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Special Edition Focussing On 13th ICASA Conference September 25, 2003

Somalia Still Has Rare Opportunity To Halt Spread Of Virus

NAIROBI (AANA) September 25 - UNICEF Somalia Representative, Jesper Morc 
has said that Somali communities, local authorities and international 
partners have an opportunity to ensure that HIV/AIDS does not spiral out of 
control in the country.

Unlike many of its Sub-Saharan neighbours, the prevalence rate in Somalia 
is still relatively low, which provides a unique opportunity for a 
pre-emptive HIV/AIDS response.

"The experience of a country like Senegal which, like Somalia, is 
predominantly Muslim, and where early and focused interventions contributed 
to stemming of the tide of HIV/AIDS, is model of hope which Somalia can 
build upon," said Morch at a press conference here yesterday.

The first step towards a co-ordinated response is a collaborative Strategic 
Framework for the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS and STIs within Somali 
Populations, developed recently following an eight-month participatory 
process among representatives of Somali communities, civil society, 
international and local NGOs and UN agencies, including UNICEF.

"The Strategic Framework provides a joint vision that has been endorsed by 
Somali leaders, community groups and humanitarian agencies working at all 
levels, and all of the participants in the process have jointly pledged to 
support strategic interventions through their respective programmes," said 
Morch.

"A full-blown HIV/AIDS epidemic would be catastrophic and seriously hamper 
any efforts towards nation building and return of peace in Somalia. It is 
therefore crucial and urgent to put in place a co-ordinated and strategic 
early response to stop the epidemic from spreading," said Morch.

But even with the shared vision amongst stakeholders, the challenge ahead 
is significant.  There is no central government, and public service 
infrastructure is lacking in capacity.	This is worsened by intermittent 
insecurity, particularly throughout the central and southern parts of the 
country.

In addition, discrimination and stigma towards people living with HIV/AIDS 
is a problem, diminishing the likelihood of enlisting their assistance in 
the response.

Reported by Henry Neondo

  Meeting Calls For Comprehensive Church Policy On PLWA

NAIROBI (AANA) September 24 - Religious leaders have been challenged to 
institute policies that would give direction on how churches should handle 
persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA), especially in maters concerning stigma 
and discrimination.

A satelite discussion held here on September 21 to coincide with the 
opening of the on-going 13th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually 
Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA), resolved that Church policy on 
HIV/AIDS would go a long way in eliminating complications that tend to 
nurture stigma and discrimination related to the pandemic.

Discussing The Role of Religious Leaders in Reducing Stigma and 
Discrimination Related to HIV/AIDS, the satelite event was organised 
jointly by World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP), United States 
Agency for International Development (USAID), and Communities Responding to 
HIV/AIDS Epidemic (Core Initiative).

The co-ordinator of African Network of Religious Leaders Living with or 
Personally affected by HIV/AIDS (ANRELA+), Rev Jape Heath of South Africa, 
expressed concern that "churches (in Africa) do not have structures to deal 
with PLWA", making it easy for stigma and discrimination to flourish within 
church circles, as well as among communities they serve.

According to Rev Heath, church policy on HIV/AIDS would make it easier for 
religious bodies to "openly deal with the issue".

He noted that luck of such a policy gave leeway to some religious 
personalities to use terminologies that condemned people infected with HIV, 
pointing out that such leaders played an instrumental role in promoting 
stigma and discrimination.

Use of phrases such as "sinners" in reference to PLWA, he explained, gave 
the impression that such persons were always adulterous.  "We have often 
assumed that those with HIV are adulterous," he said.

Rev Heath, who is living with HIV, was speaking as a panelist during the 
satelite event.

Other panelists included Bishop Otsile Ditsheko Osimilwe, chairman of the 
southern Africa region of Organisation of African Instituted Churches 
(OAIC), Dr Musa Dube, Consulting Theologian, World Council of Churches' 
Ecumenical HIV/AIDS Initiative in Africa, Fr Peter Lwaminda, Secretary 
General of Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar 
(SECAM), and the Vice Chairman of Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, Sheikh 
Al Haj Yusuf Murigu.

In a roundtable discussion, they thrashed out issues of concern to the 
Church in Africa on matters of HIV/AIDS, and floated possible mechanisms 
that could be fronted as way forward to containing stigma and discrimination.

Other radical solutions suggested, was the need for church leaders to 
undergo regular retraining to have them equipped with skills for handling 
stigma related to HIV/AIDS.

"We need to re-educate our church leaders to develop new perspectives on 
the issue. We need to develop a theology for every new event, just like in 
other fields," stated Dr Dube.

She was strong on the opinion that liturgy needed to be refocused to 
effectively accommodate issues related to the pandemic. "The Church needs 
to re-look at the scriptures," she stated.

According to her, the Church should now move a step further from discussing 
people's silence on matters of HIV/AIDS, to practically doing something 
about breaking that silence.  "We cannot continue to say people are silent 
and not find a way to break that silence," she charged.

Her sentiments were backed by the other panelists, who unanimously also 
resolved to treat HIV/AIDS like any other disease and talk "more openly, 
relentlessly, methodically and repetitively", as a way of breaking the
stigma.

The discussants also agreed to reconsider language use on matters related 
to HIV/AIDS, address issues of gender and human rights injustices in 
confronting stigma and discrimination, and work in partnership with one 
another.

Reported by Elly Wamari

Socio-cultural Revolution Needed In Battle Against Scourge

NAIROBI (AANA) September 25 - The General Secretary (elect) of the Geneva 
based World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, said here on 
Tuesday (September 23) that HIV/AIDS posed an "astonishing dilemma of 
communal death" in Africa.

Addressing his first press conference in Africa since his August 28 
election to the WCC's substantive position, he explained:  "In most African 
traditional societies, when an individual was sick, the whole community was 
sick, hence in today's world when the old are burying the young, there is 
the astonishing dilemma of communal death."

He continued: "Since young people have always been considered as the ones 
to take care of their parents in old age, their ongoing demise due to AIDS 
is a cause of grave concern to the future of the continent.  People with 
AIDS die many times over in the gaze of their communities, who in turn 
suffer the guilt of social stigmatisation.  This misery stems out of the 
very means by which life flourishes as a gift to the community."

HIV/AIDS, he went on, was not only a tragedy to individuals and their 
families, "but it is also an extension of social anguish to an entire 
generation of orphaned children".

Rev Kobia, whose press conference was held at the All Africa Conference of 
Churches (AACC), noted that "debates on sustainable responses to HIV/AIDS 
in Africa have largely focused on bio-medical interventions, making 
questions of sexuality and spirituality to remain evidently hidden by 
global merchandising of this disease".

Rev Kobia, a Kenyan, is the first African to be appointed to head the 
55-year old world ecumenical body.  He takes office on January 1, 2004.

Flanked by the general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches, 
Rev Dr Mvume Dandala, Kobia stressed that equitable accesses to care, 
treatment and support to all in need "can no longer be a privilege but a 
basic right to life."

Ready access to appropriate medication "is one of the main factors 
determining long-term survival for HIV-infected people".

"What is even more fundamental, though, is to address the social causes of 
the disease and reinvent alternative sustainable methods of 
prevention.  This calls for nothing short of socio-cultural revolution in 
our lifestyles," he underlined.

Excerpted from an article by Mitch Odero
AACC Information Desk

How To Enhance Affordability Of AIDS Medicine

NAIROBI (AANA) September 25 - The international medical humanitarian 
organisation, Midecins Sans Frontihres (MSF), and the World Health 
Organisation (WHO), have jointly released a report revealing that countries 
which registered generic medicine and fostered competition between generic 
and originator producers, had more affordable prices for antiretrovirals 
(ARVs).

The new publication was released on the first day (September 21) of the 
13th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections 
in Africa (ICASA), being held here.

"In the 10 countries profiled in the report, it has been possible to supply 
low cost quality ARVs to MSF projects, but in many cases, lack of a 
government procurement strategy has meant that MSF had set up supply 
channels in-country," said Sophie-Marie Scouflaire, lead author of the 
MSF/WHO report.

WHO has set the objective of reaching three million people with ARV therapy 
by 2005. "This ambitious goal will only be possible with clear government 
commitment to implement national HIV/AIDS treatment programmes that are 
supported by strong national procurement and distribution strategies," said 
Cecil Mace, co-author of the report.

The report says that although critical, procurement is only one element of 
expanding access to treatment.

For example, the deficit in international funding threatens to cripple the 
efforts of endemic countries to increase access to treatment.

In sub-Saharan Africa, only one percent of the four million people in 
urgent clinical need currently receive ARV therapy.

In the MSF/WHO report, the Malawi case study recounts MSF's experience in 
procuring drugs for its programme in Chiradzulu district, where 1,400 
people are currently under ARV treatment.

A least-developed country, Malawi has an HIV prevalence of nearly 16 
percent.  The prices of ARVs in the country are among the lowest in the 
world, at US$ 288 per person per year.

This success is attributed to intense competition from several generic 
companies, nurtured by the government, and the government's registered key 
generic ARVs.

According to Didakus Odhiambo Oola, head of MSF's Chiradzulu project, drugs 
are relatively affordable in Malawi, and with support from the Global Fund 
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the government has been able to 
develop a national plan that includes ARV treatment.

"We no longer have to stand empty-handed, watching our patients die 
needlessly. We are providing ARVs that are transforming peoples lives," 
said Odhiambo.

He went on: "We know that it is the emerging government programme that will 
ultimately reach large numbers of people with AIDS, and we are now helping 
by creating a simplified, decentralised model of treatment at the primary 
care level."

The report says that in Kenya, where two million people are living with 
HIV, these lower cost medicines are only available through limited 
non-profit distribution, and are not available through the national 
procurement centre.

Countries covered by the report include Cambodia, Cameroon, Guatemala, 
Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Thailand and Ukraine.

The report is designed to help governments and other purchasers of AIDS 
drugs procure low-cost quality ARVS effectively and efficiently and support 
efforts to scale-up access to treatment.

Reported by Henry Neondo