a Metropolitan AIDS Research Communiqué - aidsinfo@metropolitan.co.za
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Drama, music and dance have been successful tools used to educate people on HIV and AIDS, and which have assisted in the process of behaviour change. Ordinary people see themselves in the actors and action, sometimes become the stars and often provide the solutions to issues pertaining to stigma and discrimination. Read the story on how this methodology has been used in the remotest regions of Tanzania.
So much criticism has been levelled at African governments about their lack of political will and commitment to tackling the issue of AIDS in their countries. It was with interest, therefore, that I caught the story on Kenneth Kaunda, former President of Kenya, who willingly took an HIV test and publicised his status. The fact that this man has lost a son to AIDS must surely have prompted his decision, and I maintain that it is not the publication of a negative result but a positive one that paves the way to the destigmatisation and acceptance of AIDS.
However, whatever his reason for testing, I applaud this brave step. It is certain to bode well for know-your-status efforts in that country. Ex-President Kaunda, perhaps unknowingly, has brought upon the leaders of all African countries - most notably upon our own - a bold indictment to face the stark reality that is shared by countless millions of Africans who live with HIV and AIDS.
Gillian Núr Samuels
Email: nsamuels@metropolitan.co.za
Tel: 021 - 940 6717
Agence France-Presse - March 2002
BANGKOK,
March 22 (AFP) - Thai health authorities said recently that they will begin
selling the world's cheapest anti-AIDS drug early next month for less than a
dollar a day, in a move applauded by activists.
The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) is behind the first locally produced anti-retroviral (ARV) "cocktail" which could end up helping hundreds of thousands of HIV sufferers battle the virus which causes AIDS.
The drug, called GPO-VIR, is a single pill combining Stavudine, Lamivudine and Nevirapine, which are known to inhibit the production of HIV in the body.
GPO director Thongchai Thavichachart told AFP his organisation produced a successful initial batch of 120 000 tablets of the drug on March 18 and will first market it at six GPO outlets in early April.
"We will sell it for 20 baht (46 US cents) per tablet, which is very cheap," he said. The dosage is set at two tablets per day, making the 1200 baht ($27) monthly cost the cheapest in the world, Thailand's public health ministry said.
It would also slash Thailand's current lowest monthly cost of 2500 baht for ARVs by more than half. The GPO aims to increase production to three million tablets per month over the next six months to meet demand, Thongchai said.
He noted the GPO has successfully prescribed cocktails of the three separate drugs for three years to more than 2000 AIDS patients.
GPO, Bangkok's Mahidol University and the Department of Medical Science in the Health Ministry are to submit a proposal for GPO-VIR testing on up to 16 000 HIV/AIDS patients, he said. International group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders - MSF) welcomed GPO-VIR's launch and said it was considering buying the drugs for use internationally.
"We have used GPO drugs on hundreds of patients in Thailand and we have no reason to believe there is any problem with the quality of GPO-VIR," said the Thailand director of MSF-France Yorgos Kapranis.
"Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia that is producing affordable generic drugs for AIDS patients," he added. Thai AIDS activists also voiced their approval. "This launching of the cocktail pill is a benefit on personal and national levels," said Nimit Tien-udom, director of the AIDS Access Foundation.
A previous Thai concoction touted as a "miracle cure" for AIDS, V-1 Immunitor, was distributed last year to thousands of HIV patients in Thailand before it was declared ineffective by the Ministry of Health. Distribution of V-1 Immunitor touched off a storm of controversy among AIDS activists and health officials. Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said in a statement the success of GPO-VIR could reduce expenses for some 695 000 Thai HIV/AIDS patients, some of whom have been paying up to 20 000 baht (460 dollars) monthly for drugs.
An estimated one million of Thailand's 60 million people have been infected with HIV, and one third of those have already died. More than 180 000 Thais contracted HIV last year and some 68 000 developed full-blown AIDS, according to the Health Ministry's AIDS division. Thailand's vocal AIDS activists have long pressed the government for anti-retroviral drugs and HIV treatment to be included in a public health care scheme which allows patients to pay just 30 baht per hospital visit.
A posting from SEA-AIDS sea-aids@healthdev.net. Cross-posted from www.aegis.com.
IRIN Plus News
LUSAKA,
26 March (IRIN) - In a dramatic gesture that AIDS activists hoped would
boost their campaign to raise awareness about voluntary counselling and testing,
former president Kenneth Kaunda took a public HIV/AIDS test earlier this week.
This was a particularly poignant moment for Kaunda as his 30-year-old son, Masuzyo, died of AIDS-related complications over a decade ago.
"When my wife and I lost the young man to HIV/AIDS, he left behind six orphans for us to look after," the 78-year-old told a meeting of activists in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.
"By taking this test, I am trying to show that HIV/AIDS is a serious matter which must be fought with all the seriousness at our disposal," Kaunda said before leading scores of activists across the central business district to take his test at an HIV/AIDS counselling and testing centre.
Following his retirement from active politics, the former president set up the Kenneth Kaunda Children of Africa Foundation to lead an anti-AIDS crusade targeted at the youth and centred around an awareness campaign and the support of vulnerable children.
Medical experts, who agree that Zambia's fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic will remain unresolved for as long as the majority of people do not know their HIV/AIDS status, applauded Kaunda's move to publicise his HIV-status.
"People who know their HIV-status are more likely to change their behaviour to protect themselves and others," said Health Minister Brian Chituwo. "Voluntary counselling and testing also helps to break the stigma linked to HIV/AIDS and provides a link to care and support services for those who are HIV positive".
Since the early nineties, the government and a loose network of NGOs have together established 54 voluntary counselling and testing centres across the country. However, only 160 000 of the over one million people believed to be HIV positive know their status.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, condom use among the sexually active remains disturbingly low. According to AIDS Alliance, a USAID-funded NGO, only 37 per cent of men and 27 per cent of women in urban areas used condoms in 1998. Condom use was markedly lower in the rural areas, where 27 per cent of men and 17 per cent of women used them.
Zambia has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, with an estimated 20 per cent of its 10.3 million people believed to be HIV positive. According to the Ministry of Health, Zambia had around 520 000 AIDS orphans in 1999. That number is expected to rise to 895 000 by 2009 and to 974 000 by 2014.
"This is a crisis of grave importance," Chituwo said. "Our target is to increase the number of people who have tested for HIV/AIDS to at least 1.5 million over the next five years". That may not be an impossible ambition -the Society for Family Health, another AIDS NGO, claims to have sold 63 million male condoms since it was established in 1991, and some 250 000 of the more recently introduced female condom.
There are already indications that an aggressive awareness programme centred around voluntary counselling and testing can slow down the rate of HIV/AIDS infection. Recent studies by the Ministry of Education suggest that the rate of HIV infection among teenagers aged between 15 and 19 has slowed down from 25 to 15 per cent.
"The youth are delaying the start of sexual activity and many are choosing to abstain from sex altogether. Among those who decide to indulge in sex, condom use is increasing. This is tremendous news," Chituwo said.
by Robert Morrell
Violence,
gender inequality, and high rates of HIV transmission are three major problems
at all levels of South African education. Gender inequalities play out in a
variety of different types of violence: girls are raped by boys and boys are the
main perpetrators of sexual assault but boys can also be the victims of assault
by other boys. Yet, many interventions reflect the perception that boys are
perpetrators and girls are the victims. How can the gap between rhetoric and
practice in addressing boys' and girls' vulnerability be addressed?
A joint intervention between Dramaide, a South African NGO, and the University of Natal has recently been carried out in two Durban schools. Dramaide works with groups of learners to develop plays designed to raise HIV/AIDS and gender awareness. Outcomes reveal that the use of evaluative research to test the effectiveness of the intervention can deepen its impact.
'Mobilising Young Men to Care' used a mixed gender approach, allowing single-sex work and mixed gender interactions. Small single-sex focus groups discussed with a researcher/evaluator from the University team the impact of the drama work by focusing on the changes in their understanding about gender equality. This allowed the learners to reflect critically on their lives with new awareness. By building a strong rapport with the learners in this way, the team was able to challenge entrenched ideas about gender inequality. Girls in particular were able to 'test' their new understanding, for example the realisation that it was not obligatory to have sex with an assertive boy or to do the bidding of a fellow male learner, and in this way to challenge pervasive gender relations.
For boys, the work led them to take more responsibility for their actions, to express their emotions better and to develop an understanding of the possibility of at least 'doing masculinity' differently. The evaluation processenabled learners to evaluate themselves through a process of self-reconstruction. The girls in particular were much clearer about who they are, their rights, their position as women, the impact of gender inequalities historically upon their lives AND committed to asserting themselves more forcefully in social and educational contexts in the future.
Research findings
Policy implications
Robert Morrell
Faculty of Education
University of Natal
Durban 4041
South Africa
Tel: +27 31 260 1127
Fax: +27 31 260 2609
Email: morrell@nu.ac.za
A posting from GENDER-AIDS (gender-aids@healthdev.net)
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