Puerto Ricans -- 26
per 100,000 residents -- is second only to the rate among blacks -- 41 per
100,000 residents -- the letter states. The Council members note that they
are "keenly aware" of the financial challenges facing the city, but they
state that the crisis cannot wait until economic conditions improve, adding
that each $1 million invested in prevention can save $2.7 million in
averted health care costs. The members conclude that a $1 million increase
in prevention funding must come from city corporate funds, because they
cannot "realistically expect" any additional state or federal funding
(Letter text, 5/5).


ACROSS THE NATION

2. Number of Syphilis Cases Among New Jersey Men Triples; Could Signal More
Risky Behavior Leading to More HIV Cases

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=17540

The number of New Jersey men with syphilis has more than tripled over the
past three years, reflecting a national trend that public health experts
say is "deeply troubling," as the rise in numbers could be due to increased
risky behavior that could lead to more HIV cases, the Bergen Record
reports. Syphilis can cause open sores in its early stages, which
facilitates HIV transmission, and if left untreated by antibiotics,
syphilis can cause paralysis, dementia and blindness in its later stages.
The number of white New Jersey men diagnosed with syphilis has risen from
less than five in 1999 to 45 in 2002. New Jersey Health Department
officials said that 121 men -- mainly men who have sex with men -- and 48
women were diagnosed with syphilis in 2002. The number of syphilis cases
decreased throughout the 1990s but has "rapid[ly] spiked" since 2000,
according to the Record (Padawer, Bergen Record, 5/4). In 2001, the number
of new syphilis cases in the United States rose for the first time in 11
years, with large increases occurring among MSM. The increase is a setback
for the CDC's goal of eliminating syphilis in 90% of U.S. counties by 2005,
but it also signals that many MSM are no longer practicing safe sex, which
could lead to an increase in HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases
(Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/22). Urban areas with large gay
populations such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco have been
"especially hard hit" by syphilis, according to the Record. In New Jersey,
Newark had 37% of the state's syphilis cases in 2002. Russ Mognoni, New
Jersey's assistant program manager for STDs, said that MSM are engaging in
more risky behavior because HIV/AIDS is no longer seen as a death sentence.
"In the 1990s, gay men were too sick, or too scared of AIDS, to engage in
risky behavior," Mognoni said, adding, "But AIDS isn't the killer disease
it was 10 or 20 years ago. Today, AIDS is managed -- and safe sex messages
are starting to lose their effectiveness." The health department is
coordinating syphilis prevention efforts with AIDS educators to try to
reduce the trend (Bergen Record, 5/4).


PUBLIC HEALTH & EDUCATION

3. Public Health Agencies' Quick Response To SARS Due To Lessons Learned
From Emergence of AIDS

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=17541

The New York Times today examines how lessons learned during the beginning
of the AIDS pandemic have helped public health agencies respond quickly to
severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Just as the viruses that cause
AIDS and SARS attack the body in different ways -- people with HIV take
about 10 years to develop symptoms, while people with the virus linked to
SARS develop symptoms in about two to 10 days -- public health officials
have shown "striking differences" in the way they reacted to the two
diseases, according to the Times. Agencies and scientists around the world
have improved communication, research cooperation and disease detection and
tracking systems since the emergence of AIDS 22 years ago. "If anything
positive can be said of AIDS, it is that it awakened the world to the
global resurgence of infectious diseases and sharpened the focus on the
threat of new and emerging ones," according to the Times (Altman, New York
Times, 5/6). The complete article is available online.


GLOBAL CHALLENGES

4. U.N. Special Envoy Stephen Lewis 'Hopeful, Optimistic' About Kenya's New
Administration's Commitment To Fighting AIDS

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=17542

U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis on Friday said he
has a "greater degree of hope and optimism" about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in
Kenya after seeing recently elected President Mwai Kibaki's "commitment to
fighting the disease and educating the country's youth," the Associated
Press reports (Associated Press, 5/3). Last month Lewis visited Kenya and
met with Kibaki, the country's National AIDS Control Council, members of
the U.N. country team and the ministers of health, education and
information. He said, "Where HIV/AIDS is concerned, the change [between
Kibaki's administration and that of former president Daniel arap Moi's
administration] is night and day." He added that under arap Moi, senior
officials' focus on HIV/AIDS was "perfunctory" but under Kibaki their focus
seems to be "intense, committed to confronting the pandemic, determined to
put policies and programs in place and consumed by the recognition that
every single family in Kenya was affected in some ways by the ravages of
HIV/AIDS" (Press briefing text, 5/2). Lewis lauded Kibaki's decision to
eliminate primary school fees, which has allowed millions of children
affected by HIV/AIDS to attend school, and he added that similar efforts
should be launched across Africa, Reuters reports. "Why should such vast
numbers of children, who have lost one or both parents to AIDS, who have
little if anything to eat, who have no guarantee of shelter, no guarantee
of health or nutritional care ... why on top of it all should they be
denied the right to go to school and the prospect of a future simply
because they're impoverished?" Lewis said (Adler, Reuters, 5/2). He added
that considering the new administration's commitment to fighting the
disease, "there is no reason in the world ... why Kenya cannot become the
next Uganda" (Associated Press, 5/3). Uganda has been successful in
lowering its AIDS prevalence rate, which many say is due to political will
power and the use of the "ABC" -- abstain, be faithful, use condoms --
prevention method (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/2).

5. Gates Foundation Grants $28M to Collaborative Effort To Test Latex
Diaphragm as HIV, STD Prevention Method

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=17543

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has granted $28 million to a Southern
African AIDS initiative to test the effectiveness of latex diaphragms in
preventing the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases,
South Africa's Sunday Times reports. The initiative is a joint effort by
the South African Medical Research Council, the University of
California-San Francisco, the University of Zimbabwe and the U.S.-based
company Ibis Reproductive Health. According to Gita Ramjee, head of the
MRC's HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Unit, the diaphragms will be tested at
two sites in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province and one site in Harare,
Zimbabwe, with other sites to be added in the future, the Times reports.
The study, which will take four years to complete, will begin in September
and will enroll about 4,500 women from the region who will learn how to
insert the diaphragm and will undergo HIV and other STD testing every three
months. Ramjee said that women in Zimbabwe who participated in a trial to
test the acceptability of the diaphragm as a contraceptive were
enthusiastic about the device, but she added that it had not yet been
tested as an HIV prevention method, according to the Times. "Current
research suggests that the port of entry for HIV is through the woman's
cervix. We feel that if we cover the cervix with the diaphragm, then
perhaps we can reduce the risk of women acquiring HIV," Ramjee said,
adding, "If the product shows effectiveness, we hope that it can be
marketed at a reduced cost or offered absolutely free of charge"
(Fredericks, Sunday Times, 5/4).

6. Iraqi AIDS Patients, Relatives Detained in 'Secret Locations' During
Hussein Regime

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=17544

Iraqi AIDS patients and their relatives since the fall of Saddam Hussein's
regime on April 9 have been "revealing a harrowing glimpse" of their lives
under the regime, Agence France-Presse reports. Dr. Karim Nada, an Iraqi
AIDS hospital director, said that Iraqi AIDS patients and their relatives
were detained in secret hospitals during the Hussein regime. Most of the
AIDS patients were locked in "guarded secret locations because the
government decided that there was no AIDS in the country," Nada said. The
Ibn Zuhur hospital separated its HIV wing from the rest of the facility and
placed a sign at its entrance that read, "Do Not Enter. You Will Contract
Infectious Diseases." The HIV-positive patients and their relatives who
were detained did not have any visitation rights, and the families remained
locked up until their relatives died. After their deaths, the AIDS
patients were placed in double coffins -- one wooden, one steel -- and were
buried in two secret cemeteries in Baghdad. In addition, HIV-positive
people were not allowed to be married except in cases where both partners
were HIV-positive, according to a man identified as Basam who declined to
provide his last name. Iraq acknowledged its first AIDS case in 1986, and
all foreign visitors to the country had to undergo HIV testing. The
government subsequently reported 180 official AIDS cases, but according to
Iraqi doctors, the real number exceeds several hundred (Agence
France-Presse, 5/4).


MEDIA & SOCIETY

7. Children Help Gather Food, Toys for Children Affected by AIDS at South
African Foundation, PRI's 'The World' Reports

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=17545

PRI's "The World" yesterday profiled the Children for Children Foundation,
an organization in Soweto, South Africa, that involves children in
gathering and distributing food, clothing, toys and other items to children
affected by HIV/AIDS. Bathabile Serei, founder of the program and a
teacher at the Enkonjeni Senior Phase School in Meadowlands, said that
although her students "are far from well off" and come from a "very poor
area" in Soweto, she has learned as an educator that "children have big
hearts." Serei said, "They love giving. All they need is for us as
parents to teach them how. The slogan of my organization is, 'You don't
have to be rich to give.'" Serei's students contribute their own used
items and ask for donations from neighbors and other schools. The gifts
are "handed over personally" to children in Soweto and rural areas of the
country so that the students are "in touch with the person they are giving
to" (Kruger, "The World," PRI, 5/5). The full segment is available online
in Windows Media.


OPINION

8. Norfolk, Va., Government Has 'Botched AIDS Care,' Virginian-Pilot
Editorial Says

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=17546

Norfolk, Va., city government officials have "inexcusably ... botched AIDS
care" for uninsured and underinsured patients in the area, according to a
Virginian-Pilot editorial (Virginian-Pilot, 5/1). A contract dispute
between city officials in Norfolk and doctors from the Eastern Virginia
Medical School's AIDS clinic network regarding billing practices resulted
in the revocation of the clinics' federal Ryan White CARE Act funds in
April. EVMS clinics use a billing method in which doctors receive a set
fee for each patient, a practice that is not allowed under federal
government regulations, according to Shirley Tyree, a city employee in
charge of the disbursement of Ryan White funds. As a result, the clinics,
which are the primary source of HIV/AIDS care for 1,200 of the area's
uninsured and underinsured patients, have lost their Ryan White funds and
last month notified patients that care may no longer be available (Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/4). The clinics' closing has left patients to
"fend for themselves in an already-overwhelmed public health system
unprepared and ill-equipped to treat them," the editorial says, adding that
patients no longer have access to HIV/AIDS specialists, "must settle for
new doctors with less expertise" and have even lost access to some
pharmacies. According to the Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim (D)
has said that he is "flustered" over the situation and plans to renew talks
with EVMS President Dr. Sumner Bell. With the city "distributing AIDS
dollars hither and yon," there is "little time to spare" for patients, the
editorial says, concluding, "Renewed talks are a start. But it's not
enough" (Virginian-Pilot, 5/1).


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