THE ELECTRONIC BULLETIN OF THE SWISS PLATFORM FOR HIV/AIDS AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION September 2007

1. million people live with HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa; the world-wide figure amounts to approximately 40 million people. In the year 2006, 4,3 million people became infected with HIV – i.e. around 12’000 people become infected every day or 500 every hour. Annually, almost 3 million people die of AIDS; that’s 8000 lives lost every day or 300 every hour.

We all use figures to somehow grasp the incomprehensible extent of the AIDS pandemic and the tremendous sorrow that is connected to it.

We have no idea how many people are really living with the virus. Roughly 80 per cent of HIV-positive people do not know whether they have the virus or not, as they never tested for HIV. Others keep their state secret from even their closest relatives and friends because they fear stigmatisation and social exclusion. We work with figures and refer to estimates that are based on actual investigations and projections, such as for example the figure of positive pregnant women visiting an antenatal clinic.

UNAIDS, the reference centre on the HIV and AIDS epidemiology, recently had to revise their figures downward for some countries. This created uncertainty and led to speculations – does it mean that things are not as bad as we thought they were? Some people responded by showing joy and self-praise: „Our prevention programmes have been successful “. Yet, others claim – as for example a journalist of a Swiss weekly paper – that the figures were „systematically blown up“ and that flames of fear were fanned to be able to get to international donor funds; because there was apparently no such thing as an AIDS epidemic – apart from Black Africa.

In fact, we only know very little about the reasons why Southern Africa has the highest prevalence rate or why in some countries such as Uganda or Zimbabwe HIV-prevalence has dropped in the last years. However, this does not change the fact that the virus has drastically changed the life of an enormous number of people.

„28 Stories on AIDS in Africa“ is the title of a highly recommendable and touching book. People are hidden behind the aforementioned figures; this book shows their every-day reality, their longing, anger and grief. The stories allow us to meet women, men and children living with the HIV-virus, we encounter both desperate and courageous people.

Helena Zweifel Coordinator aidsfocus.ch

NEWS FROM THE SWISS COMMUNITY OF PRAXIS - MMS-BULLETIN NR. 105: „POSITIVE MOTHERHOOD“ - THE BERNE DECLARATION WELCOMES THE INDIAN JUSTICE’S DECISION - MSF: INDIAN COURT RULING PROTECTS INDIA AS THE PHARMACY OF THE DEVELOPING WORLD - SWISS GOVT NOT TO TAKE NOVARTIS CASE TO WTO

NEWS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD - NEW AIDSPORTAL E-DISCUSSION: HIV AND OLDER PEOPLE - SOUTH AFRICA: MICROBICIDE TRIALS - WHAT'S IN IT FOR PARTICIPANTS? - BULGARIA SIGNS AGREEMENT TO INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR HIV-POSITIVE CHILDREN - SAVING THE BABIES: A VICTORY IN AFRICA

NEW RESSOURCES - WHAT'S CULTURE GOT TO DO WITH HIV AND AIDS? - THE HEALTH JOURNEY - EXCHANGE ON HIV/AIDS, SEXUALITY AND GENDER - THE ADVOCACY AGENDA FOR THE ELIMINATION OF PEDIATRIC HIV/AIDS

EVENTS 18.09.2007 | MMS MEETING POINT: THEIR REALITIES – OUR DEMANDS 23.10.2007 | FORUM: “THE FUTURE IS GREY” 23.10.2007 | AIDSFOCUS.CH ANNUAL MEETING 2007 31.10.2007 | AIDFOCUS.CH: PEER REVIEW GROUP MAINSTREAMING HIV 06.11.2007 | IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST... NON-GOVERNMENTAL HEALTH SERVICE PROVIDERS AND NATIONAL HEALTH SYSTEMS

Johannesburg, 2 August 2007 - When it comes to sub-Saharan Africa's devastating AIDS crisis, there is an understandable tendency to latch onto any scrap of good news. Figures suggesting the epidemic is waning in some countries are being trumpeted by governments and international donor agencies as evidence that their prevention efforts are succeeding. Although theories abound, "nobody really knows why southern Africa is worst affected", said Dr Brian Williams, another epidemiologist at SACEMA. "And if we don't know that, it's very difficult to explain why prevalence is going up or down." (PlusNews)

http://www.plusnews.org

1. August 2007 - Knowing the status of the epidemic and monitoring the programmatic response are critical to understand where the epidemic is going and whether programmes are achieving desired impact. In order to Know the Epidemic, UNAIDS recommends the use of methodologies, tools and software which are regularly reviewed and adapted to respond to an evolving epidemic and changing needs.

http://www.unaids.org

1. July 2007 - It may be premature to start celebrating that number of people infected with the dreaded human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has come down by half to 2.47 million as per the latest estimate released by the government. There are more unknowns than knowns in the methodology adopted by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to arrive at this figure. Earlier, it would restrict itself to sentinel surveys, thrust on India by several UN agencies as being the best way to track the AIDS epidemic. This time, the government decided to supplement the results of sentinel surveys with community data.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

1. Sep 2007 - Although India recently reduced its HIV/AIDS caseload estimate, the number of AIDS cases in New Delhi has been increasing since 2000, according to a recent Ministry of Health and Family Welfare report. The number of recorded AIDS cases in New Delhi has increased from 498 in 2000 to 5,082 in 2007. According to a health ministry official, there are two potential reasons for the increasing number of AIDS cases in New Delhi: the city's mobile population and its antiretroviral treatment program.

http://www.kaisernetwork.org

1. August 2007 - Unsafe sex has become the primary mode of HIV transmission in China, according to a report by the Ministry of Health and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Of the 70,000 new cases reported in 2005, 49.8% were transmitted through sexual contact and 48.6% were transmitted through injection drug use. About 7.3% of new cases occurred among men who have sex with men. An estimated 650,000 people in China are living with HIV/AIDS, and efforts to fight the spread of the virus are hindered by conservative attitudes about sex and government suspicion of community-based groups and nongovernmental organizations.

http://www.kaisernetwork.org

From one of our most widely read, award-winning journalists Stephanie Nolen – comes the powerful, unputdownable story of the very human cost of a global pandemic of staggering scope and scale. It is essential reading for our times. In 28, Stephanie Nolen puts a human face to the crisis created by HIV-AIDS in Africa. She has achieved, in this amazing book, something extraordinary: she writes with a power, understanding and simplicity that makes us listen, makes us understand and care. 28 is a timely, transformative, thoroughly accessible book that shows us definitively why we continue to ignore the growth of HIV-AIDS in Africa only at our peril and at an intolerable moral cost. (2007)

http://www.28stories.com

Reader of the aidsfocus.ch conference 26 April 2007 in Berne: "Positive Motherhood. Opportunities and challenges of HIV prevention, treatment and care”. The Bulletin No 105 of Medicus Mundi Switzerland, the Reader of the conference 2006 “Positive Motherhood” contains the papers presented at the conference. These are complemented with further aspects of holistic approach to HIV prevention, treatment and care for all. Additional articles highlight experiences of Swiss NGOs and their partners on the issues.

http://www.medicusmundi.ch
http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Lausanne, 06.08.2007 - Today the Chennai High Court of Justice returned its verdict about Novartis’ court case against the Indian patent law. The Court confirmed that section 3 (d) of the Indian Patents Act, which was challenged by Novartis, complies with the law. The Berne Declaration (BD) welcomes the Indian justice’s decision that maintains an important provision for the access to medicines in India and in developing countries. The BD demands that Novartis respects this decision by not appealing against the verdict. It also demands that Switzerland respects this decision and does not lodge a complaint with the WTO against India.

http://www.evb.ch

New Delhi/Geneva, 6 August, 2007 – The landmark decision by the High Court in Chennai to uphold India's Patents Act in the face of the challenge by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis is a major victory for patients' access to affordable medicines in developing countries, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) stated today. "This is a huge relief for millions of patients and doctors in developing countries who depend on affordable medicines from India," said Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer, Director of the MSF Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines.

http://www.accessmed-msf.org

New Delhi, 8 August 2007 - The government of Switzerland will not be taking up the allegation by Novartis that Indian patent law is incompatible with the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement at the dispute settlement board of the World Trade Organization (WTO). “We accept any case settled in India. It is normal litigation, in which one party happens to be a company and another is a country,” said Doris Leuthard, federal councilor, department of economic affairs of the Swiss Confederation. Leuthard was in Delhi to sign a memorandum on cooperation in international property rights with India.

http://novartisboycott.org

HelpAge International and the International Community of Women Living with HIV and AIDS invite to a consultation on HIV and older people. This discussion seeks to explore the experiences of men and women over 50 when it comes to accessing HIV information and services. What needs to be done? They would like to hear from individuals, activists, programme implementers and policy makers.

http://www.aidsportal.org

Johannesburg, 5 September 2007 - Why would a woman volunteer to use a product that may or may not protect her from HIV infection, undergo a lengthy screening process and then commit to regular clinic visits for up to two years? South African women make up a significant number of the thousands in the African continent who have volunteered to participate in clinical trials for microbicides - a range of female-controlled products in the form of gels, creams, sponges and vaginal rings, which scientists are hopeful will prove effective at protecting women from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

http://www.plusnews.org

1. September 2007 - Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Feim Chaushev on Monday signed an agreement to transfer about $57 million of Libya's debt to Bulgaria to an international fund to aid more than 400 Libyan children living with HIV/AIDS. The agreement is part of a deal that secured the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were imprisoned for more than eight years in Libya for allegedly intentionally infecting the children with HIV. The medical workers in May 2004 were sentenced to death. After Libya's Supreme Judicial Council reduced the sentence to life in prison, the six medical workers were released in July 2007. (kaisernetwork)

http://www.kaisernetwork.org

1. August 2007 - The southern Africa country of Botswana has reduced the rate of HIV transmission rate from mother to child to less than 4 percent, providing fresh evidence that several hundred thousand babies in the developing world can be saved annually from acquiring the deadly virus. The success in Botswana recorded this year, according to specialists, is due to political support and several policy decisions, including the testing of all pregnant women for HIV unless they refuse; providing HIV test results in 20 minutes to the expectant mothers; and for those woman who are HIV-positive, giving dual drug treatment - four weeks of AZT, and then a single dose of nevirapine at birth to mother and child. (The Boston Globe)

http://www.boston.com

Developing creative cultural approaches to HIV prevention work. This paper from Healthlink Worldwide argues that developing more effective cultural approaches to HIV prevention should be a priority. The paper recommends that the cultural dimension of the HIV pandemic be addressed through practical action in country strategies and at field level. Donors need to become more confident about using diverse cultural approaches to HIV prevention, and move away from mass media campaigns. Different methods of monitoring and evaluation have to be developed for assessing the effectiveness of programmes that use cultural interventions. (2007)

http://www.healthlink.org.uk

Understanding the dimensions of care and treatment for people with HIV: A community-centred methodology. ART involves far more than taking pills and there are many other challenges faced by a person with HIV. Maintaining or re-gaining health is the underlying goal of the search for treatment, care, support and prevention. The health journey is a simple and highly useful methodology for understanding the experiences of people living with HIV in trying to access and use health and other support services. It provides a starting point for planning and monitoring community engagement and provision of community-centred health and support services. (2007)

http://www.aidsalliance.org

Exchange is a magazine on HIV/AIDS, sexuality and gender in developing countries. It is published quarterly by the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in collaboration with Oxfam Novib (the Netherlands) and SAfAIDS (Zimbabwe). The latest issue of Exchange magazine focuses on the relationship between HIV and sex workers’ rights. (2007)

http://www.kit.nl

There are 2.3 million children under the age of 15 with HIV/AIDS and 380,000 children died of AIDS in 2006. While the number of adults on antiretroviral therapy (ART) has increased dramatically over the last two years, the treatment of children still lags behind. Only one in seven of the 780,000 children in need of ART are receiving it. Momentum for treating large numbers of children has been growing steadily. The Global AIDS Alliance presented at the Advocacy Summit on Children and HIV/AIDS in Belgium an Advocacy Agenda. (2007)

http://topics.developmentgateway.org

Berne | Growing gap between grassroots, project management and donors. Grown from small scale community groups, the “care groups” in South Africa are faced with new challenges. One is HIV and AIDS and its impact. Along with it, more money is flowing in and new demands and high expectations are created. Starting with the project experiences of DM-échange et mission in South Africa, the participants will discuss these issues, share their own experience and consult each other. The Meeting point is organised by Medicus Mundi Switzerland as a forum for sharing, learning from each other, consulting each other und for building up a work related network. Information and Registration

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Berne | Old people in the HIV/AIDS crisis - Victims and part of the solution. An information and discussion forum, organized by aidsfocus.ch and Kwa Wazee. Grey, unknown, hidden and forgotten – old or elderly people in developing countries rarely make the news: they have the reputation of being passive and non productive, they are not talked about, they are most often not even mentioned in aid-programmes targeting the most vulnerable populations. The forum takes up a number of issues through lectures and open discussion on various approaches and strategies for the support of elderly people in the era of HIV and AIDS. Information and registration:

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Bern | The annual meeting of aidsfocus.ch, the Swiss platform on HIV/AIDS and international cooperation, is an important forum for the sharing of information and experiences. Besides the annual report and accounts, there will be a window open for sharing of information and experiences. Agenda and registration:

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Bern | aidsfocus.ch: The Swiss Red Cross is hosting the next meeting for sharing of experiences and learning from each other on mainstreaming HIV. The HIV/AIDS Programs and mainstreaming within Swiss Red Cross projects will be presented, followed by the experiences on Project Cycle Management for HIV Mainstreaming in the CEHP Project in Nepal and discussion and sharing.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Basel | Medicus Mundi Swizterland: The Swiss Health Cooperation Symposium. How do not-for-profit non-governmental health service providers perceive their role in the national provision of healthcare? How do they steer a course between their mission and changes in national and international operating conditions? The Swiss Health Cooperation Symposium targets a broad spectrum of participants active at the national or international level and is organized by Medicus Mundi Switzerland, Network Health for All. Programme and registration:

http://www.medicusmundi.ch

aidsfocus.ch is a project set up by Medicus Mundi Switzerland. aidsfocus.ch is sponsored and shaped by 33 partner organizations who support the aims and activities of the platform through their financial contributions, expertise and commitment.

Partners: AIDS & Child, Bethlehem Mission Immensee, Caritas Switzerland, cinfo, CO-OPERAID, Déclaration de Berne, Doctors without Borders, Esperanza Medicines Foundation, FEPA, Fédération Genevoise de Coopération, Gemeinschaft St. Anna-Schwestern, HEKS, IAMANEH Switzerland, International Federation of the Blue Cross, INTERTEAM, Kindernothilfe Schweiz, Kwa Wazee, medico international Switzerland, mediCuba-Suisse, missio, REPSSI, SolidarMed, Swiss Aids Care International, Swiss Aids Federation, missio, mission 21, Swiss Aids Care International, Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund, Swiss MIVA, Swiss Red Cross, Swiss Tropical Institute, Tear Fund, Terre des hommes Foundation, terre des hommes schweiz, and World Vision Switzerland.