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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*** LIVE WEBCAST: GLOBAL FUND ***
View a live webcast of “An International Meeting to
Support the Global Fund” on Wednesday, July 16 at
8:30 a.m. local Paris time/2:30 a.m. ET/6:30 a.m. GMT.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/healthcast/globalfund/16jul03

*** WEBCAST: IAS CONFERENCE ***
A webcast of the opening session of the 2nd IAS
Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment is now
available. Daily coverage will continue throughout
the conference.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/paris2003
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________________________________________



Monday, July 14, 2003

2ND IAS CONFERENCE ON HIV PATHOGENESIS AND TREATMENT
========================================
1. Researchers, Advocates Call for Antiretroviral Drug Access for
Developing Countries at Opening of IAS Conference in Paris


POLITICS AND POLICY
========================================
2. Bush Concludes Africa Trip With Stop in Nigeria; Sees Effects of
HIV/AIDS in Person


GLOBAL CHALLENGES
========================================
3. Leaders at African Union Summit Pledge To Improve Coordination on Fight
Against AIDS

4. Nearly 19 Million People Living With HIV/AIDS in East, Southern Africa,
According to WHO

5. Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania Must Address Rising Number of Injection Drug
Users, Sex Workers To Prevent HIV Epidemic

6. New York Times Magazine Examines Causes of Widespread Famine in Africa

7. New York Times, Washington Post Examine Vaccine Projects of Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation


MEDIA & SOCIETY
========================================
8. Mandela Receives Red Cross Award, Says HIV/AIDS 'No Less Than a War'


OPINION
========================================
9. Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report Summarizes Editorials on Bush's Trip to
Africa, AIDS Initiative

****************************************

2ND IAS CONFERENCE ON HIV PATHOGENESIS AND TREATMENT


1. Researchers, Advocates Call for Antiretroviral Drug Access for
Developing Countries at Opening of IAS Conference in Paris

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=18783

At the opening of the International AIDS Society's 2nd Conference on
Pathogenesis and Treatment -- this year's largest HIV/AIDS conference --
yesterday in Paris, HIV/AIDS researchers, doctors and advocates called for
increased antiretroviral access in developing countries, BBC News reports
(Black, BBC News, 7/13). During the opening session of the conference --
which is being attended by more than 5,000 delegates from 120 countries and
is hosted by anRs, France's national AIDS research program -- former
Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso discussed his country's
universal access HIV/AIDS treatment program; HIV/AIDS advocate Marie-Josee
Mbuzenakamwe called for treatment for HIV-positive Africans; and economist
Jean-Paul Moatti presented an economic rationale for providing
antiretroviral treatment in developing countries. Paris Mayor Bertrand
Delanoe, IAS President Joep Lange and anRs Director Michel Kazatchkine, who
also chairs the Technical Review Panel of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria, opened the conference. Lange said, "All people
living with AIDS can be treated, no matter the level of resources in their
country. ... It is past time for the politicians to make the resources
available, to treat ALL the people" (IAS release, 7/13). Moatti, an
economics professor at the University of the Mediterranean in Marseille,
France, said that it would be economic "stupidity" not to provide drug
treatment to HIV/AIDS patients in developing countries because
antiretroviral drug prices have dropped, according to the AP/Boston Globe.
Moatti continued, "We have systematically underestimated the impact of AIDS
on the economy. It doesn't just kill workers; it kills young adults, and
young adults make children and raise children -- human capital. When you
take that into the equation, you find a very different impact on the
economy" (Ross, AP/Boston Globe, 7/14).

Brazil's Treatment Program


Cardoso, speaking about the success of his country's HIV/AIDS treatment
program, said, "Brazil has demonstrated that AIDS is not an intractable
problem." He said that Brazil was the first developing country to adopt an
official policy of providing antiretroviral drugs at no cost to its
citizens, adding, "I believe the most distinctive aspect of Brazil's
mobilization against AIDS is the dynamic interplay between citizen
initiatives and public policies" (Cardoso speech text, 7/13). Over the
past eight years, Brazil has reduced its number of AIDS-related deaths by
50% due to the country's focus on prevention and its distribution of free
antiretroviral drugs. Dr. Jong Wook Lee, the newly elected director general
of the World Health Organization, has appointed Paulo Teixeira, head of
Brazil's HIV/AIDS program, to formulate WHO's AIDS strategy. During the
past three years, 31 countries have adopted Brazil's prevention and
treatment guidelines (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 6/10). Cardoso said,
"The Brazilian experience confirms that ambiguous and inconsistent messages
like those (which) advocate abstinence and fidelity as solutions run the
risk of generating a misleading sense of security" (BBC News, 7/13). He
added, "The private sector and the scientific community have the duty to
exercise social responsibility on a global scale by devising appropriate
mechanisms for making life-saving drugs available at viable costs" (Cardoso
speech text, 7/13).

* Additional information on AIDS in Brazil is available online through the
kaisernetwork.org's Issue Spotlight on AIDS.

Bush's Global AIDS Initiative


Conference attendees lauded President Bush's global AIDS initiative but
expressed some concerns about "key details" of the plan, Agence
France-Presse reports. Kazatchkine said, "There's no way we can
acknowledge this as anything but an effort of unprecedented magnitude in
the history of AIDS. It's wonderful in its magnitude, I wish that Europe
and other countries would follow suit." But he added that he was concerned
about how the initiative's funds would be administered because there could
be "waste or duplication if it were channeled bilaterally," Agence
France-Presse reports. Kazatchkine said, "My plea would be for a more
multilateral effort." Moatti said that he was concerned that U.S. funding
"might come with ties," according to Agence France-Presse (Agence
France-Presse, 7/13). The House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign
operations on Thursday approved a $17.1 billion fiscal year 2004 foreign
operations appropriations bill, including $1.27 billion to fight AIDS
internationally, which is $86 million more than Bush requested and a 40%
increase over the amount approved for FY 2003. The subcommittee also
substantially restructured the AIDS plan, reducing funds controlled by a
newly appointed AIDS coordinator and increasing the U.S. contribution to
the Global Fund. In addition, the full House on Thursday approved a bill
(HB 6470) to provide funding for labor, education and health programs,
including $644 million for foreign AIDS research and prevention and $155
million for combating other infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis. As a
result, total funding for global AIDS is now a little more than $2 billion
for FY 2004. In a separate action, the Senate approved 78-18 a nonbinding
resolution calling for $3 billion in FY 2004 to fight AIDS overseas, even
if the amount exceeds the ceiling mandated in Congress's annual budget
resolution (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/11).

* A webcast of the opening session is available online.

Conference Continues


Former South African President Nelson Mandela today spoke at the
conference, along with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, who presented a summary titled "Twenty
Years of HIV Science." The session, titled "Extraordinary Plenary
Session," was chaired by HIV codiscoverers Drs. Robert Gallo of the
Institute of Human Virology and Luc Montagnier of the Foundation Mondiale
Recherche et Prevention SIDA. French President Jacques Chirac, European
Commission President Romano Prodi and Global Fund Director Richard Feachem
are scheduled to speak at the closing ceremony on Wednesday night (IAS
release, 7/13).

* A webcast of today's session is available online.

Additional Sessions To Be Webcast


As the official IAS conference webcaster, kaisernetwork.org will provide
webcasts and other resources for all six of the conference plenary
sessions, as well as other selected sessions. More information on the
conference webcasts is available online at
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/paris2003.

POLITICS AND POLICY


2. Bush Concludes Africa Trip With Stop in Nigeria; Sees Effects of
HIV/AIDS in Person

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=18784

President Bush on Saturday ended his five-day, five-country trip through
Africa with a visit to Nigeria, where he met with people living with
HIV/AIDS and talked to health officials, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Bush attended a round-table discussion with medical personnel at Nigeria's
National Hospital in Abuja and also met with women who have benefited from
programs to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission. Bush said, "[I]t's
one thing to hear about the ravages of AIDS [in Africa] or to read about
them, [but it's] another thing to see them firsthand" (Chen, Los Angeles
Times, 7/13). The West African nation of Nigeria so far has "been spared
the kinds of infection levels that have rocked" other African countries,
particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, but advocates are concerned about the
effect the disease could have in West Africa (Agence France-Presse, 7/12).
According to a CIA study released last year, AIDS in Nigeria threatens the
country's national security and interferes with its role as a peacekeeper
in the region, according to Long Island Newsday (Mulugeta, Long Island
Newsday, 7/13). Bush praised Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo for his
efforts to curb the spread of HIV in the country, saying, "I appreciate
your honesty and openness and forthrightness when it comes to battling the
pandemic of AIDS. You're truly an international leader on this issue"
(Agence France-Presse, 7/12). Bush added, "You have to have the desire to
say, 'Let's get after it and whip that disease.' It sounds to us that
Nigeria has got that focus" (Long Island Newsday, 7/13).

Funding


Bush on Saturday also pledged to push Congress to fully fund his global
AIDS initiative, the New York Times reports. Bush said, "The House of
Representatives and the United States Senate must fully fund this
initiative, for the good of the people on this continent of Africa"
(Stevenson, New York Times, 7/13). During the trip, Bush promoted the
five-year, $15 billion AIDS initiative (HR 1298), which he signed into law
in May. The initiative seeks to prevent seven million new HIV infections,
provide care for 10 million people living with the disease and provide
treatment to two million HIV-positive people (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report,
7/9). The House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations on
Thursday approved a $17.1 billion fiscal year 2004 foreign operations
appropriations bill, including $1.27 billion to fight AIDS internationally,
which is $86 million more than Bush requested and a 40% increase over the
amount approved for FY 2003. The subcommittee also substantially
restructured the AIDS plan, reducing funds controlled by a newly appointed
AIDS coordinator and increasing the U.S. contribution to the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In addition, the full House on
Thursday approved a bill (HB 6470) to provide funding for labor, education
and health programs, including $644 million for foreign AIDS research and
prevention and $155 million for combating other infectious diseases, such
as tuberculosis. As a result, total funding for global AIDS is now a little
more than $2 billion for FY 2004. In a separate action, the Senate approved
78-18 a nonbinding resolution calling for $3 billion in FY 2004 to fight
AIDS overseas, even if the amount exceeds the ceiling mandated in Congress'
annual budget resolution (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/11).

Bush Responds to House Action


Bush said in his weekly radio address on Saturday, "This week, a committee
of the House of Representatives took an important step to fund the first
year of this effort. I ask the Senate to move quickly, as well. And I
urge the entire Congress to fully fund my request for the emergency plan
for AIDS relief, so that America can help turn the tide against AIDS in
Africa" (White House release, 7/12). Bush in Nigeria said, "[C]urrent
efforts to fight the disease [throughout the continent] are simply not
equal to the need. More than four million people require immediate drug
treatment, and just 1% of them are receiving the medicine they require,"
adding, "Africa has the will to fight AIDS, but it needs the resources as
well" (Thomma, Knight Ridder/Charlotte Observer, 7/13). National Security
Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who traveled with Bush in Africa, said, "We'll
work with what we get, but the president believes very strongly in the full
funding of this [global AIDS initiative]" (AP/Baltimore Sun, 7/12).

Uganda


Bush on Friday visited Uganda, lauding President Yoweri Museveni for his
efforts to "remove the stigma of AIDS" and for "aggressively pursuing" a
treatment program that includes antiretroviral therapy, the New York Times
reports (Stevenson, New York Times, 7/12). Uganda has had success in
lowering its HIV prevalence by employing the "ABC" HIV prevention model --
abstinence, be faithful, use condoms. Bush has cited Uganda's program as a
model for his AIDS initiative. During his four-hour visit to Uganda, Bush
met with Museveni and visited TASO, an AIDS support organization and clinic
(Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/11). Bush said at the clinic, "You know,
I believe God has called us into action. I believe we have a
responsibility. My country has got a responsibility" (Donnelly, Boston
Globe, 7/13). Bush added, "You have worldwide influence here because
you've provided a model of care for Uganda. Life by life, village by
village, Uganda is showing that AIDS can be defeated across Africa" (New
York Times, 7/12). Bush said that AIDS "does its worst harm in an
atmosphere of secrecy and unreasoning fear." He said, "The president of
Uganda speaks the truth. And therefore you're overcoming the stigma of the
disease, and you're lifting despair" (Superville, AP/Philadelphia Inquirer,
7/12).

More Work


However, Uganda still has much work to do in the fight against AIDS, as
only 4,500 people of the 1.5 million living with HIV/AIDS in the country
receive antiretroviral drugs, the Washington Post reports. Michael
Etukoit, manager of TASO, said, "Can you imagine counseling someone for 10
years, and you keep counseling them, and then what next? What do you tell
them? Our dream is that all clients could be on drugs that people in the
rest of the world can afford" (Wax/Milbank, Washington Post, 7/12).
Liliane Mworeko of Uganda's National Forum of People Living With HIV/AIDS
said that the ABC model stigmatizes people living with the disease and
called for Museveni to provide more HIV/AIDS drugs to patients, Uganda's
Monitor/AllAfrica.com reports. "When they talk about ABC, we are looked at
as people who did not abstain, were not faithful and failed to use a
condom," she said, adding that Museveni "should know that you can't talk
about prevention without treatment" (Bakyawa, Monitor/AllAfrica.com, 7/11).


Reaction


Bush said of his trip through Africa, "[I] have seen the rich culture and
resources of Africa as well as the continuing challenges of Africa. With
greater opportunity, the peoples of Africa will build their own future of
hope. And the United States will help this vast continent of
possibilities to reach its full potential" (Kemper, Chicago Tribune, 7/13).
However, some advocates expressed concern that Bush will not be able to
deliver on his pledges. E.O. Otioto, a former Nigerian government official
who attended Bush's speech there, said, "We look at the kind of things Bush
has talked about, the $15 billion for AIDS, and we see a commitment beyond
the usual talk. Will he come through? Everybody is waiting, hoping. If
he performs, he will skyrocket. If he doesn't, it spells danger" (Milbank,
Washington Post, 7/13). Monique Luse of the Washington, D.C.-based
advocacy organization Africa Action said that Bush has "misled both
Americans and Africans into believing that he really is going to promote
peace and stability and fight AIDS, and that has not been what any of his
policies have actually done because they're all underfunded." She added,
"People can say words but words don't fight AIDS." Paul Zeitz, executive
director of the Global AIDS Alliance, said that Bush's trip to Africa
"created a lot of dialogue and policy debate about what's actually
happening (and) what needs to happen, and that's beneficial" (Boyd, Globe
and Mail, 7/12).

Media Coverage


The following NPR programs reported on Bush's trip to Africa:

* NPR's "All Things Considered": NPR's Robert Siegel interviews Ted Dange,
Africa specialist at the Congressional Research Service, about the
significance of Bush's trip (Siegel, "All Things Considered," NPR, 7/11).
The full segment is available online in RealPlayer.

* NPR's "All Things Considered": The segment reports on Bush's visit to an
AIDS clinic in Uganda (Gonyea, "All Things Considered," NPR, 7/11). The
full segment is available online in RealPlayer.

* NPR's "All Things Considered": The segment reports on questions over the
sources of funding for Bush's AIDS initiative and some lawmakers'
statements that Bush has yet to request "the full amount he's promised"
from Congress. The segment includes comments from Reps. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.)
and Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Zeitz (Rovner, "All Things Considered," NPR,
7/12). The full segment is available online in RealPlayer.

GLOBAL CHALLENGES


3. Leaders at African Union Summit Pledge To Improve Coordination on Fight
Against AIDS

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http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=18785

Fifty-three African leaders on Saturday at the close of the eight-day
African Union summit in Maputo, Mozambique, issued a draft declaration on
HIV/AIDS calling on African countries to "improve coordination" in the
fight against the disease, Reuters reports (Esipisu, Reuters, 7/12).
Following a video conference between conference attendees in Maputo and six
other cities, delegates agreed to a draft declaration on AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis, calling for at least $3 billion in international aid to fight
the disease, as well as partnerships with international donors, civil
society, the private sector and HIV-positive people in an effort to provide
better treatment, care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS. The
leaders said that it was possible for the international community to
provide the $3 billion needed and that such money should be channeled
through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In
addition, International Monetary Fund Director Horst Kohler on Friday told
reporters that developed nations must help in the fight against AIDS and
other diseases, which could cripple economic growth in Africa (Xinhua News
Agency, 7/12). Less than 20% of people at risk of HIV infection are
currently targeted by prevention programs and only 50,000 people out of an
estimated four million HIV-positive people in the region have access to
antiretroviral drugs (Sylvester, Associated Press, 7/12).

Libyan Leader Moammar Kadafi Calls AIDS Gay Disease


Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi in a speech at the close of the summit on
Saturday said, "If you are straight, you have nothing to fear from AIDS,"
according to the AP/Fort Worth Star Telegram (Sylvester, AP/Fort Worth Star
Telegram, 7/13). In what was supposed to be a short thank-you speech,
Kadafi unexpectedly gave an impromptu 45-minute speech in which he called
AIDS a "peaceful virus" (Agence France-Presse, 7/12). "There are no
problems with AIDS," he said, calling concern over the disease the result
of "psychological warfare" with Western countries trying to sell
antiretroviral drugs. "They say AIDS came from monkeys in Africa, but
monkeys have been in Africa for hundreds of centuries," he said, adding,
"They only say this to sell medicines" (Agencia de Informacao de
Mocambique/AllAfrica.com, 7/12). The speech "sounded a discordant note"
with a trial underway in Libya in which six Bulgarian health workers and a
Palestinian doctor have been accused of spreading HIV to 393 Libyan
children through blood products (Agence France-Presse, 7/12). The health
workers have been detained in Libya since early 1999 on charges that they
deliberately infected children with HIV while working at a hospital in
Benghazi, Libya (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 11/19/02). Kadafi also told
leaders not to "worry about tsetse flies and mosquitoes," which carry
malaria and sleeping sickness, since they are "God's armies," protecting
the continent from foreigners. "If they come here, they will get malaria
and sleeping sickness," he said (AP/Boston Globe, 7/13).

African First Ladies Discuss AIDS Efforts


A group of African first ladies, meeting on Saturday on the sidelines of
the summit for a follow-up meeting to a summit held last year on HIV/AIDS
and said that there is no "magic solution" to the pandemic, Agence-France
Presse reports (Agence France-Presse, 7/12). The wives of 18 African
leaders last year met in Switzerland to discuss ways of combating Africa's
HIV/AIDS epidemic and launched a new organization tasked with fighting the
disease on the continent (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/18/02). Since
the founding of the organization, the women have been working with the
Coca-Cola Foundation to produce a booklet and documentary on HIV/AIDS
education, according to first lady of Gabon Edith Lucie (Agence
France-Presse, 7/12). The women discussed organizational and structural
issues for their group and agreed to shift to a more practical focus. The
group also agreed to work to destigmatize the epidemic (East African
Standard/AllAfrica.com, 7/13).

Global Fund Director Seeks To 'Confound Skeptics'


In a telephone interview with Reuters on Friday, Global Fund Director
Richard Feachem, speaking from the summit, said that the fund has recently
been "flooded with ideas" about how to combat AIDS in Africa. "Skeptics
raise questions about these allocations, and say money cannot be absorbed.
The answer is, let's make the money available, let's give all the support
we can to programs which are expanding, and let the money follow the
expansion," Feachem said, adding, "My prediction is that we will confound
the skeptics ... let's have confidence in these countries and institutions
and see what they can do." Feachem said the fund, which is now in its
third round of grant approvals, was seeing growing interest on the part of
government, nongovernmental organizations and other groups in Africa
involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS. However, the fund has about $2.1
billion on hand, about half of the amount needed to continue current
programs through the next two years. Feachem said that the U.S. global
AIDS initiative will not "sideline the fund" but will "complement its
activities," according to Reuters (Quinn, Reuters, 7/11).

AIDS Initiative Funding


President Bush in May signed into law a global AIDS bill (HR 1298) that
authorizes $3 billion a year for five years to international HIV/AIDS
programs, with up to $1 billion in fiscal year 2004 going to the Global
Fund. However, the amount of funding actually appropriated may be less than
$1 billion and is contingent upon the contributions of other countries.
Under the measure, the United States can contribute up to $1 billion to the
fund only if that amount totals no more than one-third of the fund's total
contributions. Therefore, in order for the total $1 billion to be
appropriated, other nations must contribute more money (Kaiser Daily
HIV/AIDS Report, 6/23). A House Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday
approved a $17.1 billion FY 2004 foreign operations appropriations bill,
including $1.27 billion to fight AIDS internationally, and the full House
on Thursday approved a bill (HB 6470) to provide funding for labor,
education and health programs, including $644 million for foreign AIDS
research and prevention and $155 million for combating other infectious
diseases, such as TB. As a result, total funding for global AIDS is now a
little more than $2 billion for FY 2004. In a separate action, the Senate
approved 78-18 a nonbinding resolution calling for $3 billion in FY 2004 to
fight AIDS overseas, even if the amount exceeds the ceiling mandated in
Congress's annual budget resolution (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/11).

* A kaisernetwork.org HealthCast of the Global Forum on Health and
Development videoconference that took place at the summit is available
online.

* PRI's "The World" on Friday interviewed AllAfrica.com correspondent
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, who covered the summit (Werman, "The World," PRI,
7/11). The full segment is available online in Windows Media.

4. Nearly 19 Million People Living With HIV/AIDS in East, Southern Africa,
According to WHO

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http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=18786

Approximately 18.6 million people in East and Southern Africa were
HIV-positive at the end of 2002, according to World Health Organization
statistics presented last week at a WHO workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe,
Xinhua News Agency reports. Elizabeth Mason, acting director of WHO's
Division of Communicable Diseases, presented the statistics at the opening
of a three-day workshop, titled "Scaling Up Access to Care and Treatment
for People Living with HIV/AIDS in the East and Southern African
Sub-Region." The statistics also show that of the 42 million HIV/AIDS
cases in the world in 2002, 29.4 million were in Africa. Three million of
the cases in Africa were among children under age 15. In addition, 2.4
million of the total three million AIDS-related deaths in 2002 were in
Africa. Mason said that although some countries' HIV prevention programs
have been successfully scaled up, the need for HIV/AIDS care and treatment
cannot be ignored.

Scaling Up


Dan Makuto, WHO senior adviser to the executive director of Family and
Community Health in Geneva, said, "We must scale up access to
antiretroviral treatment in order to close the huge and unacceptable gap
between access and need." Steven Shongwe, the secretary of the
Commonwealth Regional Health Community Secretariat for East, Central and
Southern Africa, said, "Increased access to [antiretroviral therapy] will
help remove stigmatization and discrimination as more people will share
their experience and [are] motivated to know their HIV status, thus
bringing hope instead of despair." The workshop participants are expected
to develop a status report on care and treatment for people living with
HIV/AIDS in the 17 participating countries: Angola, Botswana, Eritrea,
Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia,
Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The participants are also planning to develop a framework for scaling up
and implementing access to HIV/AIDS care and treatment (Xinhua News Agency,
7/10).

5. Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania Must Address Rising Number of Injection Drug
Users, Sex Workers To Prevent HIV Epidemic

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http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=18787

Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania must address the rising number of injection
drug users and sex workers in order to keep HIV prevalence from reaching
levels found in other parts of Central and Eastern Europe, according to a
World Bank report released on Thursday, U.N. Wire reports. The report,
titled "HIV/AIDS in Southeastern Europe," found that despite the low number
of HIV cases in the region -- Bulgaria has recorded 366 total cases,
Croatia 341 and Romania 12,500 -- the presence of injection drugs,
prostitution and highly mobile groups make the countries vulnerable to the
spread of HIV, according to the report. Researchers believe that Romania
has at least 10,000 injection drug users, Croatia has between 10,000 and
20,000 and Bulgaria has as many as 46,000. In addition, rising syphilis
rates indicate that there has been an increase in unprotected sexual
activity. In addition, about 80% of Romania's HIV-positive residents were
infected as children through blood transfusions in the late 1980s and early
1990s, and as they approach adolescence, they could become sexually active,
which Tom Novotny, the study's lead author, said "is cause for concern"
(Hukill, U.N. Wire, 7/10). The report calls for widespread education
programs, improved disease tracking, increased training among medical
personnel and better public health infrastructures (Zwillich, Reuters
Health, 7/10). The World Bank in September plans to release the results of
an HIV/AIDS study of all of Central and Eastern Europe (U.N. Wire, 7/10).

6. New York Times Magazine Examines Causes of Widespread Famine in Africa

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The New York Times Magazine cover story this week examines the origins of
widespread famine in Africa, which affects nearly 40 million people. The
Magazine reports that one of the factors contributing to famine is the
continent's "disproportionate" number of HIV/AIDS cases, which affect
approximately 29.4 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. Because "[v]ery
few" people in Africa with HIV/AIDS can afford treatment, many families
have lost their primary wage earners to the disease, leaving the elderly
and young children "to cope," according to the Magazine (Bearak, New York
Times Magazine, 7/13). The article is available online.

7. New York Times, Washington Post Examine Vaccine Projects of Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation

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The New York Times on Sunday examined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
and its funding of health initiatives, including $126.5 million for the
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. The foundation also has pledged
between $50 million and $60 million to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria (Strom, New York Times, 7/13). The Washington
Post today profiles the Gates Foundation's funding of programs that aim to
improve international vaccination rates for diseases such as diphtheria,
pertussis and tetanus and of initiatives that aim to develop new vaccines
for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and rotavirus (Gillis, Washington
Post, 7/14).

MEDIA & SOCIETY


8. Mandela Receives Red Cross Award, Says HIV/AIDS 'No Less Than a War'

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http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=18790

Former South African President Nelson Mandela on Thursday during a speech
in London said that HIV/AIDS is "no less than a war, a world war that
affects all of us immediately," BBC News reports. Mandela, who received the
British Red Cross Humanity Fellowship Award on Thursday night, was in
London to deliver the annual British Red Cross Humanity lecture, which
focused on the "terrible and threatening scourge" of AIDS. Mandela said,
"AIDS today in Africa is claiming more lives than the sum total of all
wars, famines and floods, and the ravages of such deadly diseases as
malaria." He continued, "It is devastating families and communities,
overwhelming and depleting health care services and robbing schools of both
students and teachers." Mandela added, "Decades have been chopped from
life expectancy and young child mortality is expected to more than double
in the most severely affected countries of Africa" (BBC News, 7/10).

OPINION


9. Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report Summarizes Editorials on Bush's Trip to
Africa, AIDS Initiative

Access this story and related links online:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=18791

Several editorials over the weekend focused on President Bush's trip to
Africa and the global AIDS initiative. Bush last week visited Senegal,
South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria. During the trip, Bush promoted
several initiatives that focus on Africa, including the five-year, $15
billion AIDS initiative (HR 1298), which he signed into law in May. The
global AIDS initiative seeks to prevent seven million new HIV infections,
provide care for 10 million people living with the disease and provide
treatment to two million HIV-positive people (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report,
7/11). Summaries of some of the editorials follow:

* Akron Beacon Journal: Following Bush's "dizzying" tour of Africa, one
question remains: "How hard will the president fight to preserve both the
vision and reality of his Africa policy?" a Beacon Journal editorial asks.
The editorial continues, "Even as [Bush] talked about it on the trip, the
Republican House was shaving the funding for the HIV/AIDS initiative." The
Beacon Journal concludes, "The lasting value of Bush's African trip will be
found not so much in the well-crafted message of care and compassion as in
the practice" (Akron Beacon Journal, 7/14).

* Buffalo News: The United States needs to continue to help fight HIV/AIDS
"for the long haul," a News editorial says. During his Africa trip, Bush
committed the United States to fighting AIDS, "a humanitarian crusade that
everyone, of all political beliefs, ought to support," the editorial says,
adding that it will be "crucial" for Bush and "his successors to remain
engaged in this effort" to combat HIV/AIDS, which is "nothing less than an
African holocaust." The News concludes, "This is going to be a long-term
battle that will take much more than five years to win" (Buffalo News,
7/12).

* Cincinnati Enquirer: While Bush was in Africa, "a House panel approved
only $2 billion of the $3 billion Bush wanted to fund the first year" of
the AIDS initiative, an amount that is "not acceptable," according to an
Enquirer editorial. The editorial says that the money could be "used right
now to build clinics, train workers to take care of AIDS orphans and
purchase medicine, among other uses." The Enquirer concludes, "Congress
must not hesitate and it must approve the amount in total" (Cincinnati
Enquirer, 7/13).

* Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Although Bush took to Africa a "ringing
message of hope and promise," it is "not being matched by action back
home," according to a Journal Sentinel editorial. African governments,
including Botswana and Uganda, "know how to fight AIDS; what they don't
have is the money to wage the war," the Journal Sentinel says. The
editorial concludes that a "major commitment is needed immediately," and
"[b]ack home in Washington, [Bush] needs to match those promises with deeds
and to use the full influence of his office to do the same. Now"
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/13).

* New York Daily News: Bush's statements during his trip to Africa about
helping to "turn the tide" against HIV/AIDS were not "mere rhetoric,"
according to a Daily News editorial. The pledges "hol[d] true to Bush's
compassionate conservative ideals," the editorial concludes (New York Daily
News, 7/13).

* New York Times: "Every dollar of Mr. Bush's program is needed along with
equally ambitious efforts by other wealthy countries," according to a Times
editorial. Although some lawmakers are trying to make "sharp cuts" to the
initiative's first-year spending, Bush "needs to fight for the $3 billion
annual installment Congress voted [for] in May" and "carr[y] out America's
commitment to sustained and generous help in the battle against AIDS" (New
York Times, 7/12).

________________________________________

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